He shook his head.
"Not for any money would I take you," he declared. "I should be afraid
for myself."
Nothing could move him from his resolve, so I made up my mind to leave
my small luggage at the inn and walk up the steep road which I could
see winding like a width of white ribbon towards the goal of my
desires. A group of idle peasants watched me curiously as I spoke to
the landlady and asked her to take care of my few belongings till I
either sent for them or returned to fetch them, to which arrangement
she readily consented. She was a buxom, pleasant little Frenchwoman,
and inclined to be friendly.
"I assure you, Mademoiselle, you will return immediately!" she said,
with a bright smile--"The Chateau d'Aselzion is a place where no woman
is ever seen--and a lady alone!--ah, mon Dieu!--impossible! There are
terrible things done there, so they say--it is a house of mystery! In
the daytime it looks as it does now--dark, as though it were a
prison!--but sometimes at night one sees it lit up as though it were on
fire--every window full of something that shines like the sun! It is a
Brotherhood that lives there,--not of the Church--ah no! Heaven
forbid!--but they are rich and powerful men--and it is said they study
some strange science--our traders serve them only at the outer gates
and never go beyond. And in the midnight one hears the organ playing in
their chapel, and there is a sound of singing on the very waves of the
sea! I beg of you, Mademoiselle, think well of what you do before you
go to such a place!--for they will send you away--I am sure they will
send you away!"