She came forward slowly--he eagerly.
"I heard footsteps," she said, with a coldness under which he plainly saw her embarrassment.

"I could not suppose that anybody was still up, so I came down to see." He was silent a moment, scanning her with laughing eyes.

Then he shook his head.

"Confess you took me for the ghost ?" he said.
She hesitated; then must laugh too.

She herself had told him the stories, so that his guess was natural.
"Perhaps I did," she said.