"No, it was not the noise," said John; "it was the blast of the cold air coming in: and then the face appeared in the open, against the night, looking up a little, catching the light of the lamp. For a moment it moved with the coach, then the door was shut." "Moved with the coach?" said the interrogator. "Do you mean she was walking by the side?" "I begin to think," said John, slowly, "that she must have been on the step: then dropped out of sight, and shut the door." "Are you sure, Mr Percival," said the sheriff, "that the pretty face at the door was not a dream? We all know that pretty faces are part of young men's dreams: and you are not sure at which moment you awoke." "I did not say," said John, "that it was a pretty face." "Ah!" said the sheriff. "Still it is true--it was so: and young: but it was not a dream. I saw the lady quite clearly." "It was a lady, then? You thought at first it might be a country lass passing." "I am not sure that it was a lady," said John, "but I certainly think so--I----" He paused, then, with a slight start of astonishment, seemed to stop an exclamation that was on his lips. "What is the matter?" cried his questioner. "You are not so sure as you were that you saw any young woman at all?" "I am perfectly sure--on my oath, and with complete recollection of what happened, that I saw," cried John, "exactly what I have said,--a young woman with a great deal of expression in her face, and a hood on her head, looking in at me for a moment through the open door." He did not look at the sheriff as he spoke, but strained his eyes, interrogating the faces before him between the table at which he stood and the door. His heart had not quieted yet from that start, though his mind had. He had thought he saw her again, the same face, and had been startled, and then had said to himself how unlikely it was, and looking again had found there was no such thing before him, among the score or two of people who had assembled in the room. There were very few women at all: it must have been a temporary illusion, for certainly now there was no one visible who resembled that face at all. But his heart continued to beat, though he succeeded in quieting his mind and reason as I have described.