ravely she ignored the shock she had received, it was not
without its effect, which was that occasionally there drifted into her
mind a recollection of the suggestion that Palstrey had a ghost. She had
never heard of it, and was in fact of an orthodoxy so ingenuously entire
as to make her feel that belief in the existence of such things was a
sort of defiance of ecclesiastical laws. Still, such stories were often
told in connection with old places, and it was natural to wonder what
features marked this particular legend. Did it lay hands on people's
sides when they were asleep? Captain Osborn had asked his question as if
with a sudden sense of recognition. But she would not let herself think
of the matter, and she would not make inquiries.

The result was that she did not sleep well for several nights. She was
annoyed at herself, because she found that she kept lying awake as if
listening or waiting. And it was not a good thing to lose one's sleep
when one wanted particularly to keep strong.

Jane Cupp during this week was, to use her own words, "given quite a
turn" by an incident which, though a small matter, might have proved
untoward in its results.

The house at Palstrey, despite its age, was in a wonderful state of
preservation, the carved oak balustrades of the stairways being
considered particularly fine.

"What but Providence," said Jane piously, in speaking to her mother the
next morning, "made me look down the staircase as I passed through the
upper landing just before my lady was going down to dinner. What but
Providence I couldn't say. It certainly wasn't because I've done it
before that I remember. But just that one evening I was obliged to cross
the landing for something, and my eye just lowered itself by accident,
and there it was!"

"Just where it would have tripped her up. Good Lord! it makes my heart
turn over to hear you tell it. How big a bit of carving was it?" Mrs.
Cupp's opulent chest trimmings heaved.

"Only a small piece that had broken off from old age and worm-eatenness,
I suppose, but it had dropped just where she wouldn't have caught sight
of it, and ten to one would have stepped on it and turned her ankle and
been thrown from the top to the bottom of the whole flight. Suppose I
_hadn't_ seen it in time to pick it up before she went down. Oh, dear!
Oh, dear! Mother!"

"I should say so!" Mrs. Cupp's manner approached the devout. This
incident it was which probably added to Jane's nerv