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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncanny Tales, by Mary Louisa Molesworth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Uncanny Tales
+
+Author: Mary Louisa Molesworth
+
+Illustrator: Fred Hyland
+
+Release Date: April 25, 2011 [EBook #35641]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCANNY TALES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  Uncanny Tales
+
+  BY MRS MOLESWORTH
+
+  LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO
+  Paternoster Row
+
+  FRED HYLAND
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+  AN OTHERWISE UNACKNOWLEDGED "COLLABORATEUR"
+  IN THESE STORIES,
+  J. C. P.
+
+  19 SUMNER PLACE, S.W.,
+
+  _October, 1896._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                     PAGE
+
+  THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT           1
+
+  "THE MAN WITH THE COUGH"             82
+
+  "HALF-WAY BETWEEN THE STILES"       112
+
+  AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD              141
+
+  "---- WILL NOT TAKE PLACE"          153
+
+  THE CLOCK THAT STRUCK THIRTEEN      183
+
+
+
+
+UNCANNY TALES.
+
+
+
+
+THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+We never thought of Finster St. Mabyn's being haunted. We really never
+did.
+
+This may seem strange, but it is absolutely true. It was such an
+extremely interesting and curious place in many ways that it required
+nothing extraneous to add to its attractions. Perhaps this was the
+reason.
+
+Now-a-days, immediately that you hear of a house being "very old," the
+next remark is sure to be "I hope it is"--or "is not"--that depends on
+the taste of the speaker--"haunted".
+
+But Finster was more than very old; it was _ancient_ and, in a modest
+way, historical. I will not take up time by relating its history,
+however, or by referring my readers to the chronicles in which mention
+of it may be found. Nor shall I yield to the temptation of describing
+the room in which a certain royalty spent one night, if not two or three
+nights, four centuries ago, or the tower, now in ruins, where an even
+more renowned personage was imprisoned for several months. All these
+facts--or legends--have nothing to do with what I have to tell. Nor,
+strictly speaking, has Finster itself, except as a sort of prologue to
+my narrative.
+
+We heard of the house through friends living in the same county, though
+some distance farther inland. They--Mr. and Miss Miles, it is convenient
+to give their name at once--knew that we had been ordered to leave our
+own home for some months, to get over the effects of a very trying
+visitation of influenza, and that sea-air was specially desirable.
+
+We grumbled at this. Seaside places are often so dull and commonplace.
+But when we heard of Finster we grumbled no longer.
+
+"Dull" in a sense it might be, but assuredly not "commonplace". Janet
+Miles's description of it, though she was not particularly clever at
+description, read like a fairy tale, or one of Longfellow's poems.
+
+"A castle by the sea--how perfect!" we all exclaimed. "Do, oh, do fix
+for it, mother!"
+
+The objections were quickly over-ruled. It was rather isolated, said
+Miss Miles, standing, as was not difficult to trace in its name, on a
+point of land--a corner rather--with sea on two sides. It had not been
+lived in, save spasmodically, for some years, for the late owner was one
+of those happy, or unhappy people, who have more houses than they can
+use, and the present one was a minor. Eventually it was to be overhauled
+and some additions and alterations made, but the trustees would be glad
+to let it at a moderate rent for some months, and had intended putting
+it into some agents' hands when Mr. Miles happened to meet one of them,
+who mentioned it to him. There was nothing against it; it was absolutely
+healthy. But the furniture was old and shabby, and there was none too
+much of it. If we wanted to have visitors we should certainly require to
+add to it. This, however, could easily be done, our informant went on to
+say. There was a very good upholsterer and furniture dealer at Raxtrew,
+the nearest town, who was in the habit of hiring out things to the
+officers at the fort. "Indeed," she added, "we often pick up charming
+old pieces of furniture from him for next to nothing, so you could both
+hire and buy."
+
+Of course, we should have visitors--and our own house would not be the
+worse for some additional chairs and tables here and there, in place of
+some excellent monstrosities Phil and Nugent and I had persuaded mother
+to get rid of.
+
+"If I go down to spy the land with father," I said, "I shall certainly
+go to the furniture dealer's and have a good look about me."
+
+I did go with father. I was nineteen--it is four years ago--and a
+capable sort of girl. Then I was the only one who had not been ill,
+and mother had been the worst of all, mother and Dormy--poor little
+chap--for _he_ nearly died.
+
+He is the youngest of us--we are four boys and two girls. Sophy was then
+fifteen. My own name is Leila.
+
+If I attempted to give any idea of the impression Finster St. Mabyn's
+made upon us, I should go on for hours. It simply took our breath away.
+It really felt like going back a few centuries merely to enter within
+the walls and gaze round you. And yet we did not see it to any advantage,
+so at least said the two Miles's who were our guides. It was a gloomy
+day, with the feeling of rain not far off, early in April. It might have
+been November, though it was not cold.
+
+"You can scarcely imagine what it is on a bright day," said Janet,
+eager, as people always are in such circumstances, to show off her
+_trouvaille_. "The lights and shadows are so exquisite."
+
+"I love it as it is," I said. "I don't think I shall ever regret having
+seen it first on a grey day. It is just perfect."
+
+She was pleased at my admiration, and did her utmost to facilitate
+matters. Father was taken with the place, too, I could see, but he
+hummed and hawed a good deal about the bareness of the rooms--the
+bedrooms especially. So Janet and I went into it at once in a
+business-like way, making lists of the actually necessary additions,
+which did not prove very formidable after all.
+
+"Hunter will manage all that _easily_," said Miss Miles, upon which
+father gave in--I believe he had meant to do so all the time. The rent
+was really so low that a little furniture-hire could be afforded, I
+suggested. And father agreed.
+
+"It is extremely low," he said, "for a place possessing so many
+advantages."
+
+But even then it did not occur to any of us to suggest "suspiciously
+low".
+
+We had the Miles's guarantee for it all, to begin with. Had there been
+any objection they must have known it.
+
+We spent the night with them and the next morning at the furniture
+dealer's. He was a quick, obliging little man, and took in the situation
+at a glance. And _his_ terms were so moderate that father said to me
+amiably: "There are some quaint odds and ends here, Leila. You might
+choose a few things, to use at Finster in the first place, and then to
+take home with us."
+
+I was only too ready to profit by the permission, and with Janet's
+help a few charmingly quaint chairs and tables, a three-cornered wall
+cabinet, and some other trifles were soon put aside for us. We were just
+leaving, when at one end of the shop some tempting-looking draperies
+caught my eye.
+
+"What are these?" I asked the upholsterer. "Curtains! Why, this is real
+old tapestry!"
+
+The obliging Hunter drew out the material in question.
+
+"They are not exactly curtains, miss," he said. "I thought they would
+make nice _portières_. You see the tapestry is set into cloth. It was so
+frail when I got it that it was the only thing to do with it."
+
+He had managed it very ingeniously. Two panels, so to say, of old
+tapestry, very charming in tone, had been lined and framed with dull
+green cloth, making a very good pair of _portières_ indeed.
+
+"Oh, papa!" I cried, "do let us have these. There are sure to be
+draughty doors at Finster, and afterwards they would make _perfect_
+"_portières_" for the two side doors in the hall at home."
+
+Father eyed the tapestry appreciatively, but first prudently inquired
+the price. It seemed higher in proportion than Hunter's other charges.
+
+"You see, sir," he said half apologetically, "the panels are real
+antique work, though so much the worse for wear."
+
+"Where did they come from?" asked father.
+
+Hunter hesitated.
+
+"To tell you the truth, sir," he replied, "I was asked not to name the
+party that I bought it from. It seems a pity to part with _h_eir-looms,
+but--it happens sometimes--I bought several things together of a family
+quite lately. The _portières_ have only come out of the workroom this
+morning. We hurried on with them to stop them fraying more--you see
+where they were before, they must have been nailed to the wall."
+
+Janet Miles, who was something of a connoisseur, had been examining the
+tapestry.
+
+"It is well worth what he asks," she said, in a low voice. "You don't
+often come across such tapestry in England."
+
+So the bargain was struck, and Hunter promised to see all that we had
+chosen, both purchased and hired, delivered at Finster the week before
+we proposed to come.
+
+Nothing interfered with our plans. By the end of the month we found
+ourselves at our temporary home--all of us except Nat, our third
+brother, who was at school. Dormer, the small boy, still did lessons
+with Sophy's governess. The two older "boys," as we called them,
+happened to be at home from different reasons--one, Nugent, on leave
+from India; Phil, forced to miss a term at college through an attack
+of the same illness which had treated mother and Dormy so badly.
+
+But now that everybody was well again, and going to be very much better,
+thanks to Finster air, we thought the ill wind had brought us some very
+distinct good. It would not have been half such fun had we not been a
+large family party to start with, and before we had been a week at the
+place we had added to our numbers by the first detachment of the guests
+we had invited.
+
+It was not a very large house; besides ourselves we had not room for
+more than three or four others. For some of the rooms--those on the top
+story--were really too dilapidated to suit any one but rats--"rats or
+ghosts," said some one laughingly one day, when we had been exploring
+them.
+
+Afterwards the words returned to my memory.
+
+We had made ourselves very comfortable, thanks to the invaluable Hunter.
+And every day the weather grew milder and more spring-like. The woods on
+the inland side were full of primroses. It promised to be a lovely
+season.
+
+There was a gallery along one side of the house, which soon became a
+favourite resort; it made a pleasant lounging-place, in the day-time
+especially, though less so in the evening, as the fireplace at one end
+warmed it but imperfectly, and besides this it was difficult to light
+up. It was draughty, too, as there was a superfluity of doors, two of
+which, one at each end, we at once condemned. They were not needed, as
+the one led by a very long spiral staircase, to the unused attic rooms,
+the other to the kitchen and offices. And when we did have afternoon
+tea in the gallery, it was easy to bring it through the dining or
+drawing-rooms, long rooms, lighted at their extreme ends, which ran
+parallel to the gallery lengthways, both of which had a door opening on
+to it as well as from the hall on the other side. For all the principal
+rooms at Finster were on the first-floor, not on the ground-floor.
+
+The closing of these doors got rid of a great deal of draught, and, as I
+have said, the weather was really mild and calm.
+
+One afternoon--I am trying to begin at the beginning of our strange
+experiences; even at the risk of long-windedness it seems better to do
+so--we were all assembled in the gallery at tea-time. The "children,"
+as we called Sophy and Dormer, much to Sophy's disgust, and their
+governess, were with us, for rules were relaxed at Finster, and Miss
+Larpent was a great favourite with us all.
+
+Suddenly Sophy gave an exclamation of annoyance.
+
+"Mamma," she said, "I wish you would speak to Dormer. He has thrown
+over my tea-cup--only look at my frock!" "If you cannot sit still," she
+added, turning herself to the boy, "I don't think you should be allowed
+to come to tea here."
+
+"What is the matter, Dormy?" said mother.
+
+Dormer was standing beside Sophy, looking very guilty, and rather white.
+
+"Mamma," he said, "I was only drawing a chair out. It got so dreadfully
+cold where I was sitting, I really could not stay there," and he
+shivered slightly.
+
+He had been sitting with his back to one of the locked-up doors. Phil,
+who was nearest, moved his hand slowly across the spot.
+
+"You are fanciful, Dormy," he said, "there is really no draught
+whatever."
+
+This did not satisfy mother.
+
+"He must have got a chill, then," she said, and she went on to question
+the child as to what he had been doing all day, for, as I have said, he
+was still delicate.
+
+But he persisted that he was quite well, and no longer cold.
+
+"It wasn't exactly a draught," he said, "it was--oh! just icy, all of a
+sudden. I've felt it before--sitting in that chair."
+
+Mother said no more, and Dormer went on with his tea, and when bed-time
+came he seemed just as usual, so that her anxiety faded. But she made
+thorough investigation as to the possibility of any draught coming up
+from the back stairs, with which this door communicated. None was to be
+discovered--the door fitted fairly well, and beside this, Hunter had
+tacked felt round the edges--furthermore, one of the thick heavy
+_portières_ had been hung in front.
+
+An evening or two later we were sitting in the drawing room after
+dinner, when a cousin who was staying with us suddenly missed her fan.
+
+"Run and fetch Muriel's fan, Dormy," I said, for Muriel felt sure it had
+slipped under the dinner table. None of the men had as yet joined us.
+
+"Why, where are you going, child?" as he turned towards the farther
+door. "It is much quicker by the gallery."
+
+He said nothing, but went out, walking rather slowly, by the gallery
+door. And in a few minutes he returned, fan in hand, but by the _other_
+door.
+
+He was a sensitive child, and though I wondered what he had got into his
+head against the gallery, I did not say anything before the others. But
+when, soon after, Dormy said "Good night," and went off to bed, I
+followed him.
+
+"What do you want, Leila?" he said rather crossly.
+
+"Don't be vexed, child," I said. "I can see there is something the
+matter. Why do you not like the gallery?"
+
+He hesitated, but I had laid my hand on his shoulder, and he knew I
+meant to be kind.
+
+"Leila," he said, with a glance round, to be sure that no one was within
+hearing--we were standing, he and I, near the inner dining-room door,
+which was open--"you'll laugh at me, but--there's something queer
+there--sometimes!"
+
+"What? And how do you mean 'sometimes'?" I asked, with a slight thrill
+at his tone.
+
+"I mean not always, I've felt it several times--there was the cold the
+day before yesterday, and besides that, I've felt a--a sort of
+_breaving_"--Dormy was not perfect in his "th's"--"like somebody very
+unhappy."
+
+"Sighing?" I suggested.
+
+"Like sighing in a whisper," he replied, "and that's always near the
+door. But last week--no, not so long ago, it was on Monday--I went round
+that way when I was going to bed. I didn't want to be silly. But it was
+moonlight--and--Leila, a shadow went all along the wall on that side,
+and stopped at the door. I saw it waggling about--its _hands_," and here
+he shivered--"on that funny curtain that hangs up, as if it were feeling
+for a minute or two, and then----"
+
+"Well,--what then?"
+
+"It just went out," he said simply. "But it's moonlight again to-night,
+sister, and I daren't see it again. I just _daren't_."
+
+"But you did go to the dining-room that way," I reminded him.
+
+"Yes, but I shut my eyes and ran, and even then I felt as if something
+cold was behind me."
+
+"Dormy, dear," I said, a good deal concerned, "I do think it's your
+fancy. You are not _quite_ well yet, you know."
+
+"Yes, I am," he replied sturdily. "I'm not a bit frightened anywhere
+else. I sleep in a room alone you know. It's not _me_, sister, its
+somefing in the gallery."
+
+"Would you be frightened to go there with me now? We can run through the
+dining-room; there's no one to see us," and I turned in that direction
+as I spoke.
+
+Again my little brother hesitated.
+
+"I'll go with you if you'll hold hands," he said, "but I'll shut my
+eyes. And I won't open them till you tell me there's no shadow on the
+wall. You must tell me truly."
+
+"But there must be some shadows," I said, "in this bright moonlight,
+trees and branches, or even clouds scudding across--something of that
+kind is what you must have seen, dear."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"No, no, of course I wouldn't mind that. I know the difference. No--you
+couldn't mistake. It goes along, right along, in a creeping way, and
+then at the door its hands come farther out, and it _feels_."
+
+"Is it like a man or a woman?" I said, beginning to feel rather creepy
+myself.
+
+"I think it's most like a rather little man," he replied, "but I'm not
+sure. Its head has got something fuzzy about it--oh, I know, like a
+sticking out wig. But lower down it seems wrapped up, like in a cloak.
+Oh, it's _horrid_."
+
+And again he shivered--it was quite time all this nightmare nonsense was
+put out of his poor little head.
+
+I took his hand and held it firmly; we went through the dining-room.
+Nothing could have looked more comfortable and less ghostly. For the
+lights were still burning on the table, and the flowers in their silver
+bowls, some wine gleaming in the glasses, the fruit and pretty dishes,
+made a pleasant glow of colour. It certainly seemed a curiously sudden
+contrast when we found ourselves in the gallery beyond, cold and
+unillumined, save by the pale moonlight streaming through the
+unshuttered windows. For the door closed with a bang as we passed
+through--the gallery _was_ a draughty place.
+
+Dormy's hold tightened.
+
+"Sister," he whispered, "I've shut my eyes now. You must stand with
+your back to the windows--between them, or else you'll think it's our
+own shadows--and watch."
+
+I did as he said, and I had not long to wait.
+
+It came--from the farther end, the second condemned door, whence the
+winding stair mounted to the attics--it seemed to begin or at least
+take form there. Creeping along, just as Dormy said--stealthily but
+steadily--right down to the other extremity of the long room. And then
+it grew blacker--more concentrated--and out from the vague outline came
+two bony hands, and, as the child had said, too, you could see that they
+were _feeling_--all over the upper part of the door.
+
+I stood and watched. I wondered afterwards at my own courage, if courage
+it was. It was the shadow of a small man, I felt sure. The head seemed
+large in proportion, and--yes--it--the original of the shadow--was
+evidently covered by an antique wig. Half mechanically I glanced
+round--as if in search of the material body that _must_ be there. But
+no; there was nothing, literally _nothing_, that could throw this
+extraordinary shadow.
+
+Of this I was instantly convinced; and here I may as well say once
+for all, that never was it maintained by any one, however previously
+sceptical, who had fully witnessed the whole, that it could be accounted
+for by ordinary, or, as people say, "natural" causes. There was this
+peculiarity at least about our ghost.
+
+Though I had fast hold of his hand, I had almost forgotten Dormy--I
+seemed in a trance.
+
+Suddenly he spoke, though in a whisper.
+
+"You see it, sister, I know you do," he said.
+
+"Wait, wait a minute, dear," I managed to reply in the same tone, though
+I could not have explained why I waited.
+
+Dormer had said that after a time--after the ghastly and apparently
+fruitless _feeling_ all over the door--"it"--"went out".
+
+I think it was this that I was waiting for. It was not quite as he had
+said. The door was in the extreme corner of the wall, the hinges almost
+in the angle, and as the shadow began to move on again, it _looked_ as
+if it disappeared; but no, it was only fainter. My eyes, preternaturally
+sharpened by my intense gaze, still saw it, working its way round the
+corner, as assuredly no _shadow_ in the real sense of the word ever did
+nor could do. I realised this, and the sense of horror grew all but
+intolerable; yet I stood still, clasping the cold little hand in mine
+tighter and tighter. And an instinct of protection of the child gave me
+strength. Besides, it was coming on so quickly--we could not have
+escaped--it was coming, nay, it _was behind_ us.
+
+"Leila!" gasped Dormy, "the cold--you feel it now?"
+
+Yes, truly--like no icy breath that I had ever felt before was that
+momentary but horrible thrill of utter cold. If it had lasted another
+second I think it would have killed us both. But, mercifully, it passed,
+in far less time than it has taken me to tell it, and then we seemed in
+some strange way to be released.
+
+"Open your eyes, Dormy," I said, "you won't see anything, I promise you.
+I want to rush across to the dining-room."
+
+He obeyed me. I felt there was time to escape before that awful presence
+would again have arrived at the dining-room door, though it was
+_coming_--ah, yes, it was coming, steadily pursuing its ghastly round.
+And, alas! the dining-room door was closed. But I kept my nerve to some
+extent. I turned the handle without over much trembling, and in another
+moment, the door shut and locked behind us, we stood in safety, looking
+at each other, in the bright cheerful room we had left so short a time
+ago.
+
+_Was_ it so short a time? I said to myself. It seemed hours!
+
+And through the door open to the hall came at that moment the sound
+of cheerful laughing voices from the drawing-room. Some one was coming
+out. It seemed impossible, incredible, that within a few feet of the
+matter-of-fact pleasant material life, this horrible inexplicable drama
+should be going on, as doubtless it still was.
+
+Of the two I was now more upset than my little brother. I was older and
+"took in" more. He, boy-like, was in a sense triumphant at having proved
+himself correct and no coward, and though he was still pale, his eyes
+shone with excitement and a queer kind of satisfaction.
+
+But before we had done more than look at each other, a figure appeared
+at the open doorway. It was Sophy.
+
+"Leila," she said, "mamma wants to know what you are doing with Dormy?
+He is to go to bed at once. We saw you go out of the room after him,
+and then a door banged. Mamma says if you are playing with him it's very
+bad for him so late at night."
+
+Dormy was very quick. He was still holding my hand, and he pinched it to
+stop my replying.
+
+"Rubbish!" he said. "I am speaking to Leila quietly, and she is coming
+up to my room while I undress. Good night, Sophy."
+
+"Tell mamma Dormy really wants me," I added, and then Sophy departed.
+
+"We musn't tell _her_, Leila," said the boy. "She'd have 'sterics."
+
+"Whom shall we tell?" I said, for I was beginning to feel very helpless
+and upset.
+
+"Nobody, to-night," he replied sensibly. "You _mustn't_ go in there,"
+and he shivered a little as he moved his head towards the gallery;
+"you're not fit for it, and they'd be wanting you to. Wait till the
+morning and then I'd--I think I'd tell Philip first. You needn't be
+frightened to-night, sister. It won't stop you sleeping. It didn't me
+the time I saw it before."
+
+He was right. I slept dreamlessly. It was as if the intense nervous
+strain of those few minutes had utterly exhausted me.
+
+
+PART II.
+
+Phil is our soldier brother. And there is nothing fanciful about _him_!
+He is a rock of sturdy common-sense and unfailing good nature. He was
+the very best person to confide our strange secret to, and my respect
+for Dormy increased.
+
+We did tell him--the very next morning. He listened very attentively,
+only putting in a question here and there, and though, of course, he was
+incredulous--had I not been so myself?--he was not mocking.
+
+"I am glad you have told no one else," he said, when we had related the
+whole as circumstantially as possible. "You see mother is not very
+strong yet, and it would be a pity to bother father, just when he's
+taken this place and settled it all. And for goodness' sake, don't let a
+breath of it get about among the servants; there'd be the--something to
+pay, if you did."
+
+"I won't tell anybody," said Dormy.
+
+"Nor shall I," I added. "Sophy is far too excitable, and if she knew,
+she would certainly tell Nannie." Nannie is our old nurse.
+
+"If we tell any one," Philip went on, "that means," with a rather
+irritating smile of self-confidence, "if by any possibility I do not
+succeed in making an end of your ghost and we want another opinion about
+it, the person to tell would be Miss Larpent."
+
+"Yes," I said, "I think so, too."
+
+I would not risk irritating him by saying how convinced I was that
+conviction awaited _him_ as surely it had come to myself, and I knew
+that Miss Larpent, though far from credulous, was equally far from
+stupid scepticism concerning the mysteries "not dreamt of" in ordinary
+"philosophy".
+
+"What do you mean to do?" I went on. "You have a theory, I see. Won't
+you tell me what it is?"
+
+"I have two," said Phil, rolling up a cigarette as he spoke. "It is
+either some queer optical illusion, partly the effect of some odd
+reflection outside--or it is a clever trick."
+
+"A trick!" I exclaimed; "what _possible_ motive could there be for a
+trick?"
+
+Phil shook his head.
+
+"Ah," he said, "that I cannot at present say."
+
+"And what are you going to do?"
+
+"I shall sit up to-night in the gallery and see for myself."
+
+"Alone?" I exclaimed, with some misgiving. For big, sturdy fellow as he
+was, I scarcely liked to think of him--of _any one_--alone with that
+awful thing.
+
+"I don't suppose you or Dormy would care to keep me company," he
+replied, "and on the whole I would rather not have you."
+
+"I wouldn't do it," said the child honestly, "not for--for nothing."
+
+"I shall keep Tim with me," said Philip, "I would rather have him than
+any one."
+
+Tim is Phil's bull-dog, and certainly, I agreed, much better than
+nobody.
+
+So it was settled.
+
+Dormy and I went to bed unusually early that night, for as the day wore
+on we both felt exceedingly tired. I pleaded a headache, which was not
+altogether a fiction, though I repented having complained at all when I
+found that poor mamma immediately began worrying herself with fears
+that "after all" I, too, was to fall a victim to the influenza.
+
+"I shall be all right in the morning," I assured her.
+
+I knew no further details of Phil's arrangements. I fell asleep almost
+at once. I usually do. And it seemed to me that I had slept a whole
+night when I was awakened by a glimmering light at my door, and heard
+Philip's voice speaking softly.
+
+"Are you awake, Lel?" he said, as people always say when they awake you
+in any untimely way. Of course, _now_ I was awake, very much awake
+indeed.
+
+"What is it?" I exclaimed eagerly, my heart beginning to beat very fast.
+
+"Oh, nothing, nothing at all," said my brother, advancing a little into
+the room. "I just thought I'd look in on my way to bed to reassure you.
+I have seen _nothing_, absolutely nothing."
+
+I do not know if I was relieved or disappointed.
+
+"Was it moonlight?" I asked abruptly.
+
+"No," he replied, "unluckily the moon did not come out at all, though
+it is nearly at the full. I carried in a small lamp, which made things
+less eerie. But I should have preferred the moon."
+
+I glanced up at him. Was it the reflection of the candle he held, or did
+he look paler than usual?
+
+"And," I added suddenly, "did you _feel_ nothing?"
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"It--it was chilly, certainly," he said. "I fancy I must have dosed a
+little, for I did feel pretty cold once or twice."
+
+"Ah, indeed!" thought I to myself. "And how about Tim?"
+
+Phil smiled, but not very successfully.
+
+"Well," he said, "I must confess Tim did not altogether like it. He
+started snarling, then he growled, and finished up with whining in a
+decidedly unhappy way. He's rather upset--poor old chap!"
+
+And then I saw that the dog was beside him--rubbing up close to Philip's
+legs--a very dejected, reproachful Tim--all the starch taken out of him.
+
+"Good-night, Phil," I said, turning round on my pillow. "I'm glad
+you are satisfied. To-morrow morning you must tell me which of your
+theories holds most water. Good-night, and many thanks."
+
+He was going to say more, but my manner for the moment stopped him, and
+he went off.
+
+Poor old Phil!
+
+We had it out the next morning. He and I alone. He was _not_ satisfied.
+Far from it. In the bottom of his heart I believe it was a strange
+yearning for a breath of human companionship, for the sound of a human
+voice, that had made him look in on me the night before.
+
+_For he had felt the cold passing him._
+
+But he was very plucky.
+
+"I'll sit up again to-night, Leila," he said.
+
+"Not to-night," I objected. "This sort of adventure requires one to be
+at one's best. If you take my advice you will go to bed early and have a
+good stretch of sleep, so that you will be quite fresh by to-morrow.
+There will be a moon for some nights still."
+
+"Why do you keep harping on the moon?" said Phil rather crossly, for
+him.
+
+"Because--I have some idea that it is only in the moonlight that--that
+anything is to be _seen_."
+
+"Bosh!" said my brother politely--he was certainly rather
+discomposed--"we are talking at cross-purposes. You are satisfied----"
+
+"Far from satisfied," I interpolated.
+
+"Well, convinced, whatever you like to call it--that the whole thing is
+supernatural, whereas I am equally sure it is a trick; a clever trick I
+allow, though I haven't yet got at the motive of it."
+
+"You need your nerves to be at their best to discover a trick of this
+kind, if a trick it be," I said quietly.
+
+Philip had left his seat, and walked up and down the room; his way of
+doing so gave me a feeling that he wanted to walk off some unusual
+consciousness of irritability. I felt half provoked and half sorry for
+him.
+
+At that moment--we were alone in the drawing-room--the door opened, and
+Miss Larpent came in.
+
+"I cannot find Sophy," she said, peering about through her rather
+short-sighted eyes, which, nevertheless, see a great deal sometimes; "do
+you know where she is?"
+
+"I saw her setting off somewhere with Nugent," said Philip, stopping
+his quarter-deck exercise for a moment.
+
+"Ah, then it is hopeless. I suppose I must resign myself to very
+irregular ways for a little longer," Miss Larpent replied with a smile.
+
+She is not young, and not good looking, but she is gifted with a
+delightful way of smiling, and she is--well, the dearest and almost the
+wisest of women.
+
+She looked at Philip as he spoke. She had known us nearly since our
+babyhood.
+
+"Is there anything the matter?" she said suddenly. "You look fagged,
+Leila, and Philip seems worried."
+
+I glanced at Philip. He understood me.
+
+"Yes," he replied, "I am irritated, and Leila is----" he hesitated.
+
+"What?" asked Miss Larpent.
+
+"Oh, I don't know--obstinate, I suppose. Sit down, Miss Larpent, and
+hear our story. Leila, you can tell it."
+
+I did so--first obtaining a promise of secrecy, and making Phil relate
+his own experience.
+
+Our new _confidante_ listened attentively, her face very grave. When
+she had heard all, she said quietly, after a moment's silence:--
+
+"It's very strange, very. Philip, if you will wait till to-morrow night,
+and I quite agree with Leila that you had better do so, I will sit up
+with you. I have pretty good nerves, and I have always wanted an
+experience of that kind."
+
+"Then you don't think it is a trick?" I said eagerly. I was like Dormer,
+divided between my real underlying longing to explain the thing, and get
+rid of the horror of it, and a half childish wish to prove that I had
+not exaggerated its ghastliness.
+
+"I will tell you that the day after to-morrow," she said. I could not
+repress a little shiver as she spoke.
+
+She _had_ good nerves, and she was extremely sensible.
+
+But I almost blamed myself afterwards for having acquiesced in the plan.
+For the effect on her was very great. They never told me exactly what
+happened; "You _know_," said Miss Larpent. I imagine their experience
+was almost precisely similar to Dormy's and mine, intensified, perhaps,
+by the feeling of loneliness. For it was not till all the rest of
+the family was in bed that this second vigil began. It was a bright
+moonlight night--they had the whole thing complete.
+
+It was impossible to throw off the effect; even in the daytime the four
+of us who had seen and heard, shrank from the gallery, and made any
+conceivable excuse for avoiding it.
+
+But Phil, however convinced, behaved consistently. He examined the
+closed door thoroughly, to detect any possible trickery. He explored
+the attics, he went up and down the staircase leading to the offices,
+till the servants must have thought he was going crazy. He found
+_nothing_--no vaguest hint even as to why the gallery was chosen by the
+ghostly shadow for its nightly round.
+
+Strange to say, however, as the moon waned, our horror faded, so that we
+almost began to hope the thing was at an end, and to trust that in time
+we should forget about it. And we congratulated ourselves that we had
+kept our own counsel and not disturbed any of the others--even father,
+who would, no doubt, have hooted at the idea--by the baleful whisper
+that our charming castle by the sea was haunted!
+
+And the days passed by, growing into weeks. The second detachment of
+our guests had left, and a third had just arrived, when one morning as I
+was waiting at what we called "the sea-door" for some of the others to
+join me in a walk along the sands, some one touched me on the shoulder.
+It was Philip.
+
+"Leila," he said, "I am not happy about Dormer. He is looking ill again,
+and----"
+
+"I thought he seemed so much stronger," I said, surprised and
+distressed, "quite rosy, and so much merrier."
+
+"So he was till a few days ago," said Philip. "But if you notice him
+well you'll see that he's getting that white look again. And--I've got
+it into my head--he is an extraordinarily sensitive child, that it has
+something to do with the moon. It's getting on to the full."
+
+For the moment I stupidly forgot the association.
+
+"Really, Phil," I said, "you are too absurd! Do you actually--oh," as he
+was beginning to interrupt me, and my face fell, I feel sure--"you don't
+mean about the gallery."
+
+"Yes, I do," he said.
+
+"How? Has Dormy told you anything?" and a sort of sick feeling came
+over me. "I had begun to hope," I went on, "that somehow it had gone;
+that, perhaps, it only comes once a year at a certain season, or
+possibly that newcomers see it at the first and not again. Oh, Phil,
+we _can't_ stay here, however nice it is, if it is really haunted."
+
+"Dormy hasn't said much," Philip replied. "He only told me he had _felt
+the cold_ once or twice, 'since the moon came again,' he said. But I can
+see the fear of more is upon him. And this determined me to speak to
+you. I have to go to London for ten days or so, to see the doctors about
+my leave, and a few other things. I don't like it for you and Miss
+Larpent if--if this thing is to return--with no one else in your
+confidence, especially on Dormy's account. Do you think we must tell
+father before I go?"
+
+I hesitated. For many reasons I was reluctant to do so. Father would be
+exaggeratedly sceptical at first, and then, if he were convinced, as I
+_knew_ he would be, he would go to the other extreme and insist upon
+leaving Finster, and there would be a regular upset, trying for mother
+and everybody concerned. And mother liked the place, and was looking so
+much better!
+
+"After all," I said, "it has not hurt any of us. Miss Larpent got
+a shake, so did I. But it wasn't as great a shock to us as to you,
+Phil, to have to believe in a ghost. And we can avoid the gallery
+while you are away. No, except for Dormy, I would rather keep it to
+ourselves--after all, we are not going to live here always. Yet it is so
+nice, it seems such a pity."
+
+It was such an exquisite morning; the air, faintly breathing of the sea,
+was like elixir; the heights and shadows on the cliffs, thrown out by
+the darker woods behind, were indeed, as Janet Miles had said,
+"wonderful".
+
+"Yes," Phil agreed, "it is an awful nuisance. But as for Dormy," he went
+on, "supposing I get mother to let me take him with me? He'd be as jolly
+as a sand-boy in London, and my old landlady would look after him like
+anything if ever I had to be out late. And I'd let my doctor see
+him--quietly, you know--he might give him a tonic or something."
+
+I heartily approved of the idea. So did mamma when Phil broached
+it--she, too, had thought her "baby" looking quite pale lately. A London
+doctor's opinion would be such a satisfaction. So it was settled, and
+the very next day the two set off. Dormer, in his "old-fashioned,"
+reticent way, in the greatest delight, though only by one remark did the
+brave little fellow hint at what was, no doubt, the principal cause of
+his satisfaction.
+
+"The moon will be long past the full when we come back," he said. "And
+after that there'll only be one other time before we go, won't there,
+Leila? We've only got this house for three months?"
+
+"Yes," I said, "father only took it for three," though in my heart I
+knew it was with the option of three more--six in all.
+
+And Miss Larpent and I were left alone, not with the ghost, certainly,
+but with our fateful knowledge of its unwelcome proximity.
+
+We did not speak of it to each other, but we tacitly avoided the
+gallery, even, as much as possible, in the daytime. I felt, and so, she
+has since confessed, did she, that it would be impossible to endure
+_that cold_ without betraying ourselves.
+
+And I began to breathe more freely, trusting that the dread of the
+shadow's possible return was really only due to the child's overwrought
+nerves.
+
+Till--one morning--my fool's paradise was abruptly destroyed.
+
+Father came in late to breakfast--he had been for an early walk, he
+said, to get rid of a headache. But he did not look altogether as if he
+had succeeded in doing so.
+
+"Leila," he said, as I was leaving the room after pouring out his
+coffee--mamma was not yet allowed to get up early--"Leila, don't go. I
+want to speak to you."
+
+I stopped short, and turned towards the table. There was something very
+odd about his manner. He is usually hearty and eager, almost impetuous
+in his way of speaking.
+
+"Leila," he began again, "you are a sensible girl, and your nerves are
+strong, I fancy. Besides, you have not been ill like the others. Don't
+speak of what I am going to tell you."
+
+I nodded in assent; I could scarcely have spoken. My heart was beginning
+to thump. Father would not have commended my nerves had he known it.
+
+"Something odd and inexplicable happened last night," he went on.
+"Nugent and I were sitting in the gallery. It was a mild night, and the
+moon magnificent. We thought the gallery would be pleasanter than the
+smoking-room, now that Phil and his pipes are away. Well--we were
+sitting quietly. I had lighted my reading-lamp on the little table at
+one end of the room, and Nugent was half lying in his chair, doing
+nothing in particular except admiring the night, when all at once he
+started violently with an exclamation, and, jumping up, came towards me.
+Leila, his teeth were chattering, and he was _blue_ with cold. I was
+very much alarmed--you know how ill he was at college. But in a moment
+or two he recovered.
+
+"'What on earth is the matter?' I said to him. He tried to laugh.
+
+"'I really don't know,' he said; 'I felt as if I had had an electric
+shock of _cold_--but I'm all right again now.'
+
+"I went into the dining-room, and made him take a little brandy and
+water, and sent him off to bed. Then I came back, still feeling rather
+uneasy about him, and sat down with my book, when, Leila--you will
+scarcely credit it--I myself felt the same shock exactly. A perfectly
+_hideous_ thrill of cold. That was how it began. I started up, and then,
+Leila, by degrees, in some instinctive way, I seemed to realise what had
+caused it. My dear child, you will think I have gone crazy when I tell
+you that there was a shadow--a shadow in the moonlight--_chasing_ me,
+so to say, round the room, and once again it caught me up, and again
+came that appalling sensation. I would not give in. I dodged it after
+that, and set myself to watch it, and then----"
+
+I need not quote my father further; suffice to say his experience
+matched that of the rest of us entirely--no, I think it surpassed them.
+It was the worst of all.
+
+Poor father! I shuddered for him. I think a shock of that kind is harder
+upon a man than upon a woman. Our sex is less sceptical, less entrenched
+in sturdy matters of fact, more imaginative, or whatever you like to
+call the readiness to believe what we cannot explain. And it was
+astounding to me to see how my father at once capitulated--never even
+_alluding_ to a possibility of trickery. Astounding, yet at the same
+time not without a certain satisfaction in it. It was almost a relief to
+find others in the same boat with ourselves.
+
+I told him at once all _we_ had to tell, and how painfully exercised we
+had been as to the advisability of keeping our secret to ourselves. I
+never saw father so impressed; he was awfully kind, too, and so sorry
+for us. He made me fetch Miss Larpent, and we held a council of--I
+don't know what to call it!--not "war," assuredly, for none of us
+thought of fighting the ghost. How could one fight a shadow?
+
+We decided to do nothing beyond endeavouring to keep the affair from
+going further. During the next few days father arranged to have some
+work done in the gallery which would prevent our sitting there, without
+raising any suspicions on mamma's or Sophy's part.
+
+"And then," said father, "we must see. Possibly this extraordinary
+influence only makes itself felt periodically."
+
+"I am almost certain it is so," said Miss Larpent.
+
+"And in this case," he continued, "we may manage to evade it. But I do
+not feel disposed to continue my tenancy here after three months are
+over. If once the servants get hold of the story, and they are sure to
+do so sooner or later, it would be unendurable--the worry and annoyance
+would do your mother far more harm than any good effect the air and
+change have had upon her."
+
+I was glad to hear this decision. Honestly, I did not feel as if I
+could stand the strain for long, and it might kill poor little Dormy.
+
+But where should we go? Our own home would be quite uninhabitable till
+the autumn, for extensive alterations and repairs were going on there. I
+said this to father.
+
+"Yes," he agreed, "it is not convenient,"--and he hesitated. "I cannot
+make it out," he went on, "Miles would have been _sure_ to know if the
+house had a bad name in any way. I think I will go over and see him
+to-day, and tell him all about it--at least I shall inquire about some
+other house in the neighbourhood--and _perhaps_ I will tell him our
+reason for leaving this."
+
+He did so--he went over to Raxtrew that very afternoon, and, as I quite
+anticipated would be the case, he told me on his return that he had
+taken both our friends into his confidence.
+
+"They are extremely concerned about it," he said, "and very
+sympathising, though, naturally, inclined to think us a parcel of very
+weak-minded folk indeed. But I am glad of one thing--the Rectory there,
+is to be let from the first of July for three months. Miles took me to
+see it. I think it will do very well--it is quite out of the village,
+for you really can't call it a town--and a nice little place in its way.
+Quite modern, and as unghost-like as you could wish, bright and cheery."
+
+"And what will mamma think of our leaving so soon?" I asked.
+
+But as to this father reassured me. He had already spoken of it to her,
+and somehow she did not seem disappointed. She had got it into her head
+that Finster did not suit Dormy, and was quite disposed to think that
+three months of such strong air were enough at a time.
+
+"Then have you decided upon Raxtrew Rectory?" I asked.
+
+"I have the refusal of it," said my father. "But you will be almost
+amused to hear that Miles begged me not to fix absolutely for a few
+days. He is coming to us to-morrow, to spend the night."
+
+"You mean to see for himself?"
+
+Father nodded.
+
+"Poor Mr. Miles!" I ejaculated. "You won't sit up with him, I hope,
+father?"
+
+"I offered to do so, but he won't hear of it," was the reply. "He is
+bringing one of his keepers with him--a sturdy, trustworthy young
+fellow, and they two with their revolvers are going to nab the ghost, so
+he says. We shall see. We must manage to prevent our servants suspecting
+anything."
+
+This _was_ managed. I need not go into particulars. Suffice to say that
+the sturdy keeper reached his own home before dawn on the night of the
+vigil, no endeavours of his master having succeeded in persuading him to
+stay another moment at Finster, and that Mr. Miles himself looked so ill
+the next morning when he joined us at the breakfast-table that we, the
+initiated, could scarcely repress our exclamations, when Sophy, with the
+curious instinct of touching a sore place which some people have, told
+him that he looked exactly "as if he had seen a ghost".
+
+His experience had been precisely similar to ours. After that we heard
+no more from him--about the pity it was to leave a place that suited us
+so well, etc., etc. On the contrary, before he left, he told my father
+and myself that he thought us uncommonly plucky for staying out the
+three months, though at the same time he confessed to feeling completely
+nonplussed.
+
+"I have lived near Finster St. Mabyn's all my life," he said, "and
+my people before me, and _never_, do I honestly assure you, have
+I heard one breath of the old place being haunted. And in a shut-up
+neighbourhood like this, such a thing would have leaked out."
+
+We shook our heads, but what could we say?
+
+
+PART III.
+
+We left Finster St. Mabyn's towards the middle of July.
+
+Nothing worth recording happened during the last few weeks. If
+the ghostly drama were still re-enacted night after night, or only
+during some portion of each month, we took care not to assist at the
+performance. I believe Phil and Nugent planned another vigil, but gave
+it up by my father's expressed wish, and on one pretext or another he
+managed to keep the gallery locked off without arousing any suspicion in
+my mother or Sophy, or any of our visitors.
+
+It was a cold summer,--those early months of it at least--and that made
+it easier to avoid the room.
+
+Somehow none of us were sorry to go. This was natural, so far as
+several were concerned, but rather curious as regarded those of the
+family who knew no drawback to the charms of the place. I suppose it was
+due to some instinctive consciousness of the influence which so many of
+the party had felt it impossible to resist or explain.
+
+And the Rectory at Raxtrew was really a dear little place. It was so
+bright and open and sunny. Dormy's pale face was rosy with pleasure the
+first afternoon when he came rushing in to tell us that there were tame
+rabbits and a pair of guinea-pigs in an otherwise empty loose box in the
+stable-yard.
+
+"Do come and look at them," he begged, and I went with him, pleased to
+see him so happy.
+
+I did not care for the rabbits, but I always think guinea-pigs rather
+fascinating, and we stayed playing with them some little time.
+
+"I'll show you another way back into the house," said Dormy, and he led
+me through a conservatory into a large, almost unfurnished room, opening
+again into a tiled passage leading to the offices.
+
+"This is the Warden boys' playroom," he said. "They keep their cricket
+and football things here, you see, and their tricycle. I wonder if I
+might use it?"
+
+"We must write and ask them," I said. "But what are all these big
+packages?" I went on. "Oh, I see, its our heavy luggage from Finster.
+There is not room in this house for our odds and ends of furniture, I
+suppose. It's rather a pity they have put it in here, for we could have
+had some nice games in this big room on a wet day, and see, Dormy, here
+are several pairs of roller skates! Oh, we must have this place
+cleared."
+
+We spoke to father about it--he came and looked at the room and agreed
+with us that it would be a pity not to have the full use of it. Roller
+skating would be good exercise for Dormy, he said, and even for Nat, who
+would be joining us before long for his holidays.
+
+So our big cases, and the chairs and tables we had bought from Hunter,
+in their careful swathings of wisps and matting, were carried out to an
+empty barn--a perfectly dry and weather-tight barn--for everything at
+the Rectory was in excellent repair. In this, as in all other details,
+our new quarters were a complete contrast to the picturesque abode we
+had just quitted.
+
+The weather was charming for the first two or three weeks--much warmer
+and sunnier than at Finster. We all enjoyed it, and seemed to breathe
+more freely. Miss Larpent, who was staying through the holidays this
+year, and I congratulated each other more than once, when sure of not
+being overheard, on the cheerful, wholesome atmosphere in which we found
+ourselves.
+
+"I do not think I shall ever wish to live in a very old house again,"
+she said one day. We were in the play-room, and I had been persuading
+her to try her hand--or feet--at roller skating. "Even now," she went
+on, "I own to you, Leila, though it may sound very weak-minded, I cannot
+think of that horrible night without a shiver. Indeed, I could fancy I
+feel that thrill of indescribable cold at the present moment."
+
+She _was_ shivering--and, extraordinary to relate, as she spoke, her
+tremor communicated itself to me. Again, I could swear to it, again I
+felt that blast of unutterable, unearthly cold.
+
+I started up. We were seated on a bench against the wall--a bench
+belonging to the play-room, and which we had not thought of removing, as
+a few seats were a convenience.
+
+Miss Larpent caught sight of my face. Her own, which was very white,
+grew distressed in expression. She grasped my arm.
+
+"My dearest child," she exclaimed, "you look blue, and your teeth are
+chattering! I do wish I had not alluded to that fright we had. I had no
+idea you were so nervous."
+
+"I did not know it myself," I replied. "I often think of the Finster
+ghost quite calmly, even in the middle of the night. But just then, Miss
+Larpent, do you know, I really _felt_ that horrid cold again!"
+
+"So did I--or rather my imagination did," she replied, trying to talk in
+a matter-of-fact way. She got up as she spoke, and went to the window.
+"It can't be _all_ imagination," she added. "See, Leila, what a gusty,
+stormy day it is--not like the beginning of August. It really is cold."
+
+"And this play-room seems nearly as draughty as the gallery at Finster,"
+I said. "Don't let us stay here--come into the drawing-room and play
+some duets. I wish we could quite forget about Finster."
+
+"Dormy has done so, I hope," said Miss Larpent.
+
+That chilly morning was the commencement of the real break-up in the
+weather. We women would not have minded it so much, as there are always
+plenty of indoor things we can find to do. And my two grown-up brothers
+were away. Raxtrew held no particular attractions for them, and Phil
+wanted to see some of our numerous relations before he returned to
+India. So he and Nugent started on a round of visits. But, unluckily,
+it was the beginning of the public school holidays, and poor Nat--the
+fifteen-year-old boy--had just joined us. It was very disappointing
+for him in more ways than one. He had set his heart on seeing Finster,
+impressed by our enthusiastic description of it when we first went
+there, and now his anticipations had to come down to a comparatively
+tame and uninteresting village, and every probability--so said the
+wise--of a stretch of rainy, unsummerlike weather.
+
+Nat is a good-natured, cheery fellow, however--not nearly as clever or
+as impressionable as Dormy, but with the same common sense. So he wisely
+determined to make the best of things, and as we were really sorry for
+him, he did not, after all, come off very badly.
+
+His principal amusement was roller-skating in the play-room. Dormy had
+not taken to it in the same way--the greater part of _his_ time was
+spent with the rabbits and guinea-pigs, where Nat, when he himself had
+had skating enough, was pretty sure to find him.
+
+I suppose it is with being the eldest sister that it always seems my
+fate to receive the confidences of the rest of the family, and it was
+about this time, a fortnight or so after his arrival, that it began to
+strike me that Nat looked as if he had something on his mind.
+
+"He is sure to tell me what it is, sooner or later," I said to myself.
+"Probably he has left some small debts behind him at school--only he did
+not look worried or anxious when he first came home."
+
+The confidence was given. One afternoon Nat followed me into the
+library, where I was going to write some letters, and said he wanted to
+speak to me. I put my paper aside and waited.
+
+"Leila," he began, "you must promise not to laugh at me."
+
+This was not what I expected.
+
+"Laugh at you--no, certainly not," I replied, "especially if you are in
+any trouble. And I have thought you were looking worried, Nat."
+
+"Well, yes," he said, "I don't know if there is anything coming over
+me--I feel quite well, but--Leila," he broke off, "do you believe in
+ghosts?"
+
+I started.
+
+"Has any one----" I was beginning rashly, but the boy interrupted me.
+
+"No, no," he said eagerly, "no one has put anything of the kind into my
+head--no one. It is my own senses that have seen--felt it--or else, if
+it is fancy, I must be going out of my mind, Leila--I do believe there
+is a ghost here _in the play-room_."
+
+I sat silent, an awful dread creeping over me, which, as he went on,
+grew worse and worse. Had the thing--the Finster shadow--attached itself
+to us--I had read of such cases--had it journeyed with us to this
+peaceful, healthful house? The remembrance of the cold thrill
+experienced by Miss Larpent and myself flashed back upon me. And Nat
+went on.
+
+Yes, the cold was the first thing he had been startled by, followed,
+just as in the gallery of our old castle, by the consciousness of the
+terrible shadow-like presence, gradually taking form in the moonlight.
+For there had been moonlight the last night or two, and Nat, in his
+skating ardour, had amused himself alone in the play-room after Dormy
+had gone to bed.
+
+"The night before last was the worst," he said. "It stopped raining,
+you remember, Leila, and the moon was very bright--I noticed how it
+glistened on the wet leaves outside. It was by the moonlight I saw
+the--the shadow. I wouldn't have thought of skating in the evening but
+for the light, for we've never had a lamp in there. It came round the
+walls, Leila, and then it seemed to stop and fumble away in one
+corner--at the end where there is a bench, you know."
+
+Indeed I did know; it was where our governess and I had been sitting.
+
+"I got so awfully frightened," said Nat honestly, "that I ran off. Then
+yesterday I was ashamed of myself, and went back there in the evening
+with a candle. But I saw nothing: the moon did not come out. Only--I
+felt the cold again. I believe it was there--though I could not see it.
+Leila, what _can_ it be? If only I could make you understand! It is so
+_much_ worse than it sounds to tell."
+
+I said what I could to soothe him. I spoke of odd shadows thrown by the
+trees outside swaying in the wind, for the weather was still stormy. I
+repeated the time-worn argument about optical illusions, etc., etc.,
+and in the end he gave in a little. It _might_ have been his fancy.
+And he promised me most faithfully to breathe no hint--not the very
+faintest--of the fright he had had, to Sophy or Dormy, or any one.
+
+Then I had to tell my father. I really shrank from doing so, but there
+seemed no alternative. At first, of course, he pooh-poohed it at once by
+saying Dormy must have been talking to Nat about the Finster business,
+or if not Dormy, _some one_--Miss Larpent even! But when all such
+explanations were entirely set at nought, I must say poor father looked
+rather blank. I was sorry for him, and sorry for myself--the idea of
+being _followed_ by this horrible presence was too sickening.
+
+Father took refuge at last in some brain-wave theory--involuntary
+impressions had been made on Nat by all of us, whose minds were still
+full of the strange experience. He said he felt sure, and no doubt he
+tried to think he did, that this theory explained the whole. I felt glad
+for him to get any satisfaction out of it, and I did my best to take it
+up too. But it was no use. I felt that Nat's experience had been an
+"objective" one, as Miss Larpent expressed it--or, as Dormy had said at
+the first at Finster: "No, no, sister--it's something _there_--it's
+nothing to do with _me_."
+
+And earnestly I longed for the time to come for our return to our own
+familiar home.
+
+"I don't think I shall ever wish to leave it again," I thought.
+
+But after a week or two the feeling began to fade again. And father very
+sensibly discovered that it would not do to leave our spare furniture
+and heavy luggage in the barn--it was getting all dusty and cobwebby. So
+it was all moved back again to the play-room, and stacked as it had been
+at first, making it impossible for us to skate or amuse ourselves in any
+way there, at which Sophy grumbled, but Nat did not.
+
+Father was very good to Nat. He took him about with him as much as he
+could to get the thought of that horrid thing out of his head. But yet
+it could not have been half as bad for Nat as for the rest of us, for
+we took the greatest possible precautions against any whisper of the
+dreadful and mysterious truth reaching him, that the ghost had _followed
+us_ from Finster.
+
+Father did not tell Mr. Miles or Jenny about it. They had been worried
+enough, poor things, by the trouble at Finster, and it would be too bad
+for them to think that the strange influence was affecting us in the
+_second_ house we had taken at their recommendation.
+
+"In fact," said father with a rather rueful smile, "if we don't take
+care, we shall begin to be looked upon askance as a haunted family! Our
+lives would have been in danger in the good old witchcraft days."
+
+"It is really a mercy that none of the servants have got hold of the
+story," said Miss Larpent, who was one of our council of three. "We must
+just hope that no further annoyance will befall us till we are safe at
+home again."
+
+Her hopes were fulfilled. Nothing else happened while we remained at the
+Rectory--it really seemed as if the unhappy shade was limited locally,
+in one sense. For at Finster, even, it had never been seen or felt save
+in the one room.
+
+The vividness of the impression of poor Nat's experience had almost died
+away when the time came for us to leave. I felt now that I should rather
+enjoy telling Phil and Nugent about it, and hearing what _they_ could
+bring forward in the way of explanation.
+
+We left Raxtrew early in October. Our two big brothers were awaiting us
+at home, having arrived there a few days before us. Nugent was due at
+Oxford very shortly.
+
+It was very nice to be in our own house again, after several months'
+absence, and it was most interesting to see how the alterations,
+including a good deal of new papering and painting, had been carried
+out. And as soon as the heavy luggage arrived we had grand consultations
+as to the disposal about the rooms of the charming pieces of furniture
+we had picked up at Hunter's. Our rooms are large and nicely shaped,
+most of them. It was not difficult to make a pretty corner here and
+there with a quaint old chair or two and a delicate spindle-legged
+table, and when we had arranged them all--Phil, Nugent, and I, were the
+movers--we summoned mother and Miss Larpent to give their opinion.
+
+They quite approved, mother even saying that she would be glad of a few
+more odds and ends.
+
+"We might empower Janet Miles," she said, "to let us know if she sees
+anything very tempting. Is that really all we have? They looked so much
+more important in their swathings."
+
+The same idea struck me. I glanced round.
+
+"Yes," I said, "that's all, except--oh, yes, there are the tapestry
+"_portières_"--the best of all. We can't have them in the drawing-room,
+I fear. It is too modern for them. Where shall we hang them?"
+
+"You are forgetting, Leila," said mother. "We spoke of having them in
+the hall. They will do beautifully to hang before the two side doors,
+which are seldom opened. And in cold weather the hall is draughty,
+though nothing like the gallery at Finster."
+
+Why did she say that? It made me shiver, but then, of course, she did
+not know.
+
+Our hall is a very pleasant one. We sit there a great deal. The side
+doors mother spoke of are second entrances to the dining-room and
+library--quite unnecessary, except when we have a large party, a dance
+or something of that sort. And the "_portières_" certainly seemed the
+very thing, the mellow colouring of the tapestry showing to great
+advantage. The boys--Phil and Nugent, I mean--set to work at once, and
+in an hour or two the hangings were placed.
+
+"Of course," said Philip, "if ever these doors are to be opened, this
+precious tapestry must be taken down, or very carefully looped back. It
+is very worn in some places, and in spite of the thick lining it should
+be tenderly handled. I am afraid it has suffered a little from being so
+long rolled up at the Rectory. It should have been hung up!"
+
+Still, it looked very well indeed, and when father, who was away at some
+magistrates' meeting, came home that afternoon, I showed him our
+arrangements with pride.
+
+He was very pleased.
+
+"Very nice--very nice indeed," he said, though it was almost too dusk
+for him to judge quite fully of the effect of the tapestry. "But, dear
+me, child, this hall is very cold. We must have a larger fire. Only
+October! What sort of a winter are we going to have?"
+
+He shivered as he spoke. He was standing close to one of the
+"_portières_"--smoothing the tapestry half absently with one hand. I
+looked at him with concern.
+
+"I _hope_ you have not got a chill, papa," I said.
+
+But he seemed all right again when we went into the library, where tea
+was waiting--an extra late tea for his benefit.
+
+The next day Nugent went to Oxford. Nat had already returned to school.
+So our home party was reduced to father and mother, Miss Larpent, Phil
+and I, and the children.
+
+We were very glad to have Phil settled at home for some time. There was
+little fear of his being tempted away, now that the shooting had begun.
+We were expecting some of our usual guests at this season; the weather
+was perfect autumn weather; we had thrown off all remembrance of
+influenza and other depressing "influences," and were feeling bright
+and cheerful, when again--ah, yes, even now it gives me a faint, sick
+sensation to recall the horror of that _third_ visitation!
+
+But I must tell it simply, and not give way to painful remembrances.
+
+It was the very day before our first visitors were expected that the
+blow fell, the awful fear made itself felt. And, as before, the victim
+was a new one--the one who, for reasons already mentioned, we had
+specially guarded from any breath of the gruesome terror--poor little
+Sophy!
+
+What she was doing alone in the hall late that evening I cannot quite
+recall--yes, I think I remember her saying she had run downstairs when
+half-way up to bed, to fetch a book she had left there in the afternoon.
+She had no light, and the one lamp in the hall--we never sat there after
+dinner--was burning feebly. _It was bright moonlight._
+
+I was sitting at the piano, where I had been playing in a rather sleepy
+way--when a sudden touch on my shoulder made me start, and, looking up,
+I saw my sister standing beside me, white and trembling.
+
+"Leila," she whispered, "come with me quickly. I don't want mamma to
+notice."
+
+For mother was still nervous and delicate.
+
+The drawing-room is very long, and has two or three doors. No-one else
+was at our end. It was easy to make our way out unperceived. Sophy
+caught my hand and hurried me upstairs without speaking till we reached
+my own room, where a bright fire was burning cheerfully.
+
+Then she began.
+
+"Leila," she said, "I have had such an awful fright. I did not want to
+speak until we were safe up here."
+
+"What was it?" I exclaimed breathlessly. Did I already suspect the
+truth? I really do not know, but my nerves were not what they had been.
+
+Sophy gasped and began to tremble. I put my arm round her.
+
+"It does not sound so bad," she said. "But--oh, Leila, what _could_ it
+be? It was in the hall," and then I think she explained how she had come
+to be there. "I was standing near the side door into the library that we
+never use--and--all of a sudden a sort of darkness came along the wall,
+and seemed to settle on the door--where the old tapestry is, you know.
+I thought it was the shadow of something outside, for it was bright
+moonlight, and the windows were not shuttered. But in a moment I saw it
+could not be that--there is nothing to throw such a shadow. It seemed
+to wriggle about--like--like a monstrous spider, or--" and there she
+hesitated--"almost like a deformed sort of human being. And all at once,
+Leila, my breath went and I fell down. I really did. I was _choked_ with
+cold. I think my senses went away, but I am not sure. The next thing I
+remember was rushing across the hall and then down the south corridor to
+the drawing-room, and then I was so thankful to see you there by the
+piano."
+
+I drew her down on my knee, poor child.
+
+"It was very good of you, dear," I said, "to control yourself, and not
+startle mamma."
+
+This pleased her, but her terror was still uppermost.
+
+"Leila," she said piteously, "can't you explain it? I did so hope you
+could."
+
+What _could_ I say?
+
+"I--one would need to go to the hall and look well about to see what
+could cast such a shadow," I said vaguely, and I suppose I must
+involuntarily have moved a little, for Sophy started, and clutched me
+fast.
+
+"Oh, Leila, don't go--you don't mean you are going now?" she entreated.
+
+Nothing truly was farther from my thoughts, but I took care not to say
+so.
+
+"I won't leave you if you'd rather not," I said, "and I tell you what,
+Sophy, if you would like very much to sleep here with me to-night, you
+shall. I will ring and tell Freake to bring your things down and undress
+you--on one condition."
+
+"What?" she said eagerly. She was much impressed by my amiability.
+
+"That you won't say _one word_ about this, or give the least shadow of a
+hint to any one that you have had a fright. You don't know the trouble
+it will cause."
+
+"Of course I will promise to let no one know, if you think it better,
+for you are so kind to me," said Sophy. But there was a touch of
+reluctance in her tone. "You--you mean to do something about it though,
+Leila," she went on. "I shall never be able to forget it if you don't."
