"I was frightened, of course, but not so much as to lose my curiosity.

When I got to my feet again, I looked about in this surprising hole--" "It was our uncle's way of reaching his winecellar," Miss Thankful explained with great dignity as she and her sister sank back into their seats.

"He had some remarkable old wine, and, as he was covetous of it, he conceived this way of securing it from everybody's knowledge but his own.

It was a strange way, but he was a little touched," she added, laying a slow impressive finger on her forehead, "just a little touched here." The short, significant glance she cast at Charity as she said this, and the little smile she gave were to give me to understand that this weakness had descended in the family.

I felt my heart contract; my self-imposed task was a harder one than I had anticipated, but I could not shirk it now.