In fact , I think they are all nonsense . I 'm sure you must think so too in your rational moments . '' `` I dare say it is all nonsense , '' said Mrs. Sefton slowly , `` but if you had lived a whole year in the same house with Miriam Gordon , you would have been tainted too . Not that she had ` theories ' -- at least , she never aired them if she had . But there was simply something about the girl herself that gave a person strange impressions . When I first met her I had the most uncanny feeling that she was all spirit -- soul -- what you will ! no flesh , anyhow . That feeling wore off after a while , but she never seemed like other people to me . `` She was Mr. Sefton 's niece . Her father had died when she was a child . When Miriam was twenty her mother had married a second time and went to Europe with her husband . Miriam came to live with us while they were away . Upon their return she was herself to be married . `` I had never seen Miriam before . Her arrival was unexpected , and I was absent from home when she came . I returned in the evening , and when I saw her first she was standing under the chandelier in the drawing room . Talk about spirits ! For five seconds I thought I had seen one . `` Miriam was a beauty . I had known that before , though I think I hardly expected to see such wonderful loveliness .
She was tall and extremely graceful , dark -- XXXXX least her hair was dark , but her skin was wonderfully fair and clear .
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