"What's the matter?" said half-a-dozen at once.
"What's the matter!" said Walter, churlishly--"nothing at all is the matter--tell me who of you were in the Old Room, and what you were seeking there?"
"No--none of them had been in the Old Room--the whole of the family were present, nor had one of them been away."
Walter's countenance changed--he fixed his eyes on the ground for the space of a minute.
"Then I am sure," said he, emphatically, "something worse is there."
A breathless silence ensued; save that some groans and muttered prayers issued from the lips of the goodwife, who sat in a posture of deep humility, with her brow leaned on both hands.
"Some of you go and see," added Walter, "what it _is_ that is in the Old Room."
Every eye in the house turned on another, but no one spoke or offered to move. At length Katharine, who seemed in great anxiety lest any of them should have had the courage to go, went lightly up to her father, and said, "I will go, sir, if you please."
"Do, my dear, and let some of the men go with you."
"No, sir; none of the men shall go with me."
"Well then, Keatie, make haste; light a candle, and I will go with you myself."
"No--with your leave, father, if I go, I go alone; no one shall go with me."
"And why, my love, may not I, your father, accompany you?"
"Because, should you go with me into the Old Room just now, perhaps you might never be yourself again."
Here the goodwife uttered a smothered scream, and muttered some inarticulate ejaculations, appearing so much affected, that her daughter, dreading she would fall into a fit, flew to support her; but on this she grew ten times worse, screaming aloud, "Avoid thee, Satan! avoid thee, Satan! avoid thee, imp of darkness and despair! avoid thee! avoid thee!" And she laid about her violently with both hands. The servants, taking it for granted that she was bewitched, or possessed, fled aloof; but Walter, who knew better how matters stood with her mind than they, ran across the floor to her in such haste and agitation, that they supposed he was going to give her _strength of arm_, (his great expedient when hardly controuled,) but in place of that, he lifted her gently in his arms, and carried her to her bed, in the further end of the house.