"And nearly killed us, as well."
"Yes; we had to make sure of your taking enough to put you to sleep, so I poured the laudanum into your coffee-pot pretty freely, I tell you."
At this moment the bloodless phantom appeared again, and in the same thin, reed-like voice that sounded so far away, she announced that breakfast was ready.
"Come, then; I know you must need nourishment," said Sybil's wild hostess, rising to lead the way.
And now Sybil saw how it was that the pale girl had slipped through the almost invisible aperture, like a spirit vanishing through a solid wall; for the rocky partitions of this natural underground palace overlapped each other, leaving a passage of about one foot in width and three feet in length between the walls.
Through this they passed into a smaller cavern, which, like the larger one, had its roof and walls incrusted with pearly spars and hung with sparkling stalactites, and its floor covered with living moss.
This cavern was not only beautiful, but comfortable. A large charcoal furnace that stood in the middle of the floor agreeably warmed the place, while the appetizing odor of hot coffee, broiled birds, and buckwheat cakes filled the air.
But the furniture of the place was the most incongruous and amazing that could be imagined. A wooden table of the rudest workmanship stood near the furnace, but it was covered with a white damask table-cloth of the finest description, and adorned with a service of the purest silver plate. With this elegant and costly array was intermingled crockery-ware of the coarsest pattern. Around the table were placed two three-legged stools of the roughest manufacture, and one piano chair of the most finished workmanship, of carved rosewood and cut velvet.
Waiting on this table stood the "damp girl" mentioned before, and also a very small, dark, withered old woman, in a black gown, with a red handkerchief tied over her head and under her chin.
"Come, Mrs. Berners, you are my guest, and I will give you the seat of honor," said Sybil's nameless hostess, as she led her to the little piano chair and put her on it.