Mrs. Cupp must have heard this, for she flushed as she drank the hot chocolate in great gulps. Or, perhaps, it was only the color coming back into her face, after her fright.
Nan asked, with real feeling: “What was it scared you so, Mrs. Cupp?”
“I—I don’t know,” stammered the matron.
“But it must have been something?”
“I’m not sure even of that,” was Mrs. Cupp’s rather disconcerting reply.
“It was the ghost, then!” shrilled Lillie.
“Oh!” gasped Grace, and the two timid ones clung together in alarm and despair.
“Oh, shucks!” exclaimed Amelia Boggs. “It won’t break the door down to get in here, so don’t be afraid.”
“I never was so frightened in my life,” declared Mrs. Cupp, drinking the last drop of the comforting liquid. “Never!”
“Do tell us all about it, Mrs. Cupp,” urged the red-haired girl, hovering about the excited lady. “And have another cup of chocolate; do!”