"Yes; same old ghost, only more of him," I assured her. She was asleep before I had uttered this reply. "Silvia," I said, "I have a more startling piece of news for you than that." She sat bolt upright. "Are they engaged, Lucien?" "They are. They are building their castle--I mean their story-and-a-half cottage already." Alas for my own desire to sleep! I had so effectually awakened Silvia that she planned Beth's trousseau, the wedding, honeymoon, and the furnishing of their house before she subsided. CHAPTER XV _What Miss Frayne Found Out_ We had planned to go to the haunted house at nine o'clock the next morning, but owing to my dissipation of the night before, it was long after the appointed hour when Silvia awoke me. I hurried down stairs and ate my breakfast in solitude. I inquired for Beth and Rob, but the waitress told me they had left the dining-room at seven o'clock and gone for a walk in the woods. She said it with a knowing smile that told me she, too, must be a "sister of the Golden Circle." "And Miss Frayne?" I asked. "She went down the road over an hour ago." Evidently her courage had come up with the sun. I was greatly disturbed at the chance of her stumbling over one or more Polydores, and Rob didn't want to let the cat out of the bag until her article was written, as he believed that if the ghostly spell were broken, she would lose her "punch." I was unable to think of any plausible explanation to offer Silvia as to why I should start in pursuit, and I wished all sorts of dire calamities on Rob's blond head. Lovers were surely blind and selfish. About ten o'clock they came strolling in. "We didn't know it was so late," said Beth cheerfully, "but the boys will keep in the woods all right." "With her nose for news, there is no telling how far into the woods Miss Frayne's investigation will take her." "Say we go down by the lane and meet her," proposed Beth, "so that if she has run across the boys we can explain to her why we desire secrecy from Silvia." "You and Rob go," I advised. "It would seem odd to Silvia if we didn't ask her to go with us." So the newly engaged couple started down the road, but in their self-absorption they didn't notice the turn to the lane, and they got half way to Windy Creek before they came back to earth and the hotel. Miss Frayne still had not shown up, and I began to have misgivings lest the Polydores had locked her up in the house, but finally just as we were having a happy family gathering and discussing the new event under the shade of the one resort tree, she came excitedly up to us. "Such an interesting morning as I have had!" she exclaimed enthusiastically. "I made some corking pictures of the place, and I've found out about not only that ghost, but all ghosts--the whole race of ghosts." I hurriedly interrupted her and made elaborate and jumbled apologies for not keeping our engagement, which evidently bored her and mystified Silvia.