+
+"Yes," I said, "I shall speak to father and Phil about it to-morrow.
+If any one has been trying to frighten us," I added unguardedly, "by
+playing tricks, they certainly must be exposed."
+
+"Not _us_," she corrected, "it was only me," and I did not reply. Why I
+spoke of the possibility of a trick I scarcely know. I had no hope of
+any such explanation.
+
+But another strange, almost incredible idea was beginning to take shape
+in my mind, and with it came a faint, very faint touch of relief. Could
+it be not the _houses_, nor the _rooms_, nor, worst of all, we ourselves
+that were haunted, but something or things among the old furniture we
+had bought at Raxtrew?
+
+And lying sleepless that night a sudden flash of illumination struck
+me--could it--whatever the "it" was--could it have something to do with
+the tapestry hangings?
+
+The more I thought it over the more striking grew the coincidences. At
+Finster it had been on one of the closed doors that the shadow seemed
+to settle, as again here in our own hall. But in both cases the
+"_portières_" had hung in front!
+
+And at the Rectory? The tapestry, as Philip had remarked, had been there
+rolled up all the time. Was it possible that it had never been taken out
+to the barn at all? What _more_ probable than that it should have been
+left, forgotten, under the bench where Miss Larpent and I had felt
+for the second time that hideous cold? And, stay, something else was
+returning to my mind in connection with that bench. Yes--I had it--Nat
+had said "it seemed to stop and fumble away in one corner--at the end
+where there is a bench, you know."
+
+And then to my unutterable thankfulness at last I fell asleep.
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+I told Philip the next morning. There was no need to bespeak his
+attention. I think he felt nearly as horrified as I had done myself at
+the idea that our own hitherto bright, cheerful home was to be haunted
+by this awful thing--influence or presence, call it what you will. And
+the suggestions which I went on to make struck him, too, with a sense of
+relief.
+
+He sat in silence for some time after making me recapitulate as
+precisely as possible every detail of Sophy's story.
+
+"You are sure it was the door into the library?" he said at last.
+
+"Quite sure," I replied; "and, oh, Philip," I went on, "it has just
+occurred to me that _father_ felt a chill there the other evening."
+
+For till that moment the little incident in question had escaped my
+memory.
+
+"Do you remember which of the "_portières_" hung in front of the door at
+Finster?" said Philip.
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Dormy would," I said, "he used to examine the pictures in the tapestry
+with great interest. I should not know one from the other. There is an
+old castle in the distance in each, and a lot of trees, and something
+meant for a lake."
+
+But in his turn Philip shook his head.
+
+"No," he said, "I won't speak to Dormy about it if I can possibly help
+it. Leave it to me, Leila, and try to put it out of your own mind as
+much as you possibly can, and don't be surprised at anything you may
+notice in the next few days. I will tell you, first of any one, whenever
+I have anything to tell."
+
+That was all I could get out of him. So I took his advice.
+
+Luckily, as it turned out, Mr. Miles, the only outsider, so to say
+(except the unfortunate keeper), who had witnessed the ghostly drama,
+was one of the shooting party expected that day. And him Philip at
+once determined to consult about this new and utterly unexpected
+manifestation.
+
+He did not tell me this. Indeed, it was not till fully a week later that
+I heard anything, and then in a letter--a very long letter from my
+brother, which, I think, will relate the sequel of our strange ghost
+story better than any narration at second-hand, of my own.
+
+Mr. Miles only stayed two nights with us. The very day after he
+came he announced that, to his great regret, he was obliged--most
+unexpectedly--to return to Raxtrew on important business.
+
+"And," he continued, "I am afraid you will all feel much more vexed with
+me when I tell you I am going to carry off Phil with me."
+
+Father looked very blank indeed.
+
+"Phil!" he exclaimed, "and how about our shooting?"
+
+"You can easily replace us," said my brother, "I have thought of that,"
+and he added something in a lower tone to father. He--Phil--was leaving
+the room at the time. _I_ thought it had reference to the real reason of
+his accompanying Mr. Miles, but I was mistaken. Father, however, said
+nothing more in opposition to the plan, and the next morning the two
+went off.
+
+We happened to be standing at the hall door--several of us--for we were
+a large party now--when Phil and his friend drove away. As we turned to
+re-enter the house, I felt some one touch me. It was Sophy. She was
+going out for a constitutional with Miss Larpent, but had stopped a
+moment to speak to me.
+
+"Leila," she said in a whisper, "why have they--did you know that the
+tapestry had been taken down?"
+
+She glanced at me with a peculiar expression. I had not observed it.
+Now, looking up, I saw that the two locked doors were visible in the
+dark polish of their old mahogany as of yore--no longer shrouded by the
+ancient _portières_. I started in surprise.
+
+"No," I whispered in return, "I did not know. Never mind, Sophy. I
+suspect there is a reason for it which we shall know in good time."
+
+I felt strongly tempted--the moon being still at the full--to visit the
+hall that night--in hopes of feeling and seeing--_nothing_. But when
+the time drew near, my courage failed; besides I had tacitly promised
+Philip to think as little as I possibly could about the matter, and any
+vigil of the kind would certainly not have been acting in accordance
+with the spirit of his advice.
+
+I think I will now copy, as it stands, the letter from Philip which I
+received a week or so later. It was dated from his club in London.
+
+
+  "MY DEAR LEILA,
+
+     "I have a long story to tell you and a very extraordinary one. I
+     think it is well that it should be put into writing, so I will
+     devote this evening to the task--especially as I shall not be
+     home for ten days or so.
+
+     "You may have suspected that I took Miles into my confidence as
+     soon as he arrived. If you did you were right. He was the best
+     person to speak to for several reasons. He looked, I must say,
+     rather--well 'blank' scarcely expresses it--when I told him of
+     the ghost's re-appearance, not only at the Rectory, but in our
+     own house, and on both occasions to persons--Nat, and then
+     Sophy--who had not heard a breath of the story. But when I went
+     on to propound your suggestion, Miles cheered up. He had been,
+     I fancy, a trifle touchy about our calling Finster haunted,
+     and it was evidently a satisfaction to him to start another
+     theory. We talked it well over, and we decided to test the
+     thing again--it took some resolution, I own, to do so. We sat
+     up that night--bright moonlight luckily--and--well, I needn't
+     repeat it all. Sophy was quite correct. It came again--the
+     horrid creeping shadow--poor wretch, I'm rather sorry for it
+     now--just in the old way--quite as much at home in ----shire,
+     apparently, as in the Castle. It stopped at the closed library
+     door, and fumbled away, then started off again--ugh! We watched
+     it closely, but kept well in the middle of the room, so that
+     the cold did not strike us so badly. We both noted the special
+     part of the tapestry where its hands seemed to sprawl, and we
+     meant to stay for another round; but--when it came to the point
+     we funked it, and went to bed.
+
+     "Next morning, on pretence of examining the date of
+     the tapestry, we had it down--you were all out--and we
+     found--_something_. Just where the hands felt about, there had
+     been a cut--three cuts, three sides of a square, as it were,
+     making a sort of door in the stuff, the fourth side having
+     evidently acted as a hinge, for there was a mark where it had
+     been folded back. And just where--treating the thing as a
+     door--you might expect to find a handle to open it by, we found
+     a distinct dint in the tapestry, as if a button or knob had
+     once been there. We looked at each other. The same idea had
+     struck us. The tapestry had been used to conceal a small door
+     in the wall--the door of a secret cupboard probably. The
+     ghostly fingers had been vainly seeking for the spring which in
+     the days of their flesh and bone they had been accustomed to
+     press.
+
+     "'The first thing to do,' said Miles, 'is to look up Hunter and
+     make him tell where he got the tapestry from. Then we shall
+     see.'
+
+     "'Shall we take the _portières_ with us?' I said.
+
+     "But Miles shuddered, though he half laughed too.
+
+     "'No, thank you,' he said. 'I'm not going to travel with the
+     evil thing.'
+
+     "'We can't hang it up again, though,' I said, 'after this last
+     experience.'
+
+     "In the end we rolled up the two _portières_, not to attract
+     attention by only moving one, and--well, I thought it just
+     possible the ghost might make a mistake, and I did not want
+     any more scares while I was away--we rolled them up together,
+     first carefully measuring the cut, and its position in the
+     curtain, and then we hid them away in one of the lofts that no
+     one ever enters, where they are at this moment, and where the
+     ghost may have been disporting himself, for all I know, though
+     I fancy he has given it up by this time, for reasons you shall
+     hear.
+
+     "Then Miles and I, as you know, set off for Raxtrew. I smoothed
+     my father down about it, by reminding him how good-natured they
+     had been to us, and telling him Miles really needed me. We went
+     straight to Hunter. He hummed and hawed a good deal--he had
+     not distinctly promised not to give the name of the place the
+     tapestry had come from, but he knew the gentleman he had bought
+     it from did not want it known.
+
+     "'Why?' said Miles. 'Is it some family that has come down in
+     the world, and is forced to part with things to get some ready
+     money?'
+
+     "'Oh, dear no!' said Hunter. 'It is not that, at all. It
+     was only that--I suppose I must give you the name--Captain
+     Devereux--did not want any gossip to get about, as to ----'
+
+     "'Devereux!' repeated Miles, 'you don't mean the people at
+     Hallinger?'
+
+     "'The same,' said Hunter. 'If you know them, sir, you will be
+     careful, I hope, to assure the captain that I did my best to
+     carry out his wishes?'
+
+     "'Certainly,' said Miles, 'I'll exonerate you.'
+
+     "And then Hunter told us that Devereux, who only came into the
+     Hallinger property a few years ago, had been much annoyed by
+     stories getting about of the place being haunted, and this had
+     led to his dismantling one wing, and--Hunter thought, but was
+     not quite clear as to this--pulling down some rooms altogether.
+     But he, Devereux, was very touchy on the subject--he did not
+     want to be laughed at.
+
+     "'And the tapestry came from him--you are certain as to that?'
+     Miles repeated.
+
+     "'Positive, sir. I took it down with my own hands. It was
+     fitted on to two panels in what they call the round room at
+     Hallinger--there were, oh, I daresay, a dozen of them, with
+     tapestry nailed on, but I only bought these two pieces--the
+     others were sold to a London dealer.'
+
+     "'The round room,' I said. Leila, the expression struck me.
+
+     "Miles, it appeared, knew Devereux fairly well. Hallinger is
+     only ten miles off. We drove over there, but found he was in
+     London. So our next move was to follow him there. We called
+     twice at his club, and then Miles made an appointment, saying
+     that he wanted to see him on private business.
+
+     "He received us civilly, of course. He is quite a young
+     fellow--in the Guards. But when Miles began to explain to him
+     what we had come about, he stiffened.
+
+     "'I suppose you belong to the Psychical Society?' he said. 'I
+     can only repeat that I have nothing to tell, and I detest the
+     whole subject.'
+
+     "'Wait a moment,' said Miles, and as he went on I saw that
+     Devereux changed. His face grew intent with interest and a
+     queer sort of eagerness, and at last he started to his feet.
+
+     "'Upon my soul,' he said, 'I believe you've run him to earth
+     for me--the ghost, I mean, and if so, you shall have my endless
+     gratitude. I'll go down to Hallinger with you at once--this
+     afternoon, if you like, and see it out.'
+
+     "He was so excited that he spoke almost incoherently, but after
+     a bit he calmed down, and told us all he had to tell--and that
+     was a good deal--which would indeed have been nuts for the
+     Psychical Society. What Hunter had said was but a small part of
+     the whole. It appeared that on succeeding to Hallinger, on the
+     death of an uncle, young Devereux had made considerable changes
+     in the house. He had, among others, opened out a small wing--a
+     sort of round tower--which had been completely dismantled and
+     bricked up for, I think he said, over a hundred years. There
+     was some story about it. An ancestor of his--an awful
+     gambler--had used the principal room in this wing for his
+     orgies. Very queer things went on there, the finish up being
+     the finding of old Devereux dead there one night, when his
+     servants were summoned by the man he had been playing
+     with--with whom he had had an awful quarrel. This man, a low
+     fellow, probably a professional cardsharper, vowed that he had
+     been robbed of a jewel which his host had staked, and it was
+     said that a ring of great value had disappeared. But it was
+     all hushed up--Devereux had really died in a fit--though soon
+     after, for reasons only hinted at, the round tower was shut
+     up, till the present man rashly opened it again.
+
+     "Almost at once, he said, the annoyances, to use a mild term,
+     began. First one, then another of the household were terrified
+     out of their wits, just as we were, Leila. Devereux himself had
+     seen it two or three times, the 'it,' of course, being his
+     miserable old ancestor. A small man, with a big wig, and long,
+     thin, claw-like fingers. It all corresponded. Mrs. Devereux is
+     young and nervous. She could not stand it. So in the end the
+     round tower was shut up again, all the furniture and hangings
+     sold, and locally speaking, the ghost laid. That was all
+     Devereux knew.
+
+     "We started, the three of us, that very afternoon, as excited
+     as a party of schoolboys. Miles and I kept questioning
+     Devereux, but he had really no more to tell. He had never
+     thought of examining the walls of the haunted room--it was
+     wainscotted, he said--and might be lined all through with
+     secret cupboards, for all he knew. But he could not get
+     over the extraordinariness of the ghost's sticking to the
+     _tapestry_--and indeed it does rather lower one's idea of
+     ghostly intelligence.
+
+     "We went at it at once--the tower was not _bricked_ up again,
+     luckily--we got in without difficulty the next morning--Devereux
+    making some excuse to the servants, a new set who had not heard
+    of the ghost, for our eccentric proceedings. It was a tiresome
+    business. There were so many panels in the room, as Hunter had
+    said, and it was impossible to tell in which _the_ tapestry had
+    been fixed. But we had our measures, and we carefully marked a
+    line as near as we could guess at the height from the floor that
+    the cut in the _portières_ must have been. Then we tapped and
+    pummelled and pressed imaginary springs till we were nearly sick
+    of it--there was nothing to guide us. The wainscotting was dark
+    and much shrunk and marked with age, and full of joins in the
+    wood any one of which might have meant a door.
+
+     "It was Devereux himself who found it at last. We heard an
+     exclamation from where he was standing by himself at the other
+     side of the room. He was quite white and shaky.
+
+     "'Look here,' he said, and we looked.
+
+     "Yes--there was a small deep recess, or cupboard in the
+     thickness of the wall, excellently contrived. Devereux had
+     touched the spring at last, and the door, just matching the
+     cut in the tapestry, flew open.
+
+     "Inside lay what at first we took for a packet of letters, and
+     I hoped to myself they contained nothing that would bring
+     trouble on poor Devereux. They were not letters, however, but
+     two or three incomplete packs of cards--grey and dust-thick
+     with age--and as Miles spread them out, certain markings on
+     them told their own tale. Devereux did not like it,
+     naturally--their supposed owner had been a member of his house.
+
+     "'The ghost has kept a conscience,' he said, with an attempt at
+     a laugh. 'Is there nothing more?'
+
+     "Yes--a small leather bag--black and grimy, though originally,
+     I fancy, of chamois skin. It drew with strings. Devereux pulled
+     it open, and felt inside.
+
+     "'By George!' he exclaimed. And he held out the most
+     magnificent diamond ring I have ever seen--sparkling away as if
+     it had only just come from the polisher's. 'This must be _the_
+     ring,' he said.
+
+     "And we all stared--too astonished to speak.
+
+     "Devereux closed the cupboard again, after carefully examining
+     it to make sure nothing had been left behind. He marked the
+     exact spot where he had pressed the spring so as to find it at
+     any time. Then we all left the round room, locking the door
+     securely after us.
+
+     "Miles and I spent that night at Hallinger. We sat up late
+     talking it all over. There are some queer inconsistencies about
+     the thing which will probably never be explained. First and
+     foremost--why has the ghost stuck to the tapestry instead of to
+     the actual spot he seemed to have wished to reveal? Secondly,
+     what was the connection between his visits and the full
+     moon--or is it that only by the moonlight the shade becomes
+     perceptible to human sense? Who can say?
+
+     "As to the story itself--what was old Devereux's motive in
+     concealing his own ring? Were the marked cards his, or his
+     opponent's, of which he had managed to possess himself, and had
+     secreted as testimony against the other fellow?
+
+     "I incline, and so does Miles, to this last theory, and when we
+     suggested it to Devereux, I could see it was a relief to him.
+     After all, one likes to think one's ancestors were gentlemen!
+
+     "'But what, then, has he been worrying about all this century
+     or more?' he said. 'If it were that he wanted the ring returned
+     to its real owner--supposing the fellow _had_ won it--I could
+     understand it, though such a thing would be impossible. There
+     is no record of the man at all--his name was never mentioned in
+     the story.'
+
+     "'He may want the ring restored to its proper owner all the
+     same,' said Miles. 'You are its owner, as the head of the
+     family, and it has been your ancestor's fault that it has been
+     hidden all these years. Besides, we cannot take upon ourselves
+     to explain motives in such a case. Perhaps--who knows?--the
+     poor shade could not help himself. His peregrinations may have
+     been of the nature of punishment.'
+
+     "'I hope they are over now,' said Devereux, 'for his sake and
+     everybody else's. I should be glad to think he wanted the ring
+     restored to us, but besides that, I should like to do
+     something--something _good_ you know--if it would make him
+     easier, poor old chap. I must consult Lilias.' Lilias is Mrs.
+     Devereux.
+
+     "This is all I have to tell you at present, Leila. When I come
+     home we'll have the _portières_ up again and see what happens.
+     I want you now to read all this to my father, and if he has no
+     objection--he and my mother, of course--I should like to invite
+     Captain and Mrs. Devereux to stay a few days with us--as well
+     as Miles, as soon as I come back."
+
+Philip's wish was acceded to. It was with no little anxiety and interest
+that we awaited his return.
+
+The tapestry _portières_ were restored to their place--and on the first
+moonlight night, my father, Philip, Captain Devereux and Mr. Miles held
+their vigil.
+
+What happened?
+
+_Nothing_--the peaceful rays lighted up the quaint landscape of
+the tapestry, undisturbed by the poor groping fingers--no gruesome
+unearthly chill as of worse than death made itself felt to the midnight
+watchers--the weary, may we not hope repentant, spirit was at rest at
+last!
+
+And never since has any one been troubled by the shadow in the
+moonlight.
+
+"I cannot help hoping," said Mrs. Devereux, when talking it over, "that
+what Michael has done may have helped to calm the poor ghost."
+
+And she told us what it was. Captain Devereux is rich, though not
+immensely so. He had the ring valued--it represented a very large sum,
+but Philip says I had better not name the figures--and then he, so to
+say, bought it from himself. And with this money he--no, again, Phil
+says I must not enter into particulars beyond saying that with it he did
+something very good, and very useful, which had long been a pet scheme
+of his wife's.
+
+Sophy is grown up now and she knows the whole story. So does our mother.
+And Dormy too has heard it all. The horror of it has quite gone. We feel
+rather proud of having been the actual witnesses of a ghostly drama.
+
+
+
+
+"THE MAN WITH THE COUGH."
+
+
+I am a German by birth and descent. My name is Schmidt. But by education
+I am quite as much an Englishman as a "Deutscher," and by affection much
+more the former. My life has been spent pretty equally between the two
+countries, and I flatter myself I speak both languages without any
+foreign accent.
+
+I count England my headquarters now: it is "home" to me. But a few years
+ago I was resident in Germany, only going over to London now and then on
+business. I will not mention the town where I lived. It is unnecessary
+to do so, and in the peculiar experience I am about to relate I think
+real names of people and places are just as well, or better, avoided.
+
+I was connected with a large and important firm of engineers. I had been
+bred up to the profession, and was credited with a certain amount of
+talent; and I was considered--and, with all modesty, I think I deserved
+the opinion--steady and reliable, so that I had already attained a fair
+position in the house, and was looked upon as a "rising man". But I was
+still young, and not quite so wise as I thought myself. I came very near
+once to making a great mess of a certain affair. It is this story which
+I am going to tell.
+
+Our house went in largely for patents--rather too largely, some thought.
+But the head partner's son was a bit of a genius in his way, and his
+father was growing old, and let Herr Wilhelm--Moritz we will call the
+family name--do pretty much as he chose. And on the whole Herr Wilhelm
+did well. He was cautious, and he had the benefit of the still greater
+caution and larger experience of Herr Gerhardt, the second partner in
+the firm.
+
+Patents and the laws which regulate them are queer things to have to do
+with. No one who has not had personal experience of the complications
+that arise could believe how far these spread and how entangled they
+become. Great acuteness as well as caution is called for if you would
+guide your patent bark safely to port--and perhaps more than anything,
+a power of holding your tongue. I was no chatterbox, nor, when on a
+mission of importance, did I go about looking as if I were bursting
+with secrets, which is, in my opinion, almost as dangerous as revealing
+them. No one, to meet me on the journeys which it often fell to my lot
+to undertake, would have guessed that I had anything on my mind but an
+easy-going young fellow's natural interest in his surroundings, though
+many a time I have stayed awake through a whole night of railway travel
+if at all doubtful about my fellow-passengers, or not dared to go to
+sleep in a hotel without a ready-loaded revolver by my pillow.
+
+For now and then--though not through me--our secrets did ooze out. And
+if, as _has_ happened, they were secrets connected with Government
+orders or contracts, there was, or but for the exertion of the greatest
+energy and tact on the part of my superiors, there _would_ have been, to
+put it plainly, the devil to pay.
+
+One morning--it was nearing the end of November--I was sent for to Herr
+Wilhelm's private room. There I found him and Herr Gerhardt before a
+table spread with papers covered with figures and calculations, and
+sheets of beautifully executed diagrams.
+
+"Lutz," said Herr Wilhelm. He had known me from childhood, and often
+called me by the abbreviation of my Christian name, which is Ludwig,
+or Louis. "Lutz, we are going to confide to you a matter of extreme
+importance. You must be prepared to start for London to-morrow."
+
+"All right, sir," I said, "I shall be ready."
+
+"You will take the express through to Calais--on the whole it is the
+best route, especially at this season. By travelling all night you will
+catch the boat there, and arrive in London so as to have a good night's
+rest, and be clear-headed for work the next morning."
+
+I bowed agreement, but ventured to make a suggestion.
+
+"If, as I infer, the matter is one of great importance," I said, "would
+it not be well for me to start sooner? I can--yes," throwing a rapid
+survey over the work I had before me for the next two days--"I can be
+ready to-night."
+
+Herr Wilhelm looked at Herr Gerhardt. Herr Gerhardt shook his head.
+
+"No," he replied; "to-morrow it must be," and then he proceeded to
+explain to me why.
+
+I need not attempt to give all the details of the matter with which I
+was entrusted. Indeed, to "lay" readers it would be impossible. Suffice
+it to say, the whole concerned a patent--that of a very remarkable and
+wonderful invention, which it was hoped and believed the Governments
+of both countries would take up. But to secure this being done in a
+thoroughly satisfactory manner it was necessary that our firm should go
+about it in concert with an English house of first-rate standing. To
+this house--the firm of Messrs. Bluestone and Fagg I will call them--I
+was to be sent with full explanations. And the next half-hour or more
+passed in my superiors going minutely into the details, so as to satisfy
+themselves that I understood. The mastering of the whole was not
+difficult, for I was well grounded technically; and like many of the
+best things the idea was essentially simple, and the diagrams were
+perfect. When the explanations were over, and my instructions duly
+noted, I began to gather together the various sheets, which were all
+numbered. But, to my surprise, Herr Gerhardt, looking over me, withdrew
+two of the most important diagrams, without which the others were
+valueless, because inexplicable.
+
+"Stay," he said; "these two, Ludwig, must be kept separate. These we
+send to-day, by registered post, direct to Bluestone and Fagg. They
+will receive them a day before they see you, and with them a letter
+announcing your arrival."
+
+I looked up in some disappointment. I had known of precautions of the
+kind being taken, but usually when the employé sent was less reliable
+than I believed myself to be. Still, I scarcely dared to demur.
+
+"Do you think that necessary?" I said respectfully. "I can assure you
+that from the moment you entrust me with the papers they shall never
+quit me day or night. And if there were any postal delay--you say time
+is valuable in this case--or if the papers were stolen in the
+transit--such things have happened--my whole mission would be
+worthless."
+
+"We do not doubt your zeal and discretion, my good Schmidt," said Herr
+Gerhardt. "But in this case we must take even extra precautions. I
+had not meant to tell you, fearing to add to the certain amount of
+nervousness and strain unavoidable in such a case, but still, perhaps
+it is best that you should know that we _have_ reason for some special
+anxiety. It has been hinted to us that some breath of this"--and he
+tapped the papers--"has reached those who are always on the watch for
+such things. We cannot be too careful."
+
+"And yet," I persisted, "you would trust the post?"
+
+"We do not trust the post," he replied. "Even if these diagrams were
+tampered with, they would be perfectly useless. And tampered with they
+will not be. But even supposing anything so wild, the rogues in question
+knowing of your departure (and they are _more_ likely to know of it than
+of our packet by post), were they in collusion with some traitor in the
+post-office, are sharp enough to guess the truth--that we have made a
+Masonic secret of it--the two separate diagrams are valueless without
+your papers; _your_ papers reveal nothing without Nos. 7 and 13."
+
+I bowed in submission. But I was, all the same, disappointed, as I said,
+and a trifle mortified.
+
+Herr Wilhelm saw it, and cheered me up.
+
+"All right, Lutz, my boy," he said. "I feel just like you--nothing I
+should enjoy more than a rush over to London, carrying the whole
+documents, and prepared for a fight with any one who tried to get hold
+of them. But Herr Gerhardt here is cooler-blooded than we are."
+
+The elder man smiled.
+
+"I don't doubt your readiness to fight, nor Ludwig's either. But it
+would be by no such honestly brutal means as open robbery that we should
+be outwitted. Make friends readily with no one while travelling, Lutz,
+yet avoid the appearance of keeping yourself aloof. You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly," I said. "I shall sleep well to-night, so as to be prepared
+to keep awake throughout the journey."
+
+The papers were then carefully packed up. Those consigned to my care
+were to be carried in a certain light, black handbag with a very good
+lock, which had often before been my travelling companion.
+
+And the following evening I started by the express train agreed upon.
+So, at least, I have always believed, but I have never been able to
+bring forward a witness to the fact of my train at the start being the
+right one, as no one came with me to see me off. For it was thought best
+that I should depart in as unobtrusive a manner as possible, as, even in
+a large town such as ours, the members and employés of an old and
+important house like the Moritzes' were well known.
+
+I took my ticket then, registering no luggage, as I had none but what I
+easily carried in my hand, as well as _the_ bag. It was already dusk, if
+not dark, and there was not much bustle in the station, nor apparently
+many passengers. I took my place in an empty second-class compartment,
+and sat there quietly till the train should start. A few minutes before
+it did so, another man got in. I was somewhat annoyed at this, as in my
+circumstances nothing was more undesirable than travelling alone with
+one other. Had there been a crowded compartment, or one with three or
+four passengers, I would have chosen it; but at the moment I got in, the
+carriages were all either empty or with but one or two occupants. Now, I
+said to myself, I should have done better to wait till nearer the time
+of departure, and then chosen my place.
+
+I turned to reconnoitre my companion, but I could not see his face
+clearly, as he was half leaning out of the window. Was he doing so on
+purpose? I said to myself, for naturally I was in a suspicious mood. And
+as the thought struck me I half started up, determined to choose another
+compartment. Suddenly a peculiar sound made itself heard. My companion
+was coughing. He drew his head in, covering his face with his hand, as
+he coughed again. You never heard such a curious cough. It was more like
+a hen clucking than anything I can think of. Once, twice he coughed;
+then, as if he had been waiting for the slight spasm to pass, he sprang
+up, looked eagerly out of the window again, and, opening the door,
+jumped out, with some exclamation, as if he had just caught sight of a
+friend.
+
+And in another moment or two--he could barely have had time to get in
+elsewhere--much to my satisfaction, the train moved off.
+
+"Now," thought I, "I can make myself comfortable for some hours. We do
+not stop till M----: it will be nine o'clock by then. If no one gets in
+there I am safe to go through till to-morrow alone; then there will only
+be ---- Junction, and a clear run to Calais."
+
+I unstrapped my rug and lit a cigar--of course I had chosen a
+smoking-carriage--and, delighted at having got rid of my clucking
+companion, the time passed pleasantly till we pulled up at M----. The
+delay there was not great, and to my enormous satisfaction no one
+molested my solitude. Evidently the express to Calais was not in very
+great demand that night. I now felt so secure that, notwithstanding my
+intention of keeping awake all night, my innermost consciousness had not
+I suppose quite resigned itself to the necessity, for, not more than a
+hour or so after leaving M----, possibly sooner, I fell fast asleep.
+
+It seemed to me that I had slept heavily, for when I awoke I had great
+difficulty in remembering where I was. Only by slow degrees did I
+realise that I was not in my comfortable bed at home, but in a chilly,
+ill-lighted railway-carriage. Chilly--yes, that it was--very chilly; but
+as my faculties returned I remembered my precious bag, and forgot all
+else in a momentary terror that it had been taken from me. No; there it
+was--my elbow had been pressed against it as I slept. But how was this?
+The train was not in motion. We were standing in a station; a dingy
+deserted-looking place, with no cheerful noise or bustle; only one or
+two porters slowly moving about, with a sort of sleepy "night duty,"
+surly air. It could not be the Junction? I looked at my watch. Barely
+midnight! Of course, not the Junction. We were not due there till four
+o'clock in the morning or so.
+
+What, then, were we doing here, and what _was_ "here"? Had there been
+an accident--some unforeseen necessity for stopping? At that moment a
+curious sound, from some yards' distance only it seemed to come, caught
+my ear. It was that croaking, cackling cough!--the cough of my momentary
+fellow-passenger, towards whom I had felt an instinctive aversion. I
+looked out of the window--there was a refreshment-room just opposite,
+dimly lighted, like everything else, and in the doorway, as if just
+entering, was a figure which I felt pretty sure was that of the man with
+the cough.
+
+"Bah!" I said to myself, "I must not be fanciful. I daresay the fellow's
+all right. He is evidently in the same hole as myself. What in Heaven's
+name are we waiting here for?"
+
+I sprang out of the carriage, nearly tumbling over a porter slowly
+passing along.
+
+"How long are we to stay here?" I cried. "When do we start again for
+----?" and I named the Junction.
+
+"For ----" he repeated in the queerest German I ever heard--was it
+German? or did I discover his meaning by some preternatural cleverness
+of my own? "There is no train for ---- for four or five hours, not
+till----" and he named the time; and leaning forward lazily, he took
+out my larger bag and my rug, depositing them on the platform. He did
+not seem the least surprised at finding me there--I might have been
+there for a week, it seemed to me.
+
+"No train for five hours? Are you mad?" I said.
+
+He shook his head and mumbled something, and it seemed to me that he
+pointed to the refreshment-room opposite. Gathering my things together I
+hurried thither, hoping to find some more reliable authority. But there
+was no one there except a fat man with a white apron, who was clearing
+the counter--and--yes, in one corner was the figure I had mentally
+dubbed "The man with the cough".
+
+I addressed the cook or waiter--whichever he was. But he only shook his
+head--denied all knowledge of the trains, but informed me that--in other
+words--I must turn out; he was going to shut up.
+
+"And where am I to spend the night, then?" I said angrily, though
+clearly it was not the aproned individual who was responsible for the
+position in which I found myself.
+
+There was a "Restauration," he informed me, near at hand, which I
+should find still open, straight before me on leaving the station, and
+then a few doors to the right, I would see the lights.
+
+Clearly there was nothing else to be done. I went out, and as I did so
+the silent figure in the corner rose also and followed me. The station
+was evidently going to bed. As I passed the porter I repeated the hour
+he had named, adding: "That is the first train for ---- Junction?"
+
+He nodded, again naming the exact time. But I cannot do so, as I have
+never been able to recollect it.
+
+I trudged along the road--there were lamps, though very feeble ones; but
+by their light I saw that the man who had been in the refreshment-room
+was still a few steps behind me. It made me feel slightly nervous, and I
+looked round furtively once or twice; the last time I did so he was not
+to be seen, and I hoped he had gone some other way.
+
+The "Restauration" was scarcely more inviting than the station
+refreshment-room. It, too, was very dimly lighted, and the one or two
+attendants seemed half asleep and were strangely silent. There was a
+fire, of a kind, and I seated myself at a small table near it and asked
+for some coffee, which would, I thought, serve the double purpose of
+warming me and keeping me awake.
+
+It was brought me, in silence. I drank it, and felt the better for it.
+But there was something so gloomy and unsociable, so queer and almost
+weird about the whole aspect and feeling of the place, that a sort of
+irritable resignation took possession of me. If these surly folk won't
+speak, neither will I, I said to myself childishly. And, incredible as
+it may sound, I did _not_ speak. I think I paid for the coffee, but I am
+not quite sure. I know I never asked what I had meant to ask--the name
+of the town--a place of some importance, to judge by the size of the
+station and the extent of twinkling lights I had observed as I made my
+way to the "Restauration". From that day to this I have never been able
+to identify it, and I am quite sure I never shall.
+
+What was there peculiar about that coffee? Or was it something peculiar
+about my own condition that caused it to have the unusual effect I now
+experienced? That question, too, I cannot answer. All I remember is
+feeling a sensation of irresistible drowsiness creeping over me--mental,
+or moral I may say, as well as physical. For when one part of me feebly
+resisted the first onslaught of sleep, something seemed to reply: "Oh,
+nonsense! you have several hours before you. Your papers are all right.
+No one can touch them without awaking you."
+
+And dreamily conscious that my belongings were on the floor at my
+feet--_the_ bag itself actually resting against my ankle--my scruples
+silenced themselves in an extraordinary way. I remember nothing more,
+save a vague consciousness through all my slumber of confused and
+chaotic dreams, which I have never been able to recall.
+
+I awoke at last, and that with a start, almost a jerk. Something had
+awakened me--a sound--and as it was repeated to my now aroused ears I
+knew that I had heard it before, off and on, during my sleep. It was the
+extraordinary cough!
+
+I looked up. Yes, there he was! At some two or three yards' distance
+only, at the other side of the fireplace, which, and this I have
+forgotten to mention as another peculiar item in that night's peculiar
+experiences, considering I have every reason to believe I was still in
+Germany, was not a stove, but an open grate.
+
+And he had not been there when I first fell asleep; to that I was
+prepared to swear.
+
+"He must have come sneaking in after me," I thought, and in all
+probability I should neither have noticed nor recognised him but for
+that traitorous cackle of his.
+
+Now, my misgivings aroused, my first thought, of course, was for my
+precious charge. I stooped. There were my rugs, my larger bag, but--no,
+not the smaller one; and though the other two were there, I knew at
+once that they were not quite in the same position--not so close to me.
+Horror seized me. Half wildly I gazed around, when my silent neighbour
+bent towards me. I could declare there was nothing in his hand when he
+did so, and I could declare as positively that I had already looked
+under the small round table beside which I sat, and that the bag was not
+there. And yet when the man, with a slight cackle, caused, no doubt, by
+his stooping, raised himself, the thing was in his hand!
+
+Was he a conjurer, a pupil of Maskelyne and Cook? And how was it that,
+even as he held out my missing property, he managed, and that most
+cleverly and unobtrusively, to prevent my catching sight of his face? I
+did not see it then--I never did see it!
+
+Something he murmured, to the effect that he supposed the bag was what I
+was looking for. In what language he spoke I know not; it was more that
+by the action accompanying the mumbled sounds I gathered his meaning,
+than that I heard anything articulate.
+
+I thanked him, of course, mechanically, so to say, though I began to
+feel as if he were an evil spirit haunting me. I could only hope that
+the splendid lock to the bag had defied all curiosity, but I felt in a
+fever to be alone again, and able to satisfy myself that nothing had
+been tampered with.
+
+The thought recalled my wandering faculties. How long had I been asleep?
+I drew out my watch. Heavens! It was close upon the hour named for the
+first train in the morning. I sprang up, collected my things, and dashed
+out of the "Restauration". If I had not paid for my coffee before, I
+certainly did not pay for it then. Besides my haste, there was another
+reason for this--there was no one to pay to! Not a creature was to be
+seen in the room or at the door as I passed out--always excepting the
+man with the cough.
+
+As I left the place and hurried along the road, a bell began, not to
+ring, but to toll. It sounded most uncanny. What it meant, of course, I
+have never known. It may have been a summons to the workpeople of some
+manufactory, it may have been like all the other experiences of that
+strange night. But no; this theory I will not at present enter upon.
+
+Dawn was not yet breaking, but there was in one direction a faint
+suggestion of something of the kind not far off. Otherwise all was dark.
+I stumbled along as best as I could, helped in reality, I suppose, by
+the ugly yellow glimmer of the woebegone street, or road lamps. And it
+was not far to the station, though somehow it seemed farther than when I
+came; and somehow, too, it seemed to have grown steep, though I could
+not remember having noticed any slope the other way on my arrival. A
+nightmare-like sensation began to oppress me. I felt as if my luggage
+was growing momentarily heavier and heavier, as if I should _never_
+reach the station; and to this was joined the agonising terror of
+missing the train.
+
+I made a desperate effort. Cold as it was, the beads of perspiration
+stood out upon my forehead as I forced myself along. And by degrees the
+nightmare feeling cleared off. I found myself entering the station at a
+run just as--yes, a train was actually beginning to move! I dashed,
+baggage and all, into a compartment; it was empty, and it was a
+second-class one, precisely similar to the one I had occupied before; it
+might have been the very same one. The train gradually increased its
+speed, but for the first few moments, while still in the station and
+passing through its immediate _entourage_, another strange thing struck
+me--the extraordinary silence and lifelessness of all about. Not one
+human being did I see, no porter watching our departure with the
+faithful though stolid interest always to be seen on the porter's
+visage. I might have been alone in the train--it might have had a
+freight of the dead, and been itself propelled by some supernatural
+agency, so noiselessly, so gloomily did it proceed.
+
+You will scarcely credit that I actually and for the third time fell
+asleep. I could not help it. Some occult influence was at work upon me
+throughout those dark hours, I am positively certain. And with the
+daylight it was dispelled. For when I again awoke I felt for the first
+time since leaving home completely and normally myself, fresh and
+vigorous, all my faculties at their best.
+
+But, nevertheless, my first sensation was a start of amazement, almost
+of terror. The compartment was nearly full! There were at least five or
+six travellers besides myself, very respectable, ordinary-looking folk,
+with nothing in the least alarming about them. Yet it was with a gasp of
+extraordinary relief that I found my precious bag in the corner beside
+me, where I had carefully placed it. It was concealed from view. No one,
+I felt assured, could have touched it without awaking me.
+
+It was broad and bright daylight. How long had I slept?
+
+"Can you tell me," I inquired of my opposite neighbour, a cheery-faced
+compatriot--"Can you tell me how soon we get to ---- Junction by this
+train? I am most anxious to catch the evening mail at Calais, and am
+quite out in my reckonings, owing to an extraordinary delay at ----. I
+have wasted the night by getting into a stopping train instead of the
+express."
+
+He looked at me in astonishment. He must have thought me either mad or
+just awaking from a fit of intoxication--only I flatter myself I did
+not look as if the latter were the case.
+
+"How soon we get to ---- Junction?" he repeated. "Why, my good sir, you
+left it about three hours ago! It is now eight o'clock. We all got in at
+the Junction. You were alone, if I mistake not?"--he glanced at one or
+two of the others, who endorsed his statement. "And very fast asleep
+you were, and must have been, not to be disturbed by the bustle at the
+station. And as for catching the evening boat at Calais"--he burst into
+a loud guffaw--"why, it would be very hard lines to do no better than
+that! _We_ all hope to cross by the mid-day one."
+
+"Then--what train _is_ this?" I exclaimed, utterly perplexed.
+
+"The express, of course. All of us, excepting yourself, joined it at the
+Junction," he replied.
+
+"The express?" I repeated. "The express that leaves"--and I named my own
+town--"at six in the evening?"
+
+"Exactly. You have got into the right train after all," and here came
+another shout of amusement. "How did you think we had all got in if you
+had not yet passed the Junction? You had not the pleasure of our
+company from M----, I take it? M----, which you passed at nine o'clock
+last night, if my memory is correct."
+
+"Then," I persisted, "this is the double-fast express, which does not
+stop between M---- and your Junction?"
+
+"Exactly," he repeated; and then, confirmed most probably in his belief
+that I was mad, or the other thing, he turned to his newspaper, and left
+me to my extraordinary cogitations.
+
+Had I been dreaming? Impossible! Every sensation, the very taste of
+the coffee, seemed still present with me--the curious accent of the
+officials at the mysterious town, I could perfectly recall. I still
+shivered at the remembrance of the chilly waking in the "Restauration";
+I heard again the cackling cough.
+
+But I felt I must collect myself, and be ready for the important
+negotiation entrusted to me. And to do this I must for the time banish
+these fruitless efforts at solving the problem.
+
+We had a good run to Calais, found the boat in waiting, and a fair
+passage brought us prosperously across the Channel. I found myself in
+London punctual to the intended hour of my arrival.
+
+At once I drove to the lodgings in a small street off the Strand which I
+was accustomed to frequent in such circumstances. I felt nervous till I
+had an opportunity of thoroughly overhauling my documents. The bag had
+been opened by the Custom House officials, but the words "private
+papers" had sufficed to prevent any further examination; and to my
+unspeakable delight they were intact. A glance satisfied me as to this
+the moment I got them out, for they were most carefully numbered.
+
+The next morning saw me early on my way to--No. 909, we will
+say--Blackfriars Street, where was the office of Messrs. Bluestone &
+Fagg. I had never been there before, but it was easy to find, and had I
+felt any doubt, their name stared me in the face at the side of the open
+doorway. "Second-floor" I thought I read; but when I reached the first
+landing I imagined I must have been mistaken. For there, at a door ajar,
+stood an eminently respectable-looking gentleman, who bowed as he saw
+me, with a discreet smile.
+
+"Herr Schmidt?" he said. "Ah, yes; I was on the look-out for you."
+
+I felt a little surprised, and my glance involuntarily strayed to the
+doorway. There was no name upon it, and it appeared to have been freshly
+painted. My new friend saw my glance.
+
+"It is all right," he said; "we have the painters here. We are using
+these lower rooms temporarily. I was watching to prevent your having the
+trouble of mounting to the second-floor."
+
+And as I followed him in, I caught sight of a painter's ladder--a small
+one--on the stair above, and the smell was also unmistakable.
+
+The large outer office looked bare and empty, but under the
+circumstances that was natural. No one was, at the first glance, to be
+seen; but behind a dulled glass partition screening off one corner I
+fancied I caught sight of a seated figure. And an inner office, to which
+my conductor led the way, had a more comfortable and inhabited look.
+Here stood a younger man. He bowed politely.
+
+"Mr. Fagg, my junior," said the first individual airily. "And now, Herr
+Schmidt, to business at once, if you please. Time is everything. You
+have all the documents ready?"
+
+I answered by opening my bag and spreading out its contents. Both men
+were very grave, almost taciturn; but as I proceeded to explain things
+it was easy to see that they thoroughly understood all I said.
+
+"And now," I went on, when I had reached a certain point, "if you will
+give me Nos. 7 and 13 which you have already received by registered
+post, I can put you in full possession of the whole. Without them, of
+course, all I have said is, so to say, preliminary only."
+
+The two looked at each other.
+
+"Of course," said the elder man, "I follow what you say. The key of the
+whole is wanting. But I was momentarily expecting you to bring it out.
+We have not--Fagg, I am right, am I not--we have received nothing by
+post?"
+
+"Nothing whatever," replied his junior. And the answer seemed simplicity
+itself. Why did a strange thrill of misgiving go through me? Was it
+something in the look that had passed between them? Perhaps so. In any
+case, strange to say, the inconsistency between their having received no
+papers and yet looking for my arrival at the hour mentioned in the
+letter accompanying the documents, and accosting me by name, did not
+strike me till some hours later.
+
+I threw off what I believed to be my ridiculous mistrust, and it was
+not difficult to do so in my extreme annoyance.
+
+"I cannot understand it," I said. "It is really too bad. Everything
+depends upon 7 and 13. I must telegraph at once for inquiries to be
+instituted at the post-office."
+
+"But your people must have duplicates," said Fagg eagerly. "These can be
+forwarded at once."
+
+"I hope so," I said, though feeling strangely confused and worried.
+
+"They must send them direct _here_," he went on.
+
+I did not at once answer. I was gathering my papers together.
+
+"And in the meantime," he proceeded, touching my bag, "you had better
+leave _these_ here. We will lock them up in the safe at once. It is
+better than carrying them about London."
+
+It certainly seemed so. I half laid down the bag on the table, but at
+that moment from the outer room a most peculiar sound caught my ears--a
+faint cackling cough! I _think_ I concealed my start. I turned away as
+if considering Fagg's suggestion, which, to confess the truth, I had
+been on the very point of agreeing to. For it would have been a great
+relief to me to know that the papers were in safe custody. But now a
+flash of lurid light seemed to have transformed everything.
+
+"I thank you," I replied. "I should be glad to be free from the
+responsibility of the charge, but I dare not let these out of my own
+hands till the agreement is formally signed."
+
+The younger man's face darkened. He assumed a bullying tone.
+
+"I don't know how it strikes _you_, Mr. Bluestone," he said, "but it
+seems to me that this young gentleman is going rather too far. Do you
+think your employers will be pleased to hear of your insulting us, sir?"
+
+But the elder man smiled condescendingly, though with a touch of
+superciliousness. It was very well done. He waved his hand.
+
+"Stay, my dear Mr. Fagg; we can well afford to make allowance. You will
+telegraph at once, no doubt, Herr Schmidt, and--let me see--yes, we
+shall receive the duplicates of Nos. 7 and 13 by first post on Thursday
+morning."
+
+I bowed.
+
+"Exactly," I replied, as I lifted the now locked bag. "And you may
+expect me at the same hour on Thursday morning."
+
+Then I took my departure, accompanied to the door by the urbane
+individual who had received me.
+
+The telegram which I at once despatched was not couched precisely as he
+would have dictated, I allow. And he would have been considerably
+surprised at my sending off another, later in the day, to Bluestone &
+Fagg's telegraphic address, in these words:---
+
+"Unavoidably detained till Thursday morning.--SCHMIDT."
+
+This was _after_ the arrival of a wire from home in answer to mine.
+
+By Thursday morning I had had time to receive a letter from Herr
+Wilhelm, and to secure the services of a certain noted detective,
+accompanied by whom I presented myself at the appointed hour at 909. But
+my companion's services were not required. The birds had flown, warned
+by the same traitor in our camp through whom the first hints of the new
+patent had leaked out. With him it was easy to deal, poor wretch! but
+the clever rogues who had employed him and personated the members of the
+honourable firm of Bluestone & Fagg were never traced.
+
+The negotiation was successfully carried out. The experience I had gone
+through left me a wiser man. It is to be hoped, too, that the owners of
+909 Blackfriars Street were more cautious in the future as to whom they
+let their premises to when temporarily vacant. The re-painting of the
+doorway, etc., at the tenant's own expense had already roused some
+slight suspicion.
+
+It is needless to add that Nos. 7 and 13 had been duly received on the
+second-floor.
+
+I have never known the true history of that extraordinary night. Was it
+all a dream, or a prophetic vision of warning? Or was it in any sense
+true? _Had_ I, in some inexplicable way, left my own town earlier than I
+intended, and really travelled in a slow train?
+
+Or had the man with a cough, for his own nefarious purposes, mesmerised
+or hypnotised me, and to some extent succeeded?
+
+I cannot say. Sometimes, even, I ask myself if I am quite sure that
+there ever was such a person as "the man with the cough"!
+
+
+
+
+"HALF-WAY BETWEEN THE STILES."
+
+(A RIGHT-OF-WAY INCIDENT.)
+
+
+By the road, Scarby village is good three miles from Colletwood, the
+nearest town and railway station. But there is a short cut over the
+hills for foot passengers. _Over_ the hills they call it, but _between_
+the hills would be more correct, for there is a sort of tableland once
+you have climbed a short, steep bit up from the town, which extends
+nearly to Scarby, sloping gradually down to the village.
+
+And on each side of this tableland the hills rise again, north and
+south, much higher to the north than to the south. So this flat stretch,
+though at some considerable height, is neither bleak nor exposed, being
+sheltered on the colder side, and fairly open to the sunshine south and
+west.
+
+It is a pleasant place, and so it must have been considered in the old
+days; for a large monastery stood there once, of which the ruins are
+still to be seen, and of which the memory is still preserved in the
+name--"Monksholdings".
+
+Pleasant, but a trifle inconvenient, as the only carriage-road makes a
+great round from Colletwood, winding along the base of the hill on the
+north side till it reaches the village, then up again by the gradual
+slope, half a mile or so--a drive in all of three to four miles,
+whereas, as the bird flies or the pedestrian walks, the distance from
+the town is barely a quarter of that.
+
+In the old days there was probably no road at all, the hill-path
+doubtless serving all requirements. Naturally enough, therefore, it came
+to be looked upon as entirely public property, and people forgot--if,
+indeed, any one had ever thought of it--that though the monastery was a
+ruin, the once carefully kept land round about the old dwelling-place of
+Monksholdings was still private property.
+
+And the sensation was great when suddenly the news reached the
+neighbourhood that this "unique estate," as the agents called it, was
+sold--sold by the old Duke of Scarshire, who scarcely remembered that
+he owned it, to a man who meant to live on it, to build a house which
+should be a home for several months of the year for himself and his
+family.
+
+There was considerable growling and grumbling; and this rose to its
+height when a rumour got about that the hill-path--such part of it, that
+is to say, as lay within the actual demesne--was to be closed--_must_ be
+closed, if the site already chosen for the new house was to be retained;
+for the house would actually stand upon the old foot-track, and there
+could be no two opinions that this position had been well and wisely
+selected.
+
+Things grew warlike, boding no agreeable reception for the newcomers--a
+Mr. Raynald and his family, newcomers to England, it was said, as well
+as to Scarshire. Every one plunged into questions of right-of-way; the
+local legalities raised and discussed knotty points; Colletwood and
+Scarby were aflame. But it all ended, flatly enough, in a compromise!
+
+Mr. Raynald turned out to be one of the most reasonable and courteous of
+men. He came, saw, and--conquered. The goodwill of his future neighbours
+was won e'er he knew he had risked its loss. Henceforward congratulations,
+reciprocated and repeated, on the charming additions to Scarby society
+were the order of the day, and the _détour_, skirting the south boundary
+of the Monksholdings grounds, which the footpath was now inveigled into
+making, was voted "a great improvement".
+
+And in due time the mansion rose.
+
+"A great improvement" also, to the aspect of the surrounding landscape.
+It was in perfectly good taste--unpretentious and quietly picturesque.
+It might have been there always for any jarring protest to the contrary.
+
+And just half-way along the old foot-track, that is to say, between the
+two stiles which let the traveller to or from Scarby in or out of the
+Monksholdings demesne, stood Sybil Raynald's grand piano!
+
+The stiles remained as an interesting survival; but they were made use
+of by no one not bound for the house itself. And beside each was a
+gate--a good oaken gate, that suited the place, as did everything about
+it; and beside each gate a quaint miniature dwelling, one of which came
+to be known as the east, and the other as the west, Monksholdings lodge.
+
+The first time the Raynalds came down to their new home they made but
+a short stay there. It was already late in the season, and though the
+preceding summer had been a magnificent one for drying fresh walls and
+plaster, it would scarcely have done to risk damp or chilly weather in
+so recently-built a house.
+
+They stayed long enough to confirm the favourable impression the head of
+the family had already made, and to lead themselves to look forward with
+pleasure to a less curtailed stay in Scarshire.
+
+The last morning of their visit, Sybil, the eldest daughter, up and
+about betimes, turned to her father, when she had taken her place beside
+him at the breakfast-table, with a suspicion of annoyance on her usually
+cheerful face.
+
+"Papa," she said, "I have seen that old man _again_, leaning on the
+stile by the Scarby lodge and looking in--along the drive--_so_ queerly.
+I don't quite like it. It gave me rather a ghosty feeling; or else he is
+out of his mind."
+
+Her brother, Mark by name, began to laugh, after the manner of brothers.
+
+"How very oddly you express yourself!" he said. "I should like to
+experience 'a ghosty feeling'. A ghost is just what this place wants to
+make it perfect. But it should be the spirit of one of the original
+monks."
+
+Mr. Raynald turned to his son rather sharply.
+
+"I don't want any nonsense of that kind set about, Mark," he said. "It
+would frighten the younger children when they come down here. I will ask
+about the old man. It is quite possible he is half-witted, or something
+of that sort. I forgot about it when Sybil mentioned it before. But no
+doubt he is perfectly harmless. Has no one seen him but you, Sybil?"
+
+The girl shook her head.
+
+"None of _us_," she replied. "And I wasn't exactly frightened. There was
+something very pathetic about him. He looked at me closely, murmuring
+some words, and then shook his head. That was all."
+
+But just then her father was called away to give some last directions,
+and in the bustle of hurry to catch their train the matter passed from
+the minds of the younger as well as the elder members of the family.
+
+It returned to Sybil's memory, however, when she found herself in their
+London house again, and called upon by her younger sisters to relate
+every detail of Monksholdings and its neighbourhood. But mindful of her
+father's warning, she said nothing to Esther or Annis of the figure at
+the gate. It was only to Miss March--Ellinor March--the dearly-loved
+governess, who was more friend than teacher to her three pupils, that
+she spoke of it, late in the evening, when the younger ones had gone to
+bed, and her father and mother were busy with Indian letters in Mr.
+Raynald's study.
+
+The two girls, we may say--for Ellinor was still some years under
+thirty--were alone in the drawing-room. Ellinor had been playing
+something tender and faintly weird--it died away under her fingers, and
+she sat on at the piano in silence.
+
+Sybil spoke suddenly.
+
+"That is _so_ melancholy," she said, "something so long ago about it,
+like the ghost of a sorrow rather than a sorrow itself. I know--I know
+what it makes me think of. Listen, Ellinor."
+
+For out of school hours the two threw formality aside. And Sybil told of
+the sad, wistful old face looking over the stile.
+
+"Now it has come back to me," she said, "I can't forget it."
+
+Ellinor, too, was impressed.
+
+"Yes," she said, "it sounds very pitiful. Who knows what tragedy is
+bound up in it?" and she sighed.
+
+Sybil understood her. Miss March's own history was a strange one.
+
+"We must find out about it when we go down to Monksholdings next year,"
+she said.
+
+"And perhaps," added Ellinor, "even if he is half-witted, we might do
+something to comfort the poor man."
+
+Sybil hesitated.
+
+"Then you don't think he can be a ghost?" she said, looking half ashamed
+of the suggestion.
+
+Miss March smiled--her smile was sad.
+
+"In one sense, no, I should think it highly improbable; in another, yes,
+there must be the ghost of some great sorrow about the face you
+describe," she said.
+
+So there was.
+
+This is the story.
+
+At the farther end of Scarby village--the farther end, that is to say,
+from Monksholdings and the path between the hills--the road drops
+again somewhat suddenly. Only for a short distance, however; Mayling
+Farm--"Giles's" as it is colloquially called--which is the first house
+you come to when you reach level ground again, being by no means low
+lying.
+
+On the contrary, the west windows command a grand view of the great
+Scarshire plain beneath, bordered by the faint hazy blue, scarcely to be
+distinguished from clouds, of the long range of hills concealing the
+far-off glimmer of the ocean, which otherwise might sometimes be
+perceptible.
+
+Mayling is a very old place, and the Giles's had been there "always," so
+to speak--steady-going, unambitious, save as regards their farming and
+its success; they had been just the make of men to settle on to their
+ground as if it and they could have no existence apart. A fine race
+physically as well as morally, though some twenty-five years or so
+before the Raynalds bought Monksholdings, a run of ill luck, a whole
+chapter of casualties, had brought them down to but one representative,
+and he scarcely the typical Farmer Giles of Mayling.
+
+This was Barnett, the youngest of four stalwart sons; the youngest and
+the only survivor. He was already forty when his father died, earnestly
+commending to him the "old place," which even at eighty the aged farmer
+felt himself better fitted to manage than the somewhat delicate,
+sensitive man whom his brothers had made good-natured fun of in his
+youth as a "book-worm".
+
+But Barnett was intelligent and sensible, and he rose to the occasion.
+Circumstances helped him. The year after old Giles's death Barnett for
+the first time fell in love, wisely and well. His affection was bestowed
+on a worthy object--Marion Grover, the daughter of a yeoman in the next
+county--and was fully returned.
+
+Marion was years younger than her lover, fifteen at least, eminently
+practical, healthy, and pretty. She brought her husband just exactly
+what he was most in need of--brightness, energy, and youth. It was an
+ideal marriage, and everything prospered at Mayling. Four years after
+the advent of the new Mrs. Giles you would scarcely have recognised the
+farmer, he seemed another man.
+
+He adored his wife, and could hardly find it in his heart to regret that
+their child was not a son, even though, failing an heir, the old name
+must die out; for if there was one creature the husband and wife loved
+more than each other it was their baby girl.
+
+A month or two after this child's second birthday the singular
+catastrophe occurred which changed the world to poor Barnett Giles,
+leaving him but a wreck of his former self, physically and mentally.
+
+Young Mrs. Giles was strong in every way, and from the first she took
+the line of saving her husband all extra fatigue or annoyance which
+she could possibly hoist on to her own brave shoulders. There was
+something quaint and even pathetic in the relations of the couple. For,
+notwithstanding Marion's being so much Barnett's junior, her attitude
+towards him had a decided suggestion of the maternal about it, though at
+times of real emergency his sound judgment and advice never failed her.
+It was within a week or two of Christmas; the weather was bitingly,
+raspingly cold. And though as yet no snow had fallen, the weather-wise
+were predicting it daily.
+
+"I _must_ go over to Colletwood this week," said Mrs. Giles, "and I must
+take Nelly. Her new coat is waiting to be tried at the dressmaker's, and
+I must get her some boots and several other things before Christmas. And
+there is a whole list of other shopping too--all our Christmas presents
+to see to."
+
+Her husband was looking out of the window, it was still very early in
+the day.
+
+"I doubt if the snow will hold off much longer," he said.
+
+"And once it begins it may be heavy," his wife replied, "and then I
+might not be able to go for ever so long, even by the road,"--for a deep
+fall of snow at Scarby was practically a stoppage to all traffic. "I'll
+tell you what, Barnett, we'll go to-day and make sure of it. I will put
+other things aside and start before noon. A couple of hours, or three at
+the most, will do everything, and then Nelly and I will be back long
+before dark. You'll come to meet us, won't you?"
+
+"Of course I will--if you go. But," and again he glanced at the sky.
+The morning was, so far, clear and bright, though very cold, but over
+towards the north there was a suspicious look about the blue-grey
+clouds. "I don't know," he said, "but that you'd better wait till
+to-morrow and see if it blows off again."
+
+But Marion shook her head.
+
+"I've a feeling," she said, "that if I don't go to-day, I won't go at
+all. And I really must. I'll take Betsy to carry the child till we're
+just above the town, and then send her home, so as not to be tired for
+coming back. Not that I'm _ever_ tired, as you know," with a smile.
+
+He gave in, only stipulating that at all costs they should start to
+return by a certain hour, unless the snow should have already begun, in
+which case Marion was to run no risks, but either to hire a fly to bring
+her home by the road, or to stay in the town with some of her friends
+till the weather cleared again.
+
+"And I'll meet you," he added. "Let us set our watches together--I'll
+start from here so as to be at--let me see----"
+
+"Half-way between the stiles," said Marion. "We can each see the other
+from one stile to the opposite one, you know, even though it's a good
+bit of a way. Yes, dear, I'll time it as near as I can to meet half-way
+between the stiles."
+
+And with these words the last on her lips, she set off, a picture of
+health and happiness--little Nelly crowing back to "Dada" from over
+stout Betsy's shoulder.
+
+Betsy was home again within the hour.
+
+But the mother and child--alas and alas! It was the immortal story of
+"Lucy Gray" in an almost more pathetic shape.
+
+Farmer Giles, as I have said, was a studious, often absent-minded man.
