prehension of the romance of times long gone by! Something similar I have often since experienced in gazing at old por traits, and more especially when

I've stood within an ancient hall,

Where there was not one beside

and when, amidst its gloom and unfurnished desertion, Up rose the PAST-I saw it all—

My grandmother's servants, whom I questioned about "the nun," merely echoed, in more homely strain, her words :

"She was a very wicked woman ;-perhaps had run away from her husband! perhaps killed somebody! they could not tell; had never heard say; but I had better not trouble my little head about her.”

Touching my horror of the blue room, they used terms which I highly disapproved-" fancies," "consates" (conceits), and magrims;" assuredly, these came with ill grace from the lips of a set who were frightened from their propriety" to go into "the room that never was used;" besides which, though the wiseacres did not think it, I was too ob servant a child not to see and comprehend the language of nods, winks, and particular looks; these it is always foolish and dangerous to play off before juveniles of any age; and in alluding to so frequent a practice, I would warn parents and servants to shun it, if they value the artless confidence of infancy, which can never more be reposed in those whom quick sighted children have cause to suspect of a design to deceive them.

There was a little humble girl, some three or four years older than myself, who, being the daughter of an old and valued female servant (she had married from my grandmother's house), was sometimes allowed to come and play with me, taking her meals, of course, in the kitchen. Susey was a modest, well-behaved, good-tempered child, to whom I took a great liking at that happy age, when differences of rank are no bar to friendship; and perhaps she was dearer to my heart because she shared my dread of "the room that never was used," of the wicked-looking nun-and also conceiving, that

some mystery was connected with the blue room, had long determined to find it out.

One day we were dressing dolls in a corner of the great parlour, with the folding-screen set open around us, that we might be hidden from the observation of callers: my grandmother left the room; Susey immediately peeped from our niche to ascertain if the coast were really clear, of which interesting fact being satisfied, she said, with ominous important look

"And now, Miss, I've something to tell you; I heard it last night, when I came to fetch some plain work home for my mother; I found the house in a pretty fuss, for two of 'em-the maids I mean-had seen it."

"Seen-what?" said I, intensely interested.

Why the ghost, Miss, that I heard them say-and they didn't mind I was listening-wALKS in the blue room; but, perhaps, I shouldn't have told you.'

"I'm glad you have," I answered; "for now, knowing it to be haunted, I won't make any more faces at the nun's picture, nor even look in at the door as I pass."

"For your life, Miss, don't let anybody know that I told you; I shall get into such a scrape if you do!"

66

I shan't say a word, Susey, for I dare not. But, what was the ghost like?"

"They couldn't quite tell; yet I heard 'em say, how something riz out of the floor, or the bed-I don't know which-like a black and white sheet; they didn't see its face, being too frightened to do anything, but run shrieking out of the room, banging the door after them, and nearly tumbling over one another, in their hurry to get down stairs. Afterwards, your grandpapa and grandmama went up, but saw nothing."

The entrance of my grandmother, at this moment, if it did not abridge Susey's wonderful story, at least prevented our comments upon it; reverting afterwards to her narrative, I could elicit nothing further, she always abruptly changed the subject, and, whenever I mentioned it, there was a restraint in her manner which soon convinced me that she had been privately cautioned not to talk about it.

And thus ends this little story of childish romance-of that

intuitive terror which Elia, and other writers, have noticed in the infant breast, and (which does not uniformly occur) of its proved rationality in truthful results: this terror is one of the mysteries of our nature; probably, never on earth to be elucidated.

Before I was seven years old, "gran'ma'" had become a widow, and removed to a smaller mansion, alleging that the great house was too large for her now; without doubt, this was true; but Susey and I determined the matter, to our better satisfaction, otherwise: a large house seemed to us so perfect a good, that we could not credit the idea of any individual running away from it as a positive evil; we were too inexperienced to dream, that with widowhood often came altered fortune, and, too young to possess sentiment, that fine feeling which has since, most probably, taught us both in our different spheres of life-that, with widowhood, also came tenderly-distressing recollections of bridal happiness, and long years of wedded felicity; and again, also, that with widowhood often came the imperative necessity of breaking through those dear associations ever kept up in the desolated* bosom by the old house, and the old furniture, which have not been quitted since the honey-moon.

No-Susey and I, complete strangers to these adult notions, found a very cogent reason for my grandmother's abandonment of the great house-in the fact, and the supposition, that, having lost her husband, she was afraid to live alone in a dwelling which had the misfortune to possess a room that never was used!"

THE CHILDREN OF RAVENDALE.

The approach of morning was slightly indicated in the east, when two horsemen were observed to cross those vast moorlands which formerly intervened between York and Lancaster. The travellers were of that dubious class, named,

ques

Knights of the Post," a polite appellation then bestowed on highwaymen, deer-stealers, and cattle-harriers. Though well mounted, they appeared as if familiar with such tionable proceedings; and, in the olden time," pursuits of this nature were not regarded with that moral indignation which, in modern times, they very properly excite.

In a few hours the horsemen had alighted before the en