"Now, on the particular November night to which I refer, do you recollect being awakened by Miss Elmsdale?" "She wakened me many a time," answered Miss Blake, and I noticed that she looked away from her questioner, and towards the gallery. "Exactly so; but on one especial night she woke you, saying, her father was walking along the passage; that she knew his step, and that she heard his keys strike against the wall?" "Yes, I remember that," said Miss Blake, with suspicious alacrity. "She kept me up till daybreak. She was always thinking about him, poor child." "Very natural indeed," commented our adversary. "And you told her not to be foolish, I daresay, and very probably tried to reassure her by saying one of the servants must have passed; and no doubt, being a lady possessed of energy and courage, you opened your bedroom door, and looked up and down the corridor?" "Certainly I did," agreed Miss Blake. "And saw nothing--and no one?" "I saw nothing." "And then, possibly, in order to convince Miss Elmsdale of the full extent of her delusion, you lit a candle, and went downstairs." "Of course--why wouldn't I?" said Miss Blake, defiantly. "Why not, indeed?" repeated the learned gentleman, pensively. "Why not?--Miss Blake being brave as she is witty. Well, you went downstairs, and, as was the admirable custom of the house--a custom worthy of all commendation--you found the doors opening from the hall bolted and locked?" "I did." "And no sign of a human being about?" "Except myself," supplemented Miss Blake. "And rather wishing to find that some human being besides yourself was about, you retraced your steps, and visited the servants' apartments?" "You might have been with me," said Miss Blake, with an angry sneer. "I wish I had," he answered. "I can never sufficiently deplore the fact of my absence. And you found the servants asleep?" "Well, they seemed asleep," said the lady; "but that does not prove that they were so." "Doubtless," he agreed. "Nevertheless, so far as you could judge, none of them looked as if they had been wandering up and down the corridors?" "I could not judge one way or another," said Miss Blake: "for the tricks of English servants, it is impossible for anyone to be up to." "Still, it did not occur to you at the time that any of them was feigning slumber?" "I can't say it did. You see, I am naturally unsuspicious," explained Miss Blake, naively. "Precisely so. And thus it happened that you were unable to confute Miss Elmsdale's fancy?" "I told her she must have been dreaming," retorted Miss Blake. "People who wake all of a sudden often confound dreams with realities."