very brink of death from starvation
or freezing, but without ever dreaming of sacrificing her ring. And now
for the first time it was missing. While she was still looking
anxiously for the lost jewel the door opened and Dorcas Knight entered
the room, bearing on her arm Capitola's riding dress, which had been
well dried and ironed.

"Miss Capitola, here is your habit; you had better put it on at once,
as I have ordered breakfast an hour sooner than usual, so that you may
have an early start."

"Upon my word, you are very anxious to get rid of me, but not more so
than I am to depart," said Capitola, still pursuing her search.

"Your friends, who do not know where you are, must be very uneasy about
you. But what are you looking for?"

"A ring, a plain gold circle, with my name and that of another
inscribed on it, and which I would not lose for the world. I hung it on
a pin in this pin-cushion last night before I went to bed. I would
swear I did, and now it is missing," answered Cap, still pursuing her
search.

"If you lost it in this room it will certainly be found," said Dorcas
Knight putting down the habit and helping in the search.

"I am not so sure of that. There was some one in my room last night."

"Some one in your room!" exclaimed Dorcas in dismay.

"Yes; a dark-haired woman, all dressed in white!"

Dorcas Knight gave two or three angry grunts and then harshly
exclaimed: "Nonsense! woman, indeed! there is no such woman about the
house! There are no females here except Miss Day, myself and you--not
even a waiting-maid or cook."

"Well," said Cap, "if it was not a woman it was a ghost; for I was wide
awake, and I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Fudge! you've heard that foolish story of the haunted room, and you
have dreamed the whole thing!"

"I tell you I didn't! I saw it! Don't I know?"

"I say you dreamed it! There is no such living woman here; and as for a
ghost, that is all folly. And I must beg, Miss Black, that you will not
distress Miss Day by telling her this strange dream of yours. She has
never heard the ridiculous story of the haunted room, and, as she lives
here in solitude, I would not like her to hear of it."

"Oh, I will say nothing to disquiet Miss Day; but it was no dream. It
was real, if there is any reality in this world."

There was no more said. They continued to look for the ring, but in
vain. Dorcas Knight, however, assured her guest that it should be found
and returned, and t