"Yes, sir: both times. To-night I met him as I was rushing out of the house in my terror."
"What does he say to it?"
"He ridicules it. He says it's my fancy, and is in a towering rage with me. Mrs. Gass asked whether I had been taking too much beer. People are hard of belief as to such things."
"You told Mrs. Gass, then?"
"I told her the first time. I was in great distress and perplexity, and I mentioned it to her as we sat together in the churchyard looking at Mrs. Rane's funeral."
"What did Mrs. Gass say?"
"She cautioned me never to speak of it again to living soul. Neither of that, nor of--of anything. But this very night, sir, I have seen it again: and if it is to go on like this, I shall soon be in a lunatic asylum."
Mr. Seeley had no faith in ghosts. At the same time he saw how implicit was Jelly's belief in what she fancied she had seen, and the distressed state of mind it had induced. What to answer for the best, he did not know. If he threw ridicule on the story, it would make no impression upon her: if he pretended to receive it as truth, it could bring her no relief.
"Jelly," said he, "I should not believe in a ghost if I saw one."
"I didn't believe in them once," answered Jelly. "But seeing brings belief."