“You must look at Miss Jane, or you will always be frightened at being alone. You know I am but a little girl as well as yourself; but I should not be afraid to sleep here to-night. Think how good she was! living or dead, she would never injure us.”
“O, take me away: I don’t know what you are saying; why does not some one speak? O, do somebody speak, or I shall be frightened to death.”
Miss Grey whispered to her companion that Mrs. Adair was come into the room.
“Is she? O how glad I am! Now I don’t mind.” Saying this, she uncovered her face, and crept quietly to Mrs. Adair; who was asking why they had assembled in the chamber at so improper an hour.
“We should have been miserable, ma’am,” said Miss Cotton, “unless we had seen Miss Jane to-night; and as we shall never behold her again, we thought, ma’am, you would pardon us. I could not have slept; and the other ladies declared the same.”
“But wherefore did you come, Isabella?”
“O, ma’am, because I dared not to be alone.”
“But why are you afraid to look at my daughter?”
“O, I am not afraid now; I will look at Miss Jane,” said Isabella with assumed courage; “but do let me take hold of your hand, ma’am; then I know I shall be safe.”
“You have better protection than mine, my little girl, or you would be poorly defended. He who made you, he alone can guard you: but there is not any thing to fear from the dead.”