Not the ghost of a sound rose up from the great bed.

In its wake, faintly, like no sound but the ghost of a sound, came a faint sweet ringing from the air.

And from somewhere, from far distant, came the ghost of a sound: gusts of mocking laughter.

The funereal rustling of dresses and the low buzz of conversation began to die swiftly down, and presently not the ghost of a sound was left.

Not the ghost of a sound rose up from the great bed.

Then there was another sound - the very ghost of a sound.

Presently, he too heard the faint ghost of a sound, almost too muted to identify.

It was the merest ghost of a sound he had heard, but he must go after it!

In its wake, faintly, like no sound but the ghost of a sound, came a faint sweet ringing from the air.

This ghost of a sound increased: it passed through infinite gradations of rarity.

Midori sighed a ghost of a sound.

But the sound, or ghost of a sound, died away and he was again in a grey and featureless wilderness.

The howl was a susurrating ghost of a sound, rising and falling, like the keening of a mother for her dead child.

And from somewhere, from far distant, came the ghost of a sound: gusts of mocking laughter.

The name wandered down along the jackpine fringe, a dwindling ghost of a sound swallowed by the empty vastness of sky and water.

A tiny sound, a ghost of a sound, yet a sound of monstrous swelling terror, expanding balloon-like within her heart and brain.

The funereal rustling of dresses and the low buzz of conversation began to die swiftly down, and presently not the ghost of a sound was left.