gas-flame, in its glass prison, cast a red and suspicious light into the surrounding darkness, without succeeding in dispelling it. And the dancer slammed the door again, with a deep sigh. 

 "No," she said, "there is no one there." 

 "Still, we saw him!"  Jammes declared, returning with timid little steps to her place beside Sorelli.  "He must be somewhere prowling about. I shan't go back to dress. We had better all go down to the foyer together, at once, for the 'speech,' and we will come up again together." 

 And the child reverently touched the little coral finger-ring which she wore as a charm against bad luck, while Sorelli, stealthily, with the tip of her pink right thumb-nail, made a St. Andrew's cross on the wooden ring which adorned the fourth finger of her left hand. She said to the little ballet-girls: 

 "Come, children, pull yourselves together! I dare say no one has ever seen the ghost." 

 "Yes, yes, we saw him—we saw him just now!" cried the girls.  "He had his death's head and his dress-coat, just as when he appeared to Joseph Buquet!" 

 "And Gabriel saw him too!" said Jammes.  "Only yesterday! Yesterday afternoon—in broad day-light——" 

 "Gabriel, the chorus-master?" 

 "Why, yes, didn't you know?" 

 "And he was wearing his dress-clothes, in broad daylight?" 

 "Who? Gabriel?" 

 "Why, no, the ghost!" 

 "Certainly! Gabriel told me so himself. That's what he knew him by. Gabriel was in the stage-manager's office. Suddenly the door opened and the Persian entered. You know the Persian has the evil eye——" 

 "Oh, yes!" answered the little ballet-girls in chorus, warding off ill-luck by pointing their forefinger and little finger at the absent Persian, while their second and third fingers were bent on the palm and held down by the thumb. 

 "And you know how superstitious Gabriel is," continued Jammes. "However, he is always 

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