our bed-room was opened and shut again. I could have believed that some one had come in, and was drawing nearer and nearer to my bed. I heard the sound of measured steps on the floor,—tramp,—tramp,—so that I shivered with terror, and hid myself, as fast as possible, under the bed-clothes.” “Oh!” cried Amelia “don’t speak of this, I beseech you! I dare not tell how often I myself have heard such noises, though I have never in my life, seen any thing more than ordinary!” “So much the better;—God grant that you never may!” The solemn tone, and disquietude of eye, with which these words were pronounced, alarmed her friends. “Have you then ever seen an apparition?” said Amelia. “Not exactly,—not in the sense in which you have put the question,” replied Florentine, “and yet,however, you must for a while suspend your curiosity. In the evening, if I live,—I mean if I should be better then,—I shall tell you all.”
Maria here twitched her sister by the sleeve, and the latter directly understood the signal. They both concluded that Florentine would willingly be left alone, and, anxious as they felt on account of her evident low spirits, it was not like-
