[I TAKE BOB INTO MY CONFIDENCE.]
"A sensible woman," said Bob, gazing after my wife; and then, in a more serious tone, "Ned, is it all true?"
"Every word of it."
"About the phantom of the girl?"
"Yes, about the phantom of the girl. Frightfully, horribly true!"
"You saw it?"
"I did; and I would swear it was no trick of imagination."
"And the door opened, as your wife has described?"
"It did, and I will swear that that was no trick of the imagination."
We had moved our chairs and were sitting by the open window, from which stretched the bright prospect of the flowers in my garden; there was a space of some three feet between our chairs as we sat facing each other, and on this space lay the skeleton cat.