"There!" Ermengarde heard her say. "Take it and go home, Melchisedec! Go home to your wife!" Almost immediately Sara opened the door, and when she did so she found Ermengarde standing with alarmed eyes upon the threshold. "Who--who you talking to, Sara?" she gasped out. Sara drew her in cautiously, but she looked as if something pleased and amused her. "You must promise not to be frightened--not to cream the least bit, or I can't tell you," she answered. Ermengarde felt almost inclined to scream on the spot, but managed to control herself. She looked all round the attic and saw no one. And yet Sara had certainly been speaking someone. She thought of ghosts. "Is it--something that will frighten me?" she asked timorously. "Some people are afraid of them," said Sara. "I was at first--but I am not now." "Was it--a ghost?" quaked Ermengarde. "No," said Sara, laughing. "It was my rat."