Cathalina went on toward Avalon, whom she found trembling with fright. “Come over to our room and tell us what the trouble was. Who screamed?”
“Isabel!”
The girls hurried into suite fifty-two, as if Satan and his legions were after them, while Hilary was torn between a desire to laugh and curiosity to know what was the matter. “Get right into our beds,” ordered Hilary. So Avalon with Cathalina and Isabel with Hilary crawled into the twin beds, which proved somewhat narrow for two. “Now tell us.”
At this point there came a tap at the outer door and Hilary jumped up to answer it, while Isabel hastily put the covers over her head. “Who is it?” inquired Hilary, as she unlocked the door again.
“Me,—Betty,” came the reply in Lilian’s voice. “We saw you all go in, and Isabel’s door open,—what happened and what was that awful shriek?”
“Come on in, we’re just going to hear about it, too. Isabel did the yelling. She was scared to death about something and the girls are in our beds with us. I don’t know what we’ll do with you!” Hilary laughed and pulled some blankets out of her cedar chest. “Here, take these and pile on the bed. I shut the windows down, but it’s pretty chilly.”
By this time Isabel had recovered from her first terror and felt strengthened by the number around her. She sat up in Hilary’s bed and leaned over toward the other girls to say solemnly, “Well, girls, you know the ‘Woman in Black,’ don’t you? I saw her!”
“Nonsense, Isabel, what is the ‘woman in black,’ a ghost?” This was Hilary, of course.
“You and Betty know about her, don’t you?” persisted Isabel, turning to Lilian.
“Why, yes,” said Lilian. “There’s a tradition at Greycliff about a ‘Woman in Black’ that walks around the halls sometimes, so they say.”