+There was not much to do at that season and in such weather, and what
+there was, some amount of supervision on his part was enough for. After
+his early dinner he got out his books for an hour or two's quiet reading
+till it should be time to set off to meet his darlings. No fear of his
+forgetting _that_ time, but till the clock struck, and he saw it was
+approaching nearly, he never looked out--he was unconscious of the rapid
+growth of the lurid, steely clouds; he had no idea that the snowflakes
+were already falling, falling, more and more closely and thickly with
+each instant that passed.
+
+Then rose the storm spirit and issued his orders--all too quickly
+obeyed. Before Barnett Giles had left the village street he found
+himself in what now-a-days would be called a "blizzard". And his pale
+face grew paler, and his heart beat as if to choke him, when at last he
+reached the first stile and stood there panting, to regain his breath.
+It was all he could do to battle on through the fury of the wind, the
+blinding, whirling snow, which seemed to envelop him as if in sheets.
+Not for many and many a day will that awful snowstorm be forgotten in
+Scarshire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was at the appointed trysting place they found him--"half-way between
+the stiles". But not till late that evening, when Betsy, more alarmed by
+his absence than by her mistress's not returning, at last struggled out
+through the deep-lying snow to alarm the nearest neighbours.
+
+"The missis and Miss Nell will have stayed the night in the town," she
+said. "But I misdoubt me if the master will ever have got so far, though
+he may have been tempted on when he did not meet them."
+
+By this time the fury of the storm had spent itself, and they found poor
+Giles after a not very protracted search, and brought him home--dead,
+they thought at first.
+
+No, he was not dead, but it was less than half _life_ that he
+returned to. For his first inquiry late the next day, when glimmering
+consciousness had begun to revive--"Marion, the baby?"--seemed by some
+subtle instinct to answer itself truthfully, in spite of the kindly
+endeavour to deceive him for the time.
+
+"Dead!" he murmured. "I knew it. Half-way between the stiles," and he
+turned his face to the wall.
+
+They almost wished he had died too--the rough but kind-hearted
+country-folk who were his neighbours. But he lived. He never asked and
+never knew the details of the tragedy, which, indeed, was never fully
+known by any one.
+
+All that came to light was that the dead body of Marion Giles was
+brought by some semi-gipsy wanderers to the workhouse of a town several
+miles south of Colletwood, early on the morning after the blizzard. They
+had found it, they said, at some little distance from the road along
+which they were journeying, so that she must have lost her way long
+before approaching the Monksholdings confines, not improbably, indeed,
+in attempting to retrace her steps to the town which she had so
+imprudently quitted. But of the child the tramps said nothing, and after
+making the above deposition, they were allowed to go on their way, which
+they expressed themselves as anxious to do; for reasons of their own, no
+doubt; possibly the same reasons which had prevented their returning to
+Colletwood with the young woman's corpse, as would have seemed more
+natural.
+
+And afterwards no very special inquiry was made about the baby. The
+father was incapable of it, and in those days people accepted things
+more carelessly, perhaps. It was taken for granted that "Little Nell"
+had fallen down some cliff, no doubt, and lay buried there, with the
+snow for her shroud, like a strayed lambkin. Her tiny bones might yet be
+found, years hence, maybe, by a shepherd in search of some bleating
+wanderer, or--no more might ever be known of the infant's fate!
+
+Barnett Giles rose from his bed, after many weeks, with all the look of
+a very old man. At first it was thought that his mind was quite gone;
+but it did not prove to be so. After a time, with the help of an
+excellent foreman, or bailiff, he showed himself able to manage his farm
+with a strange, mechanical kind of intelligence. It seemed as if the
+sense of duty outlived the loss of other perceptions, though these, too,
+cleared by degrees to a considerable extent, and material things,
+curious as it may appear, prospered with him.
+
+But he rarely spoke unless obliged to do so; and whenever he felt
+himself at leisure, and knew that his work was not calling for him, he
+seemed to relapse into the half-dreamy state which was his more real
+life. Then he would pass through the village and slowly climb the slope
+to the stile, where he would stand for hours together, patiently gazing
+before him, while he murmured the old refrain: "'Half-way between the
+stiles,' she said. I shall meet them there, 'half-way between the
+stiles'."
+
+Fortunately, perhaps, it was not often he attempted to climb over; he
+contented himself with standing and gazing. Fortunately so, for
+otherwise the changes at Monksholdings would have probably terribly
+shocked his abnormally sensitive brain. But he did not seem to notice
+them, nor the new route of the old right-of-way agreed to by the
+compromise. He was content with his post--standing, leaning on the
+stile, and gazing before him.
+
+His, of course, was the worn, wistful face which had half frightened,
+half appealed to Sybil Raynald.
+
+But she forgot about it again, or other things put it temporarily
+aside, so that when the Raynalds came down to Monksholdings again the
+following Easter it did not at once occur to her to remind her father of
+the inquiry he had promised to make.
+
+Miss March was not with her pupils and their parents at first. She had
+gone to spend a holiday week with the friends who had brought her up
+and seen to her education--good, benevolent people, if not specially
+sympathetic, but to whom she felt herself bound by ties of sincerest
+gratitude, though her five years with the Raynald family had given her
+more of the feeling of a "home" than she had ever had before.
+
+And her arrival at Monksholdings was the occasion of much rejoicing.
+There was everything to show her, and every one, from Mark down to
+little Robin, wanted to be her guide. It was not till the morning of the
+next day that Sybil managed to get her to herself for a _tête-à-tête_
+stroll.
+
+Ellinor had some things to tell her quondam pupil. Mrs. Bellairs, her
+self-appointed guardian, was growing old and somewhat feeble.
+
+"I fear she is not likely to live many years," said Miss March, "and she
+thinks so herself. She has a curious longing, which I never saw in her
+before, to find out my history--to know if there is no one really
+belonging to me to whom she can give me back, as it were, before she
+dies. She gave me the little parcel containing the clothes I had on when
+she rescued me from being sent to a workhouse. They are carefully washed
+and mended, and though I was a poor, dirty little object when I was
+found, they do not look really as if I had been a beggar child," with a
+little smile.
+
+"You a beggar child!" exclaimed Sybil indignantly. "Of course not.
+Perhaps, on the contrary, you were somebody very grand."
+
+"No, no," said Ellinor sensibly. "In that case I should have been
+advertised for and inquired after. No, I have never thought that, and I
+should not wish it. I should be more than thankful to know I came of
+good, honest people, however simple; to have some one of my very own."
+
+"I forget the actual details," said Sybil, "though you have often told
+me about it. You were found--no, not literally in the workhouse, was
+it?"
+
+"They were going to take me there," said Miss March. "It was at a
+village near Bath where Mr. and Mrs. Bellairs were then living, and
+one day, after a party of gipsies had been encamping on the common, a
+cottager's wife heard something crying in the night, and found me in her
+little garden. She was too poor to keep me herself, and felt certain I
+was a child the gipsies had stolen and then wanted to get rid of. I was
+fair-haired and blue-eyed, not like them. She was a friend or relation
+of some of Mrs. Bellairs's servants, and so the story got round to my
+kind old friend. And you know the rest--how they first thought of
+bringing me up in quite a humble way, and then finding me--well,
+intelligent and naturally rather refined, I suppose, I got a really good
+education, and my good luck did not desert me, dear, when I came to be
+your governess."
+
+Sybil smiled.
+
+"And can you remember _nothing_?"
+
+Ellinor hesitated.
+
+"Queer, dreamy fragments come back to me sometimes," she said. "I have
+a feeling of having seen hills long, long ago. It is strange," she
+went on, for by this time they had left the private grounds and were
+strolling along the hill-path in the direction of the town, "it is
+strange that since I came here I seem to have got hold of a tiny bit of
+these old memories, if they are such. It must be the hills," and she
+stood still and gazed round her with a deep breath of satisfaction, "I
+could only have been between two and three when I was found," she went
+on. "The only words I said were 'Dada' and 'Nennie'--it sounded like
+'Nelly'. That was why Mrs. Bellairs called me 'Ellinor,' and 'March,'
+because it was in that month she took me to her house."
+
+Sybil walked on in silence for a moment or two.
+
+"It _is_ such a romantic story," she said at last. "I am never tired of
+thinking about it."
+
+They entered Monksholdings again from the east entrance, Ellinor glanced
+at the stile.
+
+"By-the-bye," she said, "this is one of the two old stiles, I suppose.
+Have you ever seen your ghost again, Sybil? Have you found out anything
+about him?"
+
+Sybil looked round her half nervously.
+
+"It is the other stile he haunts," she said. "I rather avoid it, at
+least, I mean to do so now. It is curious you speak of it, for till
+yesterday I had not seen him again, and had almost forgotten about it.
+But yesterday afternoon, just before you came, there he was--exactly
+the same, staring in. I meant to speak to papa about it, but with the
+pleasure and bustle of your arrival, I forgot it. Remind me about it. I
+am afraid he is out of his mind."
+
+"Poor old man!" said Ellinor. "I wish we could do something to comfort
+him. I feel as if everybody _must_ be happy here. It is such a charming,
+exhilarating place. Dear me, how windy it is! The path is all strewn
+with the white petals of the cherry blossom."
+
+"They have degenerated into wild cherry trees," said Sybil. "Long ago
+papa says these must have been good fruit trees of many kinds, and this
+is a great cherry country, you know."
+
+The wind dropped that afternoon, but only temporarily. It rose again so
+much during the night that by the next morning the grounds looked, to
+use little Annis's expression, "quite untidy".
+
+"And down in the village, or just beyond it," said Mark, who had been
+for an early stroll, "at one place it really looks as if it had been
+snowing. The road skirts that old farmhouse; you know it, father? I
+forget the name--there's a grand cherry orchard there."
+
+"'Mayling Farm,' you must mean," said Mr. Raynald. "Farmer Giles's. Oh,
+by the way, that reminds me, Sybil," but a glance round the table made
+him stop short. They were at breakfast. He scarcely felt inclined to
+relate the tragic story before the younger children, "they might look
+frightened or run away if they came across the poor fellow," he
+reflected. "I will tell Sybil about it afterwards."
+
+Easter holidays were not yet over, though the governess had returned, so
+regular routine was set aside, and the whole of the young party, Ellinor
+included, spent that morning in a scramble among the hills.
+
+The children seemed untirable, and set off again somewhere or other in
+the afternoon. Sybil was busy with her mother, writing letters and
+orders to be despatched to London, so that towards four o'clock or so,
+when Miss March, having finished her own correspondence, entered the
+drawing-room, she found it deserted.
+
+Sybil had promised to practise some duets with her, and while waiting on
+the chance of her coming, Ellinor seated herself at the piano and began
+to play--nothing very important--just snatches of old airs which she
+wove into a kind of half-dreamy harmony, one melting into another as
+they occurred to her.
+
+All at once a shadow fell on the keys, and then she remembered having
+heard the door softly open a moment or two before--so softly, that she
+had not looked round, imagining it to be the wind, which, though fallen
+now, still lingered about.
+
+Now her ideas took another shape.
+
+"It is Sybil, no doubt," she thought with a smile. "She is going to make
+me jump," and she waited, half expecting to feel Sybil's hands suddenly
+clasped over her eyes from behind.
+
+But this was not to be the mode of attack, apparently, though she heard
+what sounded like stealthy footsteps.
+
+"You need not try to startle me, Sybbie," she exclaimed laughingly,
+without turning or ceasing to play, "I hear you."
+
+It was no laughing voice which replied.
+
+On the contrary, a sigh, almost a groan, close to her made her look
+up sharply--a trifle indignant perhaps at the joke being carried so
+far--and she saw, a pace or two from her only, the figure of an old
+man--a white-haired, somewhat bent form, a worn face with wistful blue
+eyes--gazing at her.
+
+She had scarcely time to feel frightened, for almost instantaneously
+Sybil's "ghost" recurred to her memory.
+
+"He has found his way in, then," she thought, not without a slight
+and natural tremor, which, however, disappeared as she gazed, so
+pathetically gentle was the whole aspect of the intruder.
+
+But--his face changed curiously--the sight of hers, now fully in
+his view, seemed strangely to affect him. With a gesture of utter
+bewilderment he raised his hand to his forehead as if to brush something
+away--the cloud still resting on his brain--then a smile broke over the
+old face, a wonderful smile.
+
+"Marion," he said, "at last? I--I thought I was dreaming. I heard you
+playing in my dream. It is the right place though, 'Half-way between the
+stiles,' you said. I have waited so long and come so often, and now it
+is snowing again. Just a little, dear, nothing to hurt. Marion, my
+darling, why don't you speak? Is it all a dream--this fine room, the
+music and all? Are _you_ a dream?"
+
+He closed his eyes as if he were fainting. Inexpressibly touched, all
+Ellinor's womanly nature went out to him. She started forward, half
+leading, half lifting him to a seat close at hand.
+
+"I--I am not Marion," she said, and afterwards she wondered what had
+inspired the words, "but I am"--not "Ellinor," something made her change
+the name as he spoke--"I am Nelly."
+
+He opened his eyes again.
+
+"Little Nell," he said, "has she sent you down to me from heaven? My
+little Nell!"
+
+And then he fell back unconscious--this time he had fainted.
+
+She thought he was dead, but it was not so--her cries for help soon
+brought her friends, Mr. Raynald first of all. He did not seem startled,
+he soothed Ellinor at once.
+
+"It is poor old Giles," he said. "I know all about him, he has found his
+way in at last."
+
+"But--but----," stammered the girl, "there is something else, Mr.
+Raynald. I--I seem to remember something."
+
+She looked nearly as white as their poor visitor, and as Mr. Raynald
+glanced at her, a curious expression flitted across his own face.
+
+Could it be so? He knew all her story.
+
+"Wait a little, my dear," he said. "We must attend to poor Giles first."
+
+They were very kind and tender to the old man, but he seemed to be
+barely conscious, even after restoratives had brought him out of the
+actual fainting fit. Then Mrs. Raynald proposed that his servants--his
+housekeeper if he had one--should be sent for.
+
+And when faithful Betsy, stout as of old, though less nimble, made her
+appearance, her irrepressible emotion at the sight of Ellinor, pale and
+trembling though the young governess was, gave form and substance to Mr.
+Raynald's suspicions.
+
+Yes, they had met at last--father and daughter--"half-way between the
+stiles". He was "Dada," she was little "Nell". Might it not be that
+Marion's prayers had brought them together?
+
+Every reasonable proof was forthcoming--the little parcel of clothes,
+the correspondence in the dates, the strong resemblance to her mother.
+
+And--joy does not often kill. Barnett was able to understand it all
+better than might have been expected. He was never _quite_ himself, but
+infinitely better both in mind and body than poor old Betsy had ever
+dreamt of seeing him. And he was perfectly content--content to live as
+long as it should please God to spare him to his little Nell; ready to
+go to his Marion when the time should come.
+
+And Ellinor had her wish--a home, though not a "grand" one; some one of
+her "very own" to care for; a father's devoted love, and, to complete
+her happiness, the friends who had grown so dear to her close at hand.
+
+More may yet be hers in the future, for she is still young. Her father
+may live to see his grandchildren playing about the farmstead at
+Mayling, so that, though the name be changed, the old stock will still
+nourish where so many generations of its ancestors have sown and
+reaped.
+
+
+
+
+AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD.
+
+
+Have I ever seen a ghost?
+
+I do not know.
+
+That is the only reply I can truthfully make to the question now-a-days
+so often asked. And sometimes, if inquirers care to hear more, I go on
+to tell them the one experience which makes it impossible for me to
+reply positively either in the affirmative or negative, and restricts me
+to "I do not know".
+
+This was the story.
+
+I was staying with relations in the country. Not a very isolated or
+out-of-the-way part of the world, and yet rather inconvenient of access
+by the railway. For the nearest station was six miles off. Though the
+family I was visiting were nearly connected with me I did not know much
+of their home or its neighbourhood, as the head of the house, an uncle
+of mine by marriage, had only come into the property a year or two
+previously to the date of which I am writing, through the death of an
+elder brother.
+
+It was a nice place. A good comfortable old house, a prosperous,
+satisfactory estate. Everything about it was in good order, from the
+farmers, who always paid their rents, to the shooting, which was always
+good; from the vineries, which were noted, to the woods, where the
+earliest primroses in all the country side were yearly to be found.
+
+And my uncle and aunt and their family deserved these pleasant things
+and made a good use of them.
+
+But there was a touch of the commonplace about it all. There was nothing
+picturesque or romantic. The country was flat though fertile, the house,
+though old, was conveniently modern in its arrangements, airy, cheery,
+and bright.
+
+"Not even a ghost, or the shadow of one," I remember saying one day with
+a faint grumble.
+
+"Ah, well--as to that," said my uncle, "perhaps we----" but just then
+something interrupted him, and I forgot his unfinished speech.
+
+Into the happy party of which for the time being I was one, there fell
+one morning a sudden thunderbolt of calamity. The post brought news of
+the alarming illness of the eldest daughter--Frances, married a year or
+two ago and living, as the crow flies, at no very great distance. But
+as the crow flies is not always as the railroad runs, and to reach the
+Aldoyns' home from Fawne Court, my uncle's place, was a complicated
+business--it was scarcely possible to go and return in a day.
+
+"Can one of you come over?" wrote the young husband. "She is already out
+of danger, but longing to see her mother or one of you. She is worrying
+about the baby"--a child of a few months old--"and wishing for nurse."
+
+We looked at each other.
+
+"Nurse must go at once," said my uncle to me, as the eldest of the
+party. Perhaps I should here say that I am a widow, though not old, and
+with no close ties or responsibilities. "But for your aunt it is
+impossible."
+
+"Quite so," I agreed. For she was at the moment painfully lamed by
+rheumatism.
+
+"And the other girls are almost too young at such a crisis," my uncle
+continued. "Would you, Charlotte----" and he hesitated. "It would be
+such a comfort to have personal news of her."
+
+"Of course I will go," I said. "Nurse and I can start at once. I will
+leave her there, and return alone, to give you, I have no doubt, better
+news of poor Francie."
+
+He was full of gratitude. So were they all.
+
+"Don't hurry back to-night," said my uncle. "Stay till--till Monday if
+you like." But I could not promise. I knew they would be glad of news at
+once, and in a small house like my cousin's, at such a time, an inmate
+the more might be inconvenient.
+
+"I will try to return to-night," I said. And as I sprang into the
+carriage I added: "Send to Moore to meet the last train, unless I
+telegraph to the contrary."
+
+My uncle nodded; the boys called after me, "All right;" the old butler
+bowed assent, and I was satisfied.
+
+Nurse and I reached our journey's end promptly, considering the four or
+five junctions at which we had to change carriages. But on the whole
+"going," the trains fitted astonishingly.
+
+We found Frances better, delighted to see us, eager for news of her
+mother, and, finally, disposed to sleep peacefully now that she knew
+that there was an experienced person in charge. And both she and her
+husband thanked me so much that I felt ashamed of the little I had done.
+Mr. Aldoyn begged me to stay till Monday; but the house was upset, and I
+was eager to carry back my good tidings.
+
+"They are meeting me at Moore by the last train," I said. "No, thank
+you, I think it is best to go."
+
+"You will have an uncomfortable journey," he replied. "It is Saturday,
+and the trains will be late, and the stations crowded with the market
+people. It will be horrid for you, Charlotte."
+
+But I persisted.
+
+It _was_ rather horrid. And it was queer. There was a sort of uncanny
+eeriness about that Saturday evening's journey that I have never
+forgotten. The season was very early spring. It was not very cold, but
+chilly and ungenial. And there were such odd sorts of people about. I
+travelled second-class; for I am not rich, and I am very independent.
+I did not want my uncle to pay my fare, for I liked the feeling of
+rendering him some small service in return for his steady kindness to
+me. The first stage of my journey was performed in the company of two
+old naturalists travelling to Scotland to look for some small plant
+which was to be found only in one spot in the Highlands. This I gathered
+from their talk to each other. You never saw two such extraordinary
+creatures as they were. They both wore black kid gloves much too large
+for them, and the ends of the fingers waved about like feathers.
+
+Then followed two or three short transits, interspersed with weary
+waitings at stations. The last of these was the worst, and tantalising,
+too, for by this time I was within a few miles of Moore. The station was
+crowded with rough folk, all, it seemed to me, more or less tipsy. So I
+took refuge in a dark waiting-room on the small side line by which I was
+to proceed, where I felt I might have been robbed and murdered and no
+one the wiser.
+
+But at last came my slow little train, and in I jumped, to jump out
+again still more joyfully some fifteen minutes later when we drew up at
+Moore.
+
+I peered about for the carriage. It was not to be seen; only two or
+three tax-carts or dog-carts, farmers' vehicles, standing about, while
+their owners, it was easy to hear, were drinking far more than was good
+for them in the taproom of the Unicorn. Thence, nevertheless--not to
+the taproom, but to the front of the inn--I made my way, though not
+undismayed by the shouts and roars breaking the stillness of the quiet
+night. "Was the Fawne Court carriage not here?" I asked.
+
+The landlady was a good-natured woman, especially civil to any member of
+the "Court" family. But she shook her head.
+
+"No, no carriage had been down to-day. There must have been some
+mistake."
+
+There was nothing for it but to wait till she could somehow or other
+disinter a fly and a horse, and, worst of all a driver. For the "men"
+she had to call were all rather--"well, ma'am, you see it's Saturday
+night. We weren't expecting any one."
+
+And when, after waiting half an hour, the fly at last emerged, my heart
+almost failed me. Even before he drove out of the yard, it was very
+plain that if ever we reached Fawne Court alive, it would certainly be
+more thanks to good luck than to the driver's management.
+
+But the horse was old and the man had a sort of instinct about him. We
+got on all right till we were more than half way to our journey's end.
+The road was straight and the moonlight bright, especially after we had
+passed a certain corner, and got well out of the shade of the trees
+which skirted the first part of the way.
+
+Just past this turn there came a dip in the road. It went down, down
+gradually, for a quarter of a mile or more, and I looked up anxiously,
+fearful of the horse taking advantage of the slope. But no, he jogged
+on, if possible more slowly than before, though new terrors assailed me
+when I saw that the driver was now fast asleep, his head swaying from
+side to side with extraordinary regularity. After a bit I grew easier
+again; he seemed to keep his equilibrium, and I looked out at the side
+window on the moon-flooded landscape, with some interest. I had never
+seen brighter moonlight.
+
+Suddenly from out of the intense stillness and loneliness a figure, a
+human figure, became visible. It was that of a man, a young and active
+man, running along the footpath a few feet to our left, apparently
+from some whim, keeping pace with the fly. My first feeling was of
+satisfaction that I was no longer alone, at the tender mercies of my
+stupefied charioteer. But, as I gazed, a slight misgiving came over me.
+Who could it be running along this lonely road so late, and what was his
+motive in keeping up with us so steadily. It almost seemed as if he had
+been waiting for us, yet that, of course, was impossible. He was not
+very highwayman-like certainly; he was well-dressed--neatly-dressed that
+is to say, like a superior gamekeeper--his figure was remarkably good,
+tall and slight, and he ran gracefully. But there was something queer
+about him, and suddenly the curiosity that had mingled in my observation
+of him was entirely submerged in alarm, when I saw that, as he ran, he
+was slowly but steadily drawing nearer and nearer to the fly.
+
+"In another moment he will be opening the door and jumping in," I
+thought, and I glanced before me only to see that the driver was more
+hopelessly asleep than before; there was no chance of his hearing if
+I called out. And get out I could not without attracting the strange
+runner's attention, for as ill-luck would have it, the window was drawn
+up on the right side, and I could not open the door without rattling the
+glass. While, worse and worse, the left hand window was down! Even that
+slight protection wanting!
+
+I looked out once more. By this time the figure was close, close to the
+fly. Then an arm was stretched out and laid along the edge of the door,
+as if preparatory to opening it, and then, for the first time I saw his
+face. It was a young face, but terribly, horribly pale and ghastly, and
+the eyes--all was so visible in the moonlight--had an expression such as
+I had never seen before or since. It terrified me, though afterwards on
+recalling it, it seemed to me that it might have been more a look of
+agonised appeal than of menace of any kind.
+
+I cowered back into my corner and shut my eyes, feigning sleep. It was
+the only idea that occurred to me. My heart was beating like a sledge
+hammer. All sorts of thoughts rushed through me; among them I remember
+saying to myself: "He must be an escaped lunatic--his eyes are so
+awfully wild".
+
+How long I sat thus I don't know--whenever I dared to glance out
+furtively he was still there. But all at once a strange feeling of
+relief came over me. I sat up--yes, he was gone! And though, as I took
+courage, I leant out and looked round in every direction, not a trace of
+him was to be seen, though the road and the fields were bare and clear
+for a long distance round.
+
+When I got to Fawne Court I had to wake the lodge-keeper--every one was
+asleep. But my uncle was still up, though not expecting me, and very
+distressed he was at the mistake about the carriage.
+
+"However," he concluded, "all's well that ends well. It's delightful to
+have your good news. But you look sadly pale and tired, Charlotte."
+
+Then I told him of my fright--it seemed now so foolish of me, I said.
+But my uncle did not smile--on the contrary.
+
+"My dear," he said. "It sounds very like our ghost, though, of course,
+it may have been only one of the keepers."
+
+He told me the story. Many years ago in his grandfather's time, a young
+and favourite gamekeeper had been found dead in a field skirting the
+road down there. There was no sign of violence upon the body; it was
+never explained what had killed him. But he had had in his charge a
+watch--a very valuable one--which his master for some reason or other
+had handed to him to take home to the house, not wishing to keep it on
+him. And when the body was found late that night, the watch was not on
+it. Since then, so the story goes, on a moonlight night the spirit of
+the poor fellow haunts the spot. It is supposed that he wants to tell
+what had become of his master's watch, which was never found. But no one
+has ever had courage to address him.
+
+"He never comes farther than the dip in the road," said my uncle. "If
+you had spoken to him, Charlotte, I wonder if he would have told you his
+secret?"
+
+He spoke half laughingly, but I have never quite forgiven myself for my
+cowardice. It was the look in those eyes!
+
+
+
+
+"---- WILL NOT TAKE PLACE."
+
+
+"'Lingard,' 'Trevannion,'" murmured Captain Murray, as he ran his eye
+down the column of the morning paper specially devoted to so-called
+fashionable intelligence, "Lingard, Arthur Lingard; yes, I've met him;
+a very good fellow. And Trevannion; don't you know a Miss Trevannion,
+Bessie?"
+
+Mrs. Murray glanced up from her teacups.
+
+"What do you say, Walter? Trevannion; yes, I have met a girl of the name
+at my aunt's. A pretty girl, and I think I heard she was going to be
+married. Is that what you are talking about?"
+
+"No," her husband replied. "It's the other way--broken off, I wonder
+why."
+
+"What an old gossip you are," said Mrs. Murray. "No good reason at all,
+I daresay. People are so capricious now-a-days."
+
+"Still, they don't often announce a marriage till it's pretty certain
+to come off. This sort of thing," tapping the paper as he spoke, "isn't
+exactly pleasant."
+
+"Very much the reverse," agreed Mrs. Murray, and then they thought no
+more about it.
+
+"I wonder why," said a good many people that morning, when they caught
+sight of the announcement. For the two principals it concerned--Arthur
+Lingard, especially--had a large circle of friends and acquaintances, and
+their engagement had been the subject of much and hearty congratulation.
+It seemed so natural and fitting that these two should marry. Both
+young, amiable, good-looking, and sufficiently well off. Even the most
+cynical could discern no cloud in the bright sky of their future, no
+crook in the lot before them.
+
+And now--
+
+No marvel that Captain Murray's soliloquy was repeated by many.
+
+But who would have guessed that in one heart it was ever ringing with
+maddening anguish?
+
+"I wonder why, oh, I wonder why he has done it. Oh, if he would but tell
+me, it could not surely seem quite so unendurable."
+
+And Daisy Trevannion pressed her aching head, and her poor swollen eyes
+on to her mother's loving bosom in a sort of wild despair.
+
+"Mamma, mamma," she cried, "help me. I cannot be angry with him. I wish
+I could. He was so gentle, so sweet--and he is so heartbroken, I can see
+by his letter. Oh, mamma, what can it be?"
+
+But to this, even the devoted mother, who would gladly have given her
+own life to save her child this misery, could find no answer.
+
+This was what had happened.
+
+They had been engaged about three months, the wedding day was
+approximately fixed, when one morning the blow fell.
+
+A letter to Daisy's father, enclosing one to herself--a letter which
+made Mr. Trevannion draw his brows together in instinctive indignation,
+and then as the first impulse cooled a little, caused him to turn to his
+daughter with a movement of irritation, underneath which, hope had,
+nevertheless, found time to reassert itself.
+
+"Daisy," he exclaimed sharply, "what is the meaning of all this
+nonsense? Have you been quarrelling with Lingard? You're a bit of a
+spoilt child I know, my dear, but I don't like playing with edged
+tools--a man like Arthur won't stand being trifled with. Do you hear,
+Daisy--eh, what?"
+
+For the girl had scarcely caught the sense of his words, so absorbed was
+she in those of the short, all too short, but terrible letter she had
+just read--the letter addressed to herself, which began "Daisy, my
+Daisy, for the last time," and ended abruptly with the simple signature,
+"Arthur Lingard".
+
+She gazed up at her father--her white face all drawn, and as it were,
+withered with that minute's agony--her eyes dulled and yet wild. Never
+was there such a metamorphosis from the happy, laughing girl who had
+hurried in with some pretty excuse for her unpunctuality.
+
+"Daisy, my child! Daisy," her father repeated, repenting already of his
+hasty remarks, "don't take it so seriously." "Margaret," to his wife,
+"speak to her."
+
+And Mrs. Trevannion, as pale almost as her daughter, drew the sheet of
+note-paper from the girl's unresisting hands, while her husband held out
+to her his own letter.
+
+"Some complete mistake," she said, "some misplaced quixotry. Daisy, my
+own darling, do not take it so seriously. Your father will see him--you
+will, will you not, Hugh?" detecting the proud hesitation in her
+husband's face. "It is not as if we did not know him well, and all about
+him. Your father will find out, Daisy, and make it all right."
+
+Mr. Trevannion did not contradict her, but murmured some consolatory
+words, and then the mother led Daisy away, and to a certain extent the
+girl allowed herself to be reassured.
+
+"I will consult Keir if necessary," said the father when out of hearing
+of his daughter. "He is the natural person, both as our own connection
+and because he introduced Lingard, and thinks so highly of him. But
+first I will see Arthur alone. The fewer mixed up in such a case the
+better."
+
+Mrs. Trevannion agreed. She was constitutionally sanguine, but a painful
+idea struck her as her husband spoke.
+
+"Hugh," she said hesitatingly, "you don't think--it surely is not
+possible that his--that Arthur's brain is affected?"
+
+"His brain--tut, nonsense! What a woman's idea!" replied Mr. Trevannion
+irritably. "Why, he is receiving compliments on every side, from the
+very highest quarters, too, on that article of his on the Capricorn
+Islands. Brain affected, indeed!"
+
+And to a whisper of, "I was thinking of over-work," which followed him
+apologetically, he vouchsafed no reply.
+
+Some intensely trying days passed. Mr. Trevannion's interview with his
+recalcitrant son-in-law-to-be, proved a complete failure. Nothing,
+absolutely nothing was to be "got out of the fellow," he told his wife
+in mingled anger and wretchedness, for the poor man was a devoted
+father. Arthur was gentleness itself, respectful, deferential even,
+to the man whose peculiarly disagreeable position he felt for
+inexpressibly. But he was as firm, as hard in his decision that all
+should be, must be, over between Miss Trevannion and himself, as if his
+own heart had suddenly turned to iron, as if he possessed no feelings at
+all. He grew white to the lips, with a terrible death-like whiteness,
+when he named her; he said with a quiet, deliberate emphasis, more
+impressive by far than any passionate declaration, that never, never
+while he lived, would he forgive himself for the trouble he had brought
+into her young life, but that he was powerless to do otherwise, he was
+absolutely without a choice. As to the reason for the breaking off of
+the engagement to be given to the world, he left it entirely in the
+Trevannions' own hands; he would contradict nothing they thought it best
+to say; but, if possible, he grew still whiter when his visitor from
+under his shaggy eyebrows glanced at him with a look of contempt while
+he replied cuttingly that he had no love of falsehood. For his part he
+would tell the truth, and in the end he believed it would be best for
+Daisy that all the world should know the way in which she had been
+treated.
+
+"Best for her and worst for you," he repeated.
+
+And Arthur only said:--
+
+"I hope so. It must be as you think well."
+
+Then Trevannion softened again a little.
+
+"I shall say nothing to any one at present," he went on. "I must see
+Keir; possibly he may understand you better than I can."
+
+But, "No, it will be no use," the young man repeated coldly, though his
+very heart was wrung for the father, crushing down his own pride while
+he thought he saw still the ghost of a hope. "It will be no use. No one
+can do anything."
+
+"And you adhere to your determination not to see my--not to see Daisy
+again?"
+
+Lingard bowed his head.
+
+And Mr. Trevannion left him.
+
+Philip Keir was no blood relation of the Trevannions, but a cousin by
+marriage and a very intimate friend. He was some years older than Mr.
+Lingard, and it was through him that the acquaintance resulting in
+Daisy's engagement had begun. He was a reserved man, with a frank and
+cordial manner. Daisy thought she knew him well, but as to this she was
+in some directions entirely mistaken.
+
+He was away from home when Mr. Trevannion called on him, driving
+straight to his chambers from the fruitless interview with Lingard.
+Philip did not return for a couple of days, and had left no address.
+Hence ensued the painful interval of suspense alluded to.
+
+But on the third evening a hansom dashed up to the Trevannions' door,
+and Mr. Keir jumped out. It was late, but there was no hesitation as to
+admitting him.
+
+"I found your note," he said, as he grasped his host's hand, "and came
+straight on. I have only just got back. What is the matter? Tell me at
+once."
+
+He was a self-controlled man, but his agitation was evident. "Daisy?" he
+added hastily.
+
+"Yes," replied the father. The two were alone in his study. "Poor
+Daisy!" And then he told the story.
+
+Keir listened, though not altogether in silence, for broken
+exclamations, which he seemed unable to repress, broke out from him more
+than once.
+
+"Impossible----inconceivable!" he muttered, "Lingard, of all men, to
+behave like a----" he stopped short, at a loss for a comparison.
+
+"Then you can throw no light upon it--none whatever?" said Mr.
+Trevannion. "We had hoped--foolishly, perhaps--I had somehow hoped that
+you might have helped us. You know him well, you see, you have been so
+much together, your acquaintance is of old date, and you must understand
+any peculiarities of his character."
+
+His tone still sounded as if he could not bring himself finally to
+accept the position. Keir was inexpressibly sorry for him.
+
+"I know of none," he said. "Frankly, I know of nothing about him that is
+not estimable. And, as you say, we have been much and most intimately
+associated. We have travelled together half over the world, we have been
+dependent on each other for months at a time, and the more I have seen
+of him the more I have admired and--yes--loved him. If I had to pick a
+fault in him I would say it is a curious spice of obstinacy--I have seen
+it very strongly now and then. Once," and his face grew grave, "once, we
+nearly quarrelled because he would not give in on a certain point. It
+was in Siberia, not long ago," and here Philip gave a sort of shiver,
+"it was very horrible--no need to go into details. He, Arthur, got it
+into his head that a particular course of action was called for, and
+there was no moving him. However it ended all right. I had almost
+forgotten it. But he was determined."
+
+Mr. Trevannion listened, but vaguely. Keir's remarks scarcely seemed to
+the point.
+
+"Obstinate!" he repeated. "Yes, but that doesn't explain things. There
+was no question of giving in. They had had no quarrel. Daisy was
+perfectly happy. The only thing she can say on looking back over the
+last week or two closely, is that Arthur had seemed depressed now and
+then, and when she taxed him with it he evaded a reply. You don't think,
+Philip, that there is anything of that kind--melancholia, you know--in
+his family?"
+
+"Bless you, no, my dear sir. He comes of the healthiest stock possible.
+People one knows all about for generations. No, no, it's nothing of that
+kind," Keir replied. "And--what man ever had such happy prospects?"
+
+"Then what in heaven's name is it?" said Mr. Trevannion, bringing his
+hand down violently on the table beside which they were sitting. "Can
+you get it out of him, if you can do nothing else for us, Philip? It is
+our right to know; it is--it is due to my child, it is----" he stopped,
+his face working with emotion. "He won't see her, you know," he added
+disconnectedly.
+
+"I will try," said Philip. "It is indeed the least I can do. If--if I
+could get him to see her--Daisy; surely that would be the best chance."
+
+Mr. Trevannion looked at him sharply, scrutinisingly.
+
+"You--you are satisfied then--entirely satisfied that there is nothing
+we need dread her being mixed up in, so to say? Nothing wrong--nothing
+to shock a girl like her? You see," half apologetically, "his refusing
+to see her makes one afraid----"
+
+"I am as sure of him as of myself--surer," said Philip earnestly. "There
+is nothing in his past to explain it--nothing."
+
+"An early secret marriage; a wife he thought dead turning up again,"
+suggested the father. "It sounds absurd, sensational--but after
+all--there must be some reason."
+
+"Not that," said Keir, getting up as he spoke. "Well then, I will see
+him first thing in the morning, and communicate with you as soon as
+possible after I have done so. You will tell Mrs. Trevannion and--and
+Daisy that I will do my best?"
+
+"My wife is still in the drawing-room. Will you not see her to-night?"
+
+Philip shook his head.
+
+"It is late," he said, "and I am dusty and unpresentable. Besides, there
+is really nothing to say. To-morrow it shall be as you all think best. I
+will see Mrs. Trevannion--and Daisy," here he flushed a little, but his
+host did not observe it, "if you like and if she wishes it. Heaven send
+I may have better news than I expect."
+
+And with a warm pressure of his old friend's hand, Mr. Keir left him.
+
+The two younger men met the next morning. There was no difficulty about
+it, for Lingard, knowing by instinct that the interview must take place,
+had determined to face it. So of the two he was the more prepared, the
+more forearmed.
+
+The conversation was long--an hour, two hours passed before poor Philip
+could make up his mind to accept the ultimatum contained in the few hard
+words with which Arthur Lingard first greeted him.
+
+"I know what you have come about. I knew you must come. You could not
+help yourself. But, Philip, it will save you pain--I don't mind for
+myself; nothing can matter now--if you will at once take my word for it
+that nothing you can say will do the least shadow of good. No, don't
+shake hands with me. I would rather you didn't."
+
+And he put his right arm behind his back and stood there, leaning
+against the mantelpiece, facing his friend.
+
+Philip looked up at him grimly.
+
+"No," he said, "I've given my word to--to these poor dear people, and
+I'll stick to it. You've got to make up your mind to a cross-examination,
+Lingard."
+
+But through or below the grimness was a terrible pity. Philip's heart
+was very tender for the man whose inexplicable conduct was yet filling
+him with indignation past words. Arthur was so changed--the last week or
+two had done the work of years--all the youthfulness, the almost boyish
+brightness, which had been one of his charms, was gone, dead. He was
+pale with a strange indescribable pallor, that told of days, and worse
+still, of nights of agony; the lines of his face were hardened; the lips
+spoke of unalterable determination. Only once had Philip seen him look
+thus, and then it was but in expression--the likeness and the contrast
+struck him curiously. The other time it had been resolution temporarily
+hardening a youthful face; now--what did it remind him of? A monk who
+had gone through a life-time of spiritual struggle alone, unaided by
+human sympathy? A martyr--no, there was no enthusiasm. It was all dull,
+dead anguish of unalterable resolve.
+
+There was silence for a moment. Keir was choking down an uncomfortable
+something in his throat, and bracing himself to the inquisitorial
+torture before him to perform.
+
+"Well," said Arthur, at last.
+
+And Philip looked up at him again.
+
+How queer his eyes were--they used to be so deeply blue. Daisy had often
+laughed at his changeable eyes, as she called them--blue in the daytime,
+almost black at night, but always lustrous and liquid. Now, they were
+glassy, almost filmy. What was it? A sudden thought struck Philip.
+
+"Arthur!" he exclaimed, "Arthur, old fellow, are you going blind? Is
+that the mystery? If it is that, good Lord, how little you know her, if
+you think that----"
+
+Arthur's pale lips grew visibly paler. He had been unprepared for attack
+in this direction, and for the moment he quailed before it.
+
+"No," he whispered hoarsely, "it is not that. Would to God it were!"
+
+But almost instantly he had mastered himself, and from that moment
+throughout the interview not even the mention of Daisy's name had power
+to stir him.
+
+And Philip, annoyed with his own impulsiveness, stiffened again.
+
+"You are determined not to reveal your secret," he began, "but I want to
+come to an understanding with you on one point. If I guess it, if I put
+my finger on it, will you give me the satisfaction of owning that I have
+done so."
+
+Lingard hesitated.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I will do so on one condition--your word of honour,
+your oath, never to tell it to any human being."
+
+"Not to--her--Daisy?"
+
+"Least of all."
+
+Philip groaned. This did not look very promising for the meeting with
+Daisy, which at the bottom of his heart he believed in as his last--his
+trump card.
+
+Still, he had gained something.
+
+"Then, my first question seems, in the face of that, almost a mockery. I
+was going to ask you," and he half gasped--"it is nothing--nothing about
+her that is at the root of all this misery? No fancy," again the gasp,
+"that--that she doesn't care for you, or love you enough? No nonsense
+about your not being suited to each other, or that you couldn't make a
+girl of her sensitive, high-strung nature happy?"
+
+"No," said Arthur, and the word seemed to ring through the room. "No, I
+know she loves me as I love her. Oh, no, not quite like that, I trust,"
+and his voice was firm through all the tragedy of the last sentence.
+"And I believe I could have made her very happy. Leave her name out of
+it now, Phil, once for all. It has nothing to do personally with the
+woman who is, and always will be, to me my perfect ideal of sweetness
+and excellence and truth and beauty."
+
+"Then it has to do with yourself," murmured Keir. "Come, the radius is
+narrowing. I flew out at poor Trevannion when he suggested it, but all
+the same, it's nothing in your past you're ashamed of that's come to
+light, is it? The best fellows in the world make fools of themselves
+sometimes, you know. Don't mind my asking."
+
+"I don't mind," said Arthur wearily, "but it's no use. No, it's nothing
+like that. I have done nothing I am ashamed of. I am not secretly
+married, nor have I committed forgery," with a very ghastly attempt at a
+smile.
+
+"Then," said Philip, "is it something about your family. Have you found
+out that there's a strain of insanity in the Lingards perhaps? People
+exaggerate that kind of thing now-a-days. There's a touch of it in us
+all, I take it."
+
+"No," said Arthur, again "my family's all right. I've no very near
+relations except my sister, but you know her, and you know all about us.
+We're not adventurers in any sense of the word."
+
+"Far from it," agreed Philip warmly. Then for a moment or two he
+relapsed into silence. "Does your sister--does Lady West know
+about--about this mysterious affair?" he asked abruptly, after some
+pondering.
+
+"Nothing whatever. I, of course, was bound by every consideration not to
+tell her--to tell no one anything till it was understood by--the
+Trevannions. And I had no reason for consulting her or--any friend,"
+Arthur replied.
+
+He spoke jerkily and with effort, as if he were putting force on himself
+to endure what yet he was convinced was absolutely useless torture.
+
+But his words gave Keir a new opening, which he was quick to seize.
+
+"That's just it," he exclaimed eagerly. "That's just where it strikes
+me you've gone wrong. You should have consulted some one--not myself,
+not your sister even; I don't say whom, but some one sensible and
+trustworthy. I believe your mind has got warped. You've been thinking
+over this trouble, whatever it is, till you can't see it rightly. You've
+exaggerated it out of all proportion, and you shouldn't trust your own
+morbid judgment."
+
+Lingard did not answer. He stood motionless, his eyes fixed upon the
+ground. For an instant a wild hope dashed through Philip that at last
+he had made some impression. But as Arthur slowly raised his dim, worn
+eyes, and looked him in the face, it faded again, even before the young
+man spoke.
+
+"To satisfy you, I will tell you this much. I have consulted one
+person--a man whom you would allow was trustworthy and wise and good.
+From him I have hidden nothing whatever, and he agrees with me that I
+have no choice--that duty points unmistakably to the course I am
+pursuing."
+
+Again a flash of suggestion struck his hearer.
+
+"One person--a man," he repeated. "Arthur, is it some priest? Have they
+been converting or perverting you, my boy? Are you going over to Rome,
+fancying yourself called to be a Trappist, or a--those fellows at the
+Grande Chartreuse, you remember?"
+
+For the second time during the interview, Arthur smiled, and his smile
+was a trifle less ghastly this time.
+
+"No, again," he said. "You're quite on a wrong tack. I have not the
+slightest inclination that way. I--I wish I had. No, my adviser is no
+priest. But he's one of the best of men, all the same, and one of the
+wisest."
+
+"You won't tell me who he is?"
+
+"I cannot."
+
+"And"--Philip was reluctant to try his last hope, and felt conscious
+that he would do it clumsily--"Arthur," he burst out, "you will see
+her--Daisy--once more? She has a right to it. You are putting enough
+upon her without refusing this one request of hers."
+
+He stood up as he spoke. He himself had grown strangely pale, and seeing
+this, as he glanced at him, Lingard's own face became ashen.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Good God!" he said, "I think this might have been spared me. No, I will
+not see her again. The only thing I can do for her is to refuse this
+last request. Tell her so, Philip--tell her what I say. And now leave
+me. Don't shake hands with me. I don't wish it, and I daresay you don't.
+If--if we never meet again, you and I--and who knows?--if this is our
+goodbye, thank you, old fellow, thank you for all you have tried to do.
+Perhaps I know the cost of it to you better than you imagine. Good-bye,
+Phil!"
+
+Keir turned towards the door. But he looked back ere he reached it.
+Arthur was standing as he had been--motionless.
+
+"You're not thinking of killing yourself, are you?" he said quietly.
+
+Arthur looked at him. His eyes had a different expression now--or was
+it that something was gleaming softly in them that had not been there
+before?
+
+"No, no--I am not going to be false to my colours. I--I don't care to
+talk much about it, but--I am a Christian, Phil."
+
+"At least I can put that horrid idea out of the poor child's head,
+then," thought Keir to himself. Though to Arthur he did not reply, save
+by a bend of his head.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Time passed. And in his wings there was healing.
+
+At twenty-four, Daisy Trevannion, though her face bore traces of
+suffering of no common order, was yet a sweet and serene woman. To some
+extent she had outlived the strange tragedy of her earlier girlhood.
+
+It had never been explained. The one person who might naturally have
+been looked to, to throw some light on the mystery, Lingard's sister,
+Lady West, was, as her brother had stated, completely in the dark. At
+first she had been disposed to blame Daisy, or her family; and though
+afterwards convinced that in so doing she was entirely mistaken, she
+never became in any sense confidential with them on the matter. And
+after a few months they met no more. For her husband was sent abroad,
+and detained there on an important diplomatic mission.
+
+Now and then, in the earlier days of her broken engagement, Daisy would
+ask Philip to "try to find out if Mary West knows where he is". And to
+please her he did so. But all he learnt was--what indeed was all the
+sister had to tell--that Arthur was off again on his old travels--to
+the Capricorn Islands or to the moon, it was not clear which.
+
+"He has promised that I shall hear from him once a year--as near my
+birthday as he can manage. That is all I can tell you," she said, trying
+to make light of it.
+
+And whether this promise was kept or no, one thing was certain--Arthur
+Lingard had entirely disappeared from London society.
+
+At twenty-five, Daisy married Philip. He had always loved her, though he
+had never allowed her to suspect it; and knowing herself and her history
+as he did, he was satisfied with the true affection she could give
+him--satisfied, that is to say, in the hope and belief that his own
+devotion would kindle ever-increasing response on her side. And his
+hopes were not disappointed. They were very happy.
+
+Now for the sequel to the story--such sequel, that is to say, as there
+is to give--a suggestion of explanation rather than any positive
+_dénoument_ of the mystery.
+
+They--Philip and Daisy--had been married for two or three years when one
+evening it chanced to them to dine at the house of a rather well-known
+literary man with whom they were but slightly acquainted. They had been
+invited for a special reason; their hosts were pleasant and genial
+people who liked to get those about them with interests in common.
+And Keir, though his wings were now so happily clipt, still held his
+position as a traveller who had seen and noted much in his former
+wanderings.
+
+"We think your husband may enjoy a talk with Sir Abel Maynard, who is
+with us for a few days," Mrs. Thorncroft had said in her note.
+
+And Sir Abel, not being of the surly order of lions who refuse to roar
+when they know that their audience is eager to hear them, made himself
+most agreeable. He appreciated Mr. Keir's intelligence and sympathy, and
+was by no means indifferent to Mrs. Keir's beauty, though "evidently,"
+he thought to himself, "she is not over fond of reminiscences of her
+husband's travels. Perhaps she is afraid of his taking flight again."
+
+During dinner the conversation turned, not unnaturally, on a subject
+just at that moment much to the fore. For it was about the time of the
+heroic Damien's death.
+
+"No," said Sir Abel, in answer to some inquiry, "I never visited his
+place. But I have seen lepers--to perfection. By-the-by," he went on
+suddenly, "I came across a queer, a very queer, story a while ago. I
+wonder, Keir, if you can throw any light upon it?"
+
+But at that moment Mrs. Thorncroft gave the magic signal and the women
+left the room.
+
+By degrees the men came straggling upstairs after them, then a little
+music followed, but it was not till much later in the evening than was
+usual with him that Philip made his appearance in the drawing-room,
+preceded by Sir Abel Maynard. Philip looked tired and rather "distrait,"
+thought Daisy, whose eyes were keen with the quick discernment of
+perfect affection, and she was not sorry when, before very long, he
+whispered to her that it was getting late, might they not leave soon?
+Nor was she sorry that during the interval before her husband made this
+suggestion, Sir Abel, who had been devoting himself to her, had avoided
+all mention of his travels, and had been amusing her with his criticism
+of a popular novel instead. She could never succeed altogether in
+banishing the painful association of Arthur Lingard from allusion to
+her husband's old wanderings.
+
+Poor Arthur! Where was he now?
+
+"Philip, dear," she said, slipping her hand into his when they found
+themselves alone, and with a longish drive before them, in their own
+little brougham, "there is something the matter. You have heard
+something? Tell me what it is."
+
+Keir hesitated.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I suppose it is best to tell you. It is the strange
+story Sir Abel alluded to before you left the room."
+
+"About--about Arthur? Is it about Arthur?" whispered she, shivering a
+little.
+
+Philip put his arm round her.
+
+"I can't say. We shall perhaps never know certainly," he replied. "But
+it looks very like it. Listen, dear. Some little time ago--two or
+three years ago--Maynard spent some days at one of those awful leper
+settlements--never mind where. I would just as soon you did not know.
+There, to his amazement, among the most devoted of the attendants upon
+the poor creatures he found an Englishman, young still, at least by his
+own account, though to judge by his appearance it would have been
+impossible to say. For he was himself far gone, very far gone in some
+ways, in the disease. But he was, or had been, a man of strong
+constitution and enormous determination. Ill as he was, he yet managed
+to tend others with indescribable devotion. They looked upon him as a
+saint. Maynard did not like to inquire what had brought him to such a
+pass--he, the poor fellow, was a perfect gentleman. But the day Sir Abel
+was leaving, the Englishman took him to some extent into his confidence,
+and asked him to do him a service. This was his story. Some years
+before, in quite a different part of the world, the young man had nursed
+a leper--a dying leper--for some hours. He believed for long that he had
+escaped all danger, in fact he never thought of it; but it was not so.
+There must have been an unhealed wound of some kind--a slight scratch
+would do it--on his hand. No need to go into the details of his first
+misgivings, of the horror of the awful certainty at last. It came upon
+him in the midst of the greatest happiness; he was going to be married
+to a girl he adored."
+
+"Oh, Philip, Philip, why did he not tell?" Daisy wailed.
+
+"He consulted the best and greatest physician, who--as a friend, he
+said--approved of the course he had mapped out for himself. He decided
+to tell no one, to break off his engagement, and die out of her--the
+girl's--life; not once, after he was sure, did he see her again. He
+would not even risk touching her hand. And he believed that telling
+would only have brought worse agony upon her in the end than the agony
+he was forced to inflict. For he was a doomed man, though they gave him
+a few years to live. And he did the only thing he could do with those
+years. He set off to the settlement in question. Maynard was to call
+there some months later on his way home, and the young man knew he would
+be dead then, and so he was. But he showed Maynard a letter explaining
+all, that he had got ready--all but the address--_that_, he would not
+add till he was in the act of dying. There must be no risk of her
+knowing till he was dead. And this letter Maynard was to fetch on his
+return. He did so, but--there had been no time to add the address--death
+had come suddenly. All sorts of precautions had been ordered by the poor
+fellow as to disinfecting the letter and so on. But it did not seem to
+Maynard that these had been taken. So he contented himself by spreading
+out the paper on the sea-shore and learning it by heart, and then
+leaving it. The sum total of it was what I have told you, but not one
+name was named."
+
+Daisy was sobbing quietly.
+
+"Was it he?" she said.
+
+"Yes, I feel sure of it," Philip replied. "For I can supply the missing
+link. The one time I really quarrelled with Arthur was when we were in
+Siberia. He _would_ spend a night in a dying leper's hut. I would have
+done it myself, I believe and hope, had it been necessary. But by riding
+on a few miles we could have got help for the poor creature--which
+indeed I did--and more efficient help than ours. But Lingard was
+determined, and no ill seemed to come of it. I had almost forgotten the
+circumstance. I never associated it with the mystery that caused you
+such anguish, my poor darling."
+
+"It was he," whispered Daisy. "Philip, he was a hero after all."
+
+"Not even you can feel that, as I do," Keir replied.
+
+Then they were silent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few weeks afterwards came a letter from Lady West, in her far-off
+South American home. Daisy had not heard from her for years.
+
+"By circuitous ways, I need not explain the details," she wrote, "I have
+learnt that my darling brother is dead. I thought I had better tell you.
+I am sure his most earnest wish was that you should live to be happy,
+dear Daisy, as I trust you are. And I know you have long forgiven him
+the sorrow he caused you--it was worse still for him."
+
+"I wonder," said Daisy, "if she knows more?"
+
+But the letter seemed to add certainty to their own conviction.
+
+
+
+
+THE CLOCK THAT STRUCK THIRTEEN.
+
+
+"You misunderstand me wilfully, Helen. I neither said nor inferred
+anything of the kind."
+
+"What did you mean then, for if words to you bear a different
+interpretation from what they do to me, I must trouble you to speak in
+_my_ language when addressing me," angrily retorted a young girl, with
+what nature had intended to be a very pretty face with a charming
+expression, but which at the present moment was far from deserving the
+latter part of the description. Eyes flashing, cheeks burning and hands
+clenched in the excess of her indignation, stood Helen Beaumont by the
+window of her pretty little sitting-room, or "studio" as she loved to
+call it, presenting a striking contrast to the peaceful scene without;
+where a carefully tended garden still looked bright with the remaining
+flowers of late September. Her companion, standing in the attitude
+invariably assumed now-a-days by novelists' heroes, namely, leaning
+against the mantelpiece, was a young man of equally prepossessing
+appearance with her own. At first glance no one would have suspected him
+of sharing any of the young lady's excitement, for his expression was so
+calm as almost to merit the description of sleepy. Looking more closely,
+however, the signs of some unusual disturbance or annoyance were to be
+descried, for his face was slightly flushed and his blue eyes had lost
+the look of sweet temper evidently their ordinary expression.
+
+"What I meant to say, Helen, was not, as you choose to misinterpret it,
+that I blame you for proper womanly courage and spirit, than which, I
+consider few things more admirable, nor as you are well aware do I
+admire the sweetly silly and affectedly timid order of young ladies. But
+this I do mean and repeat, that I think your persistence in this foolish
+scheme a piece of sheer bravado and foolhardiness, totally unworthy of
+any sensible person's approval, and what is more----"
+
+"Thank you, Malcolm, or rather Mr. Willoughby, I have heard quite
+enough,"--and as she spoke, Helen turned from the window out of which
+she had been gazing while Malcolm spoke, with, it must be confessed,
+very little interest in the varied tints of the dahlias blooming in all
+their rich brilliance on the terrace,--"I have heard quite enough, and
+think myself exceedingly fortunate in having heard it now before it
+is too late. You may imagine," she continued, "that I am speaking in
+temper, but it is not so. I have for some time suspected, and now feel
+convinced, that we are not suited to each other. Your own words bear
+witness to your opinion of me, 'self-willed, foolhardy, unwomanly,' and
+I know not what other pretty expressions you have applied to me, and for
+my part I tell you simply that I cannot and will not marry a man whose
+opinion of what a woman should be is like yours; and who insults me
+constantly as you do, by telling me how far short I fall of his ideal.
+Marry your ideal, Malcolm Willoughby, and I shall wish you joy of her.
+Some silly little fool who dares not move a step alone in her bewitching
+helplessness. But do not think to convert _me_ into such a piece of
+contemptible inanity," and so saying she turned towards the door.
+
+"Helen," said Malcolm quietly, so quietly that Helen was arrested in
+spite of herself, "you are unjust, unreasonable and ungenerous. You know
+that I never cared for any woman but you, you know that nothing pleases
+me more than to witness your superiority in numberless particulars to
+the general run of girls, and you know too the pride and pleasure I take
+in your skill as an artist; but blinded by self-will you will not see
+the perfect reasonableness of my request that you will abandon this
+absurd expedition. If not for your own sake, at least do so for Edith's,
+who is as you know left in your special charge by Leonard."
+
+The first part of this speech seemed, to judge by Helen's transparent
+countenance, likely to soften and move her, but the unlucky word
+"absurd" and the tone in which Malcolm spoke, as if it was necessary to
+remind her of her duty, effectually did away with any good result that
+his remonstrance might have worked. She turned, with her hand on the
+door, and saying, "I have told you my decision, Mr. Willoughby, and I
+wish you good-evening," left the room. Malcolm remained behind, lost
+in thought of no pleasurable nature. At last he too left the little
+sitting-room, after first ringing the bell and ordering his horse to be
+brought round. Making his way to the front entrance he there "mounted
+and rode away," his spirits, poor fellow, by no means the better for
+his visit.
+
+It is time, I think, to explain the cause of the lovers' quarrel
+above described. Helen and Edith Beaumont were orphans, left to the
+guardianship of their brother Leonard, in whose house we have seen the
+former. Delicacy, induced by a severe illness some months previously,
+had obliged Mr. Beaumont, accompanied by his wife, to go for the autumn
+and winter months to the south of France, leaving his sisters at home
+under the nominal chaperonage of an elderly aunt, who performed her duty
+to the perfect satisfaction of her nieces by letting them do exactly as
+they liked. More correctly speaking, perhaps, exactly as Helen liked,
+for the younger of the two, Edith, a girl of seventeen and four years
+her sister's junior, could hardly be said to have likes or dislikes
+distinct from those of Helen. Possibly Mr. Beaumont might not have left
+the two to their own devices with so easy a mind, had he not quitted
+home happy in the knowledge of Helen's engagement to his friend and
+neighbour Malcolm Willoughby. The gentleman in question lived within a
+few miles of our heroine's home, having succeeded some years before to
+his father's property. His only sister, Mrs. Lindsay, was at this time
+living with him for a few months while awaiting her husband's return
+from India, and though some years older, was, next to her sister,
+Helen's most valued friend and companion. Malcolm Willoughby was a man
+of high character, peculiarly fitted, by his unusual amount of sterling
+good sense, to be the guide of an impulsive, enthusiastic girl like
+pretty Helen Beaumont, whom to know was to love, and who would have been
+altogether charming but for her inordinate amount of self-will and
+inveterate dislike to being, as she expressed it, "ordered" to do or not
+to do whatever came into her head. She and her sister had real talent as
+artists, and their spirited and well-executed landscapes bore but little
+resemblance to the insipid productions of most young lady painters. To
+improving herself in this direction Helen had devoted much time and
+labour. Unfortunately, it had so absorbed her thoughts and desires that
+in its pursuance she was inclined sometimes to forget what were for
+her more important avocations. Helen's fortunate engagement to Mr.
