then, as if she had been going to
continue, she stopped.

"You've still got your half-question, Miss Andrews," Bushwick
interposed.

"Even if we didn't mean it to deceive harmfully?" the girl pursued.
"If it was just on impulse, something we couldn't seem to help, and we
didn't see it in its true light at the time--"

The ghost made no answer. It stood motionless.

"It is offended," Bushwick said, without knowing the Shakespearian
words. "You've asked it three times half a question, Miss Andrews.
Now, Mr. Verrian, it's your turn. You can ask it just one-quarter of a
question. Miss Andrews has used up the rest of your share."

Verrian rose awkwardly and stood a long moment before his chair. Then
he dropped back again, saying, dryly, "I don't think I want to ask it
anything."

The phantom sank straight down as if sinking through the floor, but lay
there like a white shawl trailed along the bottom of the dark curtain.

"And is that all?" Miss Macroyd asked Verrian. "I was just getting up my
courage to go forward. But now, I suppose--"

"Oh, dear!" Miss Andrews called out. "Perhaps it's fainted. Hadn't we
better--"

There were formless cries from the women, and the men made a crooked
rush forward, in which Verrian did not join. He remained where he had
risen, with Miss Macroyd beside him.

"Perhaps it's only a coup de theatre!" she said, with her laugh. "Better
wait."

Bushwick was gathering the prostrate figure up. "She has fainted!" he
called. "Get some water, somebody!"

XIX.

The early Monday morning train which brought Verrian up to town was so
very early that he could sit down to breakfast with his mother only a
little later than their usual hour.

She had called joyfully to him from her room, when she heard the
rattling of his key as he let himself into the apartment, and, after
an exchange of greetings, shouted back and forth before they saw each
other, they could come at once to the history of his absence over their
coffee. "You must have had a very good time, to stay so long. After
you wrote that you would not be back Thursday, I expected it would
be Saturday till I got your telegram. But I'm glad you stayed. You
certainly needed the rest."

"Yes, if those things are ever a rest." He looked down at his cup while
he stirred the coffee in it, and she studied his attitude, since she
could not see his face fully, for the secret of any vital change that
might have come upon him. It could be t