Pale, breathless, trembling, they at length found themselves in the great hall, with its doors and windows open to the wholesome sun and air, and cheerful wood fires burning in the broad fireplaces.
CHAPTER XXIV
HORROR
This chamber is the ghostly!
Hood.
“Oh, Madame Gloria! I’ve done bragging! I’ll never brag any more! I did pray to my guardian angel if he’d save my life and reason until I could get out of that place I would never brag any more!” exclaimed Philippa, with a hysterical laugh, as she dropped on one of the rude oak benches in the hall.
“Oh, Philippa, don’t speak so lightly of that awful——” cried Gloria, suddenly stopping and covering her pallid face with both hands, as she, too, sank upon a seat.
“Lightly? Gracious Heaven! I don’t speak lightly! All my boasted courage has come out in a cold sweat that trickles like ice water all down my spine! Madame Gloria, I would rather have seen the blackest evil spirit from the abyss, all alone at midnight, than that horrid——Ugh-h-h!”
“Philippa! for Heaven’s sake, don’t speak of it now, or evermore! You are a brave girl——”
“I will never say so after this. I’m conquered quite!” shuddered the willful creature.
“You have seen what would have shaken the nerves of the boldest man; it is no wonder that you are overcome as well as myself. But, Philippa, I beg you, for my sake, never mention to a human being what we have seen below. If it were once known what our eyes have beheld—what rises from the brink of that subterranean black river—the horror below the foundation of these walls—no living being could be induced to remain in the house with us.”