As if I had been five instead of five-and-thirty, I dived under the blankets, and lay so for minutes after the shuffling had ceased. But at length I persuaded myself it was but a foolish fancy, and I had never really heard anything. What with fear and heat I was much in want of breath too, I can tell you! So I came to the surface, and looked out.’ Here he paused a moment, and turned almost livid. ‘There stood a horrible old woman, staring at me, as if she had been seeing me all the time, and the blankets made no difference!’ ‘Was she really ugly?’ I asked. ‘Well, I don’t know what you call ugly,’ he answered, ‘but if you had seen her stare, you would have thought her ugly enough! Had she been as beautiful as a houri, though, I don’t imagine I should have been less frightened!’ ‘Well,’ said I, for he had come to a pause, ‘and what came next?’ ‘I can not tell. I came to myself all trembling, and as cold and as wet as if I had been dipped in a well’ ‘You are sure you were not dreaming?’ I said. ‘_I was not._ But I do not expect you believe me!’ ‘You must not be offended,’ I said, ‘if I find the thing stiff to stow! I believe _you_ all the same.’ ‘What?’ he said, not quite understanding me. ‘An honest man and a gentleman,’ I answered. ‘And a coward to boot!’ ‘God forbid!’ I returned: ‘what man can answer for himself at every moment! If I remember, Hector turned at last and ran from Achilles!’ He said nothing, and I went on. ‘I once heard a preaching fellow say, “When a wise man is always wise, then is the kingdom of heaven!” and I thought he knew something!’ I talked, don’t you know, to quiet him. ‘I once saw,’ I said, ‘the best-tempered man I ever knew, in the worst rage I ever saw man in--though I must allow he had good reason!’ He drank his cup of tea, got up, and said, ‘I’m off. Good-bye--and thank you! A million of money wouldn’t make me stay in the house another hour! There is that in it I fear ten times worse than the ghost?’ ‘Gracious! what is that?’ I said. ‘This horrible cowardice oozing from her like a mist. The house is full of it!’ ‘But what shall I say to Mrs. Blank?’ ‘Anything you like.’ ‘I will say then, that you are very sorry, but were compelled to go.’ ‘Say what you please, only let me go! Tell them to send my traps after me. Good-bye! I’m in a sepulcher! I shall have to throw up my commission!’ So he went.” “And what became of him?” “I’ve neither seen nor heard of him to this day!” He ceased with the cadence of an ended story. “Is that all?” “You spoke of an adventure of your own!” “I was flattering myself,” said Lufa, “that in our house Mr. Colman was at last to hear a ghost story from the man’s own lips!” “The sun is coming out!” said Sefton. “I will have a cigar at the stables.” The company protested, but he turned a deaf ear to expostulation, and went. CHAPTER XIX. THE BODILESS.