"Yes, tell Sylvia the story," said Grace, piling up several cushions behind her back. "Of course it isn't true, but it's thrilling."
"It is true," persisted Flora. "My mother says that her own governess saw Lady Caroline's ghost. And that she had on the very hat she has on in the portrait, and the same blue dress and lace collar. You know there's a secret stairway in this house. It leads from one of the closets in your room down to a closet in my father's library and out-of-doors, and Lady Caroline's ghost always comes in that way."
Sylvia looked up at the beautiful pictured face with a little shiver.
"I guess that the governess dreamed it," she said.
"Of course she did," declared Grace. "I think you look like that picture, Flora," she added.
"Well, whether you believe it or not, everybody knows that this is a haunted house," persisted Flora. "Why, there is an account of it in a book."
But Grace shook her head laughingly. "Flora, show Sylvia your lovely lace-work," she said.
Flora nodded, but Sylvia was sure that she was not pleased at Grace's refusal to believe in the ghost.
"Mammy! Mam-m-e-e," called Flora, and in a moment the black woman stood bobbing and smiling in the doorway.
"Bring my lace-work," said Flora.
"Yas, Missy," and Mammy trotted across the room to a little table in the further corner and brought Flora a covered basket. She opened it and set it down in front of her little mistress.