half-puzzled, half-provoked.

"'She's so frightful,' cried Hal.

"'How could you see her? There was no candle.'

"This question perplexed the little boys. They persisted that she had a
light about her somewhere. I need hardly say that there was no comfort
for us the rest of the night. 'If anyone is trying to frighten us out of
the place, I'll be even with him yet,' said I. My wife believed that a
trick had been played upon the children, and she was most indignant.

"Next day the cribs were removed to the upper story, and Charlotte and
Joanna, our daughters of twelve and fourteen, were put to sleep in the
dressing-room. We predicted an end to the annoyance we had been
suffering. The nurse was a quick-tempered woman, who would not stand any
nonsense, and Hal's bad dreams would be sternly driven away. We settled
ourselves to our comfortable light reading by the drawing-room fire.
Suddenly there was a commotion overhead; an outcry--surprised more than
terrified, it sounded to us. Angela laid her book down quickly and
listened with all her ears. Fast-flying footsteps were heard above; the
clapping of a door; then--scurry, scurry--the patter of bare feet down
the staircase. We hurried across the hall, and saw Charlotte in her
nightgown returning slowly up the kitchen stairs, with a puzzled
expression on her honest face.

"'What on earth are you doing, child?' cried Angela.

"'I was giving chase to a hideous old woman in a black bonnet, who chose
to intrude upon us,' panted Charlotte. 'I saw her in our room; I jumped
out of bed and pursued her through your room and the sitting-room. Then
I saw her before me going downstairs, and I ran after her; but the door
at the foot of the kitchen staircase was shut. She certainly could not
have had time to open it, and I really don't know where she can have
gone to!'

"This was Charlotte's explanation of her mad scurry downstairs. Her
downright sensible face was puzzled and angry.

"'So you see the little ones must have been tormented by that old
wretch, whoever she is. They didn't dream it, father, as you thought.
Wouldn't I like to punish her!'"

"What a brave girl!" cried Mrs. Marchmont.

"Brave? Oh, Charlotte's as bold as a lion! She went back to bed; and
when we followed her, in a couple of hours, she was sleeping soundly.
But I can't say either of _us_ slept so well. If a trick was being
played upon us, it was carried out in so clever a manner as to baffle me
completely