+Willoughby had for some time past corrected these only objectionable
+tendencies in her character, and all had gone smoothly and happily till
+the date at which our story commences, when, unluckily, some artist
+friends had filled her head with their descriptions of the exquisite
+autumn scenery, "effects of foliage," etc., to be seen in a mountainous
+and hitherto little explored part of Wales. Her imagination, and through
+her that of her sister Edith, ran wild on the subject, and now nothing
+would satisfy her but a journey to the spot in question, by themselves,
+in order that they might enjoy their freedom to the utmost, and revel in
+the delight of painting some of the wonderful Welsh scenery described to
+them. The idea had at first been mooted half in joke, but an impolitic
+expression of strong disapprobation on the part of Mr. Willoughby had
+done more to determine Helen on carrying it out than all the anticipated
+artistic enjoyment.
+
+"It will be just the opportunity I wanted," thought the foolish girl,
+"of showing him that I do not intend to be a silly nonentity of a wife
+with no opinion of my own, and hedged in by all the absurd old-fashioned
+conventionalities which will not allow a woman to have an existence of
+her own or give her opportunity to cultivate what talents she may
+possess."
+
+And once determined, Miss Helen remained inflexible. In vain Mr.
+Willoughby remonstrated, in vain even their indulgent old aunt expressed
+her horror at the idea of "two young girls scouring the country by
+themselves," her own feebleness rendering her accompanying them out of
+the question. Go to Wales Helen and Edith must, and go they would, till
+at last the discussion with her _fiancé_ terminated in the disastrous
+manner above recorded.
+
+I will not undertake to describe Helen's feelings, when, in the solitude
+of her own room, she thought over what she had done. Had she herself
+been obliged to put them into words, I believe she would have repeated
+that she had not acted in temper and that the stand she had made for her
+womanly freedom, as she would have expressed it, had been an act of
+supreme heroism and devotion to the cause of right. She said all this
+to herself and tried hard, very hard to believe it; and to stifle the
+little voice at the very bottom of her heart which whispered that
+she had behaved like a silly, self-willed, petted child, and shown
+herself undeserving of so good a gift as the love of a man like
+Malcolm Willoughby. The little voice was smothered for the time by
+exaggerated anticipations of the delights of their tour and attempted
+self-congratulations at her newly regained liberty to do as she chose;
+for Malcolm did not come near her again, and it took all her pride to
+hide from herself and others the shock she felt through all her being
+when, in the course of a few days, she heard accidentally that Mr.
+Willoughby was leaving home for an uncertain length of time.
+
+"He has taken me at my word," thought she, "but of course I meant him to
+do so," and she hurried on the preparations for their journey which they
+were now on the eve of.
+
+"You will at least take Maxwell," said Aunt Fanny timidly.
+
+"Maxwell, aunt! No, thank you," said Helen ironically; "she would be
+crying for her spring mattress the first night and thinking she was
+going to die if she heard the wind howl. No, thank you, I mean to be
+independent for once in my life, and so does Edith."
+
+Other twenty-four hours saw our two young ladies on their way.
+Unaccustomed as they were to travelling alone they got on very well for
+the greater part of their journey, till they arrived at a certain
+railway station in Wales, of name unpronounceable by civilised tongue,
+but which sounded to them like that of the place where they were to
+leave the railway. Never doubting but what they were right in so doing
+Helen and Edith calmly descended from their carriage, watched the train
+disappear in the tunnel hard by, and then began to make inquiries for a
+conveyance to transport themselves and their luggage, white umbrellas,
+easels and all, the five or six miles which they imagined were all that
+divided them from their destination. A colloquy ensued with the most
+intelligible of two or three fly-drivers, carmen, or whatever these
+personages are called in Wales; but what was Helen's consternation on
+learning that fifteen miles at least remained to be traversed; they
+having left the railway at Llanfar, two stations too soon, instead of
+remaining in it till they reached Llanfair, the point nearest to the
+farm-house where lodgings had been taken for them. No chance of a train
+to Llanfair till to-morrow morning, for the line was a new one, and the
+traffic as yet but small. No prospect of a night's accommodation where
+they were. Nothing for it but to trust to the driver's assurance that he
+and his unpromising-looking horse could easily convey them to the
+farm-house, with the inevitably unpronounceable name. With some
+unconfessed misgivings Helen and Edith mounted the vehicle awaiting
+them, and drove off along a muddy, jolting lane into the quickly
+gathering gloom.
+
+Shivering on her uncomfortable seat, did Helen wish herself at home
+again in her own little sitting-room, with Aunt Fanny peacefully
+knitting, Edith kneeling on the hearth-rug, and Malcolm's face bright
+with the reflection of the ruddy log fire so welcome in autumn evenings;
+all together as was their wont, enjoying "blind man's holiday"?
+
+I think we had better not press the question too closely. However, "it's
+a long lane that has no ending," and even this dreary journey gradually
+drew to a close. They passed but few houses of any kind, one or two
+straggling hamlets were left behind, and for some two or three miles the
+road had been perfectly solitary, when they suddenly heard wheels
+advancing to meet them, and in a few minutes a car like their own drove
+towards them, and being hailed by their driver, drew up at their side. A
+jabbering ensued of directions asked and given, and they again drove on.
+
+"Are you sure you know the way?" said Helen timidly.
+
+"Oh yes, miss," the driver answered confidently, and further informed
+them that the car they had met, had just returned from their own
+destination (being translated), the Black Nest Farm, having there
+deposited a traveller who had taken the middle course of leaving the
+railway at the intermediate stoppage between Llanfar and Llanfair. Other
+three-quarters of an hour and they pulled up at last before a house
+which the darkness prevented their seeing more of than that it was long
+and low. They stumbled up the rough garden path, and in answer to their
+knock, the door was opened by a tidy, clean-looking old woman, with a
+flickering candle in her hand, evidently surprised at their appearance.
+She had, she said, quite given up thoughts of their coming that night,
+and feared the fire in the sitting-room was out. Thankful to have
+reached the Black Nest at last, a chilly room seemed a smaller evil than
+the two girls would have considered it at home; and after all, things
+were not so bad, for the fire in the little farmhouse parlour, to which
+their landlady conducted them, was not quite out, and a little judicious
+coaxing soon brought it round.
+
+Their hostess's and their own first idea was of course _tea_. What a
+blessing, by the way, it is that British womankind in general, high and
+low, rich and poor, old and young, have this _one_ taste in common!
+Refreshed by the homely meal speedily set before them, Helen and Edith
+proceeded, under the guidance of the old woman (apparently the only
+inhabitant of the house), and the flickering candle, to inspect their
+sleeping apartment. The result was not eminently satisfactory, for it
+struck them as gloomy, ill-ventilated, and a long way from their
+parlour, though but few rooms appeared to intervene between the two.
+This puzzled them at the time, but was afterwards explained by the fact
+that Black Nest Farm-house had originally consisted of two one-storeyed
+cottages standing at some yards distance from each other, and which, on
+becoming the property of one owner, had been united by a long passage;
+which arrangement was looked upon in the neighbourhood as a triumph of
+architectural ingenuity. On returning to their sitting-room Helen's eye
+fell on a door beside their own which she had not before noticed, and
+she inquired if that was a bedroom. To which the old woman replied in
+the affirmative, but added that they could not have it, as it and a
+small sitting-room opening out of it were engaged by a "strange
+gentleman". And besides this, she added, the bedroom was not so
+desirable for ladies, having a second, or rather third door to the
+outside of the house. The only other room they could have was so small
+that she did not think they would like it, but they should see for
+themselves, and so saying she turned towards a recess in the passage.
+Helen followed her, but the flickering candle suddenly throwing light in
+a new direction, she gave a little exclamation of alarm at what appeared
+at the first moment to be a very ugly grinning portrait high up on the
+wall.
+
+"It's only the clock, miss," said the old woman. "Though, to be sure, it
+is quare," and as she spoke she threw the light more fully upon the
+object that had startled Helen, which she now perceived to be a very
+antique clock, standing high in a dark wooden case, and with the face
+she had seen, peeping at you as it were from behind the dial-plate. An
+ugly, coarsely painted face, with a disagreeably mocking expression it
+seemed to Helen; nor was it the only repulsive feature in this very
+remarkable clock, for the artist appeared to have outdone himself in the
+grotesquely hideous devices at the bottom of the dial. Death's heads,
+cross-bones, and other equally unpleasant objects of various kinds,
+curiously intermingled with a condensed solar system, in which sun, moon
+and stars appeared jumbled together haphazard. The general object of the
+whole evidently being to bring before the spectator the ghastly side of
+his future, and to read him a wholesome, but certainly not attractive,
+homily on the shortness of life, and the speed with which time was
+ticking away. Helen felt half fascinated by its hideousness.
+
+"Dear me, what a very curious clock!" she ejaculated, and the old woman
+repeated, with a little inward chuckle at what she evidently considered
+the admiration drawn forth by her heirloom:--
+
+"Yes, sure it _is_ quare."
+
+An uncanny object it certainly was, and Helen felt relieved that the
+room in its immediate vicinity was so small as to be out of the question
+for the accommodation of her sister and herself. Re-entering the
+sitting-room she found poor Edith looking so utterly worn-out that she
+proposed that they should at once go to bed; which they accordingly did,
+followed by the old woman with offers of assistance. Passing the door of
+"the strange gentleman's" room, they heard sounds of some one moving
+inside, and Edith sleepily remarked that she wondered what could have
+brought a gentleman to an outlandish place like the Black Nest, unless,
+like themselves, he came to take views in the neighbourhood. Helen
+pricked up her ears at this and inquired of Mrs. Jones if their
+fellow-lodger was an artist. Mrs. Jones thought not, but seemed
+unwilling to pursue the topic of the strange gentleman further. In
+rather a forced manner she changed the subject by inquiring if the young
+ladies would like to hire her pony while there, as it was rough walking,
+and her grandson Griffith, the only other inhabitant of the cottage, a
+little lad of twelve, could lead it for them, and show them the way
+whenever they chose. Helen gladly closed with the offer.
+
+"Dear me, Mrs. Jones," she exclaimed "how very lonely you must be living
+here with no one but a little boy. Have you no near neighbours?"
+
+"None nearer than three miles ma'am, for the farm-men live at a
+distance, save old Thomas in the last cottage you passed, but he is
+bed-ridden. My widow daughter, Griffith's mother, was with me till she
+took ill, two winters ago, and died before the doctor could get to her.
+Yes, it is lonesome like in winter to be sure. It's not often that
+gentry like you, miss, care to be in these parts so late in the year."
+
+Further inquiries elicited that the nearest church was a good five miles
+off, that there was no doctor nearer than Llanfar, that the butcher only
+came in the winter once a fortnight and that irregularly; in consequence
+of which the Black Nesters had often to depend upon their own scanty
+resources, the roads being almost impassable in stormy weather.
+
+"Don't you think it feels rather dreary, Helen?" said Edith, as she was
+falling asleep.
+
+"_Eerie_, rather, I should say," replied her sister, "but that, you
+know, is the beauty of it. In the morning, I daresay, it will look
+bright enough, but I confess I do not like that clock. Listen, can't
+you hear its ticking, faintly, even here, at the end of that long
+passage?"
+
+"What clock do you mean? I saw no clock," said Edith, but almost before
+Helen could answer, her soft regular breathing told that she was asleep.
+Helen however, could not so quickly compose herself. She felt excited
+and vaguely uneasy; and when she at last fell asleep, it was only to
+have her discomfort increased, by absurd, yet alarming dreams. With
+them all the ugly clock was grotesquely intermingled. Sometimes it was
+herself, sometimes Edith, and once Malcolm, whom she fancied in some
+position of terrible peril, always associated with the clock, and at
+last she awoke with a half-smothered scream of horror at the most
+frightful dream of all; in which the "strange gentleman," their
+fellow-lodger, was pursuing her with a veil over his face, which just as
+he caught her fell off, and disclosed, horrible to relate, the face on
+the clock.
+
+Edith started up as Helen convulsively clutched her, and exclaiming,
+"What in the world is the matter?" really thought Helen was going out of
+her mind when she replied, "That horrible clock;" and as she spoke, as
+if invoked, the clock began to strike: "One, two, three, four," and so
+on. "Is it never going to stop?" said Helen. Poor Edith, half asleep
+still, listened with her.
+
+"Edith, I am almost certain that clock struck _thirteen_," said Helen in
+an awe-struck voice; and then they heard a door shut at the end of the
+passage.
+
+"Helen, you have been dreaming, and you are only half awake now," said
+Edith. "It is not like you to waken me in this frightening way, please
+let me go to sleep."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Helen penitently, and she too closed her eyes
+and tried hard to go to sleep, which of course she did, as soon as she
+left off trying, and had made up her mind to lie awake till daylight.
+
+The morning broke clear and fresh; and, as Helen had said, things in
+general bore a very different aspect to that of the night before.
+Indoors, the quaint old house now looked simply picturesque, and Mrs.
+Jones the _beau idéal_ of a cheery old hostess. Even the face of the
+clock, when Helen pointed it out to Edith, seemed to have lost its
+mocking grin, and to be merely bidding them good-morning, with a comical
+smile at the consternation it had awakened the night before.
+
+Out-of-doors they soon turned their steps. There was no view from the
+house, but a short voyage of discovery quickly explained to them their
+locality. Black Nest Farm stood at the foot of a hill close on to the
+high road, or what passed for such in that hitherto little frequented
+neighbourhood. On the opposite side of the road but little was to be
+seen, as the meadows were soon lost in a thick belt of wood; but
+immediately behind the house was a tempting prospect, for there a little
+winding path led up the hill to one of the spots Helen and Edith most
+ardently desired to paint, and of which their friends had given them a
+glowing description. It was rather a long walk to the Black Lake, Mrs.
+Jones informed them, but their enthusiasm knew no bounds, and hardly
+permitted them to do justice to their breakfast of ham and eggs,
+home-made bread and home-churned butter. See them then starting on their
+expedition,--their painting materials, and some creature comforts in the
+shape of sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs, safely packed on the pony's
+back, Griffith leading him and acting as guide. A pretty stiff pull it
+was, enthusiasm notwithstanding, and rather hard work for the little
+feet, sensibly shod in good strong boots it is true, but unaccustomed
+nevertheless to mountain scrambling. But at last their circuitous path
+brought them to the summit, and there a curious prospect broke upon
+them. They stood at the edge of the great Welsh tableland. There it
+stretched away before them, miles and miles beyond their view; a vast
+expanse of wild, brown moor, unrelieved by tree or shrub, but here and
+there dotted by great patches of what Edith at first sight took to be
+"lovely emerald moss". Treacherous loveliness, for it told, as they
+learnt from Griffith, of fearful bog-pits, down whose slimy sides once
+slipped no man or beast could ever regain firm ground.
+
+"What a horrible death that would be," said Helen, shuddering, "far
+worse than regular drowning in clean water. It would be slow suffocation
+in nasty, dirty mud."
+
+A few minutes' careful walking brought them in sight of the Black Lake,
+the special object of their excursion. And it certainly was well worth
+coming to see, if not to paint; probably too, better seen in the
+greyness of a late autumn day than in the summer sun, whose bright rays
+reflected on its surface would have little harmonised with its character
+of gloom and loneliness. The lake was equal to several acres in extent,
+but from where they stood could not all be seen, as its farther end
+was hidden by the undulations of the land. In colour it was a dull,
+leaden grey, and looking at it, one's mind spontaneously reverted to
+travellers' descriptions of the Dead Sea, for _dead_ was essentially the
+word by which to describe it. There were no fish to be caught in it
+Griffith told them, and as for its depth he had never heard tell of any
+one's sounding it. The effect of the whole scene was very peculiar, and
+so Helen and Edith felt it to be, as they stood gazing at the leaden
+water and the great, apparently boundless moorland. It was difficult to
+realise that they were so far above the ordinary haunts of men, for
+there was nothing in that great plain to remind them of the existence
+even of hills and mountains, except a steady-blowing breeze of that
+peculiar freshness pertaining only to sea or mountain air. Pleasantly
+invigorating at first, but soon becoming too chilly to make one care to
+stand about, or, worse still, to _sit_, as our young ladies now
+prepared to do.
+
+"We are very lucky in the weather," remarked Helen, as they prepared for
+their sketching. "I should fancy it is just the day to see the lake to
+the best advantage."
+
+"Or disadvantage," said Edith, "for I do think it is the most horrible
+place I ever saw. I don't know," added she dreamily, "but what it would
+seem even more desolate on a bright, sunny day. I don't know why."
+
+"I understand how you mean," replied her sister, "the contrast would be
+so strange. Like a skeleton dressed in a golden robe. Dear me, I am
+becoming quite poetical. But look, Edith, how do you like this?" And a
+consultation on their work ensued.
+
+Very cold work it became, as it grew to afternoon, notwithstanding the
+pleasurable excitement of their occupation, and Edith, for one, was not
+sorry when Helen at last thought it time to pack up their painting
+materials and turn homewards. A drizzling rain began to fall as they
+neared the foot of the hill, and they both felt thankful to reach the
+farm-house,--tired, muddy and damp, and in not _quite_ such high
+spirits as when they set off on their expedition. A savoury odour
+meeting them on their entrance, Helen suddenly bethought herself that
+she had utterly forgotten to order anything for their "high tea," or
+whatever one likes to call the said incongruous meal. It was therefore
+an agreeable surprise to her after remembering her neglect to see on
+entering their little sitting-room the brightest of fires, and the table
+daintily set out with evident preparation for a tempting repast; part of
+which, in the shape of a delicious-looking ham, "a new-made pat of
+butter and a wheaten loaf so fine," had already made its appearance.
+Damp clothes and muddy boots discarded, they sat down with an excellent
+appetite to their meal, and the savoury odour which had greeted them was
+soon explained by the appearance of Mrs. Jones bearing a chicken stewed
+in mushrooms.
+
+"Mushrooms!" exclaimed Helen, "the thing of all others I like. How
+clever you are, Mrs. Jones, to get us all these good things! I shall
+leave our food to your providing, I think, in future."
+
+Mrs. Jones laughed and said a friend had sent some things from Llanfar,
+and a friend also had gathered the mushrooms, the last of their season,
+thinking the young ladies might like them.
+
+"Your friends are as good as yourself then, Mrs. Jones," said Helen; but
+as she spoke she was startled by what sounded like a half-smothered
+laugh or exclamation of some kind just outside the door. Almost at the
+same moment her friend the clock began to strike, and she therefore
+fancied the sound she had heard must have come from it. "Its internal
+arrangements are, I daresay, as peculiar as its outside," thought she to
+herself, and refrained therefore from mentioning to Edith what she
+thought she had heard. All the rest of the evening, however, though she
+would hardly have owned it to herself, she felt a little nervous and
+uneasy, particularly when she heard the clock strike.
+
+"I wonder what our fellow-lodger does with himself all day," said Edith
+that evening.
+
+"I am sure I don't know, or care either," said Helen, "indeed, I hardly
+believe there is such a being at all."
+
+They went early to bed, and fell quickly asleep. After having slept, it
+seemed to her for several hours, Helen woke suddenly with the feeling
+that something had wakened her, and found that the clock was busy
+striking, and to her confused fancy had been striking for ever so long
+before she woke. Its strokes ceased before she was sufficiently awake to
+count them, but a moment or two afterwards she heard a door shut as it
+had done the night before.
+
+"It is very annoying that I can't get a good night's rest here," thought
+she. A whispered "Helen," told her that Edith too was awake.
+
+"The clock _did_ strike thirteen," said Edith, "and there _must_ be
+somebody in that room, for I heard the door shut again."
+
+"And so did I," said Helen, whereupon they lay still in awe-struck
+silence, till they both fell fast asleep again.
+
+The next day was Saturday, and though somewhat stiff and tired with
+their exertions, Friday's programme was repeated. The sketches proceeded
+satisfactorily, but our heroines were less fortunate in other respects,
+for just as they were about to leave the Black Lake in the afternoon,
+the rain came on in torrents. Long before they got back to the
+farm-house the poor girls were thoroughly drenched. Edith escaped with
+no ill results, but Helen sat shivering over the fire all the evening,
+passed an uneasy night in which it seemed to her that the clock never
+left off striking at all, and woke on Sunday morning with every symptom
+of a delightfully bad cold. The prospect outside was not cheering. Rain,
+rain, rain. Down it came in torrents. No chance of making their way to
+the five miles' off church, no chance even of a quiet stroll along the
+lanes; and, worst of all, no books to read, for such a possibility as a
+whole day in the house had never presented itself to their inexperienced
+imaginations! It was very dull. Helen was almost cross with Edith for
+being so exceedingly sympathetic. It was kind of course, but provoking
+nevertheless, as to Helen's sensitiveness it seemed to convey a tacit
+reproach. She would not allow to herself that they were at all to be
+pitied. All the same she was not sorry when the time came at last for
+them to go to bed.
+
+"I wish we had brought some sherry with us," said Edith. "A little white
+wine whey would have been the very thing for your cold."
+
+"What's the good of wishing," replied her sister rather snappishly, "you
+had better call Mrs. Jones and ask her to make me some gruel." But on
+Mrs. Jones's appearance, and when the request had been made, both the
+girls felt rather surprised at her volunteering the very thing they had
+been wishing for.
+
+She had, she said, "some very nice sherry wine, given her by a friend,"
+and many years ago, when she was in service in Chester, she had learnt
+to make white wine whey. Sure enough a tempting-looking basinful shortly
+after made its appearance.
+
+Thanks to its soporific influence Helen soon fell asleep, but woke (as
+she had got strangely into the habit of doing) just at midnight, or
+as Edith had taken to calling it, "thirteen o'clock". The clock was
+half-way through its striking when she woke, and a sudden impulse seized
+her to jump up, and, opening the door slightly, to peep out and either
+see who it was that always shut a door after the clock struck, or, by
+seeing nothing, satisfy herself that the sound had all along been merely
+the creation of her own and Edith's imagination.
+
+She opened the door very cautiously, and instantly perceived that there
+was a light at the end of the passage in the recess where stood the
+clock. Helen's heart beat more loudly, and she wished devoutly that she
+had allowed her curiosity to remain unsatisfied, when to her horror the
+light moved out of the recess, and she saw that it was held by a tall
+dark figure with its back turned towards her. The passage was so long
+and the light flickered so much that it was impossible for her to
+distinguish anything but the general outline of the person who held it.
+Not Mrs. Jones or Griffith, assuredly, but poor Helen was too frightened
+to do more than lock the door with her trembling fingers and leap back
+into bed, thereby awakening Edith, who on hearing Helen's story calmly
+assured her that she had either been dreaming, or had seen the strange
+gentleman their fellow-lodger whose existence Helen had rashly dared to
+question. Oddly enough she had forgotten all about him, and felt
+somewhat relieved by Edith's matter-of-fact solution.
+
+"Only what should he be doing at the clock at this time of night? I hope
+he is not out of his mind;"--to which Edith replied:--
+
+"I do believe he gets up to make it strike thirteen on purpose to tease
+us."
+
+Monday morning wore a more promising aspect than Sunday, for such clouds
+as there were, bespoke nothing worse than showers, and our young ladies
+succeeded in obtaining an hour or two's sketching at the lake. Helen,
+however, felt still considerably the worse of her terrible wetting,
+and was actually the first to propose that they should return to the
+farm-house. Somewhat weakened by her cold, and tired too, she mounted
+the little pony at Edith's suggestion, and they were proceeding cheerily
+enough on their way--Griffith, loaded with their painting materials,
+some little distance behind--when a stumble on the pony's part brought
+him suddenly to the ground. Helen had been paying little attention to
+her steed, and, unprepared for the shock, fell on her side with some
+little force. A most undignified procedure had there been any one to
+witness it, but which would have drawn forth nothing but a laugh had it
+not been that in the fall her foot caught in the stirrup. Her sharp cry
+of pain terrified Edith, who, however, soon succeeded in disentangling
+her, as the poor little pony remained perfectly quiet, but a moment's
+examination, and a vain attempt to stand, showed them that the ankle was
+badly sprained. All that could be done was to mount Helen again as well
+as Edith and Griffith could manage, and to make the best of their way
+home. Arrived there, hot applications soon reduced the pain, but it was
+easy to be seen, even by their inexperienced eyes, that Helen must not
+attempt to move for several days to come.
+
+Here was a charming ending to their expedition! Helen, even, felt
+woefully disconcerted, and poor Edith fairly began to cry.
+
+"If it were not that you would not like it, I would write to Mrs.
+Lindsay to come and nurse you," said Edith, "she is so good and kind,
+and I know she would come in a minute, for she has nothing to prevent
+her."
+
+"Mrs. Lindsay! Edith," exclaimed Helen indignantly, "the very last
+person I would apply to, however good and kind she may be. Do you really
+think that. I would put myself under such an obligation to the sister of
+the man I have----" "Quarrelled with for nothing at all," said the
+little voice at the bottom of her heart. Edith said nothing, but for the
+first time in her life took an independent resolution and acted upon it.
+Her love for Helen conquered her fear of displeasing her. What this
+resolution was we shall not disclose, nor shall we tell whose hand
+addressed a letter to Mrs. Lindsay carried that evening by the post-boy
+to Llanfar. The strangest coincidence was that _two_ letters bearing the
+same direction left the Black Nest Farm that evening.
+
+Tired out with the pain of her ankle, Helen, for the first time since
+their arrival, slept past midnight and only woke to hear the clock
+strike five. All too soon for her comfort, for her thoughts were none
+of the brightest, as she lay waiting for the daylight. Her folly, her
+headstrong determination, right or wrong, to carry out her own way,
+began to show themselves to her more clearly; or rather, she began to
+allow herself to see them in their true light. And when at last the
+morning came, and she was established for the day on the hard little
+horse-hair sofa in their sitting-room, her spirits were not improved by
+the perusal of a letter from her Aunt Fanny. The good old lady, after
+deploring their absence and pathetically describing her anxiety on their
+behalf, made mention of a visit from Mrs. Lindsay, who had come to tell
+her how unhappy she was about her brother. "He left home," wrote Aunt
+Fanny, "two days after that unfortunate conversation with you without
+telling his sister what was the matter. At least she only gathered that
+something unpleasant had happened from his saying that you were leaving
+home, and that he did not expect to see you before you went. He left no
+direction beyond telling her to write to his club, which she has done
+two or three times, but got no answer. She says he looked so unlike
+himself that she fears he has fallen ill somewhere and cannot write to
+tell her. Oh, Helen, I do wish you had never thought of this
+expedition."
+
+"How very silly Mrs. Lindsay is to be so fanciful," said Helen, in which
+view of the case tender-hearted little Edith did not at all agree,
+though she hardly dared to say so. They spent a dull day, for Edith
+would not consent to leave her sister, and their paintings were at a
+standstill for want of another day's sketching from the original.
+
+"To-morrow, Edith," said Helen, "you might go to the lake for an hour or
+so without me and finish your sketch, and I might go on with mine from
+yours," to which Edith made no objection.
+
+By night Helen's feverish uneasiness had increased, and Edith secretly
+congratulated herself on her resolute step of the day before. And a
+wretched night followed. In reality Helen was very anxious and unhappy
+about Malcolm Willoughby, and her dreams were full of terrors that
+something had befallen him. Through all, the disagreeable clock again
+thrust forward its ugly face, and she woke in an indescribable state of
+horror, fancying that the clock was standing by her bedside, striking
+loudly in her ears to a kind of "refrain" of the words: "I told you so.
+I told you so." Of course the clock _was_ striking, and had evidently
+awakened her by so doing.
+
+"Thirteen again," whispered Edith, "it is really very disagreeable."
+
+"It sounds to _me_ like the voice of my conscience," said Helen,
+"warning me that some terrible punishment is coming upon me for my
+wicked folly. Yes, Edith, I see it all now, and as soon as ever I can
+move we shall go home, and I shall ask poor Aunt Fanny to forgive me. I
+wish every other consequence of my wrong-doing could be done away with
+as easily as her displeasure." And all her pride broken down, poor Helen
+burst into tears, and Edith's affectionate words of soothing were of no
+avail to stop her sobs. She felt rather better in the morning however,
+partly, perhaps, because the day was bright and sunny. About mid-day
+she fell into a doze on her sofa, and waking after an hour's sleep was
+surprised to miss Edith. A note in pencil pinned to the table-cover
+caught her attention. It bore these words: "You are so nicely asleep I
+don't like to waken you. I shall come back as early as I can, but don't
+be alarmed if I am a little later than you expect."
+
+"She has gone to finish the sketch," thought Helen uneasily. "I wish I
+had not asked her to do so, it looks dull and overcast."
+
+She rang the hand-bell for Mrs. Jones, who appeared with a basin of
+soup, and told her that the young lady had set off a quarter of an hour
+before.
+
+"It can't be helped now," said Helen, "but I wish I had not proposed
+it."
+
+The afternoon seemed long and dull, and yet Helen felt sorry when it
+began to close in, for no Edith had yet appeared. Still it was not later
+than they had been out together more than once. Helen tried to think it
+was not yet dusk outside, but felt this comfort fail her when it
+gradually grew so indisputably dark that Mrs. Jones brought in candles
+without her asking for them.
+
+"Are you not uneasy about my sister and Griffith, Mrs. Jones?" said
+Helen; but her anxiety was tenfold increased when Mrs. Jones replied
+calmly:--
+
+"Griffith is not with the young lady to-day. I had to send him a message
+to Llanfair, and as like as not he will stay at his uncle's till the
+morning. The young lady said it did not matter, and I saddled the pony
+for her myself."
+
+"Griffith not with her!" exclaimed Helen. "Oh, Mrs. Jones, what will
+become of her?"
+
+"Don't be alarmed, miss," said the old woman, "the pony is very steady,
+and the darkness comes on so sudden-like, it seems later than it is."
+
+And with this scanty consolation Helen was obliged to remain satisfied.
+Mrs. Jones stirred up the fire and set the tea all ready, but Helen grew
+sick at heart as the time went on, and still no Edith. Six, struck the
+clock, and ticked on again to seven. Helen could bear it no longer.
+
+"Mrs. Jones," cried she, "can you not get any one to go to look for my
+sister? She may be on her way down the hill, and have got into some
+difficulty with the pony."
+
+"Indeed, miss, I don't know what I can do. There's no one nearer than
+old Thomas and he can't move."
+
+"The strange gentleman!" said Helen suddenly; "your other lodger. Would
+he not help me?"
+
+"He has been out since early this morning," replied Mrs. Jones, "and he
+told me he was not sure of being back to-night. He has gone to meet a
+friend."
+
+Helen felt more in despair than before. It seemed an aggravation of her
+anxiety to have to lie still on the sofa doing nothing. Indeed had she
+been able to do so, nothing would have prevented her making her way to
+the Black Lake, and too probably losing her own life in the endeavour to
+save her sister's. As it was, she managed at last to drag herself to the
+door in hopes of hearing footsteps up the path, but nothing broke the
+silence save the tick, tick of the clock. It wore on to nine, despite
+her wretchedness and indescribable anxiety. She pictured to herself her
+sister, her dear little Edith, left so specially in her charge, cowering
+on the moor, alone in that dreary darkness, sobbing in despair of ever
+finding her way out of that frightful desert. Or, worse still, lying
+cold and dead in one of those fearful pits under the mockingly beautiful
+moss; whence, in all probability, her poor body even would never be
+recovered. It was too frightful. Helen almost shrieked aloud: "Oh, my
+darling, my little sister, come back, do come back. Oh, Malcolm, if
+only you were here. How terribly I am punished for my self-will!" And
+terribly punished she was, for the memory of that night's suffering was
+too painful to recall in after years without a shudder. Mrs. Jones was
+in helpless distress, though in hopes of every moment hearing the pony
+and the young lady at the gate, and she returned to her own domains
+saying she had better have hot water ready as Miss Edith would be
+fainting for her tea. Helen remained alone at the window of the
+sitting-room.
+
+The night was fine but very dark. Darker than she had ever seen a night
+before, it seemed to Helen. She was almost in a stupor of despair. She
+sank down half-unconsciously before the fire and never knew how long she
+had lain there when she was roused by the clock striking. "One, two,
+three, four,"--she counted aloud as if bewitched, till when it got to
+the fatal _thirteen_, her over-strained nerves gave way, and with a
+scream she ran or stumbled, she knew not how, along the passage to seek
+for Mrs. Jones. As she passed the front-door she was arrested by the
+sharp sounds of steps coming quickly up the garden path. The door was
+pushed open. The only light was what came through the open door of the
+room she had just left, and she could distinguish nothing but a tall
+dark figure hurrying towards her. She screamed with terror but stood,
+unable to move, when to her intense relief a voice from behind the
+person she saw, exclaimed eagerly: "Helen, dearest Helen, don't be
+frightened. I am quite safe," and some one rushed past the tall person,
+now close to her, and kissing her passionately, Helen felt, rather than
+saw, that it was Edith.
+
+"Malcolm! Malcolm! she is fainting!" called Edith, and the tall person
+pressed forward, caught her up in his arms like a baby, and, unconscious
+now of everything, Helen was carried back into the sitting-room, laid on
+the hard little sofa, and there held tenderly by the strong yet gentle
+arms whose protecting care she, poor foolish child, had fancied she
+could so well dispense with.
+
+It was the first time in her life that Helen Beaumont had ever fainted,
+and it was not long before she began to recover.
+
+"Malcolm! oh, Malcolm!" were her first words on returning consciousness
+(and it seemed to her afterwards as if some one else had spoken them for
+her, her good angel perhaps!), "can you ever forgive me?"
+
+"My darling," was the whispered answer, "you know you need not ask it."
+And then Helen felt as if she were just going to die, but was too happy
+to care, and too languid to ask even how all this had come about. But
+now a third person came forward saying:--
+
+"Malcolm, let me stay beside her," and, wonderful to tell, the sweet
+voice and kind face were Mrs. Lindsay's. Helen thought she must be
+dreaming, but lay still as she was told, and then drank something or
+other Mrs. Lindsay brought her; so before long she was able to sit up
+and begin to wonder what was the meaning of it all.
+
+"Are you not amazed, Helen?" said Edith; "but first of all you must
+forgive me for frightening you so, for indeed I have been nearly as
+wretched as you, thinking of what you must have been feeling." And
+before Helen could reply the eager girl ran on with her explanations.
+"Who do you think has been our fellow-lodger all this time, Helen? Who
+do you think is the 'strange gentleman'? Only fancy Malcolm's having
+been here ever since we came! It was he that travelled by the same
+train, and seeing as it moved off at Llanfar that we had got out, he did
+so at the next station, and arrived here before us. He had inquired
+about Mrs. Jones, and heard what a good creature she was; and he had
+time to have a talk with her, and to take her to some extent into his
+confidence."
+
+Helen looked at first, as this recital went on, as if she were wavering
+between a return to her old dislike to being interfered with, and
+gratitude to Malcolm for his undeserved devotion. The good angel
+triumphed, as Malcolm, who was watching her anxiously, quickly
+perceived.
+
+"I did not interfere with you, Helen," he said in a low voice, "but it
+was the greatest comfort to me to be able to protect and care for you,
+even though you did not know it."
+
+The tears started to Helen's eyes.
+
+"Oh, Malcolm, I know how good you are, but----"
+
+"Never mind any 'buts,'" said Mrs. Lindsay brightly, catching the last
+word. "'All's well, that ends well.'"
+
+"I know now who foraged for us so successfully," said Edith. "Who was
+the mysterious friend that gave Mrs. Jones the mushrooms!"
+
+"And nearly betrayed myself by laughing at the door, when passing I
+heard Helen's enthusiastic thanks to Mrs. Jones," said Malcolm.
+
+"Yes, and frightened me horribly by so doing," added Helen, "as I really
+began to think that clock was bewitched, and had a special ill-will
+against me. In fact it took the place of my conscience for the time
+being."
+
+"I have the very greatest regard for the clock," said Malcolm demurely,
+"and I intend to make Mrs. Jones an offer for it forthwith."
+
+"Please don't," said Helen piteously. "I daresay it is very silly, but I
+really don't quite like that clock, though, after all, its warning of
+ill-luck has brought the very reverse to me. But I have not heard yet
+what kept Edith out so late, or how in the world you and Mrs. Lindsay
+met her at the Black Lake."
+
+"The Black Lake?" said Mrs. Lindsay, "what do you mean?"
+
+Whereupon Edith hastened on with that part of her story relating to her
+own adventures. She, it appeared, feeling confident in Mrs. Lindsay's
+ready kindness, and never doubting but what she would at once respond to
+her appeal by coming to nurse Helen, instead of going to the Black Lake
+to sketch, as Helen imagined, set off on the pony to meet her friend
+at the station, having proposed to her to come by a certain train.
+Overtaking Griffith on the road to Llanfair, as she expected from Mrs.
+Jones's account, he accompanied her to the village, where she gave over
+the pony to his care. As she entered the station she saw a return train
+about to start for the Junction about half an hour's journey from where
+she was. Finding by her watch that she was in ample time, it struck her
+that she might as well go so far to meet her friend, but on arriving at
+the Junction she was startled to find that with the new month a change
+had taken place in the trains, and that consequently Mrs. Lindsay could
+not arrive till late in the evening. Worse still she herself could not
+now get back to Helen till she was frightened to think what hour, the
+evening train in question not going farther than Llanfar, the station
+near the Junction at which she and her sister had by mistake got out on
+their arrival, and which was fifteen miles from the Black Nest. It is
+needless to describe her distress of mind all the long hours she had to
+sit in the little waiting-room at the Junction; or her corresponding
+delight when, on the train coming up, she descried looking out of a
+window the familiar face of Malcolm Willoughby, and found that he was
+accompanied by his sister whom he had gone to meet half-way on her
+journey.
+
+Helen woke at noon the next day feeling indescribably happy, she could
+not tell why till the sight of Mrs. Lindsay's sweet face recalled to her
+mind all her misery of the night before and the relief and happiness
+with which it had ended.
+
+"How little I deserve it!" thought she humbly and gratefully, "and how
+can I ever repay Malcolm for his goodness?"
+
+Their dull little parlour looked very different now that it was
+enlivened by the presence of the two newcomers; and Helen could scarcely
+believe it to be the same room in which, but yesterday, she had passed
+hours of such agonising suspense. So thoroughly penitent and softened
+did she feel that she offered no opposition to anything proposed, and it
+was therefore arranged that as soon as Helen was well enough to travel
+they should all return home together to relieve poor Aunt Fanny's
+anxiety.
+
+"I wonder," said Helen, with a little sigh, a few days afterwards, when
+they were packing up their painting materials, "I wonder if I shall ever
+finish my sketch of the Black Lake."
+
+"I don't like to make rash promises," said Malcolm, "but if somebody I
+know is _very_ good perhaps next summer she may see the Black Lake
+again, provided she will neither catch cold nor tumble off her pony."
+
+Edith laughed and Helen blushed.
+
+"But there's one thing still," said Edith, "which I don't understand.
+Why, Malcolm, did you always shut your door as the clock struck
+thirteen?"
+
+"Very simply explained," replied he. "The first night I was here I was
+sitting up reading till midnight and thought I heard it strike thirteen.
+I thought it very odd, and for a night or two I listened till it began
+to strike and then opened my door to make sure I was not mistaken. And
+one night I went out with my candle to examine the clock, trying to make
+out the cause of it, and to see if I could put it right. No man, they
+say, can resist meddling with a clock even though he is no mechanical
+genius."
+
+"All the same," said Edith triumphantly, "notwithstanding your
+examinations, you and no one else can tell the reason why that clock
+does strike thirteen."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+Hyphenation is inconsistent; in a small number of instances, missing
+punctuation has been added.
+
+A duplicated word "than" was removed from the sentence "...of a "home"
+than she had ever had before."
+
+Several obvious misspellings have been corrected. The following
+additional change was made to punctuation in keeping with the logic of
+the plot (original is followed by corrected version):
+
+    The more I thought it over the more striking grew the
+    coincidences at Finster. It had been on one of the closed doors
+    that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall.
+
+    The more I thought it over the more striking grew the
+    coincidences. At Finster it had been on one of the closed doors
+    that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncanny Tales, by Mary Louisa Molesworth
+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncanny Tales, by Mary Louisa Molesworth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Uncanny Tales
+
+Author: Mary Louisa Molesworth
+
+Illustrator: Fred Hyland
+
+Release Date: April 25, 2011 [EBook #35641]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCANNY TALES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="center">
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4" summary="Illustration">
+  <tr>
+    <td align="center">
+      <a href="images/tp.png">
+      <img src="images/tp.png" height="400"
+      alt="TITLE_PAGE" /></a>
+    </td>
+  </tr>
+  </table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h1>Uncanny Tales</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><span class="smallcaps">By</span> M<sup>rs</sup> <span class="smallcaps">Molesworth</span></h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4><span class="smallcaps">London: Hutchinson</span> &amp; C<sup>o</sup></h4>
+<h5>Paternoster Row</h5>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center">
+ <table class="sm" style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="poem">
+ <tr><td align="center">TO</td></tr>
+ <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+ <tr><td align="center">AN OTHERWISE UNACKNOWLEDGED "COLLABORATEUR"</td></tr>
+ <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+ <tr><td align="center">IN THESE STORIES,</td></tr>
+ <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+ <tr><td align="center"><span class="big">J. C. P.</span></td></tr>
+ <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+ <tr><td align="left"><span class="smallcaps">19 Sumner Place, S.W.</span>,</td></tr>
+ <tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+ <tr><td align="left"><span class="ind2"><i>October, 1896.</i></span></td></tr>
+ </table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>CONTENTS.</h3>
+<div class="center">
+<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="2" summary="Contents">
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#st_I">THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#st_II">"THE MAN WITH THE COUGH."</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#st_III">"HALF-WAY BETWEEN THE STILES."</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#st_IV">AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#st_V">"<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>&nbsp;WILL NOT TAKE PLACE."</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" valign="top"><a href="#st_VI">THE CLOCK THAT STRUCK THIRTEEN.</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><span class="wide">UNCANNY TALES.</span></h2>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="st_I" id="st_I"></a>THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT.</h3>
+
+<h4>PART I.</h4>
+
+<p>We never thought of Finster St. Mabyn's being
+haunted. We really never did.</p>
+
+<p>This may seem strange, but it is absolutely true.
+It was such an extremely interesting and curious
+place in many ways that it required nothing
+extraneous to add to its attractions. Perhaps this
+was the reason.</p>
+
+<p>Now-a-days, immediately that you hear of a
+house being "very old," the next remark is sure to
+be "I hope it is"&mdash;or "is not"&mdash;that depends on
+the taste of the speaker&mdash;"haunted".</p>
+
+<p>But Finster was more than very old; it was
+<i>ancient</i> and, in a modest way, historical. I will not
+take up time by relating its history, however, or
+by referring my readers to the chronicles in which
+mention of it may be found. Nor shall I yield to
+the temptation of describing the room in which a
+certain royalty spent one night, if not two or three
+nights, four centuries ago, or the tower, now in
+ruins, where an even more renowned personage was
+imprisoned for several months. All these facts&mdash;or
+legends&mdash;have nothing to do with what I have
+to tell. Nor, strictly speaking, has Finster itself,
+except as a sort of prologue to my narrative.</p>
+
+<p>We heard of the house through friends living in
+the same county, though some distance farther inland.
+They&mdash;Mr. and Miss Miles, it is convenient
+to give their name at once&mdash;knew that we
+had been ordered to leave our own home for some
+months, to get over the effects of a very trying
+visitation of influenza, and that sea-air was specially
+desirable.</p>
+
+<p>We grumbled at this. Seaside places are often
+so dull and commonplace. But when we heard of
+Finster we grumbled no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Dull" in a sense it might be, but assuredly not
+"commonplace". Janet Miles's description of it,
+though she was not particularly clever at description,
+read like a fairy tale, or one of Longfellow's
+poems.</p>
+
+<p>"A castle by the sea&mdash;how perfect!" we all exclaimed.
+"Do, oh, do fix for it, mother!"</p>
+
+<p>The objections were quickly over-ruled. It
+was rather isolated, said Miss Miles, standing,
+as was not difficult to trace in its name, on a point
+of land&mdash;a corner rather&mdash;with sea on two sides.
+It had not been lived in, save spasmodically, for
+some years, for the late owner was one of those
+happy, or unhappy people, who have more houses
+than they can use, and the present one was a
+minor. Eventually it was to be overhauled and
+some additions and alterations made, but the
+trustees would be glad to let it at a moderate
+rent for some months, and had intended putting
+it into some agents' hands when Mr. Miles
+happened to meet one of them, who mentioned
+it to him. There was nothing against it; it was
+absolutely healthy. But the furniture was old and
+shabby, and there was none too much of it. If
+we wanted to have visitors we should certainly
+require to add to it. This, however, could easily
+be done, our informant went on to say. There
+was a very good upholsterer and furniture dealer
+at Raxtrew, the nearest town, who was in the
+habit of hiring out things to the officers at the
+fort. "Indeed," she added, "we often pick up
+charming old pieces of furniture from him for
+next to nothing, so you could both hire and
+buy."</p>
+
+<p>Of course, we should have visitors&mdash;and our
+own house would not be the worse for some
+additional chairs and tables here and there, in
+place of some excellent monstrosities Phil and
+Nugent and I had persuaded mother to get
+rid of.</p>
+
+<p>"If I go down to spy the land with father,"
+I said, "I shall certainly go to the furniture
+dealer's and have a good look about me."</p>
+
+<p>I did go with father. I was nineteen&mdash;it is
+four years ago&mdash;and a capable sort of girl. Then
+I was the only one who had not been ill, and
+mother had been the worst of all, mother and
+Dormy&mdash;poor little chap&mdash;for <i>he</i> nearly died.</p>
+
+<p>He is the youngest of us&mdash;we are four boys
+and two girls. Sophy was then fifteen. My
+own name is Leila.</p>
+
+<p>If I attempted to give any idea of the impression
+Finster St. Mabyn's made upon us, I should
+go on for hours. It simply took our breath
+away. It really felt like going back a few centuries
+merely to enter within the walls and gaze
+round you. And yet we did not see it to any
+advantage, so at least said the two Miles's who
+were our guides. It was a gloomy day, with the
+feeling of rain not far off, early in April. It
+might have been November, though it was not
+cold.</p>
+
+<p>"You can scarcely imagine what it is on a
+bright day," said Janet, eager, as people always
+are in such circumstances, to show off her
+<i>trouvaille</i>. "The lights and shadows are so
+exquisite."</p>
+
+<p>"I love it as it is," I said. "I don't think
+I shall ever regret having seen it first on a grey
+day. It is just perfect."</p>
+
+<p>She was pleased at my admiration, and did her
+utmost to facilitate matters. Father was taken
+with the place, too, I could see, but he hummed
+and hawed a good deal about the bareness of the
+rooms&mdash;the bedrooms especially. So Janet and I
+went into it at once in a business-like way, making
+lists of the actually necessary additions, which did
+not prove very formidable after all.</p>
+
+<p>"Hunter will manage all that <i>easily</i>," said Miss
+Miles, upon which father gave in&mdash;I believe he
+had meant to do so all the time. The rent was
+really so low that a little furniture-hire could be
+afforded, I suggested. And father agreed.</p>
+
+<p>"It is extremely low," he said, "for a place
+possessing so many advantages."</p>
+
+<p>But even then it did not occur to any of us to
+suggest "suspiciously low".</p>
+
+<p>We had the Miles's guarantee for it all, to begin
+with. Had there been any objection they must
+have known it.</p>
+
+<p>We spent the night with them and the next
+morning at the furniture dealer's. He was a
+quick, obliging little man, and took in the situation
+at a glance. And <i>his</i> terms were so moderate that
+father said to me amiably: "There are some quaint
+odds and ends here, Leila. You might choose a
+few things, to use at Finster in the first place, and
+then to take home with us."</p>
+
+<p>I was only too ready to profit by the permission,
+and with Janet's help a few charmingly quaint
+chairs and tables, a three-cornered wall cabinet, and
+some other trifles were soon put aside for us. We
+were just leaving, when at one end of the
+shop some tempting-looking draperies caught my
+eye.</p>
+
+<p>"What are these?" I asked the upholsterer.
+"Curtains! Why, this is real old tapestry!"</p>
+
+<p>The obliging Hunter drew out the material in
+question.</p>
+
+<p>"They are not exactly curtains, miss," he said.
+"I thought they would make nice <i>porti&egrave;res</i>. You
+see the tapestry is set into cloth. It was so frail
+when I got it that it was the only thing to do with
+it."</p>
+
+<p>He had managed it very ingeniously. Two
+panels, so to say, of old tapestry, very charming
+in tone, had been lined and framed with dull green
+cloth, making a very good pair of <i>porti&egrave;res</i> indeed.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, papa!" I cried, "do let us have these.
+There are sure to be draughty doors at Finster,
+and afterwards they would make <i>perfect "porti&egrave;res"</i>
+for the two side doors in the hall at home."</p>
+
+<p>Father eyed the tapestry appreciatively, but first
+prudently inquired the price. It seemed higher in
+proportion than Hunter's other charges.</p>
+
+<p>"You see, sir," he said half apologetically, "the
+panels are real antique work, though so much the
+worse for wear."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did they come from?" asked father.</p>
+
+<p>Hunter hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"To tell you the truth, sir," he replied, "I was
+asked not to name the party that I bought it from.
+It seems a pity to part with <i>h</i>eir-looms, but&mdash;it
+happens sometimes&mdash;I bought several things together
+of a family quite lately. The <i>porti&egrave;res</i>
+have only come out of the workroom this morning.
+We hurried on with them to stop them fraying
+more&mdash;you see where they were before, they must
+have been nailed to the wall."</p>
+
+<p>Janet Miles, who was something of a connoisseur,
+had been examining the tapestry.</p>
+
+<p>"It is well worth what he asks," she said, in a
+low voice. "You don't often come across such
+tapestry in England."</p>
+
+<p>So the bargain was struck, and Hunter promised
+to see all that we had chosen, both purchased and
+hired, delivered at Finster the week before we
+proposed to come.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing interfered with our plans. By the end
+of the month we found ourselves at our temporary
+home&mdash;all of us except Nat, our third brother, who
+was at school. Dormer, the small boy, still did
+lessons with Sophy's governess. The two older
+"boys," as we called them, happened to be at
+home from different reasons&mdash;one, Nugent, on
+leave from India; Phil, forced to miss a term at
+college through an attack of the same illness which
+had treated mother and Dormy so badly.</p>
+
+<p>But now that everybody was well again, and
+going to be very much better, thanks to Finster
+air, we thought the ill wind had brought us some
+very distinct good. It would not have been half
+such fun had we not been a large family party to
+start with, and before we had been a week at the
+place we had added to our numbers by the first
+detachment of the guests we had invited.</p>
+
+<p>It was not a very large house; besides ourselves
+we had not room for more than three or four
+others. For some of the rooms&mdash;those on the top
+story&mdash;were really too dilapidated to suit any one
+but rats&mdash;"rats or ghosts," said some one laughingly
+one day, when we had been exploring them.</p>
+
+<p>Afterwards the words returned to my memory.</p>
+
+<p>We had made ourselves very comfortable, thanks
+to the invaluable Hunter. And every day the
+weather grew milder and more spring-like. The
+woods on the inland side were full of primroses.
+It promised to be a lovely season.</p>
+
+<p>There was a gallery along one side of the house,
+which soon became a favourite resort; it made a
+pleasant lounging-place, in the day-time especially,
+though less so in the evening, as the fireplace at
+one end warmed it but imperfectly, and besides
+this it was difficult to light up. It was draughty,
+too, as there was a superfluity of doors, two of
+which, one at each end, we at once condemned.
+They were not needed, as the one led by a very
+long spiral staircase, to the unused attic rooms, the
+other to the kitchen and offices. And when we
+did have afternoon tea in the gallery, it was easy
+to bring it through the dining or drawing-rooms,
+long rooms, lighted at their extreme ends, which
+ran parallel to the gallery lengthways, both of
+which had a door opening on to it as well as from
+the hall on the other side. For all the principal
+rooms at Finster were on the first-floor, not on
+the ground-floor.</p>
+
+<p>The closing of these doors got rid of a great
+deal of draught, and, as I have said, the weather
+was really mild and calm.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon&mdash;I am trying to begin at the
+beginning of our strange experiences; even at
+the risk of long-windedness it seems better to
+do so&mdash;we were all assembled in the gallery at
+tea-time. The "children," as we called Sophy and
+Dormer, much to Sophy's disgust, and their governess,
+were with us, for rules were relaxed at
+Finster, and Miss Larpent was a great favourite
+with us all.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly Sophy gave an exclamation of annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma," she said, "I wish you would speak
+to Dormer. He has thrown over my tea-cup&mdash;only
+look at my frock!" "If you cannot sit
+still," she added, turning herself to the boy, "I
+don't think you should be allowed to come to tea
+here."</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter, Dormy?" said mother.</p>
+
+<p>Dormer was standing beside Sophy, looking
+very guilty, and rather white.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma," he said, "I was only drawing a
+chair out. It got so dreadfully cold where I was
+sitting, I really could not stay there," and he
+shivered slightly.</p>
+
+<p>He had been sitting with his back to one of
+the locked-up doors. Phil, who was nearest,
+moved his hand slowly across the spot.</p>
+
+<p>"You are fanciful, Dormy," he said, "there is
+really no draught whatever."</p>
+
+<p>This did not satisfy mother.</p>
+
+<p>"He must have got a chill, then," she said, and
+she went on to question the child as to what he
+had been doing all day, for, as I have said, he was
+still delicate.</p>
+
+<p>But he persisted that he was quite well, and no
+longer cold.</p>
+
+<p>"It wasn't exactly a draught," he said, "it
+was&mdash;oh! just icy, all of a sudden. I've felt it
+before&mdash;sitting in that chair."</p>
+
+<p>Mother said no more, and Dormer went on
+with his tea, and when bed-time came he seemed
+just as usual, so that her anxiety faded. But she
+made thorough investigation as to the possibility
+of any draught coming up from the back stairs,
+with which this door communicated. None was
+to be discovered&mdash;the door fitted fairly well,
+and beside this, Hunter had tacked felt round
+the edges&mdash;furthermore, one of the thick heavy
+<i>porti&egrave;res</i> had been hung in front.</p>
+
+<p>An evening or two later we were sitting in the
+drawing room after dinner, when a cousin who
+was staying with us suddenly missed her fan.</p>
+
+<p>"Run and fetch Muriel's fan, Dormy," I said,
+for Muriel felt sure it had slipped under the dinner
+table. None of the men had as yet joined us.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, where are you going, child?" as he
+turned towards the farther door. "It is much
+quicker by the gallery."</p>
+
+<p>He said nothing, but went out, walking rather
+slowly, by the gallery door. And in a few minutes
+he returned, fan in hand, but by the <i>other</i> door.</p>
+
+<p>He was a sensitive child, and though I wondered
+what he had got into his head against the gallery,
+I did not say anything before the others. But
+when, soon after, Dormy said "Good night," and
+went off to bed, I followed him.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you want, Leila?" he said rather
+crossly.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be vexed, child," I said. "I can see
+there is something the matter. Why do you not
+like the gallery?"</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated, but I had laid my hand on his
+shoulder, and he knew I meant to be kind.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," he said, with a glance round, to be sure
+that no one was within hearing&mdash;we were standing,
+he and I, near the inner dining-room door, which
+was open&mdash;"you'll laugh at me, but&mdash;there's something
+queer there&mdash;sometimes!"</p>
+
+<p>"What? And how do you mean 'sometimes'?"
+I asked, with a slight thrill at his tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I mean not always, I've felt it several times&mdash;there
+was the cold the day before yesterday, and
+besides that, I've felt a&mdash;a sort of <i>breaving</i>"&mdash;Dormy
+was not perfect in his "th's"&mdash;"like somebody
+very unhappy."</p>
+
+<p>"Sighing?" I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>"Like sighing in a whisper," he replied, "and
+that's always near the door. But last week&mdash;no,
+not so long ago, it was on Monday&mdash;I went round
+that way when I was going to bed. I didn't want
+to be silly. But it was moonlight&mdash;and&mdash;Leila, a
+shadow went all along the wall on that side, and
+stopped at the door. I saw it waggling about&mdash;its
+<i>hands</i>," and here he shivered&mdash;"on that funny
+curtain that hangs up, as if it were feeling for a
+minute or two, and then<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Well,&mdash;what then?"</p>
+
+<p>"It just went out," he said simply. "But it's
+moonlight again to-night, sister, and I daren't see
+it again. I just <i>daren't</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"But you did go to the dining-room that way,"
+I reminded him.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, but I shut my eyes and ran, and even
+then I felt as if something cold was behind me."</p>
+
+<p>"Dormy, dear," I said, a good deal concerned,
+"I do think it's your fancy. You are not <i>quite</i>
+well yet, you know."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I am," he replied sturdily. "I'm not a
+bit frightened anywhere else. I sleep in a room
+alone you know. It's not <i>me</i>, sister, its somefing
+in the gallery."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you be frightened to go there with me
+now? We can run through the dining-room;
+there's no one to see us," and I turned in that
+direction as I spoke.</p>
+
+<p>Again my little brother hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll go with you if you'll hold hands," he said,
+"but I'll shut my eyes. And I won't open them
+till you tell me there's no shadow on the wall.
+You must tell me truly."</p>
+
+<p>"But there must be some shadows," I said, "in
+this bright moonlight, trees and branches, or even
+clouds scudding across&mdash;something of that kind is
+what you must have seen, dear."</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no, of course I wouldn't mind that. I
+know the difference. No&mdash;you couldn't mistake.
+It goes along, right along, in a creeping way, and
+then at the door its hands come farther out, and it
+<i>feels</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Is it like a man or a woman?" I said, beginning
+to feel rather creepy myself.</p>
+
+<p>"I think it's most like a rather little man," he
+replied, "but I'm not sure. Its head has got
+something fuzzy about it&mdash;oh, I know, like a
+sticking out wig. But lower down it seems
+wrapped up, like in a cloak. Oh, it's <i>horrid</i>."</p>
+
+<p>And again he shivered&mdash;it was quite time all
+this nightmare nonsense was put out of his poor
+little head.</p>
+
+<p>I took his hand and held it firmly; we went
+through the dining-room. Nothing could have
+looked more comfortable and less ghostly. For
+the lights were still burning on the table, and the
+flowers in their silver bowls, some wine gleaming
+in the glasses, the fruit and pretty dishes, made a
+pleasant glow of colour. It certainly seemed a
+curiously sudden contrast when we found ourselves
+in the gallery beyond, cold and unillumined, save
+by the pale moonlight streaming through the unshuttered
+windows. For the door closed with a
+bang as we passed through&mdash;the gallery <i>was</i> a
+draughty place.</p>
+
+<p>Dormy's hold tightened.</p>
+
+<p>"Sister," he whispered, "I've shut my eyes
+now. You must stand with your back to the
+windows&mdash;between them, or else you'll think it's
+our own shadows&mdash;and watch."</p>
+
+<p>I did as he said, and I had not long to wait.</p>
+
+<p>It came&mdash;from the farther end, the second condemned
+door, whence the winding stair mounted
+to the attics&mdash;it seemed to begin or at least take
+form there. Creeping along, just as Dormy said&mdash;stealthily
+but steadily&mdash;right down to the other
+extremity of the long room. And then it grew
+blacker&mdash;more concentrated&mdash;and out from the
+vague outline came two bony hands, and, as the
+child had said, too, you could see that they were
+<i>feeling</i>&mdash;all over the upper part of the door.</p>
+
+<p>I stood and watched. I wondered afterwards at
+my own courage, if courage it was. It was the
+shadow of a small man, I felt sure. The head
+seemed large in proportion, and&mdash;yes&mdash;it&mdash;the
+original of the shadow&mdash;was evidently covered by
+an antique wig. Half mechanically I glanced
+round&mdash;as if in search of the material body that
+<i>must</i> be there. But no; there was nothing,
+literally <i>nothing</i>, that could throw this extraordinary
+shadow.</p>
+
+<p>Of this I was instantly convinced; and here I
+may as well say once for all, that never was it
+maintained by any one, however previously
+sceptical, who had fully witnessed the whole, that
+it could be accounted for by ordinary, or, as people
+say, "natural" causes. There was this peculiarity
+at least about our ghost.</p>
+
+<p>Though I had fast hold of his hand, I had almost
+forgotten Dormy&mdash;I seemed in a trance.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he spoke, though in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p>"You see it, sister, I know you do," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait, wait a minute, dear," I managed to reply
+in the same tone, though I could not have
+explained why I waited.</p>
+
+<p>Dormer had said that after a time&mdash;after the
+ghastly and apparently fruitless <i>feeling</i> all over the
+door&mdash;"it"&mdash;"went out".</p>
+
+<p>I think it was this that I was waiting for. It
+was not quite as he had said. The door was in
+the extreme corner of the wall, the hinges almost
+in the angle, and as the shadow began to move on
+again, it <i>looked</i> as if it disappeared; but no, it was
+only fainter. My eyes, preternaturally sharpened
+by my intense gaze, still saw it, working its way
+round the corner, as assuredly no <i>shadow</i> in the
+real sense of the word ever did nor could do. I
+realised this, and the sense of horror grew all but
+intolerable; yet I stood still, clasping the cold little
+hand in mine tighter and tighter. And an instinct
+of protection of the child gave me strength.
