curiosity which had grown to a passion from the restraints of their
unnatural circumstances, proceeded to explore the channel. The
stream
was the same which ran out by the seat on which Irene and her kingpapa
had sat as I have told, and the goblin-creatures found it jolly fun to
get out for a romp on a smooth lawn such as they had never seen in all
their poor miserable lives. But although they had partaken enough of
the
nature of their owners to delight in annoying and alarming any of the
people whom they met on the mountain, they were of course incapable
of
designs of their own, or of intentionally furthering those of their
masters.
For several nights after the men-at-arms were at length of one mind as
to the facts of the visits of some horrible creatures, whether bodily or
spectral they could not yet say, they watched with special attention
that part of the garden where they had last seen them. Perhaps indeed
they gave in consequence too little attention to the house. But the
creatures were too cunning to be easily caught; nor were the watchers
quick-eyed enough to descry the head, or the keen eyes in it, which,
from the opening whence the stream issued, would watch them in
turn,
Madhuri Noah
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