‘Robert!’ she exclaimed, starting up in bed as she clutched me by my arm, ‘I tell you I _saw it_. It was no fancy, but a tall woman dressed all in white walking in and out of the graves.’ ‘You are sure it was a woman?’ ‘Oh yes; oh yes; because, when I screamed, it turned round and came close by this window, and it had long hair hanging right down its back. Oh, Robert, I thought I should have died!’ ‘My poor girl,’ I answered, as I forced her to lie down again, ‘I am not going to have you frightened in this abominable manner. This is some trick on the part of the natives; to what end I cannot imagine, but they shall pay dearly for their little game. Where did this woman go after she had passed the window?’ ‘Oh, I can’t tell, Robert; I don’t know; but I think it vanished round the house.’ ‘Well then, if you will let me leave you, Janie (I will call the ayah to come and sit by your bedside), I will just look round the compound, and see if I can find any one loitering about.’ ‘Oh, don’t go after it, Robert; pray don’t go after it; it might hurt you.’ But I could not wait to silence any more of Janie’s fears; had I stayed to reason them all away, I should have been kept prisoner till morning. I roused the ayah, bid her stay with her mistress till I returned, selected a thick stick from my whip-stand, and proceeded on my voyage of discovery. As I did so, I glanced at my watch, and discovered to my amazement that it was past one. What a time I must have been dreaming on the housetop! I searched the compound and all the accessible portions of the house thoroughly, but I found and saw nothing. I wakened all the slumbering occupants of the ‘godowns,’ to see if they had any strangers amongst them, but only my own domestics came yawningly to be inspected, and certainly not one of them answers to the description of the supposed ghost. As I returned, I rapped at the closed venetians of Miss Anstruther’s bedroom, and, to my astonishment, her voice replied to me immediately. ‘What! are you awake, Margaret?’ I demanded. ‘Was it the noise disturbed you?’ ‘What noise?’ she asked, as she came near to the venetians. ‘Janie’s scream. She fancies that she saw the ghost (which I hoped she had almost forgotten), and that it passed close under her windows.’ ‘Poor child!’ in a voice of compassion. ‘No, I did not hear, or I should have gone to her; but I have not been long awake;’ which, indeed, her voice seemed to testify. ‘Why are you out of your bed?’ ‘I cannot sleep; it is so hot,’ she answered with a deep sigh. ‘And you have seen nothing?’ ‘Certainly not; and have been sitting at the window till within a minute ago. I have only just closed the venetians because the moon is so bright. It must be all Janie’s fancy.’ ‘Of course it is her fancy that she has seen a ghost,’ I answered; ‘but I am not so sure about her having seen nothing at all. However, I shall find out more about it to-morrow; meanwhile I must not keep you up any longer. Good-night.’