+Besides, it was coming on so quickly&mdash;we could
+not have escaped&mdash;it was coming, nay, it <i>was behind</i>
+us.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila!" gasped Dormy, "the cold&mdash;you feel
+it now?"</p>
+
+<p>Yes, truly&mdash;like no icy breath that I had ever
+felt before was that momentary but horrible thrill
+of utter cold. If it had lasted another second I
+think it would have killed us both. But, mercifully,
+it passed, in far less time than it has taken me to
+tell it, and then we seemed in some strange way to
+be released.</p>
+
+<p>"Open your eyes, Dormy," I said, "you won't
+see anything, I promise you. I want to rush across
+to the dining-room."</p>
+
+<p>He obeyed me. I felt there was time to escape
+before that awful presence would again have arrived
+at the dining-room door, though it was <i>coming</i>&mdash;ah,
+yes, it was coming, steadily pursuing its
+ghastly round. And, alas! the dining-room
+door was closed. But I kept my nerve to some
+extent. I turned the handle without over much
+trembling, and in another moment, the door shut
+and locked behind us, we stood in safety, looking
+at each other, in the bright cheerful room we had
+left so short a time ago.</p>
+
+<p><i>Was</i> it so short a time? I said to myself. It
+seemed hours!</p>
+
+<p>And through the door open to the hall came
+at that moment the sound of cheerful laughing
+voices from the drawing-room. Some one was
+coming out. It seemed impossible, incredible,
+that within a few feet of the matter-of-fact pleasant
+material life, this horrible inexplicable drama
+should be going on, as doubtless it still was.</p>
+
+<p>Of the two I was now more upset than my
+little brother. I was older and "took in" more.
+He, boy-like, was in a sense triumphant at having
+proved himself correct and no coward, and though
+he was still pale, his eyes shone with excitement
+and a queer kind of satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>But before we had done more than look at each
+other, a figure appeared at the open doorway. It
+was Sophy.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," she said, "mamma wants to know
+what you are doing with Dormy? He is to go
+to bed at once. We saw you go out of the room
+after him, and then a door banged. Mamma
+says if you are playing with him it's very bad for
+him so late at night."</p>
+
+<p>Dormy was very quick. He was still holding
+my hand, and he pinched it to stop my
+replying.</p>
+
+<p>"Rubbish!" he said. "I am speaking to Leila
+quietly, and she is coming up to my room while
+I undress. Good night, Sophy."</p>
+
+<p>"Tell mamma Dormy really wants me," I
+added, and then Sophy departed.</p>
+
+<p>"We musn't tell <i>her</i>, Leila," said the boy.
+"She'd have 'sterics."</p>
+
+<p>"Whom shall we tell?" I said, for I was
+beginning to feel very helpless and upset.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody, to-night," he replied sensibly.
+"You <i>mustn't</i> go in there," and he shivered a
+little as he moved his head towards the gallery;
+"you're not fit for it, and they'd be wanting you
+to. Wait till the morning and then I'd&mdash;I think
+I'd tell Philip first. You needn't be frightened
+to-night, sister. It won't stop you sleeping. It
+didn't me the time I saw it before."</p>
+
+<p>He was right. I slept dreamlessly. It was as
+if the intense nervous strain of those few minutes
+had utterly exhausted me.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>PART II.</h4>
+
+<p>Phil is our soldier brother. And there is nothing
+fanciful about <i>him</i>! He is a rock of sturdy common-sense
+and unfailing good nature. He was
+the very best person to confide our strange secret
+to, and my respect for Dormy increased.</p>
+
+<p>We did tell him&mdash;the very next morning. He
+listened very attentively, only putting in a question
+here and there, and though, of course, he was
+incredulous&mdash;had I not been so myself?&mdash;he was
+not mocking.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you have told no one else," he said,
+when we had related the whole as circumstantially
+as possible. "You see mother is not very strong
+yet, and it would be a pity to bother father, just
+when he's taken this place and settled it all. And
+for goodness' sake, don't let a breath of it get
+about among the servants; there'd be the&mdash;something
+to pay, if you did."</p>
+
+<p>"I won't tell anybody," said Dormy.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor shall I," I added. "Sophy is far too
+excitable, and if she knew, she would certainly tell
+Nannie." Nannie is our old nurse.</p>
+
+<p>"If we tell any one," Philip went on, "that
+means," with a rather irritating smile of self-confidence,
+"if by any possibility I do not succeed in
+making an end of your ghost and we want another
+opinion about it, the person to tell would be Miss
+Larpent."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said, "I think so, too."</p>
+
+<p>I would not risk irritating him by saying how
+convinced I was that conviction awaited <i>him</i> as
+surely it had come to myself, and I knew that Miss
+Larpent, though far from credulous, was equally
+far from stupid scepticism concerning the
+mysteries "not dreamt of" in ordinary
+"philosophy".</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean to do?" I went on.
+"You have a theory, I see. Won't you tell me
+what it is?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have two," said Phil, rolling up a cigarette
+as he spoke. "It is either some queer optical
+illusion, partly the effect of some odd reflection
+outside&mdash;or it is a clever trick."</p>
+
+<p>"A trick!" I exclaimed; "what <i>possible</i> motive
+could there be for a trick?"</p>
+
+<p>Phil shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he said, "that I cannot at present
+say."</p>
+
+<p>"And what are you going to do?"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall sit up to-night in the gallery and see
+for myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Alone?" I exclaimed, with some misgiving.
+For big, sturdy fellow as he was, I scarcely liked
+to think of him&mdash;of <i>any one</i>&mdash;alone with that awful
+thing.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't suppose you or Dormy would care to
+keep me company," he replied, "and on the whole
+I would rather not have you."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't do it," said the child honestly,
+"not for&mdash;for nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"I shall keep Tim with me," said Philip, "I
+would rather have him than any one."</p>
+
+<p>Tim is Phil's bull-dog, and certainly, I agreed,
+much better than nobody.</p>
+
+<p>So it was settled.</p>
+
+<p>Dormy and I went to bed unusually early that
+night, for as the day wore on we both felt
+exceedingly tired. I pleaded a headache, which
+was not altogether a fiction, though I repented
+having complained at all when I found that poor
+mamma immediately began worrying herself with
+fears that "after all" I, too, was to fall a victim
+to the influenza.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall be all right in the morning," I assured
+her.</p>
+
+<p>I knew no further details of Phil's arrangements.
+I fell asleep almost at once. I usually
+do. And it seemed to me that I had slept a
+whole night when I was awakened by a glimmering
+light at my door, and heard Philip's
+voice speaking softly.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you awake, Lel?" he said, as people
+always say when they awake you in any untimely
+way. Of course, <i>now</i> I was awake, very much
+awake indeed.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it?" I exclaimed eagerly, my heart
+beginning to beat very fast.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, nothing, nothing at all," said my brother,
+advancing a little into the room. "I just thought
+I'd look in on my way to bed to reassure you.
+I have seen <i>nothing</i>, absolutely nothing."</p>
+
+<p>I do not know if I was relieved or disappointed.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it moonlight?" I asked abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he replied, "unluckily the moon did
+not come out at all, though it is nearly at the full.
+I carried in a small lamp, which made things less
+eerie. But I should have preferred the moon."</p>
+
+<p>I glanced up at him. Was it the reflection of
+the candle he held, or did he look paler than
+usual?</p>
+
+<p>"And," I added suddenly, "did you <i>feel</i>
+nothing?"</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"It&mdash;it was chilly, certainly," he said. "I
+fancy I must have dosed a little, for I did feel
+pretty cold once or twice."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, indeed!" thought I to myself. "And
+how about Tim?"</p>
+
+<p>Phil smiled, but not very successfully.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," he said, "I must confess Tim did not
+altogether like it. He started snarling, then he
+growled, and finished up with whining in a
+decidedly unhappy way. He's rather upset&mdash;poor
+old chap!"</p>
+
+<p>And then I saw that the dog was beside
+him&mdash;rubbing up close to Philip's legs&mdash;a very
+dejected, reproachful Tim&mdash;all the starch taken
+out of him.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-night, Phil," I said, turning round on
+my pillow. "I'm glad you are satisfied.
+To-morrow morning you must tell me which of
+your theories holds most water. Good-night,
+and many thanks."</p>
+
+<p>He was going to say more, but my manner
+for the moment stopped him, and he went off.</p>
+
+<p>Poor old Phil!</p>
+
+<p>We had it out the next morning. He and I
+alone. He was <i>not</i> satisfied. Far from it. In the
+bottom of his heart I believe it was a strange
+yearning for a breath of human companionship,
+for the sound of a human voice, that had made
+him look in on me the night before.</p>
+
+<p><i>For he had felt the cold passing him.</i></p>
+
+<p>But he was very plucky.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll sit up again to-night, Leila," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Not to-night," I objected. "This sort of
+adventure requires one to be at one's best. If you
+take my advice you will go to bed early and have
+a good stretch of sleep, so that you will be quite
+fresh by to-morrow. There will be a moon for
+some nights still."</p>
+
+<p>"Why do you keep harping on the moon?"
+said Phil rather crossly, for him.</p>
+
+<p>"Because&mdash;I have some idea that it is only in
+the moonlight that&mdash;that anything is to be <i>seen</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Bosh!" said my brother politely&mdash;he was
+certainly rather discomposed&mdash;"we are talking at
+cross-purposes. You are satisfied<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Far from satisfied," I interpolated.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, convinced, whatever you like to call
+it&mdash;that the whole thing is supernatural, whereas
+I am equally sure it is a trick; a clever trick I
+allow, though I haven't yet got at the motive
+of it."</p>
+
+<p>"You need your nerves to be at their best to
+discover a trick of this kind, if a trick it be," I
+said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Philip had left his seat, and walked up and down
+the room; his way of doing so gave me a feeling
+that he wanted to walk off some unusual consciousness
+of irritability. I felt half provoked and half
+sorry for him.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment&mdash;we were alone in the drawing-room&mdash;the
+door opened, and Miss Larpent came
+in.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot find Sophy," she said, peering about
+through her rather short-sighted eyes, which,
+nevertheless, see a great deal sometimes; "do you
+know where she is?"</p>
+
+<p>"I saw her setting off somewhere with Nugent,"
+said Philip, stopping his quarter-deck exercise for
+a moment.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, then it is hopeless. I suppose I
+must resign myself to very irregular ways
+for a little longer," Miss Larpent replied with
+a smile.</p>
+
+<p>She is not young, and not good looking, but she
+is gifted with a delightful way of smiling, and she
+is&mdash;well, the dearest and almost the wisest of
+women.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at Philip as he spoke. She had
+known us nearly since our babyhood.</p>
+
+<p>"Is there anything the matter?" she said
+suddenly. "You look fagged, Leila, and Philip
+seems worried."</p>
+
+<p>I glanced at Philip. He understood me.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he replied, "I am irritated, and Leila
+is<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" he hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"What?" asked Miss Larpent.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know&mdash;obstinate, I suppose. Sit
+down, Miss Larpent, and hear our story. Leila,
+you can tell it."</p>
+
+<p>I did so&mdash;first obtaining a promise of secrecy,
+and making Phil relate his own experience.</p>
+
+<p>Our new <i>confidante</i> listened attentively, her face
+very grave. When she had heard all, she said
+quietly, after a moment's silence:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It's very strange, very. Philip, if you will
+wait till to-morrow night, and I quite agree with
+Leila that you had better do so, I will sit up with
+you. I have pretty good nerves, and I have
+always wanted an experience of that kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't think it is a trick?" I said
+eagerly. I was like Dormer, divided between my
+real underlying longing to explain the thing, and
+get rid of the horror of it, and a half childish
+wish to prove that I had not exaggerated its
+ghastliness.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you that the day after to-morrow,"
+she said. I could not repress a little shiver as she
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>She <i>had</i> good nerves, and she was extremely
+sensible.</p>
+
+<p>But I almost blamed myself afterwards for
+having acquiesced in the plan. For the effect on
+her was very great. They never told me exactly
+what happened; "You <i>know</i>," said Miss Larpent.
+I imagine their experience was almost precisely
+similar to Dormy's and mine, intensified, perhaps,
+by the feeling of loneliness. For it was not till all
+the rest of the family was in bed that this second
+vigil began. It was a bright moonlight night&mdash;they
+had the whole thing complete.</p>
+
+<p>It was impossible to throw off the effect; even
+in the daytime the four of us who had seen and
+heard, shrank from the gallery, and made any conceivable
+excuse for avoiding it.</p>
+
+<p>But Phil, however convinced, behaved consistently.
+He examined the closed door thoroughly,
+to detect any possible trickery. He explored the
+attics, he went up and down the staircase leading
+to the offices, till the servants must have thought
+he was going crazy. He found <i>nothing</i>&mdash;no vaguest
+hint even as to why the gallery was chosen by the
+ghostly shadow for its nightly round.</p>
+
+<p>Strange to say, however, as the moon waned, our
+horror faded, so that we almost began to hope the
+thing was at an end, and to trust that in time we
+should forget about it. And we congratulated ourselves
+that we had kept our own counsel and not
+disturbed any of the others&mdash;even father, who
+would, no doubt, have hooted at the idea&mdash;by the
+baleful whisper that our charming castle by the
+sea was haunted!</p>
+
+<p>And the days passed by, growing into weeks.
+The second detachment of our guests had left, and
+a third had just arrived, when one morning as I
+was waiting at what we called "the sea-door" for
+some of the others to join me in a walk along the
+sands, some one touched me on the shoulder. It
+was Philip.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," he said, "I am not happy about
+Dormer. He is looking ill again, and<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I thought he seemed so much stronger," I
+said, surprised and distressed, "quite rosy, and so
+much merrier."</p>
+
+<p>"So he was till a few days ago," said Philip.
+"But if you notice him well you'll see that he's
+getting that white look again. And&mdash;I've got it
+into my head&mdash;he is an extraordinarily sensitive
+child, that it has something to do with the moon.
+It's getting on to the full."</p>
+
+<p>For the moment I stupidly forgot the association.</p>
+
+<p>"Really, Phil," I said, "you are too absurd!
+Do you actually&mdash;oh," as he was beginning to
+interrupt me, and my face fell, I feel sure&mdash;"you
+don't mean about the gallery."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I do," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"How? Has Dormy told you anything?"
+and a sort of sick feeling came over me. "I had
+begun to hope," I went on, "that somehow it had
+gone; that, perhaps, it only comes once a year at
+a certain season, or possibly that newcomers see it
+at the first and not again. Oh, Phil, we <i>can't</i> stay
+here, however nice it is, if it is really haunted."</p>
+
+<p>"Dormy hasn't said much," Philip replied.
+"He only told me he had <i>felt the cold</i> once or
+twice, 'since the moon came again,' he said.
+But I can see the fear of more is upon him.
+And this determined me to speak to you. I have
+to go to London for ten days or so, to see the
+doctors about my leave, and a few other things.
+I don't like it for you and Miss Larpent if&mdash;if
+this thing is to return&mdash;with no one else in your
+confidence, especially on Dormy's account. Do
+you think we must tell father before I go?"</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated. For many reasons I was reluctant
+to do so. Father would be exaggeratedly sceptical
+at first, and then, if he were convinced, as I <i>knew</i>
+he would be, he would go to the other extreme and
+insist upon leaving Finster, and there would be
+a regular upset, trying for mother and everybody
+concerned. And mother liked the place, and was
+looking so much better!</p>
+
+<p>"After all," I said, "it has not hurt any of us.
+Miss Larpent got a shake, so did I. But it wasn't
+as great a shock to us as to you, Phil, to have to
+believe in a ghost. And we can avoid the gallery
+while you are away. No, except for Dormy, I
+would rather keep it to ourselves&mdash;after all, we
+are not going to live here always. Yet it is so
+nice, it seems such a pity."</p>
+
+<p>It was such an exquisite morning; the air,
+faintly breathing of the sea, was like elixir; the
+heights and shadows on the cliffs, thrown out by
+the darker woods behind, were indeed, as Janet
+Miles had said, "wonderful".</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," Phil agreed, "it is an awful nuisance.
+But as for Dormy," he went on, "supposing I get
+mother to let me take him with me? He'd be as
+jolly as a sand-boy in London, and my old landlady
+would look after him like anything if ever
+I had to be out late. And I'd let my doctor see
+him&mdash;quietly, you know&mdash;he might give him a
+tonic or something."</p>
+
+<p>I heartily approved of the idea. So did mamma
+when Phil broached it&mdash;she, too, had thought her
+"baby" looking quite pale lately. A London
+doctor's opinion would be such a satisfaction. So
+it was settled, and the very next day the two set
+off. Dormer, in his "old-fashioned," reticent way,
+in the greatest delight, though only by one remark
+did the brave little fellow hint at what was, no
+doubt, the principal cause of his satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>"The moon will be long past the full when we
+come back," he said. "And after that there'll only
+be one other time before we go, won't there, Leila?
+We've only got this house for three months?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said, "father only took it for three,"
+though in my heart I knew it was with the option
+of three more&mdash;six in all.</p>
+
+<p>And Miss Larpent and I were left alone, not
+with the ghost, certainly, but with our fateful
+knowledge of its unwelcome proximity.</p>
+
+<p>We did not speak of it to each other, but we
+tacitly avoided the gallery, even, as much as
+possible, in the daytime. I felt, and so, she has
+since confessed, did she, that it would be impossible
+to endure <i>that cold</i> without betraying ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>And I began to breathe more freely, trusting that
+the dread of the shadow's possible return was
+really only due to the child's overwrought nerves.</p>
+
+<p>Till&mdash;one morning&mdash;my fool's paradise was
+abruptly destroyed.</p>
+
+<p>Father came in late to breakfast&mdash;he had been
+for an early walk, he said, to get rid of a headache.
+But he did not look altogether as if he had
+succeeded in doing so.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," he said, as I was leaving the room after
+pouring out his coffee&mdash;mamma was not yet allowed
+to get up early&mdash;"Leila, don't go. I want to
+speak to you."</p>
+
+<p>I stopped short, and turned towards the table.
+There was something very odd about his manner.
+He is usually hearty and eager, almost impetuous
+in his way of speaking.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," he began again, "you are a sensible
+girl, and your nerves are strong, I fancy. Besides,
+you have not been ill like the others. Don't
+speak of what I am going to tell you."</p>
+
+<p>I nodded in assent; I could scarcely have spoken.
+My heart was beginning to thump. Father would
+not have commended my nerves had he known it.</p>
+
+<p>"Something odd and inexplicable happened last
+night," he went on. "Nugent and I were sitting
+in the gallery. It was a mild night, and the moon
+magnificent. We thought the gallery would be
+pleasanter than the smoking-room, now that Phil
+and his pipes are away. Well&mdash;we were sitting
+quietly. I had lighted my reading-lamp on the
+little table at one end of the room, and Nugent
+was half lying in his chair, doing nothing in particular
+except admiring the night, when all at once
+he started violently with an exclamation, and,
+jumping up, came towards me. Leila, his teeth
+were chattering, and he was <i>blue</i> with cold. I was
+very much alarmed&mdash;you know how ill he was at
+college. But in a moment or two he recovered.</p>
+
+<p>"'What on earth is the matter?' I said to him.
+He tried to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>"'I really don't know,' he said; 'I felt as if I
+had had an electric shock of <i>cold</i>&mdash;but I'm all right
+again now.'</p>
+
+<p>"I went into the dining-room, and made him
+take a little brandy and water, and sent him off to
+bed. Then I came back, still feeling rather uneasy
+about him, and sat down with my book, when, Leila&mdash;you
+will scarcely credit it&mdash;I myself felt the same
+shock exactly. A perfectly <i>hideous</i> thrill of cold.
+That was how it began. I started up, and then,
+Leila, by degrees, in some instinctive way, I seemed
+to realise what had caused it. My dear child, you
+will think I have gone crazy when I tell you that
+there was a shadow&mdash;a shadow in the
+moonlight&mdash;<i>chasing</i> me, so to say, round the room, and once
+again it caught me up, and again came that
+appalling sensation. I would not give in. I
+dodged it after that, and set myself to watch it, and
+then<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>I need not quote my father further; suffice to
+say his experience matched that of the rest of us
+entirely&mdash;no, I think it surpassed them. It was
+the worst of all.</p>
+
+<p>Poor father! I shuddered for him. I think a
+shock of that kind is harder upon a man than upon
+a woman. Our sex is less sceptical, less entrenched
+in sturdy matters of fact, more imaginative, or
+whatever you like to call the readiness to believe
+what we cannot explain. And it was astounding
+to me to see how my father at once capitulated&mdash;never
+even <i>alluding</i> to a possibility of trickery.
+Astounding, yet at the same time not without a
+certain satisfaction in it. It was almost a relief to
+find others in the same boat with ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>I told him at once all <i>we</i> had to tell, and
+how painfully exercised we had been as to the
+advisability of keeping our secret to ourselves. I
+never saw father so impressed; he was awfully
+kind, too, and so sorry for us. He made me fetch
+Miss Larpent, and we held a council of&mdash;I don't
+know what to call it!&mdash;not "war," assuredly, for
+none of us thought of fighting the ghost. How
+could one fight a shadow?</p>
+
+<p>We decided to do nothing beyond endeavouring
+to keep the affair from going further. During
+the next few days father arranged to have some
+work done in the gallery which would prevent
+our sitting there, without raising any suspicions
+on mamma's or Sophy's part.</p>
+
+<p>"And then," said father, "we must see.
+Possibly this extraordinary influence only makes
+itself felt periodically."</p>
+
+<p>"I am almost certain it is so," said Miss
+Larpent.</p>
+
+<p>"And in this case," he continued, "we may
+manage to evade it. But I do not feel disposed
+to continue my tenancy here after three months
+are over. If once the servants get hold of the
+story, and they are sure to do so sooner or later,
+it would be unendurable&mdash;the worry and annoyance
+would do your mother far more harm than
+any good effect the air and change have had
+upon her."</p>
+
+<p>I was glad to hear this decision. Honestly, I
+did not feel as if I could stand the strain for
+long, and it might kill poor little Dormy.</p>
+
+<p>But where should we go? Our own home
+would be quite uninhabitable till the autumn,
+for extensive alterations and repairs were going
+on there. I said this to father.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he agreed, "it is not convenient,"&mdash;and
+he hesitated. "I cannot make it out," he
+went on, "Miles would have been <i>sure</i> to know
+if the house had a bad name in any way. I think
+I will go over and see him to-day, and tell him
+all about it&mdash;at least I shall inquire about some
+other house in the neighbourhood&mdash;and <i>perhaps</i>
+I will tell him our reason for leaving this."</p>
+
+<p>He did so&mdash;he went over to Raxtrew that very
+afternoon, and, as I quite anticipated would be
+the case, he told me on his return that he had
+taken both our friends into his confidence.</p>
+
+<p>"They are extremely concerned about it," he
+said, "and very sympathising, though, naturally,
+inclined to think us a parcel of very weak-minded
+folk indeed. But I am glad of one thing&mdash;the
+Rectory there, is to be let from the first of July
+for three months. Miles took me to see it. I
+think it will do very well&mdash;it is quite out of the
+village, for you really can't call it a town&mdash;and a
+nice little place in its way. Quite modern, and
+as unghost-like as you could wish, bright and
+cheery."</p>
+
+<p>"And what will mamma think of our leaving
+so soon?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>But as to this father reassured me. He had
+already spoken of it to her, and somehow she did
+not seem disappointed. She had got it into her
+head that Finster did not suit Dormy, and was
+quite disposed to think that three months of such
+strong air were enough at a time.</p>
+
+<p>"Then have you decided upon Raxtrew Rectory?"
+I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I have the refusal of it," said my father.
+"But you will be almost amused to hear that
+Miles begged me not to fix absolutely for a few
+days. He is coming to us to-morrow, to spend
+the night."</p>
+
+<p>"You mean to see for himself?"</p>
+
+<p>Father nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Mr. Miles!" I ejaculated. "You won't
+sit up with him, I hope, father?"</p>
+
+<p>"I offered to do so, but he won't hear of it,"
+was the reply. "He is bringing one of his keepers
+with him&mdash;a sturdy, trustworthy young fellow,
+and they two with their revolvers are going to nab
+the ghost, so he says. We shall see. We must
+manage to prevent our servants suspecting anything."</p>
+
+<p>This <i>was</i> managed. I need not go into particulars.
+Suffice to say that the sturdy keeper
+reached his own home before dawn on the night of
+the vigil, no endeavours of his master having
+succeeded in persuading him to stay another
+moment at Finster, and that Mr. Miles himself
+looked so ill the next morning when he joined us
+at the breakfast-table that we, the initiated, could
+scarcely repress our exclamations, when Sophy,
+with the curious instinct of touching a sore place
+which some people have, told him that he looked
+exactly "as if he had seen a ghost".</p>
+
+<p>His experience had been precisely similar to
+ours. After that we heard no more from him&mdash;about
+the pity it was to leave a place that suited us
+so well, etc., etc. On the contrary, before he left,
+he told my father and myself that he thought us
+uncommonly plucky for staying out the three
+months, though at the same time he confessed to
+feeling completely nonplussed.</p>
+
+<p>"I have lived near Finster St. Mabyn's all my
+life," he said, "and my people before me, and
+<i>never</i>, do I honestly assure you, have I heard one
+breath of the old place being haunted. And in a
+shut-up neighbourhood like this, such a thing
+would have leaked out."</p>
+
+<p>We shook our heads, but what could we say?</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>PART III.</h4>
+
+<p>We left Finster St. Mabyn's towards the middle
+of July.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing worth recording happened during the
+last few weeks. If the ghostly drama were still
+re-enacted night after night, or only during some
+portion of each month, we took care not to assist
+at the performance. I believe Phil and Nugent
+planned another vigil, but gave it up by my father's
+expressed wish, and on one pretext or another he
+managed to keep the gallery locked off without
+arousing any suspicion in my mother or Sophy, or
+any of our visitors.</p>
+
+<p>It was a cold summer,&mdash;those early months of
+it at least&mdash;and that made it easier to avoid the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow none of us were sorry to go. This
+was natural, so far as several were concerned, but
+rather curious as regarded those of the family who
+knew no drawback to the charms of the place. I
+suppose it was due to some instinctive consciousness
+of the influence which so many of the party
+had felt it impossible to resist or explain.</p>
+
+<p>And the Rectory at Raxtrew was really a dear
+little place. It was so bright and open and sunny.
+Dormy's pale face was rosy with pleasure the first
+afternoon when he came rushing in to tell us that
+there were tame rabbits and a pair of guinea-pigs
+in an otherwise empty loose box in the stable-yard.</p>
+
+<p>"Do come and look at them," he begged, and
+I went with him, pleased to see him so happy.</p>
+
+<p>I did not care for the rabbits, but I always think
+guinea-pigs rather fascinating, and we stayed playing
+with them some little time.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll show you another way back into the house,"
+said Dormy, and he led me through a conservatory
+into a large, almost unfurnished room, opening
+again into a tiled passage leading to the offices.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the Warden boys' playroom," he said.
+"They keep their cricket and football things here,
+you see, and their tricycle. I wonder if I might
+use it?"</p>
+
+<p>"We must write and ask them," I said. "But
+what are all these big packages?" I went on.
+"Oh, I see, its our heavy luggage from Finster.
+There is not room in this house for our odds and
+ends of furniture, I suppose. It's rather a pity
+they have put it in here, for we could have had
+some nice games in this big room on a wet
+day, and see, Dormy, here are several pairs of
+roller skates! Oh, we must have this place
+cleared."</p>
+
+<p>We spoke to father about it&mdash;he came and looked
+at the room and agreed with us that it would be a
+pity not to have the full use of it. Roller skating
+would be good exercise for Dormy, he said, and
+even for Nat, who would be joining us before long
+for his holidays.</p>
+
+<p>So our big cases, and the chairs and tables we
+had bought from Hunter, in their careful swathings
+of wisps and matting, were carried out to an
+empty barn&mdash;a perfectly dry and weather-tight
+barn&mdash;for everything at the Rectory was in
+excellent repair. In this, as in all other details,
+our new quarters were a complete contrast to the
+picturesque abode we had just quitted.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was charming for the first two or
+three weeks&mdash;much warmer and sunnier than at
+Finster. We all enjoyed it, and seemed to breathe
+more freely. Miss Larpent, who was staying
+through the holidays this year, and I congratulated
+each other more than once, when sure of not being
+overheard, on the cheerful, wholesome atmosphere
+in which we found ourselves.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think I shall ever wish to live in a
+very old house again," she said one day. We were
+in the play-room, and I had been persuading her to
+try her hand&mdash;or feet&mdash;at roller skating. "Even
+now," she went on, "I own to you, Leila, though
+it may sound very weak-minded, I cannot think of
+that horrible night without a shiver. Indeed,
+I could fancy I feel that thrill of indescribable
+cold at the present moment."</p>
+
+<p>She <i>was</i> shivering&mdash;and, extraordinary to relate,
+as she spoke, her tremor communicated itself to
+me. Again, I could swear to it, again I felt that
+blast of unutterable, unearthly cold.</p>
+
+<p>I started up. We were seated on a bench against
+the wall&mdash;a bench belonging to the play-room, and
+which we had not thought of removing, as a few
+seats were a convenience.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Larpent caught sight of my face. Her
+own, which was very white, grew distressed in expression.
+She grasped my arm.</p>
+
+<p>"My dearest child," she exclaimed, "you look
+blue, and your teeth are chattering! I do wish I
+had not alluded to that fright we had. I had no
+idea you were so nervous."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know it myself," I replied. "I often
+think of the Finster ghost quite calmly, even in
+the middle of the night. But just then, Miss
+Larpent, do you know, I really <i>felt</i> that horrid
+cold again!"</p>
+
+<p>"So did I&mdash;or rather my imagination did," she
+replied, trying to talk in a matter-of-fact way.
+She got up as she spoke, and went to the window.
+"It can't be <i>all</i> imagination," she added. "See,
+Leila, what a gusty, stormy day it is&mdash;not like the
+beginning of August. It really is cold."</p>
+
+<p>"And this play-room seems nearly as draughty
+as the gallery at Finster," I said. "Don't let us
+stay here&mdash;come into the drawing-room and play
+some duets. I wish we could quite forget about
+Finster."</p>
+
+<p>"Dormy has done so, I hope," said Miss
+Larpent.</p>
+
+<p>That chilly morning was the commencement
+of the real break-up in the weather. We women
+would not have minded it so much, as there are
+always plenty of indoor things we can find to do.
+And my two grown-up brothers were away.
+Raxtrew held no particular attractions for them,
+and Phil wanted to see some of our numerous
+relations before he returned to India. So he and
+Nugent started on a round of visits. But, unluckily,
+it was the beginning of the public school
+holidays, and poor Nat&mdash;the fifteen-year-old boy&mdash;had
+just joined us. It was very disappointing
+for him in more ways than one. He had set
+his heart on seeing Finster, impressed by our
+enthusiastic description of it when we first went
+there, and now his anticipations had to come
+down to a comparatively tame and uninteresting
+village, and every probability&mdash;so said the wise&mdash;of
+a stretch of rainy, unsummerlike weather.</p>
+
+<p>Nat is a good-natured, cheery fellow, however&mdash;not
+nearly as clever or as impressionable as
+Dormy, but with the same common sense. So
+he wisely determined to make the best of things,
+and as we were really sorry for him, he did not,
+after all, come off very badly.</p>
+
+<p>His principal amusement was roller-skating in
+the play-room. Dormy had not taken to it in
+the same way&mdash;the greater part of <i>his</i> time was
+spent with the rabbits and guinea-pigs, where
+Nat, when he himself had had skating enough,
+was pretty sure to find him.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose it is with being the eldest sister that
+it always seems my fate to receive the confidences
+of the rest of the family, and it was about this
+time, a fortnight or so after his arrival, that it
+began to strike me that Nat looked as if he had
+something on his mind.</p>
+
+<p>"He is sure to tell me what it is, sooner or
+later," I said to myself. "Probably he has left
+some small debts behind him at school&mdash;only he
+did not look worried or anxious when he first
+came home."</p>
+
+<p>The confidence was given. One afternoon Nat
+followed me into the library, where I was going
+to write some letters, and said he wanted to speak
+to me. I put my paper aside and waited.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," he began, "you must promise not to
+laugh at me."</p>
+
+<p>This was not what I expected.</p>
+
+<p>"Laugh at you&mdash;no, certainly not," I replied,
+"especially if you are in any trouble. And
+I have thought you were looking worried,
+Nat."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, yes," he said, "I don't know if there
+is anything coming over me&mdash;I feel quite well,
+but&mdash;Leila," he broke off, "do you believe in
+ghosts?"</p>
+
+<p>I started.</p>
+
+<p>"Has any one<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" I was beginning rashly,
+but the boy interrupted me.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," he said eagerly, "no one has put
+anything of the kind into my head&mdash;no one. It
+is my own senses that have seen&mdash;felt it&mdash;or else,
+if it is fancy, I must be going out of my mind,
+Leila&mdash;I do believe there is a ghost here <i>in the
+play-room</i>."</p>
+
+<p>I sat silent, an awful dread creeping over me,
+which, as he went on, grew worse and worse. Had
+the thing&mdash;the Finster shadow&mdash;attached itself to
+us&mdash;I had read of such cases&mdash;had it journeyed
+with us to this peaceful, healthful house? The
+remembrance of the cold thrill experienced by
+Miss Larpent and myself flashed back upon me.
+And Nat went on.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, the cold was the first thing he had been
+startled by, followed, just as in the gallery of our
+old castle, by the consciousness of the terrible
+shadow-like presence, gradually taking form in the
+moonlight. For there had been moonlight the
+last night or two, and Nat, in his skating ardour,
+had amused himself alone in the play-room after
+Dormy had gone to bed.</p>
+
+<p>"The night before last was the worst," he said.
+"It stopped raining, you remember, Leila, and the
+moon was very bright&mdash;I noticed how it glistened
+on the wet leaves outside. It was by the moonlight
+I saw the&mdash;the shadow. I wouldn't have thought
+of skating in the evening but for the light, for
+we've never had a lamp in there. It came round
+the walls, Leila, and then it seemed to stop and
+fumble away in one corner&mdash;at the end where there
+is a bench, you know."</p>
+
+<p>Indeed I did know; it was where our governess
+and I had been sitting.</p>
+
+<p>"I got so awfully frightened," said Nat honestly,
+"that I ran off. Then yesterday I was ashamed
+of myself, and went back there in the evening
+with a candle. But I saw nothing: the moon did
+not come out. Only&mdash;I felt the cold again. I
+believe it was there&mdash;though I could not see it.
+Leila, what <i>can</i> it be? If only I could make you
+understand! It is so <i>much</i> worse than it sounds to
+tell."</p>
+
+<p>I said what I could to soothe him. I spoke of
+odd shadows thrown by the trees outside swaying
+in the wind, for the weather was still stormy. I
+repeated the time-worn argument about optical
+illusions, etc., etc., and in the end he gave in a
+little. It <i>might</i> have been his fancy. And he
+promised me most faithfully to breathe no hint&mdash;not
+the very faintest&mdash;of the fright he had had,
+to Sophy or Dormy, or any one.</p>
+
+<p>Then I had to tell my father. I really shrank
+from doing so, but there seemed no alternative.
+At first, of course, he pooh-poohed it at once by
+saying Dormy must have been talking to Nat
+about the Finster business, or if not Dormy, <i>some
+one</i>&mdash;Miss Larpent even! But when all such
+explanations were entirely set at nought, I must
+say poor father looked rather blank. I was sorry
+for him, and sorry for myself&mdash;the idea of being
+<i>followed</i> by this horrible presence was too
+sickening.</p>
+
+<p>Father took refuge at last in some brain-wave
+theory&mdash;involuntary impressions had been made on
+Nat by all of us, whose minds were still full of the
+strange experience. He said he felt sure, and no
+doubt he tried to think he did, that this theory
+explained the whole. I felt glad for him to get
+any satisfaction out of it, and I did my best to
+take it up too. But it was no use. I felt that
+Nat's experience had been an "objective" one,
+as Miss Larpent expressed it&mdash;or, as Dormy
+had said at the first at Finster: "No, no,
+sister&mdash;it's something <i>there</i>&mdash;it's nothing to do
+with <i>me</i>."</p>
+
+<p>And earnestly I longed for the time to come for
+our return to our own familiar home.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I shall ever wish to leave it
+again," I thought.</p>
+
+<p>But after a week or two the feeling began to
+fade again. And father very sensibly discovered
+that it would not do to leave our spare furniture
+and heavy luggage in the barn&mdash;it was getting all
+dusty and cobwebby. So it was all moved back
+again to the play-room, and stacked as it had
+been at first, making it impossible for us to skate
+or amuse ourselves in any way there, at which
+Sophy grumbled, but Nat did not.</p>
+
+<p>Father was very good to Nat. He took him
+about with him as much as he could to get the
+thought of that horrid thing out of his head. But
+yet it could not have been half as bad for Nat as
+for the rest of us, for we took the greatest possible
+precautions against any whisper of the dreadful
+and mysterious truth reaching him, that the ghost
+had <i>followed us</i> from Finster.</p>
+
+<p>Father did not tell Mr. Miles or Jenny about it.
+They had been worried enough, poor things, by
+the trouble at Finster, and it would be too bad for
+them to think that the strange influence was
+affecting us in the <i>second</i> house we had taken at
+their recommendation.</p>
+
+<p>"In fact," said father with a rather rueful smile,
+"if we don't take care, we shall begin to be looked
+upon askance as a haunted family! Our lives
+would have been in danger in the good old witchcraft
+days."</p>
+
+<p>"It is really a mercy that none of the servants
+have got hold of the story," said Miss Larpent,
+who was one of our council of three. "We must
+just hope that no further annoyance will befall us
+till we are safe at home again."</p>
+
+<p>Her hopes were fulfilled. Nothing else happened
+while we remained at the Rectory&mdash;it really seemed
+as if the unhappy shade was limited locally, in one
+sense. For at Finster, even, it had never been
+seen or felt save in the one room.</p>
+
+<p>The vividness of the impression of poor Nat's
+experience had almost died away when the time
+came for us to leave. I felt now that I should
+rather enjoy telling Phil and Nugent about it,
+and hearing what <i>they</i> could bring forward in
+the way of explanation.</p>
+
+<p>We left Raxtrew early in October. Our two
+big brothers were awaiting us at home, having
+arrived there a few days before us. Nugent was
+due at Oxford very shortly.</p>
+
+<p>It was very nice to be in our own house again,
+after several months' absence, and it was most
+interesting to see how the alterations, including
+a good deal of new papering and painting, had
+been carried out. And as soon as the heavy
+luggage arrived we had grand consultations as
+to the disposal about the rooms of the charming
+pieces of furniture we had picked up at Hunter's.
+Our rooms are large and nicely shaped, most of
+them. It was not difficult to make a pretty
+corner here and there with a quaint old chair or
+two and a delicate spindle-legged table, and when
+we had arranged them all&mdash;Phil, Nugent, and I,
+were the movers&mdash;we summoned mother and
+Miss Larpent to give their opinion.</p>
+
+<p>They quite approved, mother even saying that
+she would be glad of a few more odds and ends.</p>
+
+<p>"We might empower Janet Miles," she said,
+"to let us know if she sees anything very
+tempting. Is that really all we have? They
+looked so much more important in their
+swathings."</p>
+
+<p>The same idea struck me. I glanced round.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said, "that's all, except&mdash;oh, yes,
+there are the tapestry "<i>porti&egrave;res</i>"&mdash;the best of all.
+We can't have them in the drawing-room, I
+fear. It is too modern for them. Where shall
+we hang them?"</p>
+
+<p>"You are forgetting, Leila," said mother.
+"We spoke of having them in the hall. They
+will do beautifully to hang before the two side
+doors, which are seldom opened. And in cold
+weather the hall is draughty, though nothing like
+the gallery at Finster."</p>
+
+<p>Why did she say that? It made me shiver,
+but then, of course, she did not know.</p>
+
+<p>Our hall is a very pleasant one. We sit there
+a great deal. The side doors mother spoke of
+are second entrances to the dining-room and
+library&mdash;quite unnecessary, except when we have
+a large party, a dance or something of that sort.
+And the "<i>porti&egrave;res</i>" certainly seemed the very thing,
+the mellow colouring of the tapestry showing to
+great advantage. The boys&mdash;Phil and Nugent,
+I mean&mdash;set to work at once, and in an hour or
+two the hangings were placed.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said Philip, "if ever these doors
+are to be opened, this precious tapestry must be
+taken down, or very carefully looped back. It is
+very worn in some places, and in spite of the
+thick lining it should be tenderly handled. I am
+afraid it has suffered a little from being so long
+rolled up at the Rectory. It should have been
+hung up!"</p>
+
+<p>Still, it looked very well indeed, and when
+father, who was away at some magistrates' meeting,
+came home that afternoon, I showed him our
+arrangements with pride.</p>
+
+<p>He was very pleased.</p>
+
+<p>"Very nice&mdash;very nice indeed," he said, though
+it was almost too dusk for him to judge quite fully
+of the effect of the tapestry. "But, dear me, child,
+this hall is very cold. We must have a larger fire.
+Only October! What sort of a winter are we
+going to have?"</p>
+
+<p>He shivered as he spoke. He was standing close
+to one of the "<i>porti&egrave;res</i>"&mdash;smoothing the tapestry
+half absently with one hand. I looked at him with
+concern.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>hope</i> you have not got a chill, papa," I
+said.</p>
+
+<p>But he seemed all right again when we went into
+the library, where tea was waiting&mdash;an extra late
+tea for his benefit.</p>
+
+<p>The next day Nugent went to Oxford. Nat had
+already returned to school. So our home party
+was reduced to father and mother, Miss Larpent,
+Phil and I, and the children.</p>
+
+<p>We were very glad to have Phil settled at home
+for some time. There was little fear of his being
+tempted away, now that the shooting had begun.
+We were expecting some of our usual guests at
+this season; the weather was perfect autumn
+weather; we had thrown off all remembrance of
+influenza and other depressing "influences," and
+were feeling bright and cheerful, when again&mdash;ah,
+yes, even now it gives me a faint, sick sensation to
+recall the horror of that <i>third</i> visitation!</p>
+
+<p>But I must tell it simply, and not give way to
+painful remembrances.</p>
+
+<p>It was the very day before our first visitors were
+expected that the blow fell, the awful fear made
+itself felt. And, as before, the victim was a new
+one&mdash;the one who, for reasons already mentioned,
+we had specially guarded from any breath of the
+gruesome terror&mdash;poor little Sophy!</p>
+
+<p>What she was doing alone in the hall late that
+evening I cannot quite recall&mdash;yes, I think I
+remember her saying she had run downstairs
+when half-way up to bed, to fetch a book she had
+left there in the afternoon. She had no light, and
+the one lamp in the hall&mdash;we never sat there after
+dinner&mdash;was burning feebly. <i>It was bright moonlight.</i></p>
+
+<p>I was sitting at the piano, where I had been
+playing in a rather sleepy way&mdash;when a sudden
+touch on my shoulder made me start, and, looking
+up, I saw my sister standing beside me, white and
+trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," she whispered, "come with me quickly.
+I don't want mamma to notice."</p>
+
+<p>For mother was still nervous and delicate.</p>
+
+<p>The drawing-room is very long, and has two or
+three doors. No-one else was at our end. It was
+easy to make our way out unperceived. Sophy
+caught my hand and hurried me upstairs without
+speaking till we reached my own room, where a
+bright fire was burning cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>Then she began.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," she said, "I have had such an awful
+fright. I did not want to speak until we were safe
+up here."</p>
+
+<p>"What was it?" I exclaimed breathlessly.
+Did I already suspect the truth? I really do
+not know, but my nerves were not what they had
+been.</p>
+
+<p>Sophy gasped and began to tremble. I put my
+arm round her.</p>
+
+<p>"It does not sound so bad," she said. "But&mdash;oh,
+Leila, what <i>could</i> it be? It was in the hall,"
+and then I think she explained how she had come
+to be there. "I was standing near the side door
+into the library that we never use&mdash;and&mdash;all of a
+sudden a sort of darkness came along the wall,
+and seemed to settle on the door&mdash;where the old
+tapestry is, you know. I thought it was the
+shadow of something outside, for it was bright
+moonlight, and the windows were not shuttered.
+But in a moment I saw it could not be that&mdash;there
+is nothing to throw such a shadow. It seemed to
+wriggle about&mdash;like&mdash;like a monstrous spider,
+or&mdash;" and there she hesitated&mdash;"almost like a
+deformed sort of human being. And all at once,
+Leila, my breath went and I fell down. I really
+did. I was <i>choked</i> with cold. I think my senses
+went away, but I am not sure. The next thing
+I remember was rushing across the hall and then
+down the south corridor to the drawing-room, and
+then I was so thankful to see you there by the
+piano."</p>
+
+<p>I drew her down on my knee, poor child.</p>
+
+<p>"It was very good of you, dear," I said, "to
+control yourself, and not startle mamma."</p>
+
+<p>This pleased her, but her terror was still uppermost.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," she said piteously, "can't you explain
+it? I did so hope you could."</p>
+
+<p>What <i>could</i> I say?</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;one would need to go to the hall and look
+well about to see what could cast such a shadow,"
+I said vaguely, and I suppose I must involuntarily
+have moved a little, for Sophy started, and clutched
+me fast.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Leila, don't go&mdash;you don't mean you are
+going now?" she entreated.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing truly was farther from my thoughts,
+but I took care not to say so.</p>
+
+<p>"I won't leave you if you'd rather not," I said,
+"and I tell you what, Sophy, if you would like
+very much to sleep here with me to-night, you
+shall. I will ring and tell Freake to bring your
+things down and undress you&mdash;on one condition."</p>
+
+<p>"What?" she said eagerly. She was much impressed
+by my amiability.</p>
+
+<p>"That you won't say <i>one word</i> about this, or
+give the least shadow of a hint to any one that
+you have had a fright. You don't know the
+trouble it will cause."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will promise to let no one know,
+if you think it better, for you are so kind to me,"
+said Sophy. But there was a touch of reluctance
+in her tone. "You&mdash;you mean to do something
+about it though, Leila," she went on. "I shall
+never be able to forget it if you don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," I said, "I shall speak to father and Phil
+about it to-morrow. If any one has been trying to
+frighten us," I added unguardedly, "by playing
+tricks, they certainly must be exposed."</p>
+
+<p>"Not <i>us</i>," she corrected, "it was only me," and
+I did not reply. Why I spoke of the possibility
+of a trick I scarcely know. I had no hope of any
+such explanation.</p>
+
+<p>But another strange, almost incredible idea was
+beginning to take shape in my mind, and with it
+came a faint, very faint touch of relief. Could it
+be not the <i>houses</i>, nor the <i>rooms</i>, nor, worst of all,
+we ourselves that were haunted, but something or
+things among the old furniture we had bought
+at Raxtrew?</p>
+
+<p>And lying sleepless that night a sudden flash of
+illumination struck me&mdash;could it&mdash;whatever the
+"it" was&mdash;could it have something to do with the
+tapestry hangings?</p>
+
+<p>The more I thought it over the more striking
+grew the coincidences. At Finster it had been on
+one of the closed doors that the shadow seemed to
+settle, as again here in our own hall. But in both
+cases the "<i>porti&egrave;res</i>" had hung in front!</p>
+
+<p>And at the Rectory? The tapestry, as Philip
+had remarked, had been there rolled up all the
+time. Was it possible that it had never been taken
+out to the barn at all? What <i>more</i> probable than
+that it should have been left, forgotten, under the
+bench where Miss Larpent and I had felt for the
+second time that hideous cold? And, stay, something
+else was returning to my mind in connection
+with that bench. Yes&mdash;I had it&mdash;Nat had said
+"it seemed to stop and fumble away in one
+corner&mdash;at the end where there is a bench, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>And then to my unutterable thankfulness at last
+I fell asleep.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>PART IV.</h4>
+
+<p>I told Philip the next morning. There was no
+need to bespeak his attention. I think he felt
+nearly as horrified as I had done myself at the
+idea that our own hitherto bright, cheerful home
+was to be haunted by this awful thing&mdash;influence
+or presence, call it what you will. And the suggestions
+which I went on to make struck him,
+too, with a sense of relief.</p>
+
+<p>He sat in silence for some time after making me
+recapitulate as precisely as possible every detail of
+Sophy's story.</p>
+
+<p>"You are sure it was the door into the library?"
+he said at last.</p>
+
+<p>"Quite sure," I replied; "and, oh, Philip," I
+went on, "it has just occurred to me that <i>father</i>
+felt a chill there the other evening."</p>
+
+<p>For till that moment the little incident in question
+had escaped my memory.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you remember which of the "<i>porti&egrave;res</i>"
+hung in front of the door at Finster?" said Philip.</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>"Dormy would," I said, "he used to examine
+the pictures in the tapestry with great interest. I
+should not know one from the other. There is an
+old castle in the distance in each, and a lot of trees,
+and something meant for a lake."</p>
+
+<p>But in his turn Philip shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, "I won't speak to Dormy about
+it if I can possibly help it. Leave it to me, Leila,
+and try to put it out of your own mind as much as
+you possibly can, and don't be surprised at anything
+you may notice in the next few days. I will
+tell you, first of any one, whenever I have anything
+to tell."</p>
+
+<p>That was all I could get out of him. So I took
+his advice.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily, as it turned out, Mr. Miles, the only
+outsider, so to say (except the unfortunate keeper),
+who had witnessed the ghostly drama, was one of
+the shooting party expected that day. And him
+Philip at once determined to consult about this
+new and utterly unexpected manifestation.</p>
+
+<p>He did not tell me this. Indeed, it was not till
+fully a week later that I heard anything, and then
+in a letter&mdash;a very long letter from my brother,
+which, I think, will relate the sequel of our strange
+ghost story better than any narration at second-hand,
+of my own.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Miles only stayed two nights with us. The
+very day after he came he announced that, to his
+great regret, he was obliged&mdash;most unexpectedly&mdash;to
+return to Raxtrew on important business.</p>
+
+<p>"And," he continued, "I am afraid you will all
+feel much more vexed with me when I tell you I
+am going to carry off Phil with me."</p>
+
+<p>Father looked very blank indeed.</p>
+
+<p>"Phil!" he exclaimed, "and how about our
+shooting?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can easily replace us," said my brother,
+"I have thought of that," and he added something
+in a lower tone to father. He&mdash;Phil&mdash;was leaving
+the room at the time. <i>I</i> thought it had reference
+to the real reason of his accompanying Mr. Miles,
+but I was mistaken. Father, however, said nothing
+more in opposition to the plan, and the next morning
+the two went off.</p>
+
+<p>We happened to be standing at the hall door&mdash;several
+of us&mdash;for we were a large party now&mdash;when
+Phil and his friend drove away. As we
+turned to re-enter the house, I felt some one touch
+me. It was Sophy. She was going out for a constitutional
+with Miss Larpent, but had stopped a
+moment to speak to me.</p>
+
+<p>"Leila," she said in a whisper, "why have they&mdash;did
+you know that the tapestry had been taken
+down?"</p>
+
+<p>She glanced at me with a peculiar expression. I
+had not observed it. Now, looking up, I saw that
+the two locked doors were visible in the dark
+polish of their old mahogany as of yore&mdash;no longer
+shrouded by the ancient <i>porti&egrave;res</i>. I started in
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"No," I whispered in return, "I did not know.
+Never mind, Sophy. I suspect there is a reason
+for it which we shall know in good time."</p>
+
+<p>I felt strongly tempted&mdash;the moon being still at
+the full&mdash;to visit the hall that night&mdash;in hopes of
+feeling and seeing&mdash;<i>nothing</i>. But when the time
+drew near, my courage failed; besides I had
+tacitly promised Philip to think as little as I
+possibly could about the matter, and any vigil of
+the kind would certainly not have been acting in
+accordance with the spirit of his advice.</p>
+
+<p>I think I will now copy, as it stands, the letter
+from Philip which I received a week or so later.
+It was dated from his club in London.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>"<span class="smallcaps">My dear Leila</span>,</p>
+
+<p><span class="ind2">&nbsp;</span>"I have a long story to tell you and
+a very extraordinary one. I think it is well that
+it should be put into writing, so I will devote this
+evening to the task&mdash;especially as I shall not be
+home for ten days or so.</p>
+
+<p>"You may have suspected that I took Miles into
+my confidence as soon as he arrived. If you did
+you were right. He was the best person to
+speak to for several reasons. He looked, I must
+say, rather&mdash;well 'blank' scarcely expresses it&mdash;when
+I told him of the ghost's re-appearance,
+not only at the Rectory, but in our own house,
+and on both occasions to persons&mdash;Nat, and then
+Sophy&mdash;who had not heard a breath of the story.
+But when I went on to propound your suggestion,
+Miles cheered up. He had been, I fancy, a trifle
+touchy about our calling Finster haunted, and it
+was evidently a satisfaction to him to start another
+theory. We talked it well over, and we decided
+to test the thing again&mdash;it took some resolution,
+I own, to do so. We sat up that night&mdash;bright
+moonlight luckily&mdash;and&mdash;well, I needn't repeat it
+all. Sophy was quite correct. It came again&mdash;the
+horrid creeping shadow&mdash;poor wretch, I'm
+rather sorry for it now&mdash;just in the old way&mdash;quite
+as much at home in <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>shire, apparently,
+as in the Castle. It stopped at the closed library
+door, and fumbled away, then started off again&mdash;ugh!
+We watched it closely, but kept well in
+the middle of the room, so that the cold did not
+strike us so badly. We both noted the special
+part of the tapestry where its hands seemed to
+sprawl, and we meant to stay for another round;
+but&mdash;when it came to the point we funked it, and
+went to bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Next morning, on pretence of examining the
+date of the tapestry, we had it down&mdash;you were
+all out&mdash;and we found&mdash;<i>something</i>. Just where
+the hands felt about, there had been a cut&mdash;three
+cuts, three sides of a square, as it were, making a
+sort of door in the stuff, the fourth side having
+evidently acted as a hinge, for there was a mark
+where it had been folded back. And just where&mdash;treating
+the thing as a door&mdash;you might expect
+to find a handle to open it by, we found a distinct
+dint in the tapestry, as if a button or knob had
+once been there. We looked at each other. The
+same idea had struck us. The tapestry had been
+used to conceal a small door in the wall&mdash;the door
+of a secret cupboard probably. The ghostly fingers
+had been vainly seeking for the spring which in
+the days of their flesh and bone they had been
+accustomed to press.</p>
+
+<p>"'The first thing to do,' said Miles, 'is to look
+up Hunter and make him tell where he got the
+tapestry from. Then we shall see.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Shall we take the <i>porti&egrave;res</i> with us?' I said.</p>
+
+<p>"But Miles shuddered, though he half laughed
+too.</p>
+
+<p>"'No, thank you,' he said. 'I'm not going to
+travel with the evil thing.'</p>
+
+<p>"'We can't hang it up again, though,' I said,
+'after this last experience.'</p>
+
+<p>"In the end we rolled up the two <i>porti&egrave;res</i>, not to
+attract attention by only moving one, and&mdash;well,
+I thought it just possible the ghost might make a
+mistake, and I did not want any more scares while
+I was away&mdash;we rolled them up together, first
+carefully measuring the cut, and its position in the
+curtain, and then we hid them away in one of the
+lofts that no one ever enters, where they are at
+this moment, and where the ghost may have been
+disporting himself, for all I know, though I fancy
+he has given it up by this time, for reasons you
+shall hear.</p>
+
+<p>"Then Miles and I, as you know, set off for Raxtrew.
+I smoothed my father down about it, by
+reminding him how good-natured they had been to
+us, and telling him Miles really needed me. We
+went straight to Hunter. He hummed and hawed
+a good deal&mdash;he had not distinctly promised not to
+give the name of the place the tapestry had come
+from, but he knew the gentleman he had bought it
+from did not want it known.</p>
+
+<p>"'Why?' said Miles. 'Is it some family that
+has come down in the world, and is forced to part
+with things to get some ready money?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Oh, dear no!' said Hunter. 'It is not that, at
+all. It was only that&mdash;I suppose I must give you
+the name&mdash;Captain Devereux&mdash;did not want any
+gossip to get about, as to <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>'</p>
+
+<p>"'Devereux!' repeated Miles, 'you don't mean
+the people at Hallinger?'</p>
+
+<p>"'The same,' said Hunter. 'If you know them,
+sir, you will be careful, I hope, to assure the
+captain that I did my best to carry out his
+wishes?'</p>
+
+<p>"'Certainly,' said Miles, 'I'll exonerate
+you.'</p>
+
+<p>"And then Hunter told us that Devereux, who
+only came into the Hallinger property a few years
+ago, had been much annoyed by stories getting
+about of the place being haunted, and this had led
+to his dismantling one wing, and&mdash;Hunter thought,
+but was not quite clear as to this&mdash;pulling down
+some rooms altogether. But he, Devereux, was
+very touchy on the subject&mdash;he did not want to be
+laughed at.</p>
+
+<p>"'And the tapestry came from him&mdash;you are
+certain as to that?' Miles repeated.</p>
+
+<p>"'Positive, sir. I took it down with my own
+hands. It was fitted on to two panels in what they
+call the round room at Hallinger&mdash;there were, oh,
+I daresay, a dozen of them, with tapestry nailed on,
+but I only bought these two pieces&mdash;the others
+were sold to a London dealer.'</p>
+
+<p>"'The round room,' I said. Leila, the expression
+struck me.</p>
+
+<p>"Miles, it appeared, knew Devereux fairly well.
+Hallinger is only ten miles off. We drove over
+there, but found he was in London. So our next
+move was to follow him there. We called twice at
+his club, and then Miles made an appointment,
+saying that he wanted to see him on private
+business.</p>
+
+<p>"He received us civilly, of course. He is quite
+a young fellow&mdash;in the Guards. But when Miles
+began to explain to him what we had come about,
+he stiffened.</p>
+
+<p>"'I suppose you belong to the Psychical Society?'
