“I seen the misthress. She was huntin’, too: she had a little flash-lamp, an’ she came out of the smokin’-room, movin’ like a ghost herself. Sure, an’ I thought she was one for a moment. I’d have screeched, only me tongue was stickin’ to the roof of me head! She looked up an’ saw me, an’ I cud see she was as frightened as I was. We stared at each other for a minute, me on the stairs an’ she by the door. Never a worrd did she say, only she put her finger to her lips as if she was tellin’ me to howld me noise—me, that couldn’t have said a worrd if ’twas to save me life!”
“And what then?”
“Then she shut off her lamp an’ went back into the room behind her. An’ I up the stairs as if the Sivin Divils were behind me, an’ lef’ her to her huntin’. ‘If there’s ghosts in it, let you be findin’ them yourself,’ thinks I; ‘sure, it’s your own house!’ An’ pretty soon I heard her comin’ upstairs slow an’ careful, an’ she went back into the Tower.”
“I think you are worrying yourself about nothing, Julia,” I said. “Mrs. McNab is often about the house at night—I thought I had caught a burglar myself the other night, and it turned out to be the mistress, coming up the kitchen stairs. I think she often wanders round when her work won’t go easily: and she is nervous about the safety of the place, since the robbery at Miss Parker’s. At any rate, if she is wakeful and watching there is no need for you or me to be anxious.”
Julia looked unconvinced. I could see that she hugged the idea of a mystery. And, indeed, I did not feel half so commonsensible as I tried to seem.
“Why wouldn’t she do it different, then?” she demanded. “If ’tis nervous she is, she might call Mr. Harry an’ let him an’ the other young gentlemen go huntin’, with all the lights turned on, an’ plenty of noise! A good noise ’ud be heartenin’—betther than that silent prowlin’ round, like a lone cat.”
“It might—but it wouldn’t catch a burglar,” I said. “Anyhow, Mrs. McNab might not have been after a burglar at all: she might have gone down for a book.”
“She had not that appearance,” said Julia. “Stealthy, she was: an’ I tell you, miss, there was fear on her face!”
“I should think so—with you creaking down the stairs!” I said, laughing. “Probably she made sure that the burglar had caught her instead. And when she saw that it was you, she was afraid you might alarm the house. She’s awfully anxious that the house-party should have a good time. I think it is rather nice to know that, even though she is working so hard, she watches over everything at night.”
“I dunno,” said Julia doubtfully. “Sure, I’d a sight rather she laid peaceful an’ quiet in her bed, an’ lef’ all the lights burnin’. Burglar or ghost, either of them’s aisy discouraged with a strong light: it’s worth all the prowlin’ a woman could do. Well, I’ve been lettin’ me tongue run away with me, but you’re the only wan I can talk to, miss. Mrs. Winter an’ Bella, they sleep like the dead, an’ never hear annything: an’ if they thought there was either a ghost or a burglar in The Towers they’d be off like scalded cats, without givin’ notice. An’ where’d you an’ I be then?”