“Oh, chile, maybe she may tell you herself some o’ dese days. _I_ ain’t at liberty to explain, Miss Em. Only this I’ll say, dat dis wardrobe wasn’t got for _you_, nor was dese rooms prepared for _you_, nor was——” “For whom, then, were the rooms fitted up and the wardrobe selected?” inquired the wondering girl. “I can’t tell you, Miss Em. It ain’t my secret, but de madam’s. ’Haps, as she has taken sich a fancy to you, she may tell you herself.” Em. looked so puzzled, and even distressed, that Pony hastened to say: “But you have got the beautiful rooms and the beautiful dresses all to yourself now, honey, with no one to dispute them with you.” “I am afraid, though, that my gain is somebody else’s——” “No, indeed, Miss Em.! There you are very much mistaken, for I can tell you this much——” eagerly interrupted the woman; and then she suddenly paused. Em. waited for her to go on, grew impatient, and then demanded: “What, Pony?” “_These beautiful rooms and most beautiful raiment was never designed for no mortal girl!_” “Pony! WHAT do you mean?” breathlessly exclaimed Em. as a mental vision of the radiant White Lady of the Wilderness Manor-hall sent an electric thrill through her veins. “I daren’t tell you, honey, what I mean. ’Haps _she’ll_ tell you some ob dese days, since she’s took sich a liking to you, which I hopes, honey, you’ll be a blessing to her and win her away from de solitary life as I think has all but turned her brain. I has hopes of you, honey, ’cause you’s de berry first person she has ever bided to make a companion of for dese seventeen years or more. Your folks is de berry first people in all dese many days as she has ever ’vited to her house.” “Oh, how lonely must such a life have been!” sighed the girl. “Yes, honey, but it was her own choosing. Why, dere was even Dr. Willet, her ’ticklerest old friend! When he came here t’other day she _seed_ him, to be sure, but she didn’t ax him to stay to dinner!” “Oh, I am _so_ glad she let me come!” said Em. “Yes, so am I. My hopes is all in you, Miss Em. My hopes for my dear mist’ess is all in you! Why, honey, she is so _young_ to shet herself up from deciety! She ain’t more’n thirty-two years old, and she don’t look nigh _that_ even. She don’t look so much older’n you, Miss Em. And if she would go out she might marry happy! She might, indeed, for dere’s many and many an unmarried single young lady of her age what passed theirselves off _well_ for a miss in her ’teens! And nobody know to de contrary!” “Oh, if I could only do anything to make her happy! To make her forget the past, whatever it is! To win her back to her fellow-beings!” sighed Em., clasping her hands prayerfully. “I ’pends on you for to do dat, Miss Em. And now, my honey-bee, come dress yerself as pretty as ever you can, for my lady loves to look at pretty things. So dress yerself pretty, Miss Em.” “In the ghost’s clothes?” inquired Em., half jestingly, half shudderingly.