+he said. 'I can only repeat that I have nothing
+to tell, and I detest the whole subject.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Wait a moment,' said Miles, and as he went
+on I saw that Devereux changed. His face grew
+intent with interest and a queer sort of eagerness,
+and at last he started to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"'Upon my soul,' he said, 'I believe you've run
+him to earth for me&mdash;the ghost, I mean, and if so,
+you shall have my endless gratitude. I'll go down
+to Hallinger with you at once&mdash;this afternoon, if
+you like, and see it out.'</p>
+
+<p>"He was so excited that he spoke almost incoherently,
+but after a bit he calmed down, and told us
+all he had to tell&mdash;and that was a good deal&mdash;which
+would indeed have been nuts for the Psychical
+Society. What Hunter had said was but a small
+part of the whole. It appeared that on succeeding
+to Hallinger, on the death of an uncle, young
+Devereux had made considerable changes in the
+house. He had, among others, opened out a small
+wing&mdash;a sort of round tower&mdash;which had been
+completely dismantled and bricked up for, I think
+he said, over a hundred years. There was some
+story about it. An ancestor of his&mdash;an awful
+gambler&mdash;had used the principal room in this wing
+for his orgies. Very queer things went on there,
+the finish up being the finding of old Devereux dead
+there one night, when his servants were summoned
+by the man he had been playing with&mdash;with whom
+he had had an awful quarrel. This man, a low
+fellow, probably a professional cardsharper, vowed
+that he had been robbed of a jewel which his host
+had staked, and it was said that a ring of great
+value had disappeared. But it was all hushed up&mdash;Devereux
+had really died in a fit&mdash;though soon after,
+for reasons only hinted at, the round tower was
+shut up, till the present man rashly opened it
+again.</p>
+
+<p>"Almost at once, he said, the annoyances, to use a
+mild term, began. First one, then another of the
+household were terrified out of their wits, just as we
+were, Leila. Devereux himself had seen it two or
+three times, the 'it,' of course, being his miserable
+old ancestor. A small man, with a big wig, and
+long, thin, claw-like fingers. It all corresponded.
+Mrs. Devereux is young and nervous. She could
+not stand it. So in the end the round tower was
+shut up again, all the furniture and hangings sold,
+and locally speaking, the ghost laid. That was all
+Devereux knew.</p>
+
+<p>"We started, the three of us, that very afternoon,
+as excited as a party of schoolboys. Miles and I
+kept questioning Devereux, but he had really no
+more to tell. He had never thought of examining
+the walls of the haunted room&mdash;it was wainscotted,
+he said&mdash;and might be lined all through with
+secret cupboards, for all he knew. But he could
+not get over the extraordinariness of the ghost's
+sticking to the <i>tapestry</i>&mdash;and indeed it does rather
+lower one's idea of ghostly intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>"We went at it at once&mdash;the tower was not
+<i>bricked</i> up again, luckily&mdash;we got in without
+difficulty the next morning&mdash;Devereux making
+some excuse to the servants, a new set who had
+not heard of the ghost, for our eccentric proceedings.
+It was a tiresome business. There were so
+many panels in the room, as Hunter had said,
+and it was impossible to tell in which <i>the</i> tapestry
+had been fixed. But we had our measures, and
+we carefully marked a line as near as we could
+guess at the height from the floor that the cut
+in the <i>porti&egrave;res</i> must have been. Then we tapped
+and pummelled and pressed imaginary springs
+till we were nearly sick of it&mdash;there was nothing
+to guide us. The wainscotting was dark and
+much shrunk and marked with age, and full of
+joins in the wood any one of which might have
+meant a door.</p>
+
+<p>"It was Devereux himself who found it at last.
+We heard an exclamation from where he was
+standing by himself at the other side of the
+room. He was quite white and shaky.</p>
+
+<p>"'Look here,' he said, and we looked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;there was a small deep recess, or cupboard
+in the thickness of the wall, excellently
+contrived. Devereux had touched the spring at
+last, and the door, just matching the cut in the
+tapestry, flew open.</p>
+
+<p>"Inside lay what at first we took for a packet
+of letters, and I hoped to myself they contained
+nothing that would bring trouble on poor Devereux.
+They were not letters, however, but two
+or three incomplete packs of cards&mdash;grey and
+dust-thick with age&mdash;and as Miles spread them
+out, certain markings on them told their own
+tale. Devereux did not like it, naturally&mdash;their
+supposed owner had been a member of his house.</p>
+
+<p>"'The ghost has kept a conscience,' he said,
+with an attempt at a laugh. 'Is there nothing
+more?'</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;a small leather bag&mdash;black and grimy,
+though originally, I fancy, of chamois skin. It
+drew with strings. Devereux pulled it open,
+and felt inside.</p>
+
+<p>"'By George!' he exclaimed. And he held
+out the most magnificent diamond ring I have
+ever seen&mdash;sparkling away as if it had only just
+come from the polisher's. 'This must be <i>the</i>
+ring,' he said.</p>
+
+<p>"And we all stared&mdash;too astonished to speak.</p>
+
+<p>"Devereux closed the cupboard again, after
+carefully examining it to make sure nothing had been
+left behind. He marked the exact spot where
+he had pressed the spring so as to find it at any
+time. Then we all left the round room, locking
+the door securely after us.</p>
+
+<p>"Miles and I spent that night at Hallinger. We
+sat up late talking it all over. There are some
+queer inconsistencies about the thing which will
+probably never be explained. First and foremost&mdash;why
+has the ghost stuck to the tapestry instead
+of to the actual spot he seemed to have wished to
+reveal? Secondly, what was the connection between
+his visits and the full moon&mdash;or is it that only by
+the moonlight the shade becomes perceptible to
+human sense? Who can say?</p>
+
+<p>"As to the story itself&mdash;what was old Devereux's
+motive in concealing his own ring? Were the
+marked cards his, or his opponent's, of which he
+had managed to possess himself, and had secreted
+as testimony against the other fellow?</p>
+
+<p>"I incline, and so does Miles, to this last theory,
+and when we suggested it to Devereux, I could see
+it was a relief to him. After all, one likes to think
+one's ancestors were gentlemen!</p>
+
+<p>"'But what, then, has he been worrying about
+all this century or more?' he said. 'If it were
+that he wanted the ring returned to its real owner&mdash;supposing
+the fellow <i>had</i> won it&mdash;I could understand
+it, though such a thing would be impossible.
+There is no record of the man at all&mdash;his name was
+never mentioned in the story.'</p>
+
+<p>"'He may want the ring restored to its proper
+owner all the same,' said Miles. 'You are its
+owner, as the head of the family, and it has been
+your ancestor's fault that it has been hidden all
+these years. Besides, we cannot take upon ourselves
+to explain motives in such a case. Perhaps&mdash;who
+knows?&mdash;the poor shade could not help
+himself. His peregrinations may have been of the
+nature of punishment.'</p>
+
+<p>"'I hope they are over now,' said Devereux,
+'for his sake and everybody else's. I should be
+glad to think he wanted the ring restored to us,
+but besides that, I should like to do something&mdash;something
+<i>good</i> you know&mdash;if it would make him
+easier, poor old chap. I must consult Lilias.'
+Lilias is Mrs. Devereux.</p>
+
+<p>"This is all I have to tell you at present, Leila.
+When I come home we'll have the <i>porti&egrave;res</i> up
+again and see what happens. I want you now to
+read all this to my father, and if he has no objection&mdash;he
+and my mother, of course&mdash;I should like
+to invite Captain and Mrs. Devereux to stay a few
+days with us&mdash;as well as Miles, as soon as I come
+back."</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Philip's wish was acceded to. It was with no
+little anxiety and interest that we awaited his
+return.</p>
+
+<p>The tapestry <i>porti&egrave;res</i> were restored to their
+place&mdash;and on the first moonlight night, my father,
+Philip, Captain Devereux and Mr. Miles held their
+vigil.</p>
+
+<p>What happened?</p>
+
+<p><i>Nothing</i>&mdash;the peaceful rays lighted up the quaint
+landscape of the tapestry, undisturbed by the poor
+groping fingers&mdash;no gruesome unearthly chill as of
+worse than death made itself felt to the midnight
+watchers&mdash;the weary, may we not hope repentant,
+spirit was at rest at last!</p>
+
+<p>And never since has any one been troubled by
+the shadow in the moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot help hoping," said Mrs. Devereux,
+when talking it over, "that what Michael has done
+may have helped to calm the poor ghost."</p>
+
+<p>And she told us what it was. Captain Devereux
+is rich, though not immensely so. He had the
+ring valued&mdash;it represented a very large sum, but
+Philip says I had better not name the figures&mdash;and
+then he, so to say, bought it from himself. And
+with this money he&mdash;no, again, Phil says I must
+not enter into particulars beyond saying that with
+it he did something very good, and very useful,
+which had long been a pet scheme of his wife's.</p>
+
+<p>Sophy is grown up now and she knows the whole
+story. So does our mother. And Dormy too has
+heard it all. The horror of it has quite gone. We
+feel rather proud of having been the actual witnesses
+of a ghostly drama.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3><a name="st_II" id="st_II"></a>"THE MAN WITH THE COUGH."</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>I am a German by birth and descent. My name
+is Schmidt. But by education I am quite as much
+an Englishman as a "Deutscher," and by affection
+much more the former. My life has been spent
+pretty equally between the two countries, and I
+flatter myself I speak both languages without any
+foreign accent.</p>
+
+<p>I count England my headquarters now: it is
+"home" to me. But a few years ago I was resident
+in Germany, only going over to London now
+and then on business. I will not mention the
+town where I lived. It is unnecessary to do so,
+and in the peculiar experience I am about to relate
+I think real names of people and places are just as
+well, or better, avoided.</p>
+
+<p>I was connected with a large and important
+firm of engineers. I had been bred up to the profession,
+and was credited with a certain amount of
+talent; and I was considered&mdash;and, with all
+modesty, I think I deserved the opinion&mdash;steady
+and reliable, so that I had already attained a fair
+position in the house, and was looked upon as a
+"rising man". But I was still young, and not
+quite so wise as I thought myself. I came very
+near once to making a great mess of a certain
+affair. It is this story which I am going to tell.</p>
+
+<p>Our house went in largely for patents&mdash;rather
+too largely, some thought. But the head partner's
+son was a bit of a genius in his way, and his father
+was growing old, and let Herr Wilhelm&mdash;Moritz
+we will call the family name&mdash;do pretty much as
+he chose. And on the whole Herr Wilhelm did
+well. He was cautious, and he had the benefit of
+the still greater caution and larger experience of
+Herr Gerhardt, the second partner in the firm.</p>
+
+<p>Patents and the laws which regulate them are
+queer things to have to do with. No one who has
+not had personal experience of the complications
+that arise could believe how far these spread and
+how entangled they become. Great acuteness as
+well as caution is called for if you would guide
+your patent bark safely to port&mdash;and perhaps more
+than anything, a power of holding your tongue.
+I was no chatterbox, nor, when on a mission of
+importance, did I go about looking as if I were bursting
+with secrets, which is, in my opinion, almost as
+dangerous as revealing them. No one, to meet me
+on the journeys which it often fell to my lot to
+undertake, would have guessed that I had anything
+on my mind but an easy-going young fellow's natural
+interest in his surroundings, though many a time I
+have stayed awake through a whole night of railway
+travel if at all doubtful about my fellow-passengers,
+or not dared to go to sleep in a hotel without a
+ready-loaded revolver by my pillow.</p>
+
+<p>For now and then&mdash;though not through me&mdash;our
+secrets did ooze out. And if, as <i>has</i> happened,
+they were secrets connected with Government
+orders or contracts, there was, or but for the
+exertion of the greatest energy and tact on the part
+of my superiors, there <i>would</i> have been, to put it
+plainly, the devil to pay.</p>
+
+<p>One morning&mdash;it was nearing the end of
+November&mdash;I was sent for to Herr Wilhelm's
+private room. There I found him and Herr
+Gerhardt before a table spread with papers covered
+with figures and calculations, and sheets of beautifully
+executed diagrams.</p>
+
+<p>"Lutz," said Herr Wilhelm. He had known
+me from childhood, and often called me by the
+abbreviation of my Christian name, which is
+Ludwig, or Louis. "Lutz, we are going to confide
+to you a matter of extreme importance. You
+must be prepared to start for London to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"All right, sir," I said, "I shall be ready."</p>
+
+<p>"You will take the express through to Calais&mdash;on
+the whole it is the best route, especially at this
+season. By travelling all night you will catch the
+boat there, and arrive in London so as to have a
+good night's rest, and be clear-headed for work
+the next morning."</p>
+
+<p>I bowed agreement, but ventured to make a
+suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>"If, as I infer, the matter is one of great importance,"
+I said, "would it not be well for me to
+start sooner? I can&mdash;yes," throwing a rapid
+survey over the work I had before me for the next
+two days&mdash;"I can be ready to-night."</p>
+
+<p>Herr Wilhelm looked at Herr Gerhardt. Herr
+Gerhardt shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he replied; "to-morrow it must be,"
+and then he proceeded to explain to me why.</p>
+
+<p>I need not attempt to give all the details of the
+matter with which I was entrusted. Indeed, to
+"lay" readers it would be impossible. Suffice it
+to say, the whole concerned a patent&mdash;that of a
+very remarkable and wonderful invention, which
+it was hoped and believed the Governments of both
+countries would take up. But to secure this being
+done in a thoroughly satisfactory manner it was
+necessary that our firm should go about it in concert
+with an English house of first-rate standing. To
+this house&mdash;the firm of Messrs. Bluestone and
+Fagg I will call them&mdash;I was to be sent with full
+explanations. And the next half-hour or more
+passed in my superiors going minutely into the
+details, so as to satisfy themselves that I understood.
+The mastering of the whole was not difficult, for I
+was well grounded technically; and like many of
+the best things the idea was essentially simple, and
+the diagrams were perfect. When the explanations
+were over, and my instructions duly noted, I began
+to gather together the various sheets, which were
+all numbered. But, to my surprise, Herr Gerhardt,
+looking over me, withdrew two of the most important
+diagrams, without which the others were
+valueless, because inexplicable.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay," he said; "these two, Ludwig, must be
+kept separate. These we send to-day, by registered
+post, direct to Bluestone and Fagg. They will
+receive them a day before they see you, and with
+them a letter announcing your arrival."</p>
+
+<p>I looked up in some disappointment. I had
+known of precautions of the kind being taken, but
+usually when the employ&eacute; sent was less reliable than
+I believed myself to be. Still, I scarcely dared to
+demur.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think that necessary?" I said respectfully.
+"I can assure you that from the moment
+you entrust me with the papers they shall never
+quit me day or night. And if there were any
+postal delay&mdash;you say time is valuable in this case&mdash;or
+if the papers were stolen in the transit&mdash;such
+things have happened&mdash;my whole mission would
+be worthless."</p>
+
+<p>"We do not doubt your zeal and discretion,
+my good Schmidt," said Herr Gerhardt. "But
+in this case we must take even extra precautions.
+I had not meant to tell you, fearing to add to the
+certain amount of nervousness and strain unavoidable
+in such a case, but still, perhaps it is best that
+you should know that we <i>have</i> reason for some
+special anxiety. It has been hinted to us that some
+breath of this"&mdash;and he tapped the papers&mdash;"has
+reached those who are always on the watch for such
+things. We cannot be too careful."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet," I persisted, "you would trust the
+post?"</p>
+
+<p>"We do not trust the post," he replied. "Even
+if these diagrams were tampered with, they would
+be perfectly useless. And tampered with they
+will not be. But even supposing anything so wild,
+the rogues in question knowing of your departure
+(and they are <i>more</i> likely to know of it than
+of our packet by post), were they in collusion
+with some traitor in the post-office, are sharp
+enough to guess the truth&mdash;that we have made a
+Masonic secret of it&mdash;the two separate diagrams
+are valueless without your papers; <i>your</i> papers
+reveal nothing without Nos. 7 and 13."</p>
+
+<p>I bowed in submission. But I was, all the same,
+disappointed, as I said, and a trifle mortified.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Wilhelm saw it, and cheered me up.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, Lutz, my boy," he said. "I feel
+just like you&mdash;nothing I should enjoy more than
+a rush over to London, carrying the whole documents,
+and prepared for a fight with any one who
+tried to get hold of them. But Herr Gerhardt
+here is cooler-blooded than we are."</p>
+
+<p>The elder man smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't doubt your readiness to fight, nor
+Ludwig's either. But it would be by no such
+honestly brutal means as open robbery that we
+should be outwitted. Make friends readily with
+no one while travelling, Lutz, yet avoid the appearance
+of keeping yourself aloof. You understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"Perfectly," I said. "I shall sleep well to-night,
+so as to be prepared to keep awake throughout
+the journey."</p>
+
+<p>The papers were then carefully packed up.
+Those consigned to my care were to be carried in
+a certain light, black handbag with a very good
+lock, which had often before been my travelling
+companion.</p>
+
+<p>And the following evening I started by the
+express train agreed upon. So, at least, I have
+always believed, but I have never been able to
+bring forward a witness to the fact of my train at
+the start being the right one, as no one came with
+me to see me off. For it was thought best that I
+should depart in as unobtrusive a manner as
+possible, as, even in a large town such as ours, the
+members and employ&eacute;s of an old and important
+house like the Moritzes' were well known.</p>
+
+<p>I took my ticket then, registering no luggage,
+as I had none but what I easily carried in my
+hand, as well as <i>the</i> bag. It was already dusk, if
+not dark, and there was not much bustle in the
+station, nor apparently many passengers. I took
+my place in an empty second-class compartment,
+and sat there quietly till the train should start. A
+few minutes before it did so, another man got in.
+I was somewhat annoyed at this, as in my circumstances
+nothing was more undesirable than travelling
+alone with one other. Had there been
+a crowded compartment, or one with three or four
+passengers, I would have chosen it; but at the
+moment I got in, the carriages were all either
+empty or with but one or two occupants. Now, I
+said to myself, I should have done better to wait
+till nearer the time of departure, and then chosen
+my place.</p>
+
+<p>I turned to reconnoitre my companion, but I
+could not see his face clearly, as he was half leaning
+out of the window. Was he doing so on purpose?
+I said to myself, for naturally I was in a suspicious
+mood. And as the thought struck me I half started
+up, determined to choose another compartment.
+Suddenly a peculiar sound made itself heard. My
+companion was coughing. He drew his head in,
+covering his face with his hand, as he coughed again.
+You never heard such a curious cough. It was more
+like a hen clucking than anything I can think of.
+Once, twice he coughed; then, as if he had been
+waiting for the slight spasm to pass, he sprang up,
+looked eagerly out of the window again, and, opening
+the door, jumped out, with some exclamation,
+as if he had just caught sight of a friend.</p>
+
+<p>And in another moment or two&mdash;he could barely
+have had time to get in elsewhere&mdash;much to my
+satisfaction, the train moved off.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," thought I, "I can make myself comfortable
+for some hours. We do not stop till M<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>:
+it will be nine o'clock by then. If no one gets in
+there I am safe to go through till to-morrow alone;
+then there will only be <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Junction, and a clear
+run to Calais."</p>
+
+<p>I unstrapped my rug and lit a cigar&mdash;of course
+I had chosen a smoking-carriage&mdash;and, delighted at
+having got rid of my clucking companion, the time
+passed pleasantly till we pulled up at M<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>. The
+delay there was not great, and to my enormous
+satisfaction no one molested my solitude. Evidently
+the express to Calais was not in very great
+demand that night. I now felt so secure that, notwithstanding
+my intention of keeping awake all
+night, my innermost consciousness had not I suppose
+quite resigned itself to the necessity, for, not more
+than a hour or so after leaving M<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>, possibly
+sooner, I fell fast asleep.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed to me that I had slept heavily, for when
+I awoke I had great difficulty in remembering where
+I was. Only by slow degrees did I realise that I
+was not in my comfortable bed at home, but in a
+chilly, ill-lighted railway-carriage. Chilly&mdash;yes,
+that it was&mdash;very chilly; but as my faculties returned
+I remembered my precious bag, and forgot
+all else in a momentary terror that it had been taken
+from me. No; there it was&mdash;my elbow had been
+pressed against it as I slept. But how was this?
+The train was not in motion. We were standing in
+a station; a dingy deserted-looking place, with no
+cheerful noise or bustle; only one or two porters
+slowly moving about, with a sort of sleepy "night
+duty," surly air. It could not be the Junction?
+I looked at my watch. Barely midnight! Of
+course, not the Junction. We were not due there
+till four o'clock in the morning or so.</p>
+
+<p>What, then, were we doing here, and what
+<i>was</i> "here"? Had there been an accident&mdash;some
+unforeseen necessity for stopping? At that moment
+a curious sound, from some yards' distance only it
+seemed to come, caught my ear. It was that croaking,
+cackling cough!&mdash;the cough of my momentary
+fellow-passenger, towards whom I had felt an instinctive
+aversion. I looked out of the window&mdash;there
+was a refreshment-room just opposite, dimly
+lighted, like everything else, and in the doorway, as
+if just entering, was a figure which I felt pretty sure
+was that of the man with the cough.</p>
+
+<p>"Bah!" I said to myself, "I must not be fanciful.
+I daresay the fellow's all right. He is
+evidently in the same hole as myself. What in
+Heaven's name are we waiting here for?"</p>
+
+<p>I sprang out of the carriage, nearly tumbling over
+a porter slowly passing along.</p>
+
+<p>"How long are we to stay here?" I cried.
+"When do we start again for <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>?" and I named
+the Junction.</p>
+
+<p>"For <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" he repeated in the queerest German
+I ever heard&mdash;was it German? or did I discover his
+meaning by some preternatural cleverness of my
+own? "There is no train for <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> for four or
+five hours, not till<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" and he named the time;
+and leaning forward lazily, he took out my larger
+bag and my rug, depositing them on the platform.
+He did not seem the least surprised at finding
+me there&mdash;I might have been there for a week,
+it seemed to me.</p>
+
+<p>"No train for five hours? Are you mad?" I
+said.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head and mumbled something, and
+it seemed to me that he pointed to the refreshment-room
+opposite. Gathering my things together I
+hurried thither, hoping to find some more reliable
+authority. But there was no one there except a
+fat man with a white apron, who was clearing the
+counter&mdash;and&mdash;yes, in one corner was the figure I
+had mentally dubbed "The man with the cough".</p>
+
+<p>I addressed the cook or waiter&mdash;whichever he
+was. But he only shook his head&mdash;denied all
+knowledge of the trains, but informed me that&mdash;in
+other words&mdash;I must turn out; he was going to
+shut up.</p>
+
+<p>"And where am I to spend the night, then?" I
+said angrily, though clearly it was not the aproned
+individual who was responsible for the position in
+which I found myself.</p>
+
+<p>There was a "Restauration," he informed me,
+near at hand, which I should find still open, straight
+before me on leaving the station, and then a few
+doors to the right, I would see the lights.</p>
+
+<p>Clearly there was nothing else to be done. I
+went out, and as I did so the silent figure in the
+corner rose also and followed me. The station
+was evidently going to bed. As I passed the
+porter I repeated the hour he had named, adding:
+"That is the first train for <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Junction?"</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, again naming the exact time. But
+I cannot do so, as I have never been able to recollect
+it.</p>
+
+<p>I trudged along the road&mdash;there were lamps,
+though very feeble ones; but by their light I saw
+that the man who had been in the refreshment-room
+was still a few steps behind me. It made me
+feel slightly nervous, and I looked round furtively
+once or twice; the last time I did so he was not
+to be seen, and I hoped he had gone some other
+way.</p>
+
+<p>The "Restauration" was scarcely more inviting
+than the station refreshment-room. It, too, was
+very dimly lighted, and the one or two attendants
+seemed half asleep and were strangely silent. There
+was a fire, of a kind, and I seated myself at a small
+table near it and asked for some coffee, which
+would, I thought, serve the double purpose of
+warming me and keeping me awake.</p>
+
+<p>It was brought me, in silence. I drank it, and
+felt the better for it. But there was something so
+gloomy and unsociable, so queer and almost weird
+about the whole aspect and feeling of the place,
+that a sort of irritable resignation took possession
+of me. If these surly folk won't speak, neither
+will I, I said to myself childishly. And, incredible
+as it may sound, I did <i>not</i> speak. I think I paid
+for the coffee, but I am not quite sure. I know I
+never asked what I had meant to ask&mdash;the name of
+the town&mdash;a place of some importance, to judge by
+the size of the station and the extent of twinkling
+lights I had observed as I made my way to the
+"Restauration". From that day to this I have
+never been able to identify it, and I am quite sure
+I never shall.</p>
+
+<p>What was there peculiar about that coffee?
+Or was it something peculiar about my own condition
+that caused it to have the unusual effect I now
+experienced? That question, too, I cannot answer.
+All I remember is feeling a sensation of irresistible
+drowsiness creeping over me&mdash;mental, or moral I
+may say, as well as physical. For when one part
+of me feebly resisted the first onslaught of sleep,
+something seemed to reply: "Oh, nonsense! you
+have several hours before you. Your papers are
+all right. No one can touch them without awaking
+you."</p>
+
+<p>And dreamily conscious that my belongings
+were on the floor at my feet&mdash;<i>the</i> bag itself actually
+resting against my ankle&mdash;my scruples silenced
+themselves in an extraordinary way. I remember
+nothing more, save a vague consciousness through
+all my slumber of confused and chaotic dreams,
+which I have never been able to recall.</p>
+
+<p>I awoke at last, and that with a start, almost a
+jerk. Something had awakened me&mdash;a sound&mdash;and
+as it was repeated to my now aroused ears I
+knew that I had heard it before, off and on, during
+my sleep. It was the extraordinary cough!</p>
+
+<p>I looked up. Yes, there he was! At some two
+or three yards' distance only, at the other side of
+the fireplace, which, and this I have forgotten to
+mention as another peculiar item in that night's
+peculiar experiences, considering I have every
+reason to believe I was still in Germany, was not
+a stove, but an open grate.</p>
+
+<p>And he had not been there when I first fell
+asleep; to that I was prepared to swear.</p>
+
+<p>"He must have come sneaking in after me," I
+thought, and in all probability I should neither
+have noticed nor recognised him but for that
+traitorous cackle of his.</p>
+
+<p>Now, my misgivings aroused, my first thought,
+of course, was for my precious charge. I stooped.
+There were my rugs, my larger bag, but&mdash;no,
+not the smaller one; and though the other two
+were there, I knew at once that they were not quite
+in the same position&mdash;not so close to me. Horror
+seized me. Half wildly I gazed around, when my
+silent neighbour bent towards me. I could declare
+there was nothing in his hand when he did so, and
+I could declare as positively that I had already
+looked under the small round table beside which I
+sat, and that the bag was not there. And yet when
+the man, with a slight cackle, caused, no doubt, by
+his stooping, raised himself, the thing was in his
+hand!</p>
+
+<p>Was he a conjurer, a pupil of Maskelyne and
+Cook? And how was it that, even as he held out
+my missing property, he managed, and that most
+cleverly and unobtrusively, to prevent my catching
+sight of his face? I did not see it then&mdash;I never
+did see it!</p>
+
+<p>Something he murmured, to the effect that he
+supposed the bag was what I was looking for. In
+what language he spoke I know not; it was more
+that by the action accompanying the mumbled
+sounds I gathered his meaning, than that I heard
+anything articulate.</p>
+
+<p>I thanked him, of course, mechanically, so to
+say, though I began to feel as if he were an evil
+spirit haunting me. I could only hope that the
+splendid lock to the bag had defied all curiosity,
+but I felt in a fever to be alone again, and able to
+satisfy myself that nothing had been tampered with.</p>
+
+<p>The thought recalled my wandering faculties.
+How long had I been asleep? I drew out my
+watch. Heavens! It was close upon the hour
+named for the first train in the morning. I sprang
+up, collected my things, and dashed out of the
+"Restauration". If I had not paid for my coffee
+before, I certainly did not pay for it then. Besides
+my haste, there was another reason for this&mdash;there
+was no one to pay to! Not a creature was to be
+seen in the room or at the door as I passed out&mdash;always
+excepting the man with the cough.</p>
+
+<p>As I left the place and hurried along the road, a
+bell began, not to ring, but to toll. It sounded
+most uncanny. What it meant, of course, I have
+never known. It may have been a summons to
+the workpeople of some manufactory, it may have
+been like all the other experiences of that strange
+night. But no; this theory I will not at present
+enter upon.</p>
+
+<p>Dawn was not yet breaking, but there was in
+one direction a faint suggestion of something of
+the kind not far off. Otherwise all was dark. I
+stumbled along as best as I could, helped in reality,
+I suppose, by the ugly yellow glimmer of the woebegone
+street, or road lamps. And it was not far
+to the station, though somehow it seemed farther
+than when I came; and somehow, too, it seemed
+to have grown steep, though I could not remember
+having noticed any slope the other way on my
+arrival. A nightmare-like sensation began to
+oppress me. I felt as if my luggage was growing
+momentarily heavier and heavier, as if I should
+<i>never</i> reach the station; and to this was joined the
+agonising terror of missing the train.</p>
+
+<p>I made a desperate effort. Cold as it was, the
+beads of perspiration stood out upon my forehead
+as I forced myself along. And by degrees the
+nightmare feeling cleared off. I found myself
+entering the station at a run just as&mdash;yes, a train
+was actually beginning to move! I dashed, baggage
+and all, into a compartment; it was empty, and
+it was a second-class one, precisely similar to the one
+I had occupied before; it might have been the very
+same one. The train gradually increased its speed,
+but for the first few moments, while still in the
+station and passing through its immediate <i>entourage</i>,
+another strange thing struck me&mdash;the extraordinary
+silence and lifelessness of all about. Not one
+human being did I see, no porter watching our
+departure with the faithful though stolid interest
+always to be seen on the porter's visage. I might
+have been alone in the train&mdash;it might have had a
+freight of the dead, and been itself propelled by
+some supernatural agency, so noiselessly, so gloomily
+did it proceed.</p>
+
+<p>You will scarcely credit that I actually and for
+the third time fell asleep. I could not help it.
+Some occult influence was at work upon me
+throughout those dark hours, I am positively
+certain. And with the daylight it was dispelled.
+For when I again awoke I felt for the first time
+since leaving home completely and normally myself,
+fresh and vigorous, all my faculties at their best.</p>
+
+<p>But, nevertheless, my first sensation was a start
+of amazement, almost of terror. The compartment
+was nearly full! There were at least five or
+six travellers besides myself, very respectable,
+ordinary-looking folk, with nothing in the least
+alarming about them. Yet it was with a gasp of
+extraordinary relief that I found my precious bag
+in the corner beside me, where I had carefully
+placed it. It was concealed from view. No one,
+I felt assured, could have touched it without
+awaking me.</p>
+
+<p>It was broad and bright daylight. How long
+had I slept?</p>
+
+<p>"Can you tell me," I inquired of my opposite
+neighbour, a cheery-faced compatriot&mdash;"Can you
+tell me how soon we get to <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Junction by this
+train? I am most anxious to catch the evening mail
+at Calais, and am quite out in my reckonings,
+owing to an extraordinary delay at <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>. I have
+wasted the night by getting into a stopping train
+instead of the express."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me in astonishment. He must
+have thought me either mad or just awaking from
+a fit of intoxication&mdash;only I flatter myself I did not
+look as if the latter were the case.</p>
+
+<p>"How soon we get to <span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> Junction?" he
+repeated. "Why, my good sir, you left it about
+three hours ago! It is now eight o'clock. We
+all got in at the Junction. You were alone, if I
+mistake not?"&mdash;he glanced at one or two of the
+others, who endorsed his statement. "And very
+fast asleep you were, and must have been, not to
+be disturbed by the bustle at the station. And as
+for catching the evening boat at Calais"&mdash;he burst
+into a loud guffaw&mdash;"why, it would be very hard
+lines to do no better than that! <i>We</i> all hope to
+cross by the mid-day one."</p>
+
+<p>"Then&mdash;what train <i>is</i> this?" I exclaimed,
+utterly perplexed.</p>
+
+<p>"The express, of course. All of us, excepting
+yourself, joined it at the Junction," he replied.</p>
+
+<p>"The express?" I repeated. "The express
+that leaves"&mdash;and I named my own town&mdash;"at
+six in the evening?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly. You have got into the right train
+after all," and here came another shout of amusement.
+"How did you think we had all got in
+if you had not yet passed the Junction? You had
+not the pleasure of our company from M<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>, I
+take it? M<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>, which you passed at nine
+o'clock last night, if my memory is correct."</p>
+
+<p>"Then," I persisted, "this is the double-fast
+express, which does not stop between M<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span> and
+your Junction?"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," he repeated; and then, confirmed
+most probably in his belief that I was mad, or the
+other thing, he turned to his newspaper, and left
+me to my extraordinary cogitations.</p>
+
+<p>Had I been dreaming? Impossible! Every
+sensation, the very taste of the coffee, seemed still
+present with me&mdash;the curious accent of the officials
+at the mysterious town, I could perfectly recall.
+I still shivered at the remembrance of the chilly
+waking in the "Restauration"; I heard again the
+cackling cough.</p>
+
+<p>But I felt I must collect myself, and be ready
+for the important negotiation entrusted to me.
+And to do this I must for the time banish these
+fruitless efforts at solving the problem.</p>
+
+<p>We had a good run to Calais, found the boat in
+waiting, and a fair passage brought us prosperously
+across the Channel. I found myself in London
+punctual to the intended hour of my arrival.</p>
+
+<p>At once I drove to the lodgings in a small
+street off the Strand which I was accustomed to
+frequent in such circumstances. I felt nervous till
+I had an opportunity of thoroughly overhauling
+my documents. The bag had been opened by the
+Custom House officials, but the words "private
+papers" had sufficed to prevent any further examination;
+and to my unspeakable delight they were
+intact. A glance satisfied me as to this the
+moment I got them out, for they were most
+carefully numbered.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning saw me early on my way to&mdash;No.
+909, we will say&mdash;Blackfriars Street, where
+was the office of Messrs. Bluestone &amp; Fagg. I
+had never been there before, but it was easy to
+find, and had I felt any doubt, their name stared
+me in the face at the side of the open doorway.
+"Second-floor" I thought I read; but when I
+reached the first landing I imagined I must have
+been mistaken. For there, at a door ajar, stood
+an eminently respectable-looking gentleman, who
+bowed as he saw me, with a discreet smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Herr Schmidt?" he said. "Ah, yes; I was
+on the look-out for you."</p>
+
+<p>I felt a little surprised, and my glance
+involuntarily strayed to the doorway. There was no
+name upon it, and it appeared to have been freshly
+painted. My new friend saw my glance.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all right," he said; "we have the painters
+here. We are using these lower rooms temporarily.
+I was watching to prevent your having the trouble
+of mounting to the second-floor."</p>
+
+<p>And as I followed him in, I caught sight of a
+painter's ladder&mdash;a small one&mdash;on the stair above,
+and the smell was also unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p>The large outer office looked bare and empty,
+but under the circumstances that was natural. No
+one was, at the first glance, to be seen; but
+behind a dulled glass partition screening off one
+corner I fancied I caught sight of a seated figure.
+And an inner office, to which my conductor led the
+way, had a more comfortable and inhabited look.
+Here stood a younger man. He bowed politely.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Fagg, my junior," said the first individual
+airily. "And now, Herr Schmidt, to business at
+once, if you please. Time is everything. You
+have all the documents ready?"</p>
+
+<p>I answered by opening my bag and spreading
+out its contents. Both men were very grave,
+almost taciturn; but as I proceeded to explain
+things it was easy to see that they thoroughly
+understood all I said.</p>
+
+<p>"And now," I went on, when I had reached a
+certain point, "if you will give me Nos. 7 and
+13 which you have already received by registered
+post, I can put you in full possession of the whole.
+Without them, of course, all I have said is, so to
+say, preliminary only."</p>
+
+<p>The two looked at each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course," said the elder man, "I follow what
+you say. The key of the whole is wanting. But
+I was momentarily expecting you to bring it out.
+We have not&mdash;Fagg, I am right, am I not&mdash;we
+have received nothing by post?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing whatever," replied his junior. And
+the answer seemed simplicity itself. Why did a
+strange thrill of misgiving go through me? Was
+it something in the look that had passed between
+them? Perhaps so. In any case, strange to say,
+the inconsistency between their having received no
+papers and yet looking for my arrival at the hour
+mentioned in the letter accompanying the documents,
+and accosting me by name, did not strike
+me till some hours later.</p>
+
+<p>I threw off what I believed to be my ridiculous
+mistrust, and it was not difficult to do so in my
+extreme annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot understand it," I said. "It is really
+too bad. Everything depends upon 7 and 13. I
+must telegraph at once for inquiries to be instituted
+at the post-office."</p>
+
+<p>"But your people must have duplicates," said
+Fagg eagerly. "These can be forwarded at once."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so," I said, though feeling strangely
+confused and worried.</p>
+
+<p>"They must send them direct <i>here</i>," he went on.</p>
+
+<p>I did not at once answer. I was gathering my
+papers together.</p>
+
+<p>"And in the meantime," he proceeded, touching
+my bag, "you had better leave <i>these</i> here. We
+will lock them up in the safe at once. It is better
+than carrying them about London."</p>
+
+<p>It certainly seemed so. I half laid down the bag
+on the table, but at that moment from the outer
+room a most peculiar sound caught my ears&mdash;a
+faint cackling cough! I <i>think</i> I concealed my
+start. I turned away as if considering Fagg's suggestion,
+which, to confess the truth, I had been on
+the very point of agreeing to. For it would have
+been a great relief to me to know that the papers
+were in safe custody. But now a flash of lurid
+light seemed to have transformed everything.</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you," I replied. "I should be glad to
+be free from the responsibility of the charge, but
+I dare not let these out of my own hands till the
+agreement is formally signed."</p>
+
+<p>The younger man's face darkened. He assumed
+a bullying tone.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how it strikes <i>you</i>, Mr. Bluestone,"
+he said, "but it seems to me that this young
+gentleman is going rather too far. Do you think
+your employers will be pleased to hear of your
+insulting us, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>But the elder man smiled condescendingly,
+though with a touch of superciliousness. It was
+very well done. He waved his hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Stay, my dear Mr. Fagg; we can well afford
+to make allowance. You will telegraph at once,
+no doubt, Herr Schmidt, and&mdash;let me see&mdash;yes,
+we shall receive the duplicates of Nos. 7 and 13
+by first post on Thursday morning."</p>
+
+<p>I bowed.</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly," I replied, as I lifted the now locked
+bag. "And you may expect me at the same hour
+on Thursday morning."</p>
+
+<p>Then I took my departure, accompanied to the
+door by the urbane individual who had received
+me.</p>
+
+<p>The telegram which I at once despatched was
+not couched precisely as he would have dictated, I
+allow. And he would have been considerably
+surprised at my sending off another, later in the
+day, to Bluestone &amp; Fagg's telegraphic address, in
+these words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Unavoidably detained till Thursday morning.&mdash;<span class="smallcaps">Schmidt</span>."</p>
+
+<p>This was <i>after</i> the arrival of a wire from home
+in answer to mine.</p>
+
+<p>By Thursday morning I had had time to receive
+a letter from Herr Wilhelm, and to secure the
+services of a certain noted detective, accompanied
+by whom I presented myself at the appointed hour
+at 909. But my companion's services were not
+required. The birds had flown, warned by the
+same traitor in our camp through whom the first
+hints of the new patent had leaked out. With
+him it was easy to deal, poor wretch! but the
+clever rogues who had employed him and personated
+the members of the honourable firm of
+Bluestone &amp; Fagg were never traced.</p>
+
+<p>The negotiation was successfully carried out.
+The experience I had gone through left me a wiser
+man. It is to be hoped, too, that the owners of
+909 Blackfriars Street were more cautious in the
+future as to whom they let their premises to when
+temporarily vacant. The re-painting of the doorway,
+etc., at the tenant's own expense had already
+roused some slight suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to add that Nos. 7 and 13 had
+been duly received on the second-floor.</p>
+
+<p>I have never known the true history of that extraordinary
+night. Was it all a dream, or a prophetic
+vision of warning? Or was it in any sense
+true? <i>Had</i> I, in some inexplicable way, left my
+own town earlier than I intended, and really
+travelled in a slow train?</p>
+
+<p>Or had the man with a cough, for his own
+nefarious purposes, mesmerised or hypnotised me,
+and to some extent succeeded?</p>
+
+<p>I cannot say. Sometimes, even, I ask myself if
+I am quite sure that there ever was such a person
+as "the man with the cough"!</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3><a name="st_III" id="st_III"></a>"HALF-WAY BETWEEN THE STILES."</h3>
+
+<h4>(A RIGHT-OF-WAY INCIDENT.)</h4>
+
+<p>By the road, Scarby village is good three miles
+from Colletwood, the nearest town and railway
+station. But there is a short cut over the hills
+for foot passengers. <i>Over</i> the hills they call it,
+but <i>between</i> the hills would be more correct, for
+there is a sort of tableland once you have climbed
+a short, steep bit up from the town, which extends
+nearly to Scarby, sloping gradually down to the
+village.</p>
+
+<p>And on each side of this tableland the hills rise
+again, north and south, much higher to the north
+than to the south. So this flat stretch, though at
+some considerable height, is neither bleak nor
+exposed, being sheltered on the colder side, and
+fairly open to the sunshine south and west.</p>
+
+<p>It is a pleasant place, and so it must have been
+considered in the old days; for a large monastery
+stood there once, of which the ruins are still to be
+seen, and of which the memory is still preserved in
+the name&mdash;"Monksholdings".</p>
+
+<p>Pleasant, but a trifle inconvenient, as the only
+carriage-road makes a great round from Colletwood,
+winding along the base of the hill on the north
+side till it reaches the village, then up again by the
+gradual slope, half a mile or so&mdash;a drive in all of
+three to four miles, whereas, as the bird flies or the
+pedestrian walks, the distance from the town is
+barely a quarter of that.</p>
+
+<p>In the old days there was probably no road at all,
+the hill-path doubtless serving all requirements.
+Naturally enough, therefore, it came to be looked
+upon as entirely public property, and people forgot&mdash;if,
+indeed, any one had ever thought of it&mdash;that
+though the monastery was a ruin, the once carefully
+kept land round about the old dwelling-place of
+Monksholdings was still private property.</p>
+
+<p>And the sensation was great when suddenly the
+news reached the neighbourhood that this "unique
+estate," as the agents called it, was sold&mdash;sold by
+the old Duke of Scarshire, who scarcely remembered
+that he owned it, to a man who meant to live on
+it, to build a house which should be a home for
+several months of the year for himself and his
+family.</p>
+
+<p>There was considerable growling and grumbling;
+and this rose to its height when a rumour got about
+that the hill-path&mdash;such part of it, that is to say, as
+lay within the actual demesne&mdash;was to be closed&mdash;<i>must</i>
+be closed, if the site already chosen for the
+new house was to be retained; for the house would
+actually stand upon the old foot-track, and there
+could be no two opinions that this position had
+been well and wisely selected.</p>
+
+<p>Things grew warlike, boding no agreeable reception
+for the newcomers&mdash;a Mr. Raynald and his
+family, newcomers to England, it was said, as well
+as to Scarshire. Every one plunged into questions
+of right-of-way; the local legalities raised and
+discussed knotty points; Colletwood and Scarby
+were aflame. But it all ended, flatly enough, in a
+compromise!</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Raynald turned out to be one of the most
+reasonable and courteous of men. He came, saw,
+and&mdash;conquered. The goodwill of his future
+neighbours was won e'er he knew he had risked its
+loss. Henceforward congratulations, reciprocated
+and repeated, on the charming additions to Scarby
+society were the order of the day, and the <i>d&eacute;tour</i>,
+skirting the south boundary of the Monksholdings
+grounds, which the footpath was now inveigled into
+making, was voted "a great improvement".</p>
+
+<p>And in due time the mansion rose.</p>
+
+<p>"A great improvement" also, to the aspect of the
+surrounding landscape. It was in perfectly good
+taste&mdash;unpretentious and quietly picturesque. It
+might have been there always for any jarring protest
+to the contrary.</p>
+
+<p>And just half-way along the old foot-track, that
+is to say, between the two stiles which let the
+traveller to or from Scarby in or out of the Monksholdings
+demesne, stood Sybil Raynald's grand
+piano!</p>
+
+<p>The stiles remained as an interesting survival;
+but they were made use of by no one not bound
+for the house itself. And beside each was a gate&mdash;a
+good oaken gate, that suited the place, as did
+everything about it; and beside each gate a quaint
+miniature dwelling, one of which came to be known
+as the east, and the other as the west, Monksholdings
+lodge.</p>
+
+<p>The first time the Raynalds came down to their
+new home they made but a short stay there. It
+was already late in the season, and though the preceding
+summer had been a magnificent one for
+drying fresh walls and plaster, it would scarcely
+have done to risk damp or chilly weather in so
+recently-built a house.</p>
+
+<p>They stayed long enough to confirm the
+favourable impression the head of the family
+had already made, and to lead themselves to
+look forward with pleasure to a less curtailed stay
+in Scarshire.</p>
+
+<p>The last morning of their visit, Sybil, the eldest
+daughter, up and about betimes, turned to her
+father, when she had taken her place beside him
+at the breakfast-table, with a suspicion of annoyance
+on her usually cheerful face.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa," she said, "I have seen that old man
+<i>again</i>, leaning on the stile by the Scarby lodge
+and looking in&mdash;along the drive&mdash;<i>so</i> queerly. I
+don't quite like it. It gave me rather a ghosty
+feeling; or else he is out of his mind."</p>
+
+<p>Her brother, Mark by name, began to laugh,
+after the manner of brothers.</p>
+
+<p>"How very oddly you express yourself!" he
+said. "I should like to experience 'a ghosty
+feeling'. A ghost is just what this place wants to
+make it perfect. But it should be the spirit of one
+of the original monks."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Raynald turned to his son rather sharply.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want any nonsense of that kind set
+about, Mark," he said. "It would frighten the
+younger children when they come down here. I
+will ask about the old man. It is quite possible
+he is half-witted, or something of that sort. I
+forgot about it when Sybil mentioned it before.
+But no doubt he is perfectly harmless. Has no
+one seen him but you, Sybil?"</p>
+
+<p>The girl shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"None of <i>us</i>," she replied. "And I wasn't
+exactly frightened. There was something very
+pathetic about him. He looked at me closely,
+murmuring some words, and then shook his head.
+That was all."</p>
+
+<p>But just then her father was called away to give
+some last directions, and in the bustle of hurry to
+catch their train the matter passed from the minds
+of the younger as well as the elder members of the
+family.</p>
+
+<p>It returned to Sybil's memory, however, when
+she found herself in their London house again, and
+called upon by her younger sisters to relate every
+detail of Monksholdings and its neighbourhood.
+But mindful of her father's warning, she said
+nothing to Esther or Annis of the figure at the
+gate. It was only to Miss March&mdash;Ellinor March&mdash;the
+dearly-loved governess, who was more friend
+than teacher to her three pupils, that she spoke of
+it, late in the evening, when the younger ones had
+gone to bed, and her father and mother were busy
+with Indian letters in Mr. Raynald's study.</p>
+
+<p>The two girls, we may say&mdash;for Ellinor was still
+some years under thirty&mdash;were alone in the drawing-room.
+Ellinor had been playing something tender
+and faintly weird&mdash;it died away under her fingers,
+and she sat on at the piano in silence.</p>
+
+<p>Sybil spoke suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>"That is <i>so</i> melancholy," she said, "something
+so long ago about it, like the ghost of a sorrow
+rather than a sorrow itself. I know&mdash;I know
+what it makes me think of. Listen, Ellinor."</p>
+
+<p>For out of school hours the two threw formality
+aside. And Sybil told of the sad, wistful old face
+looking over the stile.</p>
+
+<p>"Now it has come back to me," she said, "I
+can't forget it."</p>
+
+<p>Ellinor, too, was impressed.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," she said, "it sounds very pitiful. Who
+knows what tragedy is bound up in it?" and she
+sighed.</p>
+
+<p>Sybil understood her. Miss March's own history
+was a strange one.</p>
+
+<p>"We must find out about it when we go down
+to Monksholdings next year," she said.</p>
+
+<p>"And perhaps," added Ellinor, "even if he is
+half-witted, we might do something to comfort
+the poor man."</p>
+
+<p>Sybil hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you don't think he can be a ghost?" she
+said, looking half ashamed of the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>Miss March smiled&mdash;her smile was sad.</p>
+
+<p>"In one sense, no, I should think it highly improbable;
+in another, yes, there must be the ghost
+of some great sorrow about the face you describe,"
+she said.</p>
+
+<p>So there was.</p>
+
+<p>This is the story.</p>
+
+<p>At the farther end of Scarby village&mdash;the farther
+end, that is to say, from Monksholdings and the
+path between the hills&mdash;the road drops again
+somewhat suddenly. Only for a short distance,
+however; Mayling Farm&mdash;"Giles's" as it is
+colloquially called&mdash;which is the first house you
+come to when you reach level ground again, being
+by no means low lying.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary, the west windows command a
+grand view of the great Scarshire plain beneath,
+bordered by the faint hazy blue, scarcely to be
+distinguished from clouds, of the long range of
+hills concealing the far-off glimmer of the ocean,
+which otherwise might sometimes be perceptible.</p>
+
+<p>Mayling is a very old place, and the Giles's had
+been there "always," so to speak&mdash;steady-going,
+unambitious, save as regards their farming and its
+success; they had been just the make of men to
+settle on to their ground as if it and they could
+have no existence apart. A fine race physically as
+well as morally, though some twenty-five years or
+so before the Raynalds bought Monksholdings, a
+run of ill luck, a whole chapter of casualties, had
+brought them down to but one representative,
+and he scarcely the typical Farmer Giles of
+Mayling.</p>
+
+<p>This was Barnett, the youngest of four stalwart
+sons; the youngest and the only survivor. He
+was already forty when his father died, earnestly
+commending to him the "old place," which even
+at eighty the aged farmer felt himself better fitted
+to manage than the somewhat delicate, sensitive
+man whom his brothers had made good-natured
+fun of in his youth as a "book-worm".</p>
+
+<p>But Barnett was intelligent and sensible, and he
+rose to the occasion. Circumstances helped him.
+The year after old Giles's death Barnett for the
+first time fell in love, wisely and well. His affection
+was bestowed on a worthy object&mdash;Marion
+Grover, the daughter of a yeoman in the next
+county&mdash;and was fully returned.</p>
+
+<p>Marion was years younger than her lover,
+fifteen at least, eminently practical, healthy, and
+pretty. She brought her husband just exactly
+what he was most in need of&mdash;brightness, energy,
+and youth. It was an ideal marriage, and everything
+prospered at Mayling. Four years after the
+advent of the new Mrs. Giles you would scarcely
+have recognised the farmer, he seemed another man.</p>
+
+<p>He adored his wife, and could hardly find it in
+his heart to regret that their child was not a son,
+even though, failing an heir, the old name must
+die out; for if there was one creature the husband
+and wife loved more than each other it was their
+baby girl.</p>
+
+<p>A month or two after this child's second birthday
+the singular catastrophe occurred which changed
+the world to poor Barnett Giles, leaving him but
+a wreck of his former self, physically and mentally.</p>
+
+<p>Young Mrs. Giles was strong in every way, and
+from the first she took the line of saving her
+husband all extra fatigue or annoyance which she
+could possibly hoist on to her own brave shoulders.
+There was something quaint and even pathetic
+in the relations of the couple. For, notwithstanding
+Marion's being so much Barnett's junior, her
+attitude towards him had a decided suggestion of
+the maternal about it, though at times of real emergency
+his sound judgment and advice never failed
+her. It was within a week or two of Christmas;
+the weather was bitingly, raspingly cold. And
+though as yet no snow had fallen, the weather-wise
+were predicting it daily.</p>
+
+<p>"I <i>must</i> go over to Colletwood this week,"
+said Mrs. Giles, "and I must take Nelly. Her
+new coat is waiting to be tried at the dressmaker's,
+and I must get her some boots and several other
+things before Christmas. And there is a whole
+list of other shopping too&mdash;all our Christmas
+presents to see to."</p>
+
+<p>Her husband was looking out of the window,
+it was still very early in the day.</p>
+
+<p>"I doubt if the snow will hold off much longer,"
+he said.</p>
+
+<p>"And once it begins it may be heavy," his wife
+replied, "and then I might not be able to go for
+ever so long, even by the road,"&mdash;for a deep fall
+of snow at Scarby was practically a stoppage to
+all traffic. "I'll tell you what, Barnett, we'll
+go to-day and make sure of it. I will put other
+things aside and start before noon. A couple of
+hours, or three at the most, will do everything,
+and then Nelly and I will be back long before
+dark. You'll come to meet us, won't you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will&mdash;if you go. But," and again
+he glanced at the sky. The morning was, so far,
+clear and bright, though very cold, but over
+towards the north there was a suspicious look
+about the blue-grey clouds. "I don't know,"
+he said, "but that you'd better wait till to-morrow
+and see if it blows off again."</p>
+
+<p>But Marion shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"I've a feeling," she said, "that if I don't go
+to-day, I won't go at all. And I really must.
+I'll take Betsy to carry the child till we're just
+above the town, and then send her home, so
+as not to be tired for coming back. Not
+that I'm <i>ever</i> tired, as you know," with a
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>He gave in, only stipulating that at all costs
+they should start to return by a certain hour,
+unless the snow should have already begun, in
+which case Marion was to run no risks, but either
+to hire a fly to bring her home by the road, or to
+stay in the town with some of her friends till the
+weather cleared again.</p>
+
+<p>"And I'll meet you," he added. "Let us set
+our watches together&mdash;I'll start from here so as to
+be at&mdash;let me see<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Half-way between the stiles," said Marion.
+"We can each see the other from one stile to the
+opposite one, you know, even though it's a good
+bit of a way. Yes, dear, I'll time it as near as I
+can to meet half-way between the stiles."</p>
+
+<p>And with these words the last on her lips, she
+set off, a picture of health and happiness&mdash;little
+Nelly crowing back to "Dada" from over stout
+Betsy's shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>Betsy was home again within the hour.</p>
+
+<p>But the mother and child&mdash;alas and alas! It
+was the immortal story of "Lucy Gray" in an
+almost more pathetic shape.</p>
+
+<p>Farmer Giles, as I have said, was a studious,
+often absent-minded man. There was not much
+to do at that season and in such weather, and what
+there was, some amount of supervision on his part
+was enough for. After his early dinner he got out
+his books for an hour or two's quiet reading till it
+should be time to set off to meet his darlings. No
+fear of his forgetting <i>that</i> time, but till the clock
+struck, and he saw it was approaching nearly, he
+never looked out&mdash;he was unconscious of the rapid
+growth of the lurid, steely clouds; he had no idea
+that the snowflakes were already falling, falling,
+more and more closely and thickly with each
+instant that passed.</p>
+
+<p>Then rose the storm spirit and issued his orders&mdash;all
+too quickly obeyed. Before Barnett Giles
+had left the village street he found himself in what
+now-a-days would be called a "blizzard". And
+his pale face grew paler, and his heart beat as if
+to choke him, when at last he reached the first stile
+and stood there panting, to regain his breath. It
+was all he could do to battle on through the fury
+of the wind, the blinding, whirling snow, which
+seemed to envelop him as if in sheets. Not for
+many and many a day will that awful snowstorm
+be forgotten in Scarshire.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>It was at the appointed trysting place they found
+him&mdash;"half-way between the stiles". But not
+till late that evening, when Betsy, more alarmed
+by his absence than by her mistress's not returning,
+at last struggled out through the deep-lying snow
+to alarm the nearest neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>"The missis and Miss Nell will have stayed the
+night in the town," she said. "But I misdoubt
+me if the master will ever have got so far, though
+he may have been tempted on when he did not
+meet them."</p>
+
+<p>By this time the fury of the storm had spent
+itself, and they found poor Giles after a not very
+protracted search, and brought him home&mdash;dead,
+they thought at first.</p>
+
+<p>No, he was not dead, but it was less than half
+<i>life</i> that he returned to. For his first inquiry late
+the next day, when glimmering consciousness had
+begun to revive&mdash;"Marion, the baby?"&mdash;seemed
+by some subtle instinct to answer itself truthfully,
+in spite of the kindly endeavour to deceive him for
+the time.</p>
+
+<p>"Dead!" he murmured. "I knew it. Half-way
+between the stiles," and he turned his face to
+the wall.</p>
+
+<p>They almost wished he had died too&mdash;the rough
+but kind-hearted country-folk who were his
+neighbours. But he lived. He never asked and
+never knew the details of the tragedy, which,
+indeed, was never fully known by any one.</p>
+
+<p>All that came to light was that the dead body of
+Marion Giles was brought by some semi-gipsy
+wanderers to the workhouse of a town several miles
+south of Colletwood, early on the morning after
+the blizzard. They had found it, they said, at
+some little distance from the road along which they
+were journeying, so that she must have lost her
+way long before approaching the Monksholdings
+confines, not improbably, indeed, in attempting to
+retrace her steps to the town which she had so imprudently
+quitted. But of the child the tramps
+said nothing, and after making the above deposition,
+they were allowed to go on their way, which
+they expressed themselves as anxious to do; for
+reasons of their own, no doubt; possibly the same
+reasons which had prevented their returning to
+Colletwood with the young woman's corpse, as
+would have seemed more natural.</p>
+
+<p>And afterwards no very special inquiry was made
+about the baby. The father was incapable of it,
+and in those days people accepted things more carelessly,
+perhaps. It was taken for granted that
+"Little Nell" had fallen down some cliff, no
+doubt, and lay buried there, with the snow for her
+shroud, like a strayed lambkin. Her tiny bones
+might yet be found, years hence, maybe, by a
+shepherd in search of some bleating wanderer, or&mdash;no
+more might ever be known of the infant's
+fate!</p>
+
+<p>Barnett Giles rose from his bed, after many
+weeks, with all the look of a very old man. At first
+it was thought that his mind was quite gone; but
+it did not prove to be so. After a time, with the
+help of an excellent foreman, or bailiff, he showed
+himself able to manage his farm with a strange,
+mechanical kind of intelligence. It seemed as if
+the sense of duty outlived the loss of other perceptions,
+though these, too, cleared by degrees to
+a considerable extent, and material things, curious
+as it may appear, prospered with him.</p>
+
+<p>But he rarely spoke unless obliged to do so;
+and whenever he felt himself at leisure, and knew
+that his work was not calling for him, he seemed
+to relapse into the half-dreamy state which was his
+more real life. Then he would pass through the
+village and slowly climb the slope to the stile,
+where he would stand for hours together, patiently
+gazing before him, while he murmured the old
+refrain: "'Half-way between the stiles,' she said.
+I shall meet them there, 'half-way between the
+stiles'."</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately, perhaps, it was not often he attempted
+to climb over; he contented himself with
+standing and gazing. Fortunately so, for otherwise
+the changes at Monksholdings would have
+probably terribly shocked his abnormally sensitive
+brain. But he did not seem to notice them, nor
+the new route of the old right-of-way agreed to by
+the compromise. He was content with his post&mdash;standing,
+leaning on the stile, and gazing before
+him.</p>
+
+<p>His, of course, was the worn, wistful face which
+had half frightened, half appealed to Sybil Raynald.</p>
+
+<p>But she forgot about it again, or other things
+put it temporarily aside, so that when the Raynalds
+came down to Monksholdings again the following
+Easter it did not at once occur to her to remind
+her father of the inquiry he had promised to
+make.</p>
+
+<p>Miss March was not with her pupils and their
+parents at first. She had gone to spend a holiday
+week with the friends who had brought her up
+and seen to her education&mdash;good, benevolent
+people, if not specially sympathetic, but to whom
+she felt herself bound by ties of sincerest gratitude,
+though her five years with the Raynald family had
+given her more of the feeling of a "home"
+than she had ever had before.</p>
+
+<p>And her arrival at Monksholdings was the
+occasion of much rejoicing. There was everything
+to show her, and every one, from Mark down to
+little Robin, wanted to be her guide. It was not
+till the morning of the next day that Sybil managed
+to get her to herself for a <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> stroll.</p>
+
+<p>Ellinor had some things to tell her quondam
+pupil. Mrs. Bellairs, her self-appointed guardian,
+was growing old and somewhat feeble.</p>
+
+<p>"I fear she is not likely to live many years,"
+said Miss March, "and she thinks so herself.
+She has a curious longing, which I never saw in
+her before, to find out my history&mdash;to know if
+there is no one really belonging to me to whom
+she can give me back, as it were, before she dies.
+She gave me the little parcel containing the clothes
+I had on when she rescued me from being sent to
+a workhouse. They are carefully washed and
+mended, and though I was a poor, dirty little object
+when I was found, they do not look really as if
+I had been a beggar child," with a little smile.</p>
+
+<p>"You a beggar child!" exclaimed Sybil indignantly.
