roof heard the girls talking, and ascended the stairs to surprise
them in the act of violating one of the rules of the house? So
far, such a proceeding was by no means uncommon. But was it
within the limits of probability that a teacher should alter her
opinion of her own duty half-way up the stairs, and deliberately
go back to her own room again? The bare idea of such a thing was
absurd on the face of it. What more rational explanation could
ingenuity discover on the spur of the moment?

Francine was the first to offer a suggestion. She shook and
shivered in her bed, and said, "For heaven's sake, light the
candle again! It's a Ghost."

"Clear away the supper, you fools, before the ghost can report us
to Miss Ladd."

With this excellent advice Emily checked the rising panic. The
door was closed, the candle was lit; all traces of the supper
disappeared. For five minutes more they listened again. No sound
came from the stairs; no teacher, or ghost of a teacher, appeared
at the door.

Having eaten her supper, Cecilia's immediate anxieties were at an
end; she was at leisure to exert her intelligence for the benefit
of her schoolfellows. In her gentle ingratiating way, she offered
a composing suggestion. "When we heard the creaking, I don't
believe there was anybody on the stairs. In these old houses
there are always strange noises at night--and they say the stairs
here were made more than two hundred years since."