She put her hand on my arm as if for protection as she uttered these words, and I took it in mine to reassure her; it was cold as ice. It was clear that she had received a shock, and I was disposed to ascribe it to the strain she had undergone during the past fortnight. But this view was shaken when I thought of her courage and daring. "What did I tell you?" said Bob, sticking to his guns. "Nightmare." "That's somethink yer must be in bed to 'ave, ain't it?" said Sophy. "Yes," said Bob, "and asleep." "I wasn't neither," said Sophy; "I was as wide-awake as you are." "Oh, you didn't go to bed when I put you in your room?" "No, I didn't. I waited a minute or two, and then I went out." "What made you do that, Sophy?" I asked. "I don't know, 'xcep' that I wanted to go to the mad'ouse--outside, yer know--to see if they'd found out about the desk." "It was a dangerous thing to do," I said. "Well, I didn't do it. I 'adn't got 'arf way there when a sperrit crep' past me. I told Aunty I didn't believe in sperrits, but I do now. I didn't think it was a sperrit at fust, I thought it was a man; and I sed to myself, If you can creep, so can I,' and I crep' after it." "But why, Sophy?" "I don't know why. I did it 'cause somethink made me. All at once it stopped and turned, and the moon lit up its face. It was the ghost of Mr. Felix." She was speaking more quietly now, and there was a note of conviction in her voice that startled me. "Is that what you call a nightmare?" she asked of Bob, whose eyes were fixed intently upon her. "No," he replied, "but you were mistaken. It was only a fancied resemblance." "It wasn't nothink of the sort, and I wasn't mistook. I'm ready to take my dying oath on it. There ain't two Mr. Felixes, there's only one, and it was 'is ghost I sor." "What did you do, Sophy?" I inquired. "I stood like a stone, and couldn't move. But when it looked at me, and when I 'eered its voice, and when I sor it moving up to me, I give a scream, and run away. But I fell down over the stump of a tree, and it caught 'old of me and lifted me up. Then it wrenched my face to the light, and poked it's 'ead for'ard, and I sor clearer than ever that it was Mr. Felix's ghost. I don't know 'ow I managed it, but I twisted myself away, and run as I'd never run in my life before till I got 'ere." "Is that all, Sophy?" "That's all I can tell yer. Ain't it enough?" "If there is any truth in it, my girl, it is more than enough? You cannot say whether it followed you?" "No, I never look behind. It was more than I dared do." "You heard it speak, you say. What words did it utter?" "It said, 'What the devil!'" "Nothing more?" "Nothink as I 'eerd."