it was over, Reggie declaring himself very sleepy, we got him
undressed and put to bed on the settee originally intended for Nora. He
was asleep in five minutes, and then Nora and I did our utmost to arrive
at the explanation we so longed for. We thoroughly examined the room;
there was no other entrance, no cupboard of any kind even. I tried to
imagine that some of our travelling cloaks or shawls hanging on the
back of a chair might, in the uncertain light, have taken imaginary
proportions; that the stove itself might have cast a shadow we had not
before observed; I suggested everything, but in vain. Nothing shook
Nora's conviction that she had seen something _not_ to be explained.

"For the light was _not_ uncertain just then," she maintained; "the
mist had gone and it had not begun to get dark. And then I saw him _so_
plainly! If it had been a fancy ghost it wouldn't have looked like
that--it would have had a long white thing floating over it, and a
face like a skeleton perhaps. But to see somebody just like a regular
gentleman--I could never have _fancied_ that!"

There was a good deal in what she said. I had to give up my suggestions,
and I tried to give Nora some idea of what are called "optical delusions,"
though my own comprehension of the theory was of the vaguest. She
listened, but I don't think my words had much weight. And at last I
told her I thought she had better go to bed and try to sleep. I saw she
shrank from the idea, but it had to be.

"We can't sit up all night, I suppose," she said, "but I wish we could.
I am so dreadfully afraid of waking in the night, and--and--_seeing him
there again_."

"Would you like to sleep in my bed? though it is so tiny, I could make
room and put you inside," I said.

Nora looked wistfully at the haven of refuge, but her good sense and
considerateness for me came to the front.

"No," she said, "neither of us would sleep, and you would be _so_ tired
to-morrow. I will get into my own bed, and I _will_ try to sleep, mamma."

"And listen, Nora; if you are the least frightened in the night, or if
you can't sleep, call out to me without hesitation. I am sure to wake
often, and I will speak to you from time to time."

That was the longest night of my life! The first part was not the
worst. By what I really thought a fortunate chance it was a club night
of some kind at Silberbach--a musical club, of course; and all the
musically-gifted peasants of the countryside assembled