"In you come,sir,in you come-you and your friends：' heanswered."Very sorry,Mr.Thaddeus,but orders are very strict.Hadto be certain of your friends before I let them in."
Inside,a gravel path wound through desolate grounds to a hugeclump of a house,square and prosaic,all plunged in shadow savewhere a moonbeam struck one corner and glimmered in a garretwindow.The vast size of the building,with its gloom and its deathlysilence,struck a chill to the heart.Even Thaddeus Sholto seemed ill atease,and the lantern quivered and rattled in his hand.
"I cannot understand it,"he said."There must be some mistake.I distinctly told Bartholomew that we should be here,and yet there isno light in his window.I do not know what to make of it."
"Does he always guard the premises in this way?"asked Holmes.
"Yes; he has foUowed my father's custom.He was the favouriteson you know,and I sometimes think that my father may have told him more than he ever told me.That is Bartholomew's window up there where the moonshine strikes.It is quite bright,but there is no light from witlun,I think."
"None,"said Holmes."But I see the glint of a Light in that little window beside the door."
"Ah,that is the housekeeper's room.That is where old Mrs.Bernstone sits.She can teU us all about it.But perhaps you would not mind waiting here for a minute or two,for if we all go in together,and she has no word of our coming,she may be alarmed.But,hush！what is that?"
He held up the lantern,and his hand shook until the circles of light flickered and wavered all round us.Miss Morstan seized my wrist,and we all stood,with thumping hearts,straining our ears.From the great black house there sounded through the silent night the saddest and most pitiful of sounds-the shrill,broken whimpering of a frightened woman.
"It is Mrs.Bernstone,"said Sholto."She is the only woman in the house.Wait here.I shall be back in a moment."
He hurried for the door and knocked in his peculiar way.We could see a tall old woman admit him and sway with pleasure at the very sight of him.
"Oh,Mr.Thaddeus,sir,I am so glad you have come！ I am so glad you have come,Mr.Thaddeus,sirl"
We heard her reiterated rejoicings until the door was closed and her voice died away into a muffled monotone.
Our guide had left us the lantern.Holmes swung it slowly round and peered keenly at the house and at the great rubbish-heaps which cumbered the grounds.Miss Morstan and I stood together,and her hand was in mine.A wondrous subtle thing is love,for here were we two,who had never seen each other before that day,between whom no word or even look of affection had ever passed,and yet now in an hour of trouble our hands instinctively sought for each other.
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