stop her, so I might as well hold my tongue. But I'll say
this much, I don't envy that governess her job, whoever she may be."

Meanwhile Nan had gone to her own room and shut and locked the door.
Her next move was to take her night-dress from its hook and slip it
over her head.

"Now I'm going to rehearse," she announced to her reflection in the
glass. "First I must get my eyes to seem kind of wide and starey. No!
not this way. They must look like licorice-drops in milk. There!
that's better! All expressionless, and that kind of thing. I s'pose I
might shut 'em, some somnabulists do; but then I'd be sure to trip over
the furniture and stub my toes, and give the whole business away. No,
I must keep my eyes open; that's certain. Then I must glide when I
walk. My step must be light and ghostly and noiseless. I must be sure
to have it ghostly and noiseless. Now--eyes staring--one, two,
three--step ghostly and noiseless--Oh, bother! What business had that
footstool in my way? If I knock things over like that I'll wake the
house, and Delia would know in a minute what I was up to. There! get
into the corner, you old thing! Now again! Eyes staring--step
ghostly--and noiseless--voice low and mournful, but I must manage to
make her understand every word. Now once more--voice low and mournful--

"Alas! alas! why did she come?--why did she come? (No, I can't say
that! It sounds too much like 'Why did he die! Why did he die?' But
the alas is good! That sounds real creepy and weird.) Now then--Alas!
alas! This is the worst thing that ever happened to me in all my life!
My dear, old home! To think that anybody who isn't wanted should come
and push herself like this into my dear, old home! O father! father!
come home from Bombay, and save me from this awful woman. Turn her out
of the house! Make her go back where she came from! Her hated form
haunts me in my sleep, and I dream all night of her as I see her in the
daytime--tall--and thin--and lanky--with her hair all dragged into that
ugly little knob behind at the back of her head! O father! father! her
eyes are like needles! They prick me when she looks. Save me!--save
me! My heart will break if some one doesn't come and rescue me from
this terrible person. Take her away--take her away! Ah--I see her! I
see her! Get away--get away! You awful creature! Don't you know you
are causing an innocent girl to perish in her youth? Alas, she won't
go