"Then prepare to laugh at me. While you slept this afternoon——" She paused.

"Yes," I said.

"My father awoke."

"Oh!"

"And conversed."

"Good," I murmured. "He was sensible."

"I do not know. He seemed so. But he did not speak to me."

"You said that he conversed."

"Ay—but with a shadow."

Miss Ottley compressed her lips and looked at me defiantly.