+"Of course not. Perhaps, on the
+contrary, you were somebody very grand."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," said Ellinor sensibly. "In that case
+I should have been advertised for and inquired
+after. No, I have never thought that, and I
+should not wish it. I should be more than thankful
+to know I came of good, honest people, however
+simple; to have some one of my very own."</p>
+
+<p>"I forget the actual details," said Sybil, "though
+you have often told me about it. You were found&mdash;no,
+not literally in the workhouse, was it?"</p>
+
+<p>"They were going to take me there," said Miss
+March. "It was at a village near Bath where Mr.
+and Mrs. Bellairs were then living, and one day,
+after a party of gipsies had been encamping on the
+common, a cottager's wife heard something crying
+in the night, and found me in her little garden.
+She was too poor to keep me herself, and felt
+certain I was a child the gipsies had stolen and
+then wanted to get rid of. I was fair-haired and
+blue-eyed, not like them. She was a friend or
+relation of some of Mrs. Bellairs's servants, and so
+the story got round to my kind old friend. And
+you know the rest&mdash;how they first thought of
+bringing me up in quite a humble way, and then
+finding me&mdash;well, intelligent and naturally rather
+refined, I suppose, I got a really good education,
+and my good luck did not desert me, dear, when
+I came to be your governess."</p>
+
+<p>Sybil smiled.</p>
+
+<p>"And can you remember <i>nothing</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>Ellinor hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Queer, dreamy fragments come back to me
+sometimes," she said. "I have a feeling of having
+seen hills long, long ago. It is strange," she went
+on, for by this time they had left the private
+grounds and were strolling along the hill-path in
+the direction of the town, "it is strange that since
+I came here I seem to have got hold of a tiny bit
+of these old memories, if they are such. It must
+be the hills," and she stood still and gazed round
+her with a deep breath of satisfaction, "I could
+only have been between two and three when I was
+found," she went on. "The only words I said
+were 'Dada' and 'Nennie'&mdash;it sounded like
+'Nelly'. That was why Mrs. Bellairs called me
+'Ellinor,' and 'March,' because it was in that
+month she took me to her house."</p>
+
+<p>Sybil walked on in silence for a moment or two.</p>
+
+<p>"It <i>is</i> such a romantic story," she said at last.
+"I am never tired of thinking about it."</p>
+
+<p>They entered Monksholdings again from the
+east entrance, Ellinor glanced at the stile.</p>
+
+<p>"By-the-bye," she said, "this is one of the two
+old stiles, I suppose. Have you ever seen your
+ghost again, Sybil? Have you found out anything
+about him?"</p>
+
+<p>Sybil looked round her half nervously.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the other stile he haunts," she said. "I
+rather avoid it, at least, I mean to do so now. It
+is curious you speak of it, for till yesterday I had
+not seen him again, and had almost forgotten
+about it. But yesterday afternoon, just before
+you came, there he was&mdash;exactly the same, staring
+in. I meant to speak to papa about it, but with
+the pleasure and bustle of your arrival, I forgot
+it. Remind me about it. I am afraid he is out
+of his mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Poor old man!" said Ellinor. "I wish we
+could do something to comfort him. I feel as if
+everybody <i>must</i> be happy here. It is such a
+charming, exhilarating place. Dear me, how
+windy it is! The path is all strewn with the
+white petals of the cherry blossom."</p>
+
+<p>"They have degenerated into wild cherry trees,"
+said Sybil. "Long ago papa says these must have
+been good fruit trees of many kinds, and this is a
+great cherry country, you know."</p>
+
+<p>The wind dropped that afternoon, but only
+temporarily. It rose again so much during the
+night that by the next morning the grounds
+looked, to use little Annis's expression, "quite
+untidy".</p>
+
+<p>"And down in the village, or just beyond it,"
+said Mark, who had been for an early stroll, "at
+one place it really looks as if it had been snowing.
+The road skirts that old farmhouse; you know it,
+father? I forget the name&mdash;there's a grand cherry
+orchard there."</p>
+
+<p>"'Mayling Farm,' you must mean," said Mr.
+Raynald. "Farmer Giles's. Oh, by the way,
+that reminds me, Sybil," but a glance round the
+table made him stop short. They were at breakfast.
+He scarcely felt inclined to relate the tragic
+story before the younger children, "they might
+look frightened or run away if they came across
+the poor fellow," he reflected. "I will tell Sybil
+about it afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>Easter holidays were not yet over, though the
+governess had returned, so regular routine was set
+aside, and the whole of the young party, Ellinor
+included, spent that morning in a scramble among
+the hills.</p>
+
+<p>The children seemed untirable, and set off again
+somewhere or other in the afternoon. Sybil was
+busy with her mother, writing letters and orders
+to be despatched to London, so that towards four
+o'clock or so, when Miss March, having finished
+her own correspondence, entered the drawing-room,
+she found it deserted.</p>
+
+<p>Sybil had promised to practise some duets with
+her, and while waiting on the chance of her coming,
+Ellinor seated herself at the piano and began to
+play&mdash;nothing very important&mdash;just snatches of
+old airs which she wove into a kind of half-dreamy
+harmony, one melting into another as they occurred
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>All at once a shadow fell on the keys, and then
+she remembered having heard the door softly open
+a moment or two before&mdash;so softly, that she had
+not looked round, imagining it to be the wind,
+which, though fallen now, still lingered about.</p>
+
+<p>Now her ideas took another shape.</p>
+
+<p>"It is Sybil, no doubt," she thought with a smile.
+"She is going to make me jump," and she waited,
+half expecting to feel Sybil's hands suddenly clasped
+over her eyes from behind.</p>
+
+<p>But this was not to be the mode of attack,
+apparently, though she heard what sounded like
+stealthy footsteps.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not try to startle me, Sybbie," she
+exclaimed laughingly, without turning or ceasing
+to play, "I hear you."</p>
+
+<p>It was no laughing voice which replied.</p>
+
+<p>On the contrary, a sigh, almost a groan, close to
+her made her look up sharply&mdash;a trifle indignant
+perhaps at the joke being carried so far&mdash;and she
+saw, a pace or two from her only, the figure of an
+old man&mdash;a white-haired, somewhat bent form, a
+worn face with wistful blue eyes&mdash;gazing at her.</p>
+
+<p>She had scarcely time to feel frightened, for
+almost instantaneously Sybil's "ghost" recurred
+to her memory.</p>
+
+<p>"He has found his way in, then," she thought,
+not without a slight and natural tremor, which,
+however, disappeared as she gazed, so pathetically
+gentle was the whole aspect of the intruder.</p>
+
+<p>But&mdash;his face changed curiously&mdash;the sight of
+hers, now fully in his view, seemed strangely to
+affect him. With a gesture of utter bewilderment
+he raised his hand to his forehead as if to brush
+something away&mdash;the cloud still resting on his
+brain&mdash;then a smile broke over the old face, a
+wonderful smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Marion," he said, "at last? I&mdash;I thought I
+was dreaming. I heard you playing in my dream.
+It is the right place though, 'Half-way between
+the stiles,' you said. I have waited so long and
+come so often, and now it is snowing again. Just
+a little, dear, nothing to hurt. Marion, my
+darling, why don't you speak? Is it all a dream&mdash;this
+fine room, the music and all? Are <i>you</i> a
+dream?"</p>
+
+<p>He closed his eyes as if he were fainting. Inexpressibly
+touched, all Ellinor's womanly nature
+went out to him. She started forward, half leading,
+half lifting him to a seat close at hand.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;I am not Marion," she said, and afterwards
+she wondered what had inspired the
+words, "but I am"&mdash;not "Ellinor," something
+made her change the name as he spoke&mdash;"I am
+Nelly."</p>
+
+<p>He opened his eyes again.</p>
+
+<p>"Little Nell," he said, "has she sent you down
+to me from heaven? My little Nell!"</p>
+
+<p>And then he fell back unconscious&mdash;this time
+he had fainted.</p>
+
+<p>She thought he was dead, but it was not so&mdash;her
+cries for help soon brought her friends, Mr.
+Raynald first of all. He did not seem startled, he
+soothed Ellinor at once.</p>
+
+<p>"It is poor old Giles," he said. "I know all
+about him, he has found his way in at last."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;but<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>," stammered the girl, "there
+is something else, Mr. Raynald. I&mdash;I seem to
+remember something."</p>
+
+<p>She looked nearly as white as their poor visitor,
+and as Mr. Raynald glanced at her, a curious
+expression flitted across his own face.</p>
+
+<p>Could it be so? He knew all her story.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a little, my dear," he said. "We must
+attend to poor Giles first."</p>
+
+<p>They were very kind and tender to the old
+man, but he seemed to be barely conscious, even
+after restoratives had brought him out of the
+actual fainting fit. Then Mrs. Raynald proposed
+that his servants&mdash;his housekeeper if he had one&mdash;should
+be sent for.</p>
+
+<p>And when faithful Betsy, stout as of old, though
+less nimble, made her appearance, her irrepressible
+emotion at the sight of Ellinor, pale and trembling
+though the young governess was, gave form and
+substance to Mr. Raynald's suspicions.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, they had met at last&mdash;father and daughter&mdash;"half-way
+between the stiles". He was
+"Dada," she was little "Nell". Might it not be
+that Marion's prayers had brought them together?</p>
+
+<p>Every reasonable proof was forthcoming&mdash;the
+little parcel of clothes, the correspondence in the
+dates, the strong resemblance to her mother.</p>
+
+<p>And&mdash;joy does not often kill. Barnett was able
+to understand it all better than might have been
+expected. He was never <i>quite</i> himself, but infinitely
+better both in mind and body than poor old
+Betsy had ever dreamt of seeing him. And he
+was perfectly content&mdash;content to live as long as
+it should please God to spare him to his little
+Nell; ready to go to his Marion when the time
+should come.</p>
+
+<p>And Ellinor had her wish&mdash;a home, though not
+a "grand" one; some one of her "very own" to
+care for; a father's devoted love, and, to complete
+her happiness, the friends who had grown so dear
+to her close at hand.</p>
+
+<p>More may yet be hers in the future, for she is
+still young. Her father may live to see his grandchildren
+playing about the farmstead at Mayling,
+so that, though the name be changed, the old
+stock will still nourish where so many generations
+of its ancestors have sown and reaped.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="st_IV" id="st_IV"></a>AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD.</h3>
+
+<p class="noindent">Have I ever seen a ghost?</p>
+
+<p>I do not know.</p>
+
+<p>That is the only reply I can truthfully make to
+the question now-a-days so often asked. And
+sometimes, if inquirers care to hear more, I go on
+to tell them the one experience which makes it impossible
+for me to reply positively either in the
+affirmative or negative, and restricts me to "I do
+not know".</p>
+
+<p>This was the story.</p>
+
+<p>I was staying with relations in the country.
+Not a very isolated or out-of-the-way part of the
+world, and yet rather inconvenient of access by
+the railway. For the nearest station was six miles
+off. Though the family I was visiting were
+nearly connected with me I did not know much of
+their home or its neighbourhood, as the head of
+the house, an uncle of mine by marriage, had only
+come into the property a year or two previously
+to the date of which I am writing, through the
+death of an elder brother.</p>
+
+<p>It was a nice place. A good comfortable old
+house, a prosperous, satisfactory estate. Everything
+about it was in good order, from the
+farmers, who always paid their rents, to the
+shooting, which was always good; from the
+vineries, which were noted, to the woods, where
+the earliest primroses in all the country side
+were yearly to be found.</p>
+
+<p>And my uncle and aunt and their family deserved
+these pleasant things and made a good
+use of them.</p>
+
+<p>But there was a touch of the commonplace
+about it all. There was nothing picturesque or
+romantic. The country was flat though fertile,
+the house, though old, was conveniently modern
+in its arrangements, airy, cheery, and bright.</p>
+
+<p>"Not even a ghost, or the shadow of one," I
+remember saying one day with a faint grumble.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, well&mdash;as to that," said my uncle, "perhaps
+we<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" but just then something interrupted
+him, and I forgot his unfinished speech.</p>
+
+<p>Into the happy party of which for the time
+being I was one, there fell one morning a sudden
+thunderbolt of calamity. The post brought news
+of the alarming illness of the eldest daughter&mdash;Frances,
+married a year or two ago and living,
+as the crow flies, at no very great distance. But
+as the crow flies is not always as the railroad runs,
+and to reach the Aldoyns' home from Fawne
+Court, my uncle's place, was a complicated business&mdash;it
+was scarcely possible to go and return in a day.</p>
+
+<p>"Can one of you come over?" wrote the
+young husband. "She is already out of danger,
+but longing to see her mother or one of you. She
+is worrying about the baby"&mdash;a child of a few
+months old&mdash;"and wishing for nurse."</p>
+
+<p>We looked at each other.</p>
+
+<p>"Nurse must go at once," said my uncle to me,
+as the eldest of the party. Perhaps I should here
+say that I am a widow, though not old, and with
+no close ties or responsibilities. "But for your
+aunt it is impossible."</p>
+
+<p>"Quite so," I agreed. For she was at the
+moment painfully lamed by rheumatism.</p>
+
+<p>"And the other girls are almost too young at
+such a crisis," my uncle continued. "Would you,
+Charlotte<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" and he hesitated. "It would be
+such a comfort to have personal news of her."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course I will go," I said. "Nurse and I
+can start at once. I will leave her there, and return
+alone, to give you, I have no doubt, better
+news of poor Francie."</p>
+
+<p>He was full of gratitude. So were they all.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't hurry back to-night," said my uncle.
+"Stay till&mdash;till Monday if you like." But I could
+not promise. I knew they would be glad of news
+at once, and in a small house like my cousin's, at
+such a time, an inmate the more might be inconvenient.</p>
+
+<p>"I will try to return to-night," I said. And as I
+sprang into the carriage I added: "Send to Moore
+to meet the last train, unless I telegraph to the
+contrary."</p>
+
+<p>My uncle nodded; the boys called after me,
+"All right;" the old butler bowed assent, and I
+was satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>Nurse and I reached our journey's end promptly,
+considering the four or five junctions at which we
+had to change carriages. But on the whole "going,"
+the trains fitted astonishingly.</p>
+
+<p>We found Frances better, delighted to see us,
+eager for news of her mother, and, finally, disposed
+to sleep peacefully now that she knew that there
+was an experienced person in charge. And both
+she and her husband thanked me so much that I
+felt ashamed of the little I had done. Mr. Aldoyn
+begged me to stay till Monday; but the house
+was upset, and I was eager to carry back my good
+tidings.</p>
+
+<p>"They are meeting me at Moore by the last
+train," I said. "No, thank you, I think it is best
+to go."</p>
+
+<p>"You will have an uncomfortable journey," he
+replied. "It is Saturday, and the trains will be
+late, and the stations crowded with the market
+people. It will be horrid for you, Charlotte."</p>
+
+<p>But I persisted.</p>
+
+<p>It <i>was</i> rather horrid. And it was queer. There
+was a sort of uncanny eeriness about that Saturday
+evening's journey that I have never forgotten. The
+season was very early spring. It was not very cold,
+but chilly and ungenial. And there were such odd
+sorts of people about. I travelled second-class; for
+I am not rich, and I am very independent. I did
+not want my uncle to pay my fare, for I liked the
+feeling of rendering him some small service in return
+for his steady kindness to me. The first stage
+of my journey was performed in the company of
+two old naturalists travelling to Scotland to look
+for some small plant which was to be found only
+in one spot in the Highlands. This I gathered
+from their talk to each other. You never saw two
+such extraordinary creatures as they were. They
+both wore black kid gloves much too large for
+them, and the ends of the fingers waved about like
+feathers.</p>
+
+<p>Then followed two or three short transits, interspersed
+with weary waitings at stations. The last
+of these was the worst, and tantalising, too, for by
+this time I was within a few miles of Moore. The
+station was crowded with rough folk, all, it seemed
+to me, more or less tipsy. So I took refuge in a
+dark waiting-room on the small side line by which
+I was to proceed, where I felt I might have been
+robbed and murdered and no one the wiser.</p>
+
+<p>But at last came my slow little train, and in I
+jumped, to jump out again still more joyfully
+some fifteen minutes later when we drew up at
+Moore.</p>
+
+<p>I peered about for the carriage. It was not to
+be seen; only two or three tax-carts or dog-carts,
+farmers' vehicles, standing about, while their
+owners, it was easy to hear, were drinking far
+more than was good for them in the taproom of
+the Unicorn. Thence, nevertheless&mdash;not to the
+taproom, but to the front of the inn&mdash;I made my
+way, though not undismayed by the shouts and
+roars breaking the stillness of the quiet night.
+"Was the Fawne Court carriage not here?" I
+asked.</p>
+
+<p>The landlady was a good-natured woman, especially
+civil to any member of the "Court" family.
+But she shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no carriage had been down to-day. There
+must have been some mistake."</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing for it but to wait till she
+could somehow or other disinter a fly and a horse,
+and, worst of all a driver. For the "men" she
+had to call were all rather&mdash;"well, ma'am, you see
+it's Saturday night. We weren't expecting any
+one."</p>
+
+<p>And when, after waiting half an hour, the fly at
+last emerged, my heart almost failed me. Even
+before he drove out of the yard, it was very plain
+that if ever we reached Fawne Court alive, it
+would certainly be more thanks to good luck than
+to the driver's management.</p>
+
+<p>But the horse was old and the man had a sort of
+instinct about him. We got on all right till we
+were more than half way to our journey's end.
+The road was straight and the moonlight bright,
+especially after we had passed a certain corner,
+and got well out of the shade of the trees which
+skirted the first part of the way.</p>
+
+<p>Just past this turn there came a dip in the road.
+It went down, down gradually, for a quarter of a
+mile or more, and I looked up anxiously, fearful of
+the horse taking advantage of the slope. But no,
+he jogged on, if possible more slowly than before,
+though new terrors assailed me when I saw that the
+driver was now fast asleep, his head swaying from
+side to side with extraordinary regularity. After a
+bit I grew easier again; he seemed to keep his
+equilibrium, and I looked out at the side window
+on the moon-flooded landscape, with some interest.
+I had never seen brighter moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly from out of the intense stillness and
+loneliness a figure, a human figure, became visible.
+It was that of a man, a young and active man,
+running along the footpath a few feet to our left,
+apparently from some whim, keeping pace with the
+fly. My first feeling was of satisfaction that I was
+no longer alone, at the tender mercies of my stupefied
+charioteer. But, as I gazed, a slight misgiving
+came over me. Who could it be running along this
+lonely road so late, and what was his motive in
+keeping up with us so steadily. It almost seemed
+as if he had been waiting for us, yet that, of course,
+was impossible. He was not very highwayman-like
+certainly; he was well-dressed&mdash;neatly-dressed that
+is to say, like a superior gamekeeper&mdash;his figure was
+remarkably good, tall and slight, and he ran gracefully.
+But there was something queer about him,
+and suddenly the curiosity that had mingled in my
+observation of him was entirely submerged in alarm,
+when I saw that, as he ran, he was slowly but steadily
+drawing nearer and nearer to the fly.</p>
+
+<p>"In another moment he will be opening the door
+and jumping in," I thought, and I glanced before
+me only to see that the driver was more hopelessly
+asleep than before; there was no chance of his
+hearing if I called out. And get out I could not
+without attracting the strange runner's attention,
+for as ill-luck would have it, the window was drawn
+up on the right side, and I could not open the door
+without rattling the glass. While, worse and worse,
+the left hand window was down! Even that slight
+protection wanting!</p>
+
+<p>I looked out once more. By this time the figure
+was close, close to the fly. Then an arm was
+stretched out and laid along the edge of the door,
+as if preparatory to opening it, and then, for the first
+time I saw his face. It was a young face, but
+terribly, horribly pale and ghastly, and the eyes&mdash;all
+was so visible in the moonlight&mdash;had an expression
+such as I had never seen before or since. It
+terrified me, though afterwards on recalling it, it
+seemed to me that it might have been more a
+look of agonised appeal than of menace of any
+kind.</p>
+
+<p>I cowered back into my corner and shut my
+eyes, feigning sleep. It was the only idea that
+occurred to me. My heart was beating like a
+sledge hammer. All sorts of thoughts rushed
+through me; among them I remember saying
+to myself: "He must be an escaped lunatic&mdash;his
+eyes are so awfully wild".</p>
+
+<p>How long I sat thus I don't know&mdash;whenever I
+dared to glance out furtively he was still there.
+But all at once a strange feeling of relief came
+over me. I sat up&mdash;yes, he was gone! And
+though, as I took courage, I leant out and looked
+round in every direction, not a trace of him was
+to be seen, though the road and the fields were
+bare and clear for a long distance round.</p>
+
+<p>When I got to Fawne Court I had to wake
+the lodge-keeper&mdash;every one was asleep. But my
+uncle was still up, though not expecting me, and
+very distressed he was at the mistake about the
+carriage.</p>
+
+<p>"However," he concluded, "all's well that ends
+well. It's delightful to have your good news.
+But you look sadly pale and tired, Charlotte."</p>
+
+<p>Then I told him of my fright&mdash;it seemed now
+so foolish of me, I said. But my uncle did not
+smile&mdash;on the contrary.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," he said. "It sounds very like our
+ghost, though, of course, it may have been only
+one of the keepers."</p>
+
+<p>He told me the story. Many years ago in his
+grandfather's time, a young and favourite gamekeeper
+had been found dead in a field skirting the
+road down there. There was no sign of violence
+upon the body; it was never explained what had
+killed him. But he had had in his charge a
+watch&mdash;a very valuable one&mdash;which his master for
+some reason or other had handed to him to take
+home to the house, not wishing to keep it on him.
+And when the body was found late that night, the
+watch was not on it. Since then, so the story goes,
+on a moonlight night the spirit of the poor fellow
+haunts the spot. It is supposed that he wants to
+tell what had become of his master's watch, which
+was never found. But no one has ever had courage
+to address him.</p>
+
+<p>"He never comes farther than the dip in the
+road," said my uncle. "If you had spoken to
+him, Charlotte, I wonder if he would have told
+you his secret?"</p>
+
+<p>He spoke half laughingly, but I have never
+quite forgiven myself for my cowardice. It was
+the look in those eyes!</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3><a name="st_V" id="st_V"></a>"<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>&nbsp;WILL NOT TAKE PLACE."</h3>
+
+<p>"'Lingard,' 'Trevannion,'" murmured Captain
+Murray, as he ran his eye down the column of
+the morning paper specially devoted to so-called
+fashionable intelligence, "Lingard, Arthur Lingard;
+yes, I've met him; a very good fellow.
+And Trevannion; don't you know a Miss
+Trevannion, Bessie?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Murray glanced up from her teacups.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you say, Walter? Trevannion;
+yes, I have met a girl of the name at my aunt's.
+A pretty girl, and I think I heard she was going
+to be married. Is that what you are talking
+about?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," her husband replied. "It's the other
+way&mdash;broken off, I wonder why."</p>
+
+<p>"What an old gossip you are," said Mrs.
+Murray. "No good reason at all, I daresay.
+People are so capricious now-a-days."</p>
+
+<p>"Still, they don't often announce a marriage
+till it's pretty certain to come off. This sort of
+thing," tapping the paper as he spoke, "isn't
+exactly pleasant."</p>
+
+<p>"Very much the reverse," agreed Mrs. Murray,
+and then they thought no more about it.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder why," said a good many people
+that morning, when they caught sight of the
+announcement. For the two principals it concerned&mdash;Arthur
+Lingard, especially&mdash;had a large
+circle of friends and acquaintances, and their
+engagement had been the subject of much and
+hearty congratulation. It seemed so natural and
+fitting that these two should marry. Both young,
+amiable, good-looking, and sufficiently well off.
+Even the most cynical could discern no cloud in
+the bright sky of their future, no crook in the
+lot before them.</p>
+
+<p>And now&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>No marvel that Captain Murray's soliloquy
+was repeated by many.</p>
+
+<p>But who would have guessed that in one heart
+it was ever ringing with maddening anguish?</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder why, oh, I wonder why he has done
+it. Oh, if he would but tell me, it could not
+surely seem quite so unendurable."</p>
+
+<p>And Daisy Trevannion pressed her aching head,
+and her poor swollen eyes on to her mother's loving
+bosom in a sort of wild despair.</p>
+
+<p>"Mamma, mamma," she cried, "help me. I
+cannot be angry with him. I wish I could. He
+was so gentle, so sweet&mdash;and he is so heartbroken,
+I can see by his letter. Oh, mamma, what can it
+be?"</p>
+
+<p>But to this, even the devoted mother, who would
+gladly have given her own life to save her child
+this misery, could find no answer.</p>
+
+<p>This was what had happened.</p>
+
+<p>They had been engaged about three months, the
+wedding day was approximately fixed, when one
+morning the blow fell.</p>
+
+<p>A letter to Daisy's father, enclosing one to herself&mdash;a
+letter which made Mr. Trevannion draw
+his brows together in instinctive indignation, and
+then as the first impulse cooled a little, caused him
+to turn to his daughter with a movement of irritation,
+underneath which, hope had, nevertheless,
+found time to reassert itself.</p>
+
+<p>"Daisy," he exclaimed sharply, "what is the
+meaning of all this nonsense? Have you been
+quarrelling with Lingard? You're a bit of a
+spoilt child I know, my dear, but I don't like
+playing with edged tools&mdash;a man like Arthur
+won't stand being trifled with. Do you hear,
+Daisy&mdash;eh, what?"</p>
+
+<p>For the girl had scarcely caught the sense of his
+words, so absorbed was she in those of the short,
+all too short, but terrible letter she had just read&mdash;the
+letter addressed to herself, which began "Daisy,
+my Daisy, for the last time," and ended abruptly
+with the simple signature, "Arthur Lingard".</p>
+
+<p>She gazed up at her father&mdash;her white face all
+drawn, and as it were, withered with that minute's
+agony&mdash;her eyes dulled and yet wild. Never was
+there such a metamorphosis from the happy, laughing
+girl who had hurried in with some pretty excuse
+for her unpunctuality.</p>
+
+<p>"Daisy, my child! Daisy," her father repeated,
+repenting already of his hasty remarks, "don't
+take it so seriously. Margaret," to his wife,
+"speak to her."</p>
+
+<p>And Mrs. Trevannion, as pale almost as her
+daughter, drew the sheet of note-paper from the
+girl's unresisting hands, while her husband held
+out to her his own letter.</p>
+
+<p>"Some complete mistake," she said, "some
+misplaced quixotry. Daisy, my own darling, do
+not take it so seriously. Your father will see him&mdash;you
+will, will you not, Hugh?" detecting the
+proud hesitation in her husband's face. "It is not
+as if we did not know him well, and all about him.
+Your father will find out, Daisy, and make it all
+right."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Trevannion did not contradict her, but
+murmured some consolatory words, and then the
+mother led Daisy away, and to a certain extent the
+girl allowed herself to be reassured.</p>
+
+<p>"I will consult Keir if necessary," said the
+father when out of hearing of his daughter. "He
+is the natural person, both as our own connection
+and because he introduced Lingard, and thinks
+so highly of him. But first I will see Arthur
+alone. The fewer mixed up in such a case the
+better."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Trevannion agreed. She was constitutionally
+sanguine, but a painful idea struck her as her
+husband spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"Hugh," she said hesitatingly, "you don't
+think&mdash;it surely is not possible that his&mdash;that
+Arthur's brain is affected?"</p>
+
+<p>"His brain&mdash;tut, nonsense! What a woman's
+idea!" replied Mr. Trevannion irritably. "Why,
+he is receiving compliments on every side, from the
+very highest quarters, too, on that article of his on
+the Capricorn Islands. Brain affected, indeed!"</p>
+
+<p>And to a whisper of, "I was thinking of over-work,"
+which followed him apologetically, he
+vouchsafed no reply.</p>
+
+<p>Some intensely trying days passed. Mr. Trevannion's
+interview with his recalcitrant son-in-law-to-be,
+proved a complete failure. Nothing, absolutely
+nothing was to be "got out of the fellow,"
+he told his wife in mingled anger and wretchedness,
+for the poor man was a devoted father. Arthur was
+gentleness itself, respectful, deferential even, to the
+man whose peculiarly disagreeable position he felt
+for inexpressibly. But he was as firm, as hard in
+his decision that all should be, must be, over between
+Miss Trevannion and himself, as if his own heart
+had suddenly turned to iron, as if he possessed no
+feelings at all. He grew white to the lips, with a
+terrible death-like whiteness, when he named her;
+he said with a quiet, deliberate emphasis, more
+impressive by far than any passionate declaration,
+that never, never while he lived, would he forgive
+himself for the trouble he had brought into her
+young life, but that he was powerless to do otherwise,
+he was absolutely without a choice. As to the
+reason for the breaking off of the engagement to
+be given to the world, he left it entirely in the
+Trevannions' own hands; he would contradict nothing
+they thought it best to say; but, if possible,
+he grew still whiter when his visitor from under
+his shaggy eyebrows glanced at him with a look of
+contempt while he replied cuttingly that he had
+no love of falsehood. For his part he would tell
+the truth, and in the end he believed it would be
+best for Daisy that all the world should know the
+way in which she had been treated.</p>
+
+<p>"Best for her and worst for you," he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>And Arthur only said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so. It must be as you think well."</p>
+
+<p>Then Trevannion softened again a little.</p>
+
+<p>"I shall say nothing to any one at present," he
+went on. "I must see Keir; possibly he may
+understand you better than I can."</p>
+
+<p>But, "No, it will be no use," the young man
+repeated coldly, though his very heart was wrung
+for the father, crushing down his own pride while
+he thought he saw still the ghost of a hope. "It
+will be no use. No one can do anything."</p>
+
+<p>"And you adhere to your determination not to
+see my&mdash;not to see Daisy again?"</p>
+
+<p>Lingard bowed his head.</p>
+
+<p>And Mr. Trevannion left him.</p>
+
+<p>Philip Keir was no blood relation of the Trevannions,
+but a cousin by marriage and a very
+intimate friend. He was some years older than
+Mr. Lingard, and it was through him that the
+acquaintance resulting in Daisy's engagement had
+begun. He was a reserved man, with a frank
+and cordial manner. Daisy thought she knew
+him well, but as to this she was in some directions
+entirely mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>He was away from home when Mr. Trevannion
+called on him, driving straight to his chambers
+from the fruitless interview with Lingard. Philip
+did not return for a couple of days, and had left
+no address. Hence ensued the painful interval
+of suspense alluded to.</p>
+
+<p>But on the third evening a hansom dashed up
+to the Trevannions' door, and Mr. Keir jumped
+out. It was late, but there was no hesitation as
+to admitting him.</p>
+
+<p>"I found your note," he said, as he grasped
+his host's hand, "and came straight on. I have
+only just got back. What is the matter? Tell
+me at once."</p>
+
+<p>He was a self-controlled man, but his agitation
+was evident. "Daisy?" he added hastily.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied the father. The two were alone
+in his study. "Poor Daisy!" And then he
+told the story.</p>
+
+<p>Keir listened, though not altogether in silence,
+for broken exclamations, which he seemed unable
+to repress, broke out from him more than once.</p>
+
+<p>"Impossible&mdash;-inconceivable!" he muttered,
+"Lingard, of all men, to behave like a<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" he
+stopped short, at a loss for a comparison.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can throw no light upon it&mdash;none
+whatever?" said Mr. Trevannion. "We had
+hoped&mdash;foolishly, perhaps&mdash;I had somehow hoped
+that you might have helped us. You know him
+well, you see, you have been so much together,
+your acquaintance is of old date, and you must
+understand any peculiarities of his character."</p>
+
+<p>His tone still sounded as if he could not bring
+himself finally to accept the position. Keir was
+inexpressibly sorry for him.</p>
+
+<p>"I know of none," he said. "Frankly, I
+know of nothing about him that is not estimable.
+And, as you say, we have been much and most
+intimately associated. We have travelled together
+half over the world, we have been dependent on
+each other for months at a time, and the more I
+have seen of him the more I have admired and&mdash;yes&mdash;loved
+him. If I had to pick a fault in him
+I would say it is a curious spice of obstinacy&mdash;I
+have seen it very strongly now and then. Once,"
+and his face grew grave, "once, we nearly
+quarrelled because he would not give in on a
+certain point. It was in Siberia, not long ago,"
+and here Philip gave a sort of shiver, "it was
+very horrible&mdash;no need to go into details. He,
+Arthur, got it into his head that a particular course
+of action was called for, and there was no moving
+him. However it ended all right. I had almost
+forgotten it. But he was determined."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Trevannion listened, but vaguely. Keir's
+remarks scarcely seemed to the point.</p>
+
+<p>"Obstinate!" he repeated. "Yes, but that
+doesn't explain things. There was no question
+of giving in. They had had no quarrel. Daisy
+was perfectly happy. The only thing she can say
+on looking back over the last week or two closely,
+is that Arthur had seemed depressed now and
+then, and when she taxed him with it he evaded
+a reply. You don't think, Philip, that there is
+anything of that kind&mdash;melancholia, you know&mdash;in
+his family?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bless you, no, my dear sir. He comes of the
+healthiest stock possible. People one knows all
+about for generations. No, no, it's nothing of
+that kind," Keir replied. "And&mdash;what man ever
+had such happy prospects?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then what in heaven's name is it?" said Mr.
+Trevannion, bringing his hand down violently on
+the table beside which they were sitting. "Can
+you get it out of him, if you can do nothing else
+for us, Philip? It is our right to know; it is&mdash;it
+is due to my child, it is<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>" he stopped, his
+face working with emotion. "He won't see her,
+you know," he added disconnectedly.</p>
+
+<p>"I will try," said Philip. "It is indeed the
+least I can do. If&mdash;if I could get him to see
+her&mdash;Daisy; surely that would be the best
+chance."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Trevannion looked at him sharply, scrutinisingly.</p>
+
+<p>"You&mdash;you are satisfied then&mdash;entirely satisfied
+that there is nothing we need dread her being
+mixed up in, so to say? Nothing wrong&mdash;nothing
+to shock a girl like her? You see," half apologetically,
+"his refusing to see her makes one
+afraid<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"I am as sure of him as of myself&mdash;surer," said
+Philip earnestly. "There is nothing in his past
+to explain it&mdash;nothing."</p>
+
+<p>"An early secret marriage; a wife he thought
+dead turning up again," suggested the father. "It
+sounds absurd, sensational&mdash;but after all&mdash;there
+must be some reason."</p>
+
+<p>"Not that," said Keir, getting up as he spoke.
+"Well then, I will see him first thing in the morning,
+and communicate with you as soon as possible
+after I have done so. You will tell Mrs.
+Trevannion and&mdash;and Daisy that I will do my
+best?"</p>
+
+<p>"My wife is still in the drawing-room. Will
+you not see her to-night?"</p>
+
+<p>Philip shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"It is late," he said, "and I am dusty and unpresentable.
+Besides, there is really nothing to say.
+To-morrow it shall be as you all think best. I will
+see Mrs. Trevannion&mdash;and Daisy," here he flushed
+a little, but his host did not observe it, "if you like
+and if she wishes it. Heaven send I may have
+better news than I expect."</p>
+
+<p>And with a warm pressure of his old friend's
+hand, Mr. Keir left him.</p>
+
+<p>The two younger men met the next morning.
+There was no difficulty about it, for Lingard, knowing
+by instinct that the interview must take place,
+had determined to face it. So of the two he was
+the more prepared, the more forearmed.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation was long&mdash;an hour, two hours
+passed before poor Philip could make up his mind
+to accept the ultimatum contained in the few hard
+words with which Arthur Lingard first greeted him.</p>
+
+<p>"I know what you have come about. I knew
+you must come. You could not help yourself. But,
+Philip, it will save you pain&mdash;I don't mind for myself;
+nothing can matter now&mdash;if you will at once
+take my word for it that nothing you can say will
+do the least shadow of good. No, don't shake hands
+with me. I would rather you didn't."</p>
+
+<p>And he put his right arm behind his back and
+stood there, leaning against the mantelpiece, facing
+his friend.</p>
+
+<p>Philip looked up at him grimly.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he said, "I've given my word to&mdash;to
+these poor dear people, and I'll stick to it. You've
+got to make up your mind to a cross-examination,
+Lingard."</p>
+
+<p>But through or below the grimness was a terrible
+pity. Philip's heart was very tender for the man
+whose inexplicable conduct was yet filling him with
+indignation past words. Arthur was so changed&mdash;the
+last week or two had done the work of years&mdash;all
+the youthfulness, the almost boyish brightness,
+which had been one of his charms, was gone,
+dead. He was pale with a strange indescribable
+pallor, that told of days, and worse still, of nights
+of agony; the lines of his face were hardened; the
+lips spoke of unalterable determination. Only once
+had Philip seen him look thus, and then it was but
+in expression&mdash;the likeness and the contrast struck
+him curiously. The other time it had been resolution
+temporarily hardening a youthful face; now&mdash;what
+did it remind him of? A monk who had
+gone through a life-time of spiritual struggle alone,
+unaided by human sympathy? A martyr&mdash;no,
+there was no enthusiasm. It was all dull, dead
+anguish of unalterable resolve.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence for a moment. Keir was
+choking down an uncomfortable something in his
+throat, and bracing himself to the inquisitorial
+torture before him to perform.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Arthur, at last.</p>
+
+<p>And Philip looked up at him again.</p>
+
+<p>How queer his eyes were&mdash;they used to be so
+deeply blue. Daisy had often laughed at his
+changeable eyes, as she called them&mdash;blue in the
+daytime, almost black at night, but always lustrous
+and liquid. Now, they were glassy, almost filmy.
+What was it? A sudden thought struck Philip.</p>
+
+<p>"Arthur!" he exclaimed, "Arthur, old fellow,
+are you going blind? Is that the mystery? If
+it is that, good Lord, how little you know her,
+if you think that<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>Arthur's pale lips grew visibly paler. He had
+been unprepared for attack in this direction, and
+for the moment he quailed before it.</p>
+
+<p>"No," he whispered hoarsely, "it is not that.
+Would to God it were!"</p>
+
+<p>But almost instantly he had mastered himself,
+and from that moment throughout the interview
+not even the mention of Daisy's name had power
+to stir him.</p>
+
+<p>And Philip, annoyed with his own impulsiveness,
+stiffened again.</p>
+
+<p>"You are determined not to reveal your
+secret," he began, "but I want to come to an
+understanding with you on one point. If I guess
+it, if I put my finger on it, will you give me
+the satisfaction of owning that I have done so."</p>
+
+<p>Lingard hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I will do so on one condition&mdash;your
+word of honour, your oath, never to tell
+it to any human being."</p>
+
+<p>"Not to&mdash;her&mdash;Daisy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Least of all."</p>
+
+<p>Philip groaned. This did not look very promising
+for the meeting with Daisy, which at the
+bottom of his heart he believed in as his last&mdash;his
+trump card.</p>
+
+<p>Still, he had gained something.</p>
+
+<p>"Then, my first question seems, in the face of
+that, almost a mockery. I was going to ask
+you," and he half gasped&mdash;"it is nothing&mdash;nothing
+about her that is at the root of all this
+misery? No fancy," again the gasp, "that&mdash;that
+she doesn't care for you, or love you enough?
+No nonsense about your not being suited to each
+other, or that you couldn't make a girl of her
+sensitive, high-strung nature happy?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Arthur, and the word seemed to
+ring through the room. "No, I know she loves
+me as I love her. Oh, no, not quite like that, I
+trust," and his voice was firm through all the tragedy
+of the last sentence. "And I believe I could have
+made her very happy. Leave her name out of it
+now, Phil, once for all. It has nothing to do
+personally with the woman who is, and always
+will be, to me my perfect ideal of sweetness and
+excellence and truth and beauty."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it has to do with yourself," murmured
+Keir. "Come, the radius is narrowing. I flew
+out at poor Trevannion when he suggested it, but
+all the same, it's nothing in your past you're
+ashamed of that's come to light, is it? The best
+fellows in the world make fools of themselves
+sometimes, you know. Don't mind my asking."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't mind," said Arthur wearily, "but it's
+no use. No, it's nothing like that. I have done
+nothing I am ashamed of. I am not secretly
+married, nor have I committed forgery," with a
+very ghastly attempt at a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"Then," said Philip, "is it something about
+your family. Have you found out that there's a
+strain of insanity in the Lingards perhaps? People
+exaggerate that kind of thing now-a-days. There's
+a touch of it in us all, I take it."</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Arthur, again "my family's all
+right. I've no very near relations except my
+sister, but you know her, and you know all about
+us. We're not adventurers in any sense of the
+word."</p>
+
+<p>"Far from it," agreed Philip warmly. Then
+for a moment or two he relapsed into silence.
+"Does your sister&mdash;does Lady West know about&mdash;about
+this mysterious affair?" he asked abruptly,
+after some pondering.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing whatever. I, of course, was bound
+by every consideration not to tell her&mdash;to tell no
+one anything till it was understood by&mdash;the
+Trevannions. And I had no reason for consulting
+her or&mdash;any friend," Arthur replied.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke jerkily and with effort, as if he were
+putting force on himself to endure what yet he was
+convinced was absolutely useless torture.</p>
+
+<p>But his words gave Keir a new opening, which
+he was quick to seize.</p>
+
+<p>"That's just it," he exclaimed eagerly. "That's
+just where it strikes me you've gone wrong. You
+should have consulted some one&mdash;not myself, not
+your sister even; I don't say whom, but some one
+sensible and trustworthy. I believe your mind has
+got warped. You've been thinking over this
+trouble, whatever it is, till you can't see it rightly.
+You've exaggerated it out of all proportion, and
+you shouldn't trust your own morbid judgment."</p>
+
+<p>Lingard did not answer. He stood motionless,
+his eyes fixed upon the ground. For an instant
+a wild hope dashed through Philip that at last he
+had made some impression. But as Arthur slowly
+raised his dim, worn eyes, and looked him in the
+face, it faded again, even before the young man
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>"To satisfy you, I will tell you this much. I
+have consulted one person&mdash;a man whom you
+would allow was trustworthy and wise and good.
+From him I have hidden nothing whatever, and
+he agrees with me that I have no choice&mdash;that duty
+points unmistakably to the course I am pursuing."</p>
+
+<p>Again a flash of suggestion struck his hearer.</p>
+
+<p>"One person&mdash;a man," he repeated. "Arthur,
+is it some priest? Have they been converting or
+perverting you, my boy? Are you going over to
+Rome, fancying yourself called to be a Trappist,
+or a&mdash;those fellows at the Grande Chartreuse, you
+remember?"</p>
+
+<p>For the second time during the interview, Arthur
+smiled, and his smile was a trifle less ghastly this
+time.</p>
+
+<p>"No, again," he said. "You're quite on a
+wrong tack. I have not the slightest inclination
+that way. I&mdash;I wish I had. No, my adviser is no
+priest. But he's one of the best of men, all the
+same, and one of the wisest."</p>
+
+<p>"You won't tell me who he is?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot."</p>
+
+<p>"And"&mdash;Philip was reluctant to try his last
+hope, and felt conscious that he would do it clumsily&mdash;"Arthur,"
+he burst out, "you will see her&mdash;Daisy&mdash;once
+more? She has a right to it. You
+are putting enough upon her without refusing this
+one request of hers."</p>
+
+<p>He stood up as he spoke. He himself had
+grown strangely pale, and seeing this, as he glanced
+at him, Lingard's own face became ashen.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Good God!" he said, "I think this might
+have been spared me. No, I will not see her
+again. The only thing I can do for her is to
+refuse this last request. Tell her so, Philip&mdash;tell
+her what I say. And now leave me. Don't shake
+hands with me. I don't wish it, and I daresay you
+don't. If&mdash;if we never meet again, you and I&mdash;and
+who knows?&mdash;if this is our goodbye, thank
+you, old fellow, thank you for all you have tried to
+do. Perhaps I know the cost of it to you better
+than you imagine. Good-bye, Phil!"</p>
+
+<p>Keir turned towards the door. But he looked
+back ere he reached it. Arthur was standing as he
+had been&mdash;motionless.</p>
+
+<p>"You're not thinking of killing yourself, are
+you?" he said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur looked at him. His eyes had a different
+expression now&mdash;or was it that something was
+gleaming softly in them that had not been there
+before?</p>
+
+<p>"No, no&mdash;I am not going to be false to my
+colours. I&mdash;I don't care to talk much about it,
+but&mdash;I am a Christian, Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"At least I can put that horrid idea out of the
+poor child's head, then," thought Keir to himself.
+Though to Arthur he did not reply, save by a bend
+of his head.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>Time passed. And in his wings there was
+healing.</p>
+
+<p>At twenty-four, Daisy Trevannion, though her
+face bore traces of suffering of no common order,
+was yet a sweet and serene woman. To some
+extent she had outlived the strange tragedy of her
+earlier girlhood.</p>
+
+<p>It had never been explained. The one person
+who might naturally have been looked to, to
+throw some light on the mystery, Lingard's
+sister, Lady West, was, as her brother had
+stated, completely in the dark. At first she had
+been disposed to blame Daisy, or her family;
+and though afterwards convinced that in so
+doing she was entirely mistaken, she never became
+in any sense confidential with them on the matter.
+And after a few months they met no more. For
+her husband was sent abroad, and detained there
+on an important diplomatic mission.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then, in the earlier days of her broken
+engagement, Daisy would ask Philip to "try to
+find out if Mary West knows where he is".
+And to please her he did so. But all he learnt
+was&mdash;what indeed was all the sister had to tell&mdash;that
+Arthur was off again on his old travels&mdash;to
+the Capricorn Islands or to the moon, it was
+not clear which.</p>
+
+<p>"He has promised that I shall hear from him
+once a year&mdash;as near my birthday as he can
+manage. That is all I can tell you," she said,
+trying to make light of it.</p>
+
+<p>And whether this promise was kept or no, one
+thing was certain&mdash;Arthur Lingard had entirely
+disappeared from London society.</p>
+
+<p>At twenty-five, Daisy married Philip. He
+had always loved her, though he had never
+allowed her to suspect it; and knowing herself
+and her history as he did, he was satisfied with
+the true affection she could give him&mdash;satisfied,
+that is to say, in the hope and belief that his own
+devotion would kindle ever-increasing response
+on her side. And his hopes were not disappointed.
+They were very happy.</p>
+
+<p>Now for the sequel to the story&mdash;such sequel,
+that is to say, as there is to give&mdash;a suggestion
+of explanation rather than any positive <i>d&eacute;noument</i>
+of the mystery.</p>
+
+<p>They&mdash;Philip and Daisy&mdash;had been married
+for two or three years when one evening it
+chanced to them to dine at the house of a rather
+well-known literary man with whom they were
+but slightly acquainted. They had been invited
+for a special reason; their hosts were pleasant
+and genial people who liked to get those about
+them with interests in common. And Keir,
+though his wings were now so happily clipt, still
+held his position as a traveller who had seen and
+noted much in his former wanderings.</p>
+
+<p>"We think your husband may enjoy a talk
+with Sir Abel Maynard, who is with us for a
+few days," Mrs. Thorncroft had said in her
+note.</p>
+
+<p>And Sir Abel, not being of the surly order of
+lions who refuse to roar when they know that
+their audience is eager to hear them, made himself
+most agreeable. He appreciated Mr. Keir's intelligence
+and sympathy, and was by no means indifferent
+to Mrs. Keir's beauty, though "evidently," he
+thought to himself, "she is not over fond of
+reminiscences of her husband's travels. Perhaps
+she is afraid of his taking flight again."</p>
+
+<p>During dinner the conversation turned, not
+unnaturally, on a subject just at that moment
+much to the fore. For it was about the time of
+the heroic Damien's death.</p>
+
+<p>"No," said Sir Abel, in answer to some inquiry,
+"I never visited his place. But I have seen lepers&mdash;to
+perfection. By-the-by," he went on suddenly,
+"I came across a queer, a very queer, story a while
+ago. I wonder, Keir, if you can throw any light
+upon it?"</p>
+
+<p>But at that moment Mrs. Thorncroft gave
+the magic signal and the women left the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>By degrees the men came straggling upstairs
+after them, then a little music followed, but it
+was not till much later in the evening than was
+usual with him that Philip made his appearance
+in the drawing-room, preceded by Sir Abel
+Maynard. Philip looked tired and rather "distrait,"
+thought Daisy, whose eyes were keen with the
+quick discernment of perfect affection, and she
+was not sorry when, before very long, he whispered
+to her that it was getting late, might they not leave
+soon? Nor was she sorry that during the interval
+before her husband made this suggestion, Sir Abel,
+who had been devoting himself to her, had avoided
+all mention of his travels, and had been amusing
+her with his criticism of a popular novel instead.
+She could never succeed altogether in banishing
+the painful association of Arthur Lingard from
+allusion to her husband's old wanderings.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Arthur! Where was he now?</p>
+
+<p>"Philip, dear," she said, slipping her hand into
+his when they found themselves alone, and with a
+longish drive before them, in their own little
+brougham, "there is something the matter. You
+have heard something? Tell me what it is."</p>
+
+<p>Keir hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, "I suppose it is best to tell you.
+It is the strange story Sir Abel alluded to before
+you left the room."</p>
+
+<p>"About&mdash;about Arthur? Is it about Arthur?"
+whispered she, shivering a little.</p>
+
+<p>Philip put his arm round her.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't say. We shall perhaps never know
+certainly," he replied. "But it looks very like it.
+Listen, dear. Some little time ago&mdash;two or three
+years ago&mdash;Maynard spent some days at one of
+those awful leper settlements&mdash;never mind where.
+I would just as soon you did not know. There,
+to his amazement, among the most devoted of the
+attendants upon the poor creatures he found an
+Englishman, young still, at least by his own
+account, though to judge by his appearance it
+would have been impossible to say. For he was
+himself far gone, very far gone in some ways, in
+the disease. But he was, or had been, a man of
+strong constitution and enormous determination.
+Ill as he was, he yet managed to tend others with
+indescribable devotion. They looked upon him
+as a saint. Maynard did not like to inquire what
+had brought him to such a pass&mdash;he, the poor
+fellow, was a perfect gentleman. But the day
+Sir Abel was leaving, the Englishman took him
+to some extent into his confidence, and asked him
+to do him a service. This was his story. Some
+years before, in quite a different part of the world,
+the young man had nursed a leper&mdash;a dying leper&mdash;for
+some hours. He believed for long that he
+had escaped all danger, in fact he never thought of
+it; but it was not so. There must have been an
+unhealed wound of some kind&mdash;a slight scratch
+would do it&mdash;on his hand. No need to go into the
+details of his first misgivings, of the horror of the
+awful certainty at last. It came upon him in the
+midst of the greatest happiness; he was going to
+be married to a girl he adored."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Philip, Philip, why did he not tell?"
+Daisy wailed.</p>
+
+<p>"He consulted the best and greatest physician,
+who&mdash;as a friend, he said&mdash;approved of the course
+he had mapped out for himself. He decided to
+tell no one, to break off his engagement, and die
+out of her&mdash;the girl's&mdash;life; not once, after he
+was sure, did he see her again. He would not
+even risk touching her hand. And he believed
+that telling would only have brought worse agony
+upon her in the end than the agony he was forced
+to inflict. For he was a doomed man, though
+they gave him a few years to live. And he did
+the only thing he could do with those years. He
+set off to the settlement in question. Maynard
+was to call there some months later on his way
+home, and the young man knew he would be dead
+then, and so he was. But he showed Maynard a
+letter explaining all, that he had got ready&mdash;all but
+the address&mdash;<i>that</i>, he would not add till he was in
+the act of dying. There must be no risk of
+her knowing till he was dead. And this letter
+Maynard was to fetch on his return. He did so,
+but&mdash;there had been no time to add the address&mdash;death
+had come suddenly. All sorts of precautions
+had been ordered by the poor fellow as
+to disinfecting the letter and so on. But it did
+not seem to Maynard that these had been taken.
+So he contented himself by spreading out the
+paper on the sea-shore and learning it by heart,
+and then leaving it. The sum total of it was
+what I have told you, but not one name was
+named."</p>
+
+<p>Daisy was sobbing quietly.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it he?" she said.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I feel sure of it," Philip replied. "For
+I can supply the missing link. The one time I
+really quarrelled with Arthur was when we were
+in Siberia. He <i>would</i> spend a night in a dying
+leper's hut. I would have done it myself, I
+believe and hope, had it been necessary. But by
+riding on a few miles we could have got help for
+the poor creature&mdash;which indeed I did&mdash;and more
+efficient help than ours. But Lingard was determined,
+and no ill seemed to come of it. I had
+almost forgotten the circumstance. I never associated
+it with the mystery that caused you such
+anguish, my poor darling."</p>
+
+<p>"It was he," whispered Daisy. "Philip, he
+was a hero after all."</p>
+
+<p>"Not even you can feel that, as I do," Keir
+replied.</p>
+
+<p>Then they were silent.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>A few weeks afterwards came a letter from
+Lady West, in her far-off South American home.
+Daisy had not heard from her for years.</p>
+
+<p>"By circuitous ways, I need not explain the
+details," she wrote, "I have learnt that my darling
+brother is dead. I thought I had better tell you.
+I am sure his most earnest wish was that you
+should live to be happy, dear Daisy, as I trust you
+are. And I know you have long forgiven him
+the sorrow he caused you&mdash;it was worse still for
+him."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," said Daisy, "if she knows more?"</p>
+
+<p>But the letter seemed to add certainty to their
+own conviction.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><a name="st_VI" id="st_VI"></a>THE CLOCK THAT STRUCK THIRTEEN.</h3>
+
+<p>"You misunderstand me wilfully, Helen. I
+neither said nor inferred anything of the kind."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you mean then, for if words to you
+bear a different interpretation from what they do
+to me, I must trouble you to speak in <i>my</i> language
+when addressing me," angrily retorted a young
+girl, with what nature had intended to be a very
+pretty face with a charming expression, but which
+at the present moment was far from deserving the
+latter part of the description. Eyes flashing, cheeks
+burning and hands clenched in the excess of her
+indignation, stood Helen Beaumont by the window
+of her pretty little sitting-room, or "studio" as
+she loved to call it, presenting a striking contrast
+to the peaceful scene without; where a carefully
+tended garden still looked bright with the remaining
+flowers of late September. Her companion,
+standing in the attitude invariably assumed now-a-days
+by novelists' heroes, namely, leaning against
+the mantelpiece, was a young man of equally prepossessing
+appearance with her own. At first
+glance no one would have suspected him of
+sharing any of the young lady's excitement, for
+his expression was so calm as almost to merit
+the description of sleepy. Looking more closely,
+however, the signs of some unusual disturbance
+or annoyance were to be descried, for his face was
+slightly flushed and his blue eyes had lost the look
+of sweet temper evidently their ordinary expression.</p>
+
+<p>"What I meant to say, Helen, was not, as you
+choose to misinterpret it, that I blame you for
+proper womanly courage and spirit, than which, I
+consider few things more admirable, nor as you
+are well aware do I admire the sweetly silly and
+affectedly timid order of young ladies. But this
+I do mean and repeat, that I think your persistence
+in this foolish scheme a piece of sheer bravado and
+foolhardiness, totally unworthy of any sensible
+person's approval, and what is more<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, Malcolm, or rather Mr. Willoughby,
+I have heard quite enough,"&mdash;and as she spoke,
+Helen turned from the window out of which she
+had been gazing while Malcolm spoke, with, it must
+be confessed, very little interest in the varied tints
+of the dahlias blooming in all their rich brilliance
+on the terrace,&mdash;"I have heard quite enough, and
+think myself exceedingly fortunate in having heard
+it now before it is too late. You may imagine,"
+she continued, "that I am speaking in temper,
+but it is not so. I have for some time suspected,
+and now feel convinced, that we are not suited to
+each other. Your own words bear witness to your
+opinion of me, 'self-willed, foolhardy, unwomanly,'
+and I know not what other pretty expressions you
+have applied to me, and for my part I tell you
+simply that I cannot and will not marry a man
+whose opinion of what a woman should be is like
+yours; and who insults me constantly as you do,
+by telling me how far short I fall of his ideal.
+Marry your ideal, Malcolm Willoughby, and I shall
+wish you joy of her. Some silly little fool who
+dares not move a step alone in her bewitching
+helplessness. But do not think to convert <i>me</i> into
+such a piece of contemptible inanity," and so saying
+she turned towards the door.</p>
+
+<p>"Helen," said Malcolm quietly, so quietly that
+Helen was arrested in spite of herself, "you are
+unjust, unreasonable and ungenerous. You know
+that I never cared for any woman but you, you
+know that nothing pleases me more than to witness
+your superiority in numberless particulars to the
+general run of girls, and you know too the pride
+and pleasure I take in your skill as an artist;
+but blinded by self-will you will not see the
+perfect reasonableness of my request that you
+will abandon this absurd expedition. If not
+for your own sake, at least do so for Edith's,
+who is as you know left in your special charge by
+Leonard."</p>
+
+<p>The first part of this speech seemed, to judge
+by Helen's transparent countenance, likely to
+soften and move her, but the unlucky word
+"absurd" and the tone in which Malcolm spoke,
+as if it was necessary to remind her of her duty,
+effectually did away with any good result that his
+remonstrance might have worked. She turned,
+with her hand on the door, and saying, "I have
+told you my decision, Mr. Willoughby, and I
+wish you good-evening," left the room. Malcolm
+remained behind, lost in thought of no pleasurable
+nature. At last he too left the little sitting-room,
+after first ringing the bell and ordering his horse
+to be brought round. Making his way to the
+front entrance he there "mounted and rode away,"
+his spirits, poor fellow, by no means the better for
+his visit.</p>
+
+<p>It is time, I think, to explain the cause of the
+lovers' quarrel above described. Helen and Edith
+Beaumont were orphans, left to the guardianship of
+their brother Leonard, in whose house we have seen
+the former. Delicacy, induced by a severe illness
+some months previously, had obliged Mr. Beaumont,
+accompanied by his wife, to go for the
+autumn and winter months to the south of France,
+leaving his sisters at home under the nominal
+chaperonage of an elderly aunt, who performed
+her duty to the perfect satisfaction of her nieces
+by letting them do exactly as they liked. More
+correctly speaking, perhaps, exactly as Helen liked,
+for the younger of the two, Edith, a girl of seventeen
+and four years her sister's junior, could hardly
+be said to have likes or dislikes distinct from those
+of Helen. Possibly Mr. Beaumont might not
+have left the two to their own devices with so
+easy a mind, had he not quitted home happy in
+the knowledge of Helen's engagement to his
+friend and neighbour Malcolm Willoughby. The
+gentleman in question lived within a few miles of
+our heroine's home, having succeeded some years
+before to his father's property. His only sister,
+Mrs. Lindsay, was at this time living with him
+for a few months while awaiting her husband's
+return from India, and though some years older,
+was, next to her sister, Helen's most valued friend
+and companion. Malcolm Willoughby was a
+man of high character, peculiarly fitted, by his
+unusual amount of sterling good sense, to be the
+guide of an impulsive, enthusiastic girl like
+pretty Helen Beaumont, whom to know was to
+love, and who would have been altogether
+charming but for her inordinate amount of self-will
+and inveterate dislike to being, as she expressed
+it, "ordered" to do or not to do whatever
+came into her head. She and her sister had
+real talent as artists, and their spirited and
+well-executed landscapes bore but little resemblance
+to the insipid productions of most young
+lady painters. To improving herself in this
+direction Helen had devoted much time and
+labour. Unfortunately, it had so absorbed her
+thoughts and desires that in its pursuance she
+was inclined sometimes to forget what were for
+her more important avocations. Helen's fortunate
+engagement to Mr. Willoughby had for
+some time past corrected these only objectionable
+tendencies in her character, and all had gone
+smoothly and happily till the date at which our
+story commences, when, unluckily, some artist
+friends had filled her head with their descriptions
+of the exquisite autumn scenery, "effects
+of foliage," etc., to be seen in a mountainous
+and hitherto little explored part of Wales.
