each other in efforts to
restore Dainty to consciousness, while Love looked on in wild anxiety.

"It is useless, all that you can do. As well wait till the doctor
comes!" he said, hopelessly, at last; and indeed the throb of Dainty's
heart was so weak it did not seem as if she should ever return to the
life from which the great shock seemed to have driven her.

"Poor old black mammy, I was forgetting you! Here, drink this," he said,
hurriedly, mixing a stimulant, and placing it to the lips of the
trembling old negress, who had sunk to the floor, utterly unnerved, and
turning to an ashen-gray pallor. "As soon as you feel better," he added,
"I would like to hear a truthful account of all that happened to throw
you and Miss Chase into such a state."

The old woman gasped, rolled the whites of her big eyes at him; then,
lying heavily back in the arm-chair where he had placed her, muttered,
feebly:

"I gwine tell de trufe, an' nothin' else, Massa Love, an ef dat pore
darlin' eber comes back ter life ergin, she gwine tell yer de same as I
does. De black debbil hese'f comed inter dis room an' grab her up an'
run off wif she inter de hall. I seen him plain as day, in his long
black gownd wif a string o' beads hangin' down by de side, an' er li'l
ole skull-cap on his haid, an' he face all gashly white like a
corp--umme!" she groaned; adding: "But I'll tell de trufe--he didn't
pear to hab no hoofs nor horns, an' I always did hear dat he had both.
Umme! ter think o' seein' dat ole debbil heself, an' livin' arterward!"
groaned old mammy, while every one listened eagerly, Mrs. Ellsworth
alone giving little sniffs of incredulity.

"Is that all?" queried Love, at this juncture; and dolefully wagging her
turbaned head, mammy answered, impressively:

"No, suh, no, 'tain't all! I gwine begin at de beginnin' now, an' 'late
de whole story. Fust t'ing, es I was settin' an' noddin' in my cheer, I
heerd de soun' o' somebody coughin' an' coughin' er dreadful hackin'
cough, lak some one in de last stage o' consumption. Hit soun' so
nateral it made my flesh creep, fer I suddenly 'members de story o' de
ghost-cough dat frighten sweet Miss Dainty. I turn my eyes to de baid
ter see ef she's awaken' by de noise, an' in de darkness dere all at
once flash a li'l blue-green gashly light, flickerin' erbout de ceilin',
den here an' dar erbout de room, den down on Miss Dainty's face, an' I
see her so pale, wif her big blue eyes wide open, skeered l