"Upon my word, you are very anxious to get rid of me, but not more so
than I am to depart," said Capitola, still pursuing her search.
"Your friends, who do not know where you are, must be very uneasy about
you. But what are you looking for?"
"A ring, a plain gold circle, with my name and that of another
inscribed on it, and which I would not lose for the world. I hung it on
a pin in this pin-cushion last night before I went to bed. I would
swear I did, and now it is missing," answered Cap, still pursuing her
search.
"If you lost it in this room it will certainly be found," said Dorcas
Knight putting down the habit and helping in the search.
"I am not so sure of that. There was some one in my room last night."
"Some one in your room!" exclaimed Dorcas in dismay.
"Yes; a dark-haired woman, all dressed in white!"
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 for
him," said Dorcas Knight, as she took her seat at the head of the table
and signed to the young girls to gather around it.