Roma’s dream for her protégée was to take her to Goblin Hall as soon as the spring should open, if the invalid should be well enough to bear the journey.
The daily improvement warranted the hope. So did the words and manners of the attending physician. It is the religion of the medical doctor to inspire hope in his patient and his patient’s friends, whether there be any reasonable grounds for it or not. It is one of his methods of cure.
Marguerite grew so much better that she could walk from room to room.
This improvement continued for weeks, and the invalid, who never had lost her spirits, even in her worst days, grew buoyant with anticipation of her summer holiday in the country.
“I shall like your Goblin Hall,” she said; “and I know it must be haunted. I dote on a haunted house, though I never was in one in my life. I do believe in ghosts, and I don’t believe one word about the name being rightly Goeberlin Hall. I believe it is really and truly Goblin Hall, so called on account of its ghost.”
“Oh, it has a ghost and a haunted room,” said Roma very gravely.
“There, I said so!” exclaimed Marguerite.
“And you shall occupy it, if you wish to do so,” added Roma.
“Oh, no, thank you. I don’t want to do that. I only want to feel that there is such a room in the old colonial house, and, when other people are with me in the evening, to hear the ghostly footsteps and voices in the distance. But I don’t want to be near them and away from everybody else. Oh, no,” said Marguerite, laughing and shaking her head.
Owlet looked and listened in solemn disapproval.