!" said Lady Atherley. "But
Lucinda has set her heart on having Cecilia near her; so they have put
up a little bed in the dressing-room for her."

"Cissy is to keep the ghost at bay, is she?" said Atherley. "I hope she
may. I don't want another night as lively as the last."

"Who else has seen the ghost?" asked Mrs. de Noel, thoughtfully. "Has
Mr. Lyndsay?"

"No, Lindy will never see the ghost; he is too much of a sceptic. Even
if he saw it he would not believe in it, and there is nothing a ghost
hates like that. But he has seen the people who saw the ghost, and he
tells their several stories very well."

"Would you tell me, Mr. Lyndsay?" asked Mrs. de Noel.

I could do nothing but obey her wish; still I secretly questioned the
wisdom of doing so, especially when, as I went on, I observed stealing
over her listening face the shadow of some disturbing thought.

"Well now, Cissy is thoroughly well frightened," observed Atherley.
"Perhaps we had better go to bed."

"It is no good saying so to Lucinda," said Lady Atherley, as we all
rose, "because it only puts her out; but I shall always feel certain
myself it was a mouse; because I remember in the house we had at
Bournemouth two years ago there was a mouse in my room which often made
such a noise knocking down the plaster inside the wall, it used to quite
startle me."

That night the storm finally subsided. When the morning came the rain
fell no longer, the cry of the wind had ceased, and the cloud-curtain
above us was growing lighter and softer as if penetrated and suffused by
the growing sunshine behind it.

I was late for breakfast that day.

"Mr. Lyndsay, Tip is all right again," cried Denis at sight of me. "Mrs.
Mallet says it was chicken bones he stole from the cat's dish."

"Is that all?" observed Atherley sardonically; "I thought he must have
seen the ghost. By the bye, Cissy, did you see it?"

"Yes," said Mrs. de Noel simply, at which Atherley visibly started, and
instantly began talking of something else.

Mrs. Molyneux was to leave by an afternoon train, but, to the relief of
everybody, it was discovered that Mrs. Mallet had indefinitely postponed
her departure. She remained in the mildest of humours and in the most
philosophical of tempers, as I myself can testify; for, meeting her by
accident in the hall, I was encouraged by the amiability of her simper
to say that I hoped we should have no more trouble with the ghost, when
she answered in word