"Heyday! what's the matter here?" exclaimed my uncle, entering at this juncture; and all the rest, imitating his example, entered too. "I came because I heard Daphne calling for help," I replied. "Oh, papa," said Daphne, withdrawing her arms from me and placing both hands in his. "I have been frightened, and could not help screaming out, and Frank came." "Frightened? What was it that frightened you?" "I--I don't know what it was," she stammered. "I opened my eyes, and there was a black thing bending over me. I could see a pair of gleaming eyes staring straight into mine. I screamed out, but the thing remained bending over me, and didn't move till Frank's step sounded outside." [Illustration] "What?" I cried in amazement. "Didn't this shape, whatever it was, take its flight through the door?" "No; there was no opening of the door till you came. It's here now in the room somewhere. As you opened the door it darted off on this side," motioning to the left with her hand. There was a sensation among the ladies, and they drew closer to one another. The gentlemen, with a valour born of numbers, peered into wardrobes and cupboards, and looked beneath the bed and behind hangings. I could see my uncle and the Baronet exchanging curious glances, and I knew that both were connecting the cause of Daphne's fright with the apparition supposed to haunt the picture-gallery. It was the opinion of every one else that she had been dreaming. "Oh, you silly girl!" cried Florrie, coming to the bedside. "To fancy you saw a ghost, and frighten us all out of our beds!" Daphne shivered visibly. The search into every corner of the apartment had done very little to remove her terror. "Oh, Florrie," she cried, "do stay with me for the rest of the night! I dare not sleep alone. I shall die of fright if it comes again. If you could but have seen those gleaming eyes!" The Baronet's niece expressed her perfect willingness to share her sleep with Daphne. "Leave me that sword," she said to me. "I only hope that ghost _will_ return: if it is one of flesh and blood it had better not venture too near me!" And Florrie waved the blade above her head with the serio-comic air of the pretty lady-hero in the Christmas pantomine when she bids the wicked demon come on and do his worst. "Florrie is an Amazon," smiled the Baronet, "and doesn't fear man, ghost, or devil. I think, Miss Leslie, you will be quite safe in her keeping." We made no longer tarrying, but, bidding the two girls "good-night," withdrew--the ladies to their rooms, the gentlemen to the broad landing, at the end of the corridor, there to discuss the affair for a few minutes. "This is a very mysterious house," said my uncle to the Baronet. "Egad! I'm beginning to think so myself." Among those who had stood silent spectators in Daphne's room was a doctor of great renown. "Did you not detect," he said to my uncle, "a peculiar odour hanging around the dressing-table?"