Dorcas Knight gave two or three angry grunts and then harshly
exclaimed: "Nonsense! woman, indeed! there is no such woman about
the house! There are no females here except Miss Day, myself and
you--not even a waiting-maid or cook."

"Well," said Cap, "if it was not a woman it was a ghost; for I was
wide awake, and I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Fudge! you've heard that foolish story of the haunted room, and you
have dreamed the whole thing!"

"I tell you I didn't! I saw it! Don't I know?"

"I say you dreamed it! There is no such living woman here; and as
for a ghost, that is all folly. And I must beg, Miss Black, that you
will not distress Miss Day by telling her this strange dream of
yours. She has never heard the ridiculous story of the haunted room,
and, as she lives here in solitude, I would not like her to hear of
it."

"Oh, I will say nothing to disquiet Miss Day; but it was no dream.
It was real, if there is any reality in this world."

There was no more said. They continued to look for the ring, but in
vain. Dorcas Knight, however, assured her guest that it should be
found and returned, and that breakfast waited. Whereupon Capitola
went down to the parlor, where she found Clara awaiting her presence
to give her a kindly greeting.

"Mr. Le Noir never gets up until very late, and so we do not wait