"Ha! ha! ha! he could brave an army or march into a cannon's mouth
easier than meet a supposed denizen of another world! Well, Doctor
Johnson believed in ghosts," laughed Traverse.
"It remained for me to retreat as fast as possible to my room to avoid
the Le Noirs, who were hurrying with headlong speed to the
guest-chamber. They knew of course, that I was the ghost, although they
affected to treat their visitor's story as a dream. After that my
confinement was so strict that for years I had no opportunity of
leaving my attic. At last the strict espionage was relaxed. Sometimes
my door would be left unlocked. Upon one such occasion, in creeping
about in the dark, I learned, by overhearing a conversation between Le
Noir and his housekeeper, that my long lost daughter, Capitola, had
been found and was living at Hurricane Hall! This was enough to comfort
me for years. About three years ago the surveillance over me was so
modified that I was left again to roam about the upper rooms of the
house at will, until I learned that they had a new inmate, young Clara
Day, a ward of Le Noir! Oh, how I longed to warn that child to fly! But
I could not; alas, again I was restricted to my own room, lest I should
be seen by her. But again, upon one occasion, old Dorcas forgot to lock
my door at night. I stole forth from my room and learned that a young
girl, caught out in the storm, was to stay all night at the Hidden
House. Young girls were not plentiful in that neighborhood, I knew.
Besides, some secret instinct told me that this was my daughter: I knew
that she would sleep in the chamber under mine, because that was the
only habitable guest-room in the whole house. In the dead of night I
left my room and went below and entered the chamber of the young girl.
I went first to the toilet table to see if among her little girlish
ornaments, I could find any clue to her identity. I found it in a
plain, gold ring--the same that I had intrusted to the old nurse. Some
strange impulse caused me to slip the ring upon my finger. Then I went
to the bed and threw aside the curtains to gaze upon the sleeper. My
girl--my own girl! With what strange sensations I first looked upon her
face! Her eyes were open and fixed upon mine in a panic of terror. I
stooped to press my lips to her's and she closed her eyes in mortal
fear, I carried nothing but terror with me! I withdrew from the room
and went back, sobbing, to my chamber. My poor girl next morning
unconsciously betrayed her mother. It had nearly cost me my life."