or Frank, and he departed half an hour ago."

Slowly out of Kate's face every trace of colour faded. She rose
abruptly, a frightened look in her blue eyes.

"Rose, I must go home--I must see Agnes. Captain Grierson, will you be
kind enough to find Mr. Stanford and send him?"

Captain Grierson hastened on his mission. Rose looked at her with wide
open eyes.

"Go home--so early! Why, Kate, what are you thinking of?"

"Of Agnes Darling. You can stay, if you like. Sir Ronald is your
escort."

"Thank you. A charming escort he is, too--grimmer than old Time in the
primer. No; if you leave, so do I."

Mr. Stanford sauntered up while she was speaking, and Rose drew back.

"What is it, Kate? Grierson says you are going home."

Kate's answer was an explanation. Mr. Reginald Stanford set up an
indecorous laugh.

"A ghost! That's capital! Why did you not tell me before that Danton
Hall was haunted, Kate?"

"I want to return immediately," was Kate's answer a little coldly. "I
must speak to Mr. Ponsonby and find Eeny. Tell Sir Ronald, please, and
hold yourself in readiness to attend us."

She swept off with Rose to find their hostess. Mrs. Ponsonby's regrets
were unutterable, but Miss Danton was resolute.

"How absurd, you know, Helen," she said, to her daughter, when they were
gone; "such nonsense about a sick seamstress."

"I thought Kate Danton was proud," said Miss Helen. "That does not look
like it. I am not sorry she has gone, however, half the men in the room
were making idiots of themselves about her."

Kate and Reginald Stanford returned as they had come, in the light
sleigh; and Sir Ronald, Rose and Eeny, in the carriage. Rose, wrapped in
her mantel, shrunk away in a corner, and never opened her lips. She
watched gloomily, and so did the baronet, the cutter flying past over
glittering snow, and Kate's sweet face, pale as the moonlight itself.

Captain Danton met them in the entrance hall, his florid face less
cheery than usual. Kate came forward, her anxious inquiring eyes
speaking for her.

"Better, my dear; much better," her father answered. "Doctor Frank works
miracles. Grace and he are with her; he has given her an opiate, and I
believe she is asleep."

"But what is it, papa?" cried Rose. "Did she see a ghost!"

"A ghost, my dear," said the Captain, chucking her under the chin. "You
girls are as silly as geese, and imagine you see anything you like. She
isn't able to tell what frightened her, poo