"What was it?" persisted Eliza Lippincott.
"I do not wish to discuss the matter any further," replied Mrs.
Simmons shortly. Then she passed her plate for more creamed
potato. She felt that she would die before she confessed to the
ghastly absurdity of that nightcap, or to having been disturbed by
the flight of peacocks off a blue field of chintz after she had
scoffed at the possibility of such a thing. She left the whole
matter so vague that in a fashion she came off the mistress of the
situation. She at all events impressed everybody by her coolness
in the face of no one knew what nightly terror.
After breakfast, with the assistance of Amanda and Flora, she moved
back into her old room. Scarcely a word was spoken during the
process of moving, but they all worked with trembling haste and
looked guilty when they met one another's eyes, as if conscious of
betraying a common fear.
That afternoon the young minister, John Dunn, went to Sophia Gill
and requested permission to occupy the southwest chamber that
night.
"I don't ask to have my effects moved there," said he, "for I could
scarcely afford a room so much superior to the one I now occupy,
but I would like, if you please, to sleep there to-night for the
purpose of refuting in my own person any unfortunate superstition
which may have obtained root here.
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