+Her imagination, and through her that of her
+sister Edith, ran wild on the subject, and now
+nothing would satisfy her but a journey to the
+spot in question, by themselves, in order that they
+might enjoy their freedom to the utmost, and revel
+in the delight of painting some of the wonderful
+Welsh scenery described to them. The idea had
+at first been mooted half in joke, but an impolitic
+expression of strong disapprobation on the part of
+Mr. Willoughby had done more to determine
+Helen on carrying it out than all the anticipated
+artistic enjoyment.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be just the opportunity I wanted,"
+thought the foolish girl, "of showing him that
+I do not intend to be a silly nonentity of a wife
+with no opinion of my own, and hedged in by all
+the absurd old-fashioned conventionalities which
+will not allow a woman to have an existence of her
+own or give her opportunity to cultivate what
+talents she may possess."</p>
+
+<p>And once determined, Miss Helen remained
+inflexible. In vain Mr. Willoughby remonstrated,
+in vain even their indulgent old aunt expressed
+her horror at the idea of "two young girls scouring
+the country by themselves," her own feebleness
+rendering her accompanying them out of the
+question. Go to Wales Helen and Edith must,
+and go they would, till at last the discussion with
+her <i>fianc&eacute;</i> terminated in the disastrous manner
+above recorded.</p>
+
+<p>I will not undertake to describe Helen's
+feelings, when, in the solitude of her own room,
+she thought over what she had done. Had she
+herself been obliged to put them into words, I
+believe she would have repeated that she had not
+acted in temper and that the stand she had made
+for her womanly freedom, as she would have expressed
+it, had been an act of supreme heroism
+and devotion to the cause of right. She said all
+this to herself and tried hard, very hard to believe
+it; and to stifle the little voice at the very bottom
+of her heart which whispered that she had behaved
+like a silly, self-willed, petted child, and shown
+herself undeserving of so good a gift as the
+love of a man like Malcolm Willoughby. The
+little voice was smothered for the time by exaggerated
+anticipations of the delights of their tour
+and attempted self-congratulations at her newly
+regained liberty to do as she chose; for Malcolm
+did not come near her again, and it took all her
+pride to hide from herself and others the shock
+she felt through all her being when, in the course
+of a few days, she heard accidentally that Mr.
+Willoughby was leaving home for an uncertain
+length of time.</p>
+
+<p>"He has taken me at my word," thought she,
+"but of course I meant him to do so," and she
+hurried on the preparations for their journey
+which they were now on the eve of.</p>
+
+<p>"You will at least take Maxwell," said Aunt
+Fanny timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Maxwell, aunt! No, thank you," said Helen
+ironically; "she would be crying for her spring
+mattress the first night and thinking she was going
+to die if she heard the wind howl. No, thank
+you, I mean to be independent for once in my
+life, and so does Edith."</p>
+
+<p>Other twenty-four hours saw our two young
+ladies on their way. Unaccustomed as they were
+to travelling alone they got on very well for the
+greater part of their journey, till they arrived at a
+certain railway station in Wales, of name unpronounceable
+by civilised tongue, but which sounded
+to them like that of the place where they were to
+leave the railway. Never doubting but what they
+were right in so doing Helen and Edith calmly
+descended from their carriage, watched the train
+disappear in the tunnel hard by, and then began
+to make inquiries for a conveyance to transport
+themselves and their luggage, white umbrellas,
+easels and all, the five or six miles which they
+imagined were all that divided them from their
+destination. A colloquy ensued with the most
+intelligible of two or three fly-drivers, carmen,
+or whatever these personages are called in Wales;
+but what was Helen's consternation on learning
+that fifteen miles at least remained to be traversed;
+they having left the railway at Llanfar, two stations
+too soon, instead of remaining in it till they reached
+Llanfair, the point nearest to the farm-house where
+lodgings had been taken for them. No chance of
+a train to Llanfair till to-morrow morning, for the
+line was a new one, and the traffic as yet but small.
+No prospect of a night's accommodation where
+they were. Nothing for it but to trust to the
+driver's assurance that he and his unpromising-looking
+horse could easily convey them to the
+farm-house, with the inevitably unpronounceable
+name. With some unconfessed misgivings Helen
+and Edith mounted the vehicle awaiting them,
+and drove off along a muddy, jolting lane into
+the quickly gathering gloom.</p>
+
+<p>Shivering on her uncomfortable seat, did Helen
+wish herself at home again in her own little sitting-room,
+with Aunt Fanny peacefully knitting, Edith
+kneeling on the hearth-rug, and Malcolm's face
+bright with the reflection of the ruddy log fire so
+welcome in autumn evenings; all together as was
+their wont, enjoying "blind man's holiday"?</p>
+
+<p>I think we had better not press the question too
+closely. However, "it's a long lane that has no
+ending," and even this dreary journey gradually
+drew to a close. They passed but few houses of
+any kind, one or two straggling hamlets were left
+behind, and for some two or three miles the road
+had been perfectly solitary, when they suddenly
+heard wheels advancing to meet them, and in a
+few minutes a car like their own drove towards
+them, and being hailed by their driver, drew up
+at their side. A jabbering ensued of directions
+asked and given, and they again drove on.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you sure you know the way?" said Helen
+timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes, miss," the driver answered confidently,
+and further informed them that the car they had
+met, had just returned from their own destination
+(being translated), the Black Nest Farm, having
+there deposited a traveller who had taken the
+middle course of leaving the railway at the intermediate
+stoppage between Llanfar and Llanfair.
+Other three-quarters of an hour and they pulled
+up at last before a house which the darkness prevented
+their seeing more of than that it was long
+and low. They stumbled up the rough garden
+path, and in answer to their knock, the door was
+opened by a tidy, clean-looking old woman, with
+a flickering candle in her hand, evidently surprised
+at their appearance. She had, she said, quite
+given up thoughts of their coming that night,
+and feared the fire in the sitting-room was out.
+Thankful to have reached the Black Nest at last,
+a chilly room seemed a smaller evil than the two
+girls would have considered it at home; and
+after all, things were not so bad, for the fire in
+the little farmhouse parlour, to which their landlady
+conducted them, was not quite out, and a
+little judicious coaxing soon brought it round.</p>
+
+<p>Their hostess's and their own first idea was of
+course <i>tea</i>. What a blessing, by the way, it is that
+British womankind in general, high and low, rich
+and poor, old and young, have this <i>one</i> taste in
+common! Refreshed by the homely meal speedily
+set before them, Helen and Edith proceeded,
+under the guidance of the old woman (apparently
+the only inhabitant of the house), and the flickering
+candle, to inspect their sleeping apartment. The
+result was not eminently satisfactory, for it struck
+them as gloomy, ill-ventilated, and a long way from
+their parlour, though but few rooms appeared to
+intervene between the two. This puzzled them
+at the time, but was afterwards explained by the
+fact that Black Nest Farm-house had originally
+consisted of two one-storeyed cottages standing at
+some yards distance from each other, and which,
+on becoming the property of one owner, had been
+united by a long passage; which arrangement was
+looked upon in the neighbourhood as a triumph
+of architectural ingenuity. On returning to their
+sitting-room Helen's eye fell on a door beside their
+own which she had not before noticed, and she
+inquired if that was a bedroom. To which the
+old woman replied in the affirmative, but added
+that they could not have it, as it and a small
+sitting-room opening out of it were engaged by a
+"strange gentleman". And besides this, she added,
+the bedroom was not so desirable for ladies, having
+a second, or rather third door to the outside of
+the house. The only other room they could have
+was so small that she did not think they would
+like it, but they should see for themselves, and so
+saying she turned towards a recess in the passage.
+Helen followed her, but the flickering candle
+suddenly throwing light in a new direction, she
+gave a little exclamation of alarm at what appeared
+at the first moment to be a very ugly grinning
+portrait high up on the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"It's only the clock, miss," said the old woman.
+"Though, to be sure, it is quare," and as she
+spoke she threw the light more fully upon the
+object that had startled Helen, which she now
+perceived to be a very antique clock, standing high
+in a dark wooden case, and with the face she
+had seen, peeping at you as it were from behind
+the dial-plate. An ugly, coarsely painted face,
+with a disagreeably mocking expression it seemed
+to Helen; nor was it the only repulsive feature
+in this very remarkable clock, for the artist
+appeared to have outdone himself in the grotesquely
+hideous devices at the bottom of the
+dial. Death's heads, cross-bones, and other
+equally unpleasant objects of various kinds,
+curiously intermingled with a condensed solar
+system, in which sun, moon and stars appeared
+jumbled together haphazard. The general object
+of the whole evidently being to bring before the
+spectator the ghastly side of his future, and to
+read him a wholesome, but certainly not attractive,
+homily on the shortness of life, and the speed with
+which time was ticking away. Helen felt half
+fascinated by its hideousness.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, what a very curious clock!" she
+ejaculated, and the old woman repeated, with a
+little inward chuckle at what she evidently considered
+the admiration drawn forth by her heirloom:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sure it <i>is</i> quare."</p>
+
+<p>An uncanny object it certainly was, and Helen
+felt relieved that the room in its immediate
+vicinity was so small as to be out of the question
+for the accommodation of her sister and herself.
+Re-entering the sitting-room she found poor
+Edith looking so utterly worn-out that she proposed
+that they should at once go to bed; which
+they accordingly did, followed by the old woman
+with offers of assistance. Passing the door of
+"the strange gentleman's" room, they heard
+sounds of some one moving inside, and Edith
+sleepily remarked that she wondered what could
+have brought a gentleman to an outlandish place
+like the Black Nest, unless, like themselves, he
+came to take views in the neighbourhood. Helen
+pricked up her ears at this and inquired of Mrs.
+Jones if their fellow-lodger was an artist. Mrs.
+Jones thought not, but seemed unwilling to pursue
+the topic of the strange gentleman further. In
+rather a forced manner she changed the subject by
+inquiring if the young ladies would like to hire
+her pony while there, as it was rough walking, and
+her grandson Griffith, the only other inhabitant of
+the cottage, a little lad of twelve, could lead it
+for them, and show them the way whenever they
+chose. Helen gladly closed with the offer.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me, Mrs. Jones," she exclaimed "how
+very lonely you must be living here with no one
+but a little boy. Have you no near neighbours?"</p>
+
+<p>"None nearer than three miles ma'am, for the
+farm-men live at a distance, save old Thomas in
+the last cottage you passed, but he is bed-ridden.
+My widow daughter, Griffith's mother, was with
+me till she took ill, two winters ago, and died
+before the doctor could get to her. Yes, it is
+lonesome like in winter to be sure. It's not
+often that gentry like you, miss, care to be in
+these parts so late in the year."</p>
+
+<p>Further inquiries elicited that the nearest church
+was a good five miles off, that there was no doctor
+nearer than Llanfar, that the butcher only came in
+the winter once a fortnight and that irregularly;
+in consequence of which the Black Nesters had
+often to depend upon their own scanty resources, the
+roads being almost impassable in stormy weather.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you think it feels rather dreary, Helen?"
+said Edith, as she was falling asleep.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Eerie</i>, rather, I should say," replied her sister,
+"but that, you know, is the beauty of it. In the
+morning, I daresay, it will look bright enough,
+but I confess I do not like that clock. Listen,
+can't you hear its ticking, faintly, even here, at the
+end of that long passage?"</p>
+
+<p>"What clock do you mean? I saw no clock,"
+said Edith, but almost before Helen could answer,
+her soft regular breathing told that she was asleep.
+Helen however, could not so quickly compose herself.
+She felt excited and vaguely uneasy; and when
+she at last fell asleep, it was only to have her discomfort
+increased, by absurd, yet alarming dreams.
+With them all the ugly clock was grotesquely
+intermingled. Sometimes it was herself, sometimes
+Edith, and once Malcolm, whom she fancied
+in some position of terrible peril, always associated
+with the clock, and at last she awoke with a half-smothered
+scream of horror at the most frightful
+dream of all; in which the "strange gentleman,"
+their fellow-lodger, was pursuing her with a veil
+over his face, which just as he caught her fell off,
+and disclosed, horrible to relate, the face on the
+clock.</p>
+
+<p>Edith started up as Helen convulsively clutched
+her, and exclaiming, "What in the world is
+the matter?" really thought Helen was going
+out of her mind when she replied, "That horrible
+clock;" and as she spoke, as if invoked, the clock
+began to strike: "One, two, three, four," and so
+on. "Is it never going to stop?" said Helen.
+Poor Edith, half asleep still, listened with her.</p>
+
+<p>"Edith, I am almost certain that clock struck
+<i>thirteen</i>," said Helen in an awe-struck voice; and
+then they heard a door shut at the end of the
+passage.</p>
+
+<p>"Helen, you have been dreaming, and you are
+only half awake now," said Edith. "It is not
+like you to waken me in this frightening way,
+please let me go to sleep."</p>
+
+<p>"I am very sorry," said Helen penitently, and
+she too closed her eyes and tried hard to go to
+sleep, which of course she did, as soon as she left
+off trying, and had made up her mind to lie awake
+till daylight.</p>
+
+<p>The morning broke clear and fresh; and, as
+Helen had said, things in general bore a very
+different aspect to that of the night before. Indoors,
+the quaint old house now looked simply
+picturesque, and Mrs. Jones the <i>beau id&eacute;al</i> of a
+cheery old hostess. Even the face of the clock,
+when Helen pointed it out to Edith, seemed to
+have lost its mocking grin, and to be merely
+bidding them good-morning, with a comical smile
+at the consternation it had awakened the night
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Out-of-doors they soon turned their steps.
+There was no view from the house, but a short
+voyage of discovery quickly explained to them
+their locality. Black Nest Farm stood at the foot
+of a hill close on to the high road, or what passed
+for such in that hitherto little frequented neighbourhood.
+On the opposite side of the road but
+little was to be seen, as the meadows were soon lost
+in a thick belt of wood; but immediately behind
+the house was a tempting prospect, for there a
+little winding path led up the hill to one of the
+spots Helen and Edith most ardently desired to
+paint, and of which their friends had given them
+a glowing description. It was rather a long walk
+to the Black Lake, Mrs. Jones informed them, but
+their enthusiasm knew no bounds, and hardly permitted
+them to do justice to their breakfast of
+ham and eggs, home-made bread and home-churned
+butter. See them then starting on their
+expedition,&mdash;their painting materials, and some
+creature comforts in the shape of sandwiches and
+hard-boiled eggs, safely packed on the pony's back,
+Griffith leading him and acting as guide. A pretty
+stiff pull it was, enthusiasm notwithstanding, and
+rather hard work for the little feet, sensibly shod
+in good strong boots it is true, but unaccustomed
+nevertheless to mountain scrambling. But at last
+their circuitous path brought them to the summit,
+and there a curious prospect broke upon them.
+They stood at the edge of the great Welsh tableland.
+There it stretched away before them, miles and
+miles beyond their view; a vast expanse of wild,
+brown moor, unrelieved by tree or shrub, but here
+and there dotted by great patches of what Edith
+at first sight took to be "lovely emerald moss".
+Treacherous loveliness, for it told, as they learnt
+from Griffith, of fearful bog-pits, down whose
+slimy sides once slipped no man or beast could
+ever regain firm ground.</p>
+
+<p>"What a horrible death that would be," said
+Helen, shuddering, "far worse than regular
+drowning in clean water. It would be slow
+suffocation in nasty, dirty mud."</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes' careful walking brought them
+in sight of the Black Lake, the special object of
+their excursion. And it certainly was well worth
+coming to see, if not to paint; probably too,
+better seen in the greyness of a late autumn day
+than in the summer sun, whose bright rays
+reflected on its surface would have little harmonised
+with its character of gloom and loneliness.
+The lake was equal to several acres in
+extent, but from where they stood could not all
+be seen, as its farther end was hidden by the
+undulations of the land. In colour it was a dull,
+leaden grey, and looking at it, one's mind spontaneously
+reverted to travellers' descriptions of
+the Dead Sea, for <i>dead</i> was essentially the word
+by which to describe it. There were no fish to
+be caught in it Griffith told them, and as for
+its depth he had never heard tell of any one's
+sounding it. The effect of the whole scene was
+very peculiar, and so Helen and Edith felt it to
+be, as they stood gazing at the leaden water and
+the great, apparently boundless moorland. It
+was difficult to realise that they were so far above
+the ordinary haunts of men, for there was nothing
+in that great plain to remind them of the existence
+even of hills and mountains, except a steady-blowing
+breeze of that peculiar freshness pertaining
+only to sea or mountain air. Pleasantly invigorating
+at first, but soon becoming too chilly to
+make one care to stand about, or, worse still,
+to <i>sit</i>, as our young ladies now prepared to
+do.</p>
+
+<p>"We are very lucky in the weather," remarked
+Helen, as they prepared for their sketching. "I
+should fancy it is just the day to see the lake
+to the best advantage."</p>
+
+<p>"Or disadvantage," said Edith, "for I do think
+it is the most horrible place I ever saw. I don't
+know," added she dreamily, "but what it would
+seem even more desolate on a bright, sunny day.
+I don't know why."</p>
+
+<p>"I understand how you mean," replied her
+sister, "the contrast would be so strange. Like
+a skeleton dressed in a golden robe. Dear me,
+I am becoming quite poetical. But look, Edith,
+how do you like this?" And a consultation on
+their work ensued.</p>
+
+<p>Very cold work it became, as it grew to afternoon,
+notwithstanding the pleasurable excitement
+of their occupation, and Edith, for one, was not
+sorry when Helen at last thought it time to pack
+up their painting materials and turn homewards.
+A drizzling rain began to fall as they neared the
+foot of the hill, and they both felt thankful to
+reach the farm-house,&mdash;tired, muddy and damp,
+and in not <i>quite</i> such high spirits as when they set
+off on their expedition. A savoury odour meeting
+them on their entrance, Helen suddenly bethought
+herself that she had utterly forgotten to order
+anything for their "high tea," or whatever one
+likes to call the said incongruous meal. It was
+therefore an agreeable surprise to her after
+remembering her neglect to see on entering their
+little sitting-room the brightest of fires, and the
+table daintily set out with evident preparation for
+a tempting repast; part of which, in the shape of
+a delicious-looking ham, "a new-made pat of
+butter and a wheaten loaf so fine," had already
+made its appearance. Damp clothes and muddy
+boots discarded, they sat down with an excellent
+appetite to their meal, and the savoury odour
+which had greeted them was soon explained by
+the appearance of Mrs. Jones bearing a chicken
+stewed in mushrooms.</p>
+
+<p>"Mushrooms!" exclaimed Helen, "the thing
+of all others I like. How clever you are, Mrs.
+Jones, to get us all these good things! I shall
+leave our food to your providing, I think, in
+future."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Jones laughed and said a friend had sent
+some things from Llanfar, and a friend also had
+gathered the mushrooms, the last of their season,
+thinking the young ladies might like them.</p>
+
+<p>"Your friends are as good as yourself then,
+Mrs. Jones," said Helen; but as she spoke she
+was startled by what sounded like a half-smothered
+laugh or exclamation of some kind just outside
+the door. Almost at the same moment her friend
+the clock began to strike, and she therefore fancied
+the sound she had heard must have come from it.
+"Its internal arrangements are, I daresay, as peculiar
+as its outside," thought she to herself, and refrained
+therefore from mentioning to Edith what she
+thought she had heard. All the rest of the
+evening, however, though she would hardly have
+owned it to herself, she felt a little nervous and
+uneasy, particularly when she heard the clock
+strike.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder what our fellow-lodger does with
+himself all day," said Edith that evening.</p>
+
+<p>"I am sure I don't know, or care either," said
+Helen, "indeed, I hardly believe there is such a
+being at all."</p>
+
+<p>They went early to bed, and fell quickly asleep.
+After having slept, it seemed to her for several
+hours, Helen woke suddenly with the feeling that
+something had wakened her, and found that the
+clock was busy striking, and to her confused fancy
+had been striking for ever so long before she
+woke. Its strokes ceased before she was sufficiently
+awake to count them, but a moment or
+two afterwards she heard a door shut as it had
+done the night before.</p>
+
+<p>"It is very annoying that I can't get a good
+night's rest here," thought she. A whispered
+"Helen," told her that Edith too was awake.</p>
+
+<p>"The clock <i>did</i> strike thirteen," said Edith,
+"and there <i>must</i> be somebody in that room, for
+I heard the door shut again."</p>
+
+<p>"And so did I," said Helen, whereupon they
+lay still in awe-struck silence, till they both fell
+fast asleep again.</p>
+
+<p>The next day was Saturday, and though somewhat
+stiff and tired with their exertions, Friday's
+programme was repeated. The sketches proceeded
+satisfactorily, but our heroines were less fortunate
+in other respects, for just as they were about to
+leave the Black Lake in the afternoon, the rain
+came on in torrents. Long before they got back
+to the farm-house the poor girls were thoroughly
+drenched. Edith escaped with no ill results, but
+Helen sat shivering over the fire all the evening,
+passed an uneasy night in which it seemed to her
+that the clock never left off striking at all, and
+woke on Sunday morning with every symptom of a
+delightfully bad cold. The prospect outside was
+not cheering. Rain, rain, rain. Down it came
+in torrents. No chance of making their way to
+the five miles' off church, no chance even of a
+quiet stroll along the lanes; and, worst of all, no
+books to read, for such a possibility as a whole
+day in the house had never presented itself to their
+inexperienced imaginations! It was very dull.
+Helen was almost cross with Edith for being so
+exceedingly sympathetic. It was kind of course,
+but provoking nevertheless, as to Helen's sensitiveness
+it seemed to convey a tacit reproach. She
+would not allow to herself that they were at all to
+be pitied. All the same she was not sorry when
+the time came at last for them to go to bed.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish we had brought some sherry with us,"
+said Edith. "A little white wine whey would
+have been the very thing for your cold."</p>
+
+<p>"What's the good of wishing," replied her
+sister rather snappishly, "you had better call
+Mrs. Jones and ask her to make me some gruel."
+But on Mrs. Jones's appearance, and when the
+request had been made, both the girls felt rather
+surprised at her volunteering the very thing they
+had been wishing for.</p>
+
+<p>She had, she said, "some very nice sherry wine,
+given her by a friend," and many years ago, when
+she was in service in Chester, she had learnt to
+make white wine whey. Sure enough a tempting-looking
+basinful shortly after made its appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks to its soporific influence Helen soon
+fell asleep, but woke (as she had got strangely into
+the habit of doing) just at midnight, or as Edith
+had taken to calling it, "thirteen o'clock". The
+clock was half-way through its striking when she
+woke, and a sudden impulse seized her to jump up,
+and, opening the door slightly, to peep out and
+either see who it was that always shut a door after
+the clock struck, or, by seeing nothing, satisfy herself
+that the sound had all along been merely the
+creation of her own and Edith's imagination.</p>
+
+<p>She opened the door very cautiously, and
+instantly perceived that there was a light at the
+end of the passage in the recess where stood the
+clock. Helen's heart beat more loudly, and she
+wished devoutly that she had allowed her curiosity
+to remain unsatisfied, when to her horror the light
+moved out of the recess, and she saw that it was
+held by a tall dark figure with its back turned
+towards her. The passage was so long and the
+light flickered so much that it was impossible for
+her to distinguish anything but the general outline
+of the person who held it. Not Mrs. Jones or
+Griffith, assuredly, but poor Helen was too
+frightened to do more than lock the door with
+her trembling fingers and leap back into bed,
+thereby awakening Edith, who on hearing Helen's
+story calmly assured her that she had either been
+dreaming, or had seen the strange gentleman their
+fellow-lodger whose existence Helen had rashly
+dared to question. Oddly enough she had forgotten
+all about him, and felt somewhat relieved
+by Edith's matter-of-fact solution.</p>
+
+<p>"Only what should he be doing at the clock at
+this time of night? I hope he is not out of his
+mind;"&mdash;to which Edith replied:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I do believe he gets up to make it strike
+thirteen on purpose to tease us."</p>
+
+<p>Monday morning wore a more promising aspect
+than Sunday, for such clouds as there were,
+bespoke nothing worse than showers, and our young
+ladies succeeded in obtaining an hour or two's
+sketching at the lake. Helen, however, felt still
+considerably the worse of her terrible wetting, and
+was actually the first to propose that they should
+return to the farm-house. Somewhat weakened
+by her cold, and tired too, she mounted the little
+pony at Edith's suggestion, and they were proceeding
+cheerily enough on their way&mdash;Griffith,
+loaded with their painting materials, some little
+distance behind&mdash;when a stumble on the pony's
+part brought him suddenly to the ground. Helen
+had been paying little attention to her steed, and,
+unprepared for the shock, fell on her side with
+some little force. A most undignified procedure
+had there been any one to witness it, but which
+would have drawn forth nothing but a laugh had
+it not been that in the fall her foot caught in the
+stirrup. Her sharp cry of pain terrified Edith,
+who, however, soon succeeded in disentangling
+her, as the poor little pony remained perfectly
+quiet, but a moment's examination, and a vain
+attempt to stand, showed them that the ankle was
+badly sprained. All that could be done was to
+mount Helen again as well as Edith and Griffith
+could manage, and to make the best of their way
+home. Arrived there, hot applications soon reduced
+the pain, but it was easy to be seen, even
+by their inexperienced eyes, that Helen must not
+attempt to move for several days to come.</p>
+
+<p>Here was a charming ending to their expedition!
+Helen, even, felt woefully disconcerted,
+and poor Edith fairly began to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"If it were not that you would not like it, I
+would write to Mrs. Lindsay to come and nurse
+you," said Edith, "she is so good and kind, and I
+know she would come in a minute, for she has
+nothing to prevent her."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Lindsay! Edith," exclaimed Helen indignantly,
+"the very last person I would apply to,
+however good and kind she may be. Do you
+really think that. I would put myself under such an
+obligation to the sister of the man I have<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"
+"Quarrelled with for nothing at all," said the little
+voice at the bottom of her heart. Edith said
+nothing, but for the first time in her life took an
+independent resolution and acted upon it. Her
+love for Helen conquered her fear of displeasing
+her. What this resolution was we shall not disclose,
+nor shall we tell whose hand addressed a
+letter to Mrs. Lindsay carried that evening by the
+post-boy to Llanfar. The strangest coincidence
+was that <i>two</i> letters bearing the same direction
+left the Black Nest Farm that evening.</p>
+
+<p>Tired out with the pain of her ankle, Helen,
+for the first time since their arrival, slept past
+midnight and only woke to hear the clock strike
+five. All too soon for her comfort, for her
+thoughts were none of the brightest, as she lay
+waiting for the daylight. Her folly, her headstrong
+determination, right or wrong, to carry out
+her own way, began to show themselves to her
+more clearly; or rather, she began to allow herself
+to see them in their true light. And when at last
+the morning came, and she was established
+for the day on the hard little horse-hair sofa in
+their sitting-room, her spirits were not improved
+by the perusal of a letter from her Aunt Fanny.
+The good old lady, after deploring their absence
+and pathetically describing her anxiety on their
+behalf, made mention of a visit from Mrs. Lindsay,
+who had come to tell her how unhappy she was
+about her brother. "He left home," wrote Aunt
+Fanny, "two days after that unfortunate conversation
+with you without telling his sister what was
+the matter. At least she only gathered that something
+unpleasant had happened from his saying
+that you were leaving home, and that he did not
+expect to see you before you went. He left
+no direction beyond telling her to write to his
+club, which she has done two or three times, but
+got no answer. She says he looked so unlike
+himself that she fears he has fallen ill somewhere
+and cannot write to tell her. Oh, Helen, I do
+wish you had never thought of this expedition."</p>
+
+<p>"How very silly Mrs. Lindsay is to be so
+fanciful," said Helen, in which view of the case
+tender-hearted little Edith did not at all agree,
+though she hardly dared to say so. They spent a
+dull day, for Edith would not consent to leave her
+sister, and their paintings were at a standstill for
+want of another day's sketching from the original.</p>
+
+<p>"To-morrow, Edith," said Helen, "you might
+go to the lake for an hour or so without me and
+finish your sketch, and I might go on with mine
+from yours," to which Edith made no objection.</p>
+
+<p>By night Helen's feverish uneasiness had increased,
+and Edith secretly congratulated herself
+on her resolute step of the day before. And a
+wretched night followed. In reality Helen was
+very anxious and unhappy about Malcolm Willoughby,
+and her dreams were full of terrors that
+something had befallen him. Through all, the
+disagreeable clock again thrust forward its ugly
+face, and she woke in an indescribable state of
+horror, fancying that the clock was standing by her
+bedside, striking loudly in her ears to a kind of
+"refrain" of the words: "I told you so. I told
+you so." Of course the clock <i>was</i> striking, and
+had evidently awakened her by so doing.</p>
+
+<p>"Thirteen again," whispered Edith, "it is
+really very disagreeable."</p>
+
+<p>"It sounds to <i>me</i> like the voice of my conscience,"
+said Helen, "warning me that some
+terrible punishment is coming upon me for my
+wicked folly. Yes, Edith, I see it all now, and
+as soon as ever I can move we shall go home, and
+I shall ask poor Aunt Fanny to forgive me. I
+wish every other consequence of my wrong-doing
+could be done away with as easily as her displeasure."
+And all her pride broken down, poor
+Helen burst into tears, and Edith's affectionate
+words of soothing were of no avail to stop her
+sobs. She felt rather better in the morning
+however, partly, perhaps, because the day was
+bright and sunny. About mid-day she fell into
+a doze on her sofa, and waking after an hour's
+sleep was surprised to miss Edith. A note in
+pencil pinned to the table-cover caught her attention.
+It bore these words: "You are so nicely
+asleep I don't like to waken you. I shall come
+back as early as I can, but don't be alarmed if I
+am a little later than you expect."</p>
+
+<p>"She has gone to finish the sketch," thought
+Helen uneasily. "I wish I had not asked her to
+do so, it looks dull and overcast."</p>
+
+<p>She rang the hand-bell for Mrs. Jones, who
+appeared with a basin of soup, and told her that
+the young lady had set off a quarter of an hour
+before.</p>
+
+<p>"It can't be helped now," said Helen, "but I
+wish I had not proposed it."</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon seemed long and dull, and yet
+Helen felt sorry when it began to close in, for
+no Edith had yet appeared. Still it was not later
+than they had been out together more than once.
+Helen tried to think it was not yet dusk outside,
+but felt this comfort fail her when it gradually
+grew so indisputably dark that Mrs. Jones brought
+in candles without her asking for them.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not uneasy about my sister and
+Griffith, Mrs. Jones?" said Helen; but her
+anxiety was tenfold increased when Mrs. Jones
+replied calmly:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Griffith is not with the young lady to-day. I
+had to send him a message to Llanfair, and as like
+as not he will stay at his uncle's till the morning.
+The young lady said it did not matter, and I
+saddled the pony for her myself."</p>
+
+<p>"Griffith not with her!" exclaimed Helen.
+"Oh, Mrs. Jones, what will become of her?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't be alarmed, miss," said the old woman,
+"the pony is very steady, and the darkness comes
+on so sudden-like, it seems later than it is."</p>
+
+<p>And with this scanty consolation Helen was
+obliged to remain satisfied. Mrs. Jones stirred
+up the fire and set the tea all ready, but Helen
+grew sick at heart as the time went on, and still
+no Edith. Six, struck the clock, and ticked on
+again to seven. Helen could bear it no longer.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Jones," cried she, "can you not get any
+one to go to look for my sister? She may be on
+her way down the hill, and have got into some
+difficulty with the pony."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, miss, I don't know what I can do.
+There's no one nearer than old Thomas and he
+can't move."</p>
+
+<p>"The strange gentleman!" said Helen suddenly;
+"your other lodger. Would he not help
+me?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has been out since early this morning,"
+replied Mrs. Jones, "and he told me he was not
+sure of being back to-night. He has gone to
+meet a friend."</p>
+
+<p>Helen felt more in despair than before. It
+seemed an aggravation of her anxiety to have to
+lie still on the sofa doing nothing. Indeed had
+she been able to do so, nothing would have prevented
+her making her way to the Black Lake,
+and too probably losing her own life in the endeavour
+to save her sister's. As it was, she
+managed at last to drag herself to the door in
+hopes of hearing footsteps up the path, but nothing
+broke the silence save the tick, tick of the clock.
+It wore on to nine, despite her wretchedness and
+indescribable anxiety. She pictured to herself her
+sister, her dear little Edith, left so specially in her
+charge, cowering on the moor, alone in that dreary
+darkness, sobbing in despair of ever finding her
+way out of that frightful desert. Or, worse still,
+lying cold and dead in one of those fearful pits
+under the mockingly beautiful moss; whence, in
+all probability, her poor body even would never
+be recovered. It was too frightful. Helen almost
+shrieked aloud: "Oh, my darling, my little sister,
+come back, do come back. Oh, Malcolm, if only
+you were here. How terribly I am punished for
+my self-will!" And terribly punished she was,
+for the memory of that night's suffering was too
+painful to recall in after years without a shudder.
+Mrs. Jones was in helpless distress, though in
+hopes of every moment hearing the pony and the
+young lady at the gate, and she returned to her
+own domains saying she had better have hot water
+ready as Miss Edith would be fainting for her
+tea. Helen remained alone at the window of the
+sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p>The night was fine but very dark. Darker
+than she had ever seen a night before, it seemed to
+Helen. She was almost in a stupor of despair.
+She sank down half-unconsciously before the fire
+and never knew how long she had lain there when
+she was roused by the clock striking. "One, two,
+three, four,"&mdash;she counted aloud as if bewitched,
+till when it got to the fatal <i>thirteen</i>, her
+over-strained nerves gave way, and with a scream she
+ran or stumbled, she knew not how, along the
+passage to seek for Mrs. Jones. As she passed
+the front-door she was arrested by the sharp sounds
+of steps coming quickly up the garden path. The
+door was pushed open. The only light was what
+came through the open door of the room she had
+just left, and she could distinguish nothing but a
+tall dark figure hurrying towards her. She
+screamed with terror but stood, unable to move,
+when to her intense relief a voice from behind the
+person she saw, exclaimed eagerly: "Helen, dearest
+Helen, don't be frightened. I am quite safe,"
+and some one rushed past the tall person, now
+close to her, and kissing her passionately, Helen
+felt, rather than saw, that it was Edith.</p>
+
+<p>"Malcolm! Malcolm! she is fainting!" called
+Edith, and the tall person pressed forward, caught
+her up in his arms like a baby, and, unconscious
+now of everything, Helen was carried back into
+the sitting-room, laid on the hard little sofa, and
+there held tenderly by the strong yet gentle arms
+whose protecting care she, poor foolish child, had
+fancied she could so well dispense with.</p>
+
+<p>It was the first time in her life that Helen
+Beaumont had ever fainted, and it was not long
+before she began to recover.</p>
+
+<p>"Malcolm! oh, Malcolm!" were her first words
+on returning consciousness (and it seemed to her
+afterwards as if some one else had spoken them
+for her, her good angel perhaps!), "can you
+ever forgive me?"</p>
+
+<p>"My darling," was the whispered answer, "you
+know you need not ask it." And then Helen felt
+as if she were just going to die, but was too happy
+to care, and too languid to ask even how all this
+had come about. But now a third person came
+forward saying:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Malcolm, let me stay beside her," and, wonderful
+to tell, the sweet voice and kind face were Mrs.
+Lindsay's. Helen thought she must be dreaming,
+but lay still as she was told, and then drank something
+or other Mrs. Lindsay brought her; so
+before long she was able to sit up and begin to
+wonder what was the meaning of it all.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you not amazed, Helen?" said Edith;
+"but first of all you must forgive me for frightening
+you so, for indeed I have been nearly as
+wretched as you, thinking of what you must
+have been feeling." And before Helen could
+reply the eager girl ran on with her explanations.
+"Who do you think has been our fellow-lodger
+all this time, Helen? Who do you think is the
+'strange gentleman'? Only fancy Malcolm's
+having been here ever since we came! It was
+he that travelled by the same train, and seeing as it
+moved off at Llanfar that we had got out, he did
+so at the next station, and arrived here before us.
+He had inquired about Mrs. Jones, and heard
+what a good creature she was; and he had time
+to have a talk with her, and to take her to some
+extent into his confidence."</p>
+
+<p>Helen looked at first, as this recital went on, as
+if she were wavering between a return to her old
+dislike to being interfered with, and gratitude to
+Malcolm for his undeserved devotion. The good
+angel triumphed, as Malcolm, who was watching
+her anxiously, quickly perceived.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not interfere with you, Helen," he said
+in a low voice, "but it was the greatest comfort
+to me to be able to protect and care for you, even
+though you did not know it."</p>
+
+<p>The tears started to Helen's eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Malcolm, I know how good you are,
+but<span class="nowrap">&mdash;&mdash;</span>"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind any 'buts,'" said Mrs. Lindsay
+brightly, catching the last word. "'All's well,
+that ends well.'"</p>
+
+<p>"I know now who foraged for us so successfully,"
+said Edith. "Who was the mysterious
+friend that gave Mrs. Jones the mushrooms!"</p>
+
+<p>"And nearly betrayed myself by laughing at
+the door, when passing I heard Helen's enthusiastic
+thanks to Mrs. Jones," said Malcolm.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, and frightened me horribly by so doing,"
+added Helen, "as I really began to think that
+clock was bewitched, and had a special ill-will
+against me. In fact it took the place of my conscience
+for the time being."</p>
+
+<p>"I have the very greatest regard for the clock,"
+said Malcolm demurely, "and I intend to make
+Mrs. Jones an offer for it forthwith."</p>
+
+<p>"Please don't," said Helen piteously. "I daresay
+it is very silly, but I really don't quite like
+that clock, though, after all, its warning of ill-luck
+has brought the very reverse to me. But I have
+not heard yet what kept Edith out so late, or how
+in the world you and Mrs. Lindsay met her at the
+Black Lake."</p>
+
+<p>"The Black Lake?" said Mrs. Lindsay, "what
+do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon Edith hastened on with that part
+of her story relating to her own adventures.
+She, it appeared, feeling confident in Mrs.
+Lindsay's ready kindness, and never doubting
+but what she would at once respond to her
+appeal by coming to nurse Helen, instead of
+going to the Black Lake to sketch, as Helen
+imagined, set off on the pony to meet her friend
+at the station, having proposed to her to come by
+a certain train. Overtaking Griffith on the road
+to Llanfair, as she expected from Mrs. Jones's
+account, he accompanied her to the village, where
+she gave over the pony to his care. As she
+entered the station she saw a return train about
+to start for the Junction about half an hour's
+journey from where she was. Finding by her
+watch that she was in ample time, it struck her
+that she might as well go so far to meet her
+friend, but on arriving at the Junction she was
+startled to find that with the new month a change
+had taken place in the trains, and that consequently
+Mrs. Lindsay could not arrive till late in
+the evening. Worse still she herself could not now
+get back to Helen till she was frightened to think
+what hour, the evening train in question not going
+farther than Llanfar, the station near the Junction
+at which she and her sister had by mistake got out
+on their arrival, and which was fifteen miles from the
+Black Nest. It is needless to describe her distress
+of mind all the long hours she had to sit in the
+little waiting-room at the Junction; or her corresponding
+delight when, on the train coming up, she
+descried looking out of a window the familiar
+face of Malcolm Willoughby, and found that he
+was accompanied by his sister whom he had gone
+to meet half-way on her journey.</p>
+
+<p>Helen woke at noon the next day feeling
+indescribably happy, she could not tell why till
+the sight of Mrs. Lindsay's sweet face recalled to
+her mind all her misery of the night before and
+the relief and happiness with which it had ended.</p>
+
+<p>"How little I deserve it!" thought she humbly
+and gratefully, "and how can I ever repay Malcolm
+for his goodness?"</p>
+
+<p>Their dull little parlour looked very different
+now that it was enlivened by the presence of the
+two newcomers; and Helen could scarcely believe
+it to be the same room in which, but yesterday, she
+had passed hours of such agonising suspense. So
+thoroughly penitent and softened did she feel that
+she offered no opposition to anything proposed,
+and it was therefore arranged that as soon as
+Helen was well enough to travel they should all
+return home together to relieve poor Aunt Fanny's
+anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder," said Helen, with a little sigh, a
+few days afterwards, when they were packing up
+their painting materials, "I wonder if I shall ever
+finish my sketch of the Black Lake."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't like to make rash promises," said
+Malcolm, "but if somebody I know is <i>very</i> good
+perhaps next summer she may see the Black Lake
+again, provided she will neither catch cold nor
+tumble off her pony."</p>
+
+<p>Edith laughed and Helen blushed.</p>
+
+<p>"But there's one thing still," said Edith,
+"which I don't understand. Why, Malcolm, did
+you always shut your door as the clock struck
+thirteen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very simply explained," replied he. "The
+first night I was here I was sitting up reading
+till midnight and thought I heard it strike
+thirteen. I thought it very odd, and for a night
+or two I listened till it began to strike and then
+opened my door to make sure I was not mistaken.
+And one night I went out with my candle to
+examine the clock, trying to make out the cause
+of it, and to see if I could put it right. No man,
+they say, can resist meddling with a clock even
+though he is no mechanical genius."</p>
+
+<p>"All the same," said Edith triumphantly,
+"notwithstanding your examinations, you and no
+one else can tell the reason why that clock does
+strike thirteen."</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>THE END.</h4>
+<h5>ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS</h5>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="minimal" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #E6F6FA; margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="6" summary="NOTES">
+<tr>
+<td colspan="2">
+		<div class="center">TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE</div>
+
+<p class="noindent" style="background-color: #E6F6FA">
+Hyphenation is inconsistent; in a small number of instances, missing
+punctuation has been added.<br />
+<br />
+Several obvious misspellings have been corrected. The following
+additional change was made to punctuation in keeping with the logic
+of the plot (original is on the left):</p></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+ <td class="w50" align="left" valign="top">The more I thought it over the more striking grew the
+    <i>coincidences at Finster. It</i> had been on one of the closed doors
+    that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall.</td>
+<td align="left" valign="top">The more I thought it over the more striking grew the
+    <i>coincidences. At Finster it</i> had been on one of the closed doors
+    that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall.</td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncanny Tales, by Mary Louisa Molesworth
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncanny Tales, by Mary Louisa Molesworth
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Uncanny Tales
+
+Author: Mary Louisa Molesworth
+
+Illustrator: Fred Hyland
+
+Release Date: April 25, 2011 [EBook #35641]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNCANNY TALES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Canada Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  Uncanny Tales
+
+  BY MRS MOLESWORTH
+
+  LONDON: HUTCHINSON & CO
+  Paternoster Row
+
+  FRED HYLAND
+
+
+
+
+  TO
+  AN OTHERWISE UNACKNOWLEDGED "COLLABORATEUR"
+  IN THESE STORIES,
+  J. C. P.
+
+  19 SUMNER PLACE, S.W.,
+
+  _October, 1896._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                     PAGE
+
+  THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT           1
+
+  "THE MAN WITH THE COUGH"             82
+
+  "HALF-WAY BETWEEN THE STILES"       112
+
+  AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD              141
+
+  "---- WILL NOT TAKE PLACE"          153
+
+  THE CLOCK THAT STRUCK THIRTEEN      183
+
+
+
+
+UNCANNY TALES.
+
+
+
+
+THE SHADOW IN THE MOONLIGHT.
+
+PART I.
+
+
+We never thought of Finster St. Mabyn's being haunted. We really never
+did.
+
+This may seem strange, but it is absolutely true. It was such an
+extremely interesting and curious place in many ways that it required
+nothing extraneous to add to its attractions. Perhaps this was the
+reason.
+
+Now-a-days, immediately that you hear of a house being "very old," the
+next remark is sure to be "I hope it is"--or "is not"--that depends on
+the taste of the speaker--"haunted".
+
+But Finster was more than very old; it was _ancient_ and, in a modest
+way, historical. I will not take up time by relating its history,
+however, or by referring my readers to the chronicles in which mention
+of it may be found. Nor shall I yield to the temptation of describing
+the room in which a certain royalty spent one night, if not two or three
+nights, four centuries ago, or the tower, now in ruins, where an even
+more renowned personage was imprisoned for several months. All these
+facts--or legends--have nothing to do with what I have to tell. Nor,
+strictly speaking, has Finster itself, except as a sort of prologue to
+my narrative.
+
+We heard of the house through friends living in the same county, though
+some distance farther inland. They--Mr. and Miss Miles, it is convenient
+to give their name at once--knew that we had been ordered to leave our
+own home for some months, to get over the effects of a very trying
+visitation of influenza, and that sea-air was specially desirable.
+
+We grumbled at this. Seaside places are often so dull and commonplace.
+But when we heard of Finster we grumbled no longer.
+
+"Dull" in a sense it might be, but assuredly not "commonplace". Janet
+Miles's description of it, though she was not particularly clever at
+description, read like a fairy tale, or one of Longfellow's poems.
+
+"A castle by the sea--how perfect!" we all exclaimed. "Do, oh, do fix
+for it, mother!"
+
+The objections were quickly over-ruled. It was rather isolated, said
+Miss Miles, standing, as was not difficult to trace in its name, on a
+point of land--a corner rather--with sea on two sides. It had not been
+lived in, save spasmodically, for some years, for the late owner was one
+of those happy, or unhappy people, who have more houses than they can
+use, and the present one was a minor. Eventually it was to be overhauled
+and some additions and alterations made, but the trustees would be glad
+to let it at a moderate rent for some months, and had intended putting
+it into some agents' hands when Mr. Miles happened to meet one of them,
+who mentioned it to him. There was nothing against it; it was absolutely
+healthy. But the furniture was old and shabby, and there was none too
+much of it. If we wanted to have visitors we should certainly require to
+add to it. This, however, could easily be done, our informant went on to
+say. There was a very good upholsterer and furniture dealer at Raxtrew,
+the nearest town, who was in the habit of hiring out things to the
+officers at the fort. "Indeed," she added, "we often pick up charming
+old pieces of furniture from him for next to nothing, so you could both
+hire and buy."
+
+Of course, we should have visitors--and our own house would not be the
+worse for some additional chairs and tables here and there, in place of
+some excellent monstrosities Phil and Nugent and I had persuaded mother
+to get rid of.
+
+"If I go down to spy the land with father," I said, "I shall certainly
+go to the furniture dealer's and have a good look about me."
+
+I did go with father. I was nineteen--it is four years ago--and a
+capable sort of girl. Then I was the only one who had not been ill,
+and mother had been the worst of all, mother and Dormy--poor little
+chap--for _he_ nearly died.
+
+He is the youngest of us--we are four boys and two girls. Sophy was then
+fifteen. My own name is Leila.
+
+If I attempted to give any idea of the impression Finster St. Mabyn's
+made upon us, I should go on for hours. It simply took our breath away.
+It really felt like going back a few centuries merely to enter within
+the walls and gaze round you. And yet we did not see it to any advantage,
+so at least said the two Miles's who were our guides. It was a gloomy
+day, with the feeling of rain not far off, early in April. It might have
+been November, though it was not cold.
+
+"You can scarcely imagine what it is on a bright day," said Janet,
+eager, as people always are in such circumstances, to show off her
+_trouvaille_. "The lights and shadows are so exquisite."
+
+"I love it as it is," I said. "I don't think I shall ever regret having
+seen it first on a grey day. It is just perfect."
+
+She was pleased at my admiration, and did her utmost to facilitate
+matters. Father was taken with the place, too, I could see, but he
+hummed and hawed a good deal about the bareness of the rooms--the
+bedrooms especially. So Janet and I went into it at once in a
+business-like way, making lists of the actually necessary additions,
+which did not prove very formidable after all.
+
+"Hunter will manage all that _easily_," said Miss Miles, upon which
+father gave in--I believe he had meant to do so all the time. The rent
+was really so low that a little furniture-hire could be afforded, I
+suggested. And father agreed.
+
+"It is extremely low," he said, "for a place possessing so many
+advantages."
+
+But even then it did not occur to any of us to suggest "suspiciously
+low".
+
+We had the Miles's guarantee for it all, to begin with. Had there been
+any objection they must have known it.
+
+We spent the night with them and the next morning at the furniture
+dealer's. He was a quick, obliging little man, and took in the situation
+at a glance. And _his_ terms were so moderate that father said to me
+amiably: "There are some quaint odds and ends here, Leila. You might
+choose a few things, to use at Finster in the first place, and then to
+take home with us."
+
+I was only too ready to profit by the permission, and with Janet's
+help a few charmingly quaint chairs and tables, a three-cornered wall
+cabinet, and some other trifles were soon put aside for us. We were just
+leaving, when at one end of the shop some tempting-looking draperies
+caught my eye.
+
+"What are these?" I asked the upholsterer. "Curtains! Why, this is real
+old tapestry!"
+
+The obliging Hunter drew out the material in question.
+
+"They are not exactly curtains, miss," he said. "I thought they would
+make nice _portieres_. You see the tapestry is set into cloth. It was so
+frail when I got it that it was the only thing to do with it."
+
+He had managed it very ingeniously. Two panels, so to say, of old
+tapestry, very charming in tone, had been lined and framed with dull
+green cloth, making a very good pair of _portieres_ indeed.
+
+"Oh, papa!" I cried, "do let us have these. There are sure to be
+draughty doors at Finster, and afterwards they would make _perfect_
+"_portieres_" for the two side doors in the hall at home."
+
+Father eyed the tapestry appreciatively, but first prudently inquired
+the price. It seemed higher in proportion than Hunter's other charges.
+
+"You see, sir," he said half apologetically, "the panels are real
+antique work, though so much the worse for wear."
+
+"Where did they come from?" asked father.
+
+Hunter hesitated.
+
+"To tell you the truth, sir," he replied, "I was asked not to name the
+party that I bought it from. It seems a pity to part with _h_eir-looms,
+but--it happens sometimes--I bought several things together of a family
+quite lately. The _portieres_ have only come out of the workroom this
+morning. We hurried on with them to stop them fraying more--you see
+where they were before, they must have been nailed to the wall."
+
+Janet Miles, who was something of a connoisseur, had been examining the
+tapestry.
+
+"It is well worth what he asks," she said, in a low voice. "You don't
+often come across such tapestry in England."
+
+So the bargain was struck, and Hunter promised to see all that we had
+chosen, both purchased and hired, delivered at Finster the week before
+we proposed to come.
+
+Nothing interfered with our plans. By the end of the month we found
+ourselves at our temporary home--all of us except Nat, our third
+brother, who was at school. Dormer, the small boy, still did lessons
+with Sophy's governess. The two older "boys," as we called them,
+happened to be at home from different reasons--one, Nugent, on leave
+from India; Phil, forced to miss a term at college through an attack
+of the same illness which had treated mother and Dormy so badly.
+
+But now that everybody was well again, and going to be very much better,
+thanks to Finster air, we thought the ill wind had brought us some very
+distinct good. It would not have been half such fun had we not been a
+large family party to start with, and before we had been a week at the
+place we had added to our numbers by the first detachment of the guests
+we had invited.
+
+It was not a very large house; besides ourselves we had not room for
+more than three or four others. For some of the rooms--those on the top
+story--were really too dilapidated to suit any one but rats--"rats or
+ghosts," said some one laughingly one day, when we had been exploring
+them.
+
+Afterwards the words returned to my memory.
+
+We had made ourselves very comfortable, thanks to the invaluable Hunter.
+And every day the weather grew milder and more spring-like. The woods on
+the inland side were full of primroses. It promised to be a lovely
+season.
+
+There was a gallery along one side of the house, which soon became a
+favourite resort; it made a pleasant lounging-place, in the day-time
+especially, though less so in the evening, as the fireplace at one end
+warmed it but imperfectly, and besides this it was difficult to light
+up. It was draughty, too, as there was a superfluity of doors, two of
+which, one at each end, we at once condemned. They were not needed, as
+the one led by a very long spiral staircase, to the unused attic rooms,
+the other to the kitchen and offices. And when we did have afternoon
+tea in the gallery, it was easy to bring it through the dining or
+drawing-rooms, long rooms, lighted at their extreme ends, which ran
+parallel to the gallery lengthways, both of which had a door opening on
+to it as well as from the hall on the other side. For all the principal
+rooms at Finster were on the first-floor, not on the ground-floor.
+
+The closing of these doors got rid of a great deal of draught, and, as I
+have said, the weather was really mild and calm.
+
+One afternoon--I am trying to begin at the beginning of our strange
+experiences; even at the risk of long-windedness it seems better to do
+so--we were all assembled in the gallery at tea-time. The "children,"
+as we called Sophy and Dormer, much to Sophy's disgust, and their
+governess, were with us, for rules were relaxed at Finster, and Miss
+Larpent was a great favourite with us all.
+
+Suddenly Sophy gave an exclamation of annoyance.
+
+"Mamma," she said, "I wish you would speak to Dormer. He has thrown
+over my tea-cup--only look at my frock!" "If you cannot sit still," she
+added, turning herself to the boy, "I don't think you should be allowed
+to come to tea here."
+
+"What is the matter, Dormy?" said mother.
+
+Dormer was standing beside Sophy, looking very guilty, and rather white.
+
+"Mamma," he said, "I was only drawing a chair out. It got so dreadfully
+cold where I was sitting, I really could not stay there," and he
+shivered slightly.
+
+He had been sitting with his back to one of the locked-up doors. Phil,
+who was nearest, moved his hand slowly across the spot.
+
+"You are fanciful, Dormy," he said, "there is really no draught
+whatever."
+
+This did not satisfy mother.
+
+"He must have got a chill, then," she said, and she went on to question
+the child as to what he had been doing all day, for, as I have said, he
+was still delicate.
+
+But he persisted that he was quite well, and no longer cold.
+
+"It wasn't exactly a draught," he said, "it was--oh! just icy, all of a
+sudden. I've felt it before--sitting in that chair."
+
+Mother said no more, and Dormer went on with his tea, and when bed-time
+came he seemed just as usual, so that her anxiety faded. But she made
+thorough investigation as to the possibility of any draught coming up
+from the back stairs, with which this door communicated. None was to be
+discovered--the door fitted fairly well, and beside this, Hunter had
+tacked felt round the edges--furthermore, one of the thick heavy
+_portieres_ had been hung in front.
+
+An evening or two later we were sitting in the drawing room after
+dinner, when a cousin who was staying with us suddenly missed her fan.
+
+"Run and fetch Muriel's fan, Dormy," I said, for Muriel felt sure it had
+slipped under the dinner table. None of the men had as yet joined us.
+
+"Why, where are you going, child?" as he turned towards the farther
+door. "It is much quicker by the gallery."
+
+He said nothing, but went out, walking rather slowly, by the gallery
+door. And in a few minutes he returned, fan in hand, but by the _other_
+door.
+
+He was a sensitive child, and though I wondered what he had got into his
+head against the gallery, I did not say anything before the others. But
+when, soon after, Dormy said "Good night," and went off to bed, I
+followed him.
+
+"What do you want, Leila?" he said rather crossly.
+
+"Don't be vexed, child," I said. "I can see there is something the
+matter. Why do you not like the gallery?"
+
+He hesitated, but I had laid my hand on his shoulder, and he knew I
+meant to be kind.
+
+"Leila," he said, with a glance round, to be sure that no one was within
+hearing--we were standing, he and I, near the inner dining-room door,
+which was open--"you'll laugh at me, but--there's something queer
+there--sometimes!"
+
+"What? And how do you mean 'sometimes'?" I asked, with a slight thrill
+at his tone.
+
+"I mean not always, I've felt it several times--there was the cold the
+day before yesterday, and besides that, I've felt a--a sort of
+_breaving_"--Dormy was not perfect in his "th's"--"like somebody very
+unhappy."
+
+"Sighing?" I suggested.
+
+"Like sighing in a whisper," he replied, "and that's always near the
+door. But last week--no, not so long ago, it was on Monday--I went round
+that way when I was going to bed. I didn't want to be silly. But it was
+moonlight--and--Leila, a shadow went all along the wall on that side,
+and stopped at the door. I saw it waggling about--its _hands_," and here
+he shivered--"on that funny curtain that hangs up, as if it were feeling
+for a minute or two, and then----"
+
+"Well,--what then?"
+
+"It just went out," he said simply. "But it's moonlight again to-night,
+sister, and I daren't see it again. I just _daren't_."
+
+"But you did go to the dining-room that way," I reminded him.
+
+"Yes, but I shut my eyes and ran, and even then I felt as if something
+cold was behind me."
+
+"Dormy, dear," I said, a good deal concerned, "I do think it's your
+fancy. You are not _quite_ well yet, you know."
+
+"Yes, I am," he replied sturdily. "I'm not a bit frightened anywhere
+else. I sleep in a room alone you know. It's not _me_, sister, its
+somefing in the gallery."
+
+"Would you be frightened to go there with me now? We can run through the
+dining-room; there's no one to see us," and I turned in that direction
+as I spoke.
+
+Again my little brother hesitated.
+
+"I'll go with you if you'll hold hands," he said, "but I'll shut my
+eyes. And I won't open them till you tell me there's no shadow on the
+wall. You must tell me truly."
+
+"But there must be some shadows," I said, "in this bright moonlight,
+trees and branches, or even clouds scudding across--something of that
+kind is what you must have seen, dear."
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"No, no, of course I wouldn't mind that. I know the difference. No--you
+couldn't mistake. It goes along, right along, in a creeping way, and
+then at the door its hands come farther out, and it _feels_."
+
+"Is it like a man or a woman?" I said, beginning to feel rather creepy
+myself.
+
+"I think it's most like a rather little man," he replied, "but I'm not
+sure. Its head has got something fuzzy about it--oh, I know, like a
+sticking out wig. But lower down it seems wrapped up, like in a cloak.
+Oh, it's _horrid_."
+
+And again he shivered--it was quite time all this nightmare nonsense was
+put out of his poor little head.
+
+I took his hand and held it firmly; we went through the dining-room.
+Nothing could have looked more comfortable and less ghostly. For the
+lights were still burning on the table, and the flowers in their silver
+bowls, some wine gleaming in the glasses, the fruit and pretty dishes,
+made a pleasant glow of colour. It certainly seemed a curiously sudden
+contrast when we found ourselves in the gallery beyond, cold and
+unillumined, save by the pale moonlight streaming through the
+unshuttered windows. For the door closed with a bang as we passed
+through--the gallery _was_ a draughty place.
+
+Dormy's hold tightened.
+
+"Sister," he whispered, "I've shut my eyes now. You must stand with
+your back to the windows--between them, or else you'll think it's our
+own shadows--and watch."
+
+I did as he said, and I had not long to wait.
+
+It came--from the farther end, the second condemned door, whence the
+winding stair mounted to the attics--it seemed to begin or at least
+take form there. Creeping along, just as Dormy said--stealthily but
+steadily--right down to the other extremity of the long room. And then
+it grew blacker--more concentrated--and out from the vague outline came
+two bony hands, and, as the child had said, too, you could see that they
+were _feeling_--all over the upper part of the door.
+
+I stood and watched. I wondered afterwards at my own courage, if courage
+it was. It was the shadow of a small man, I felt sure. The head seemed
+large in proportion, and--yes--it--the original of the shadow--was
+evidently covered by an antique wig. Half mechanically I glanced
+round--as if in search of the material body that _must_ be there. But
+no; there was nothing, literally _nothing_, that could throw this
+extraordinary shadow.
+
+Of this I was instantly convinced; and here I may as well say once
+for all, that never was it maintained by any one, however previously
+sceptical, who had fully witnessed the whole, that it could be accounted
+for by ordinary, or, as people say, "natural" causes. There was this
+peculiarity at least about our ghost.
+
+Though I had fast hold of his hand, I had almost forgotten Dormy--I
+seemed in a trance.
+
+Suddenly he spoke, though in a whisper.
+
+"You see it, sister, I know you do," he said.
+
+"Wait, wait a minute, dear," I managed to reply in the same tone, though
+I could not have explained why I waited.
+
+Dormer had said that after a time--after the ghastly and apparently
+fruitless _feeling_ all over the door--"it"--"went out".
+
+I think it was this that I was waiting for. It was not quite as he had
+said. The door was in the extreme corner of the wall, the hinges almost
+in the angle, and as the shadow began to move on again, it _looked_ as
+if it disappeared; but no, it was only fainter. My eyes, preternaturally
+sharpened by my intense gaze, still saw it, working its way round the
+corner, as assuredly no _shadow_ in the real sense of the word ever did
+nor could do. I realised this, and the sense of horror grew all but
+intolerable; yet I stood still, clasping the cold little hand in mine
+tighter and tighter. And an instinