n the front door and looked out, expecting, of
course, to see her on the steps or on the sidewalk in front. But there
was no one of her appearance visible, and I came back questioning
whether I was the victim of a hallucination or just an everyday fool.
To satisfy myself on this important question I looked about for the
hall-boy, with the intention of asking him if he had seen any such
person go out, but that young and inconsequent scamp was missing from
his post as usual, and there was no one within sight to appeal to.

There was nothing to do but to re-enter my rooms, where my attention
was immediately arrested by the sight of my wife sitting up in bed and
surveying me with a look of unmistakable astonishment.

"Who was that woman?" she asked. "And how came she in here?"

So she had seen her too.

"What woman, Lydia? I have not let in any woman. Did you think there was
a woman in this room?"

"Not in that room," she answered hoarsely, "but in this one. I saw her
just now passing through the folding doors. Wilbur, I am frightened. See
how my hands shake. Do you think I am sick enough to imagine things?"

I knew she was not, but I did not say so. I thought it would be better
for her to think herself under some such delusion.

"You were dozing," said I. "If you had seen a woman here, you could tell
me how she looked."

"And I can," my wife broke in excitedly. "She was like the ghosts we
read of, only that her dress and the veil or drapery she wore were all
gray. Didn't you see her? You must have seen her. She went right by
you--a gray woman, all gray; a lady, Wilbur, and slightly lame. Could I
have dreamed all that?"

"You must have!" I cried, shaking the one door communicating with the
hall, so she might see it was locked, and even showing her the key of
it, lying in its accustomed place behind the bureau cushion. Yet I
was in no satisfied condition myself, for she had described with the
greatest accuracy the very person I had myself seen. Had we been alike
the victims of a spiritual manifestation?

This was Tuesday. On Friday my question seemed to receive an answer. I
had been down town, as usual, and on returning found a crowd assembled
in front of my lodging-house. A woman had been run over and was being
carried into our rooms. In the glimpse I caught of her I saw that she
was middle-aged and was wrapped in a long black cloak. Later, this cloak
fell off, as her hat had done long before, and I perceived tha