THE STRONG-MINDED CONVINCED 



Some persuasion was necessary before she would relate 

 her experience. At last it was extracted from her in some 

 such shape as this : 



" I couldn't sleep. Towards two in the morning I heard a 

 noise. I thought it was rats. I sat up in bed to feel for the 

 matches: couldn't find them. There came a light, on the 

 opposite wall. I stared. I saw a monk in it. He began to 

 move. He didn't look alive : he looked like a magic lantern. 

 He went out of the room through the closed door. I got up, 

 opened the door, looked out into the passage. Yes, Mary, 

 the light was there, and the figure in it, too. It moved along 

 the wall. I followed it. It disappeared before the cross 

 doors. I went back to bed. No, I'm not frightened, but 

 I haven't slept. I'd like another room, please. No, I 

 wasn't asleep it wasn't a dream. I can't explain it. Nor 

 you either, I suppose." 



The hostess pondered. It was true she couldn't explain. 

 She had heard of that apparition beforeperhaps had seen 

 it. It was certainly very annoying. She promised her 

 friend to give instant orders for the preparation of another 

 room,- and then made a request that the matter should 

 not be mentioned to her daughter an impressionable, 

 imaginative girl of eighteen. 

 The maiden lady snorted. It wasn't likely. 

 Rosamund, the daughter, had of course known all about it 

 long ago ,- while, after the fashion of her kind, keeping her 

 counsel demurely before her elders, she had discussed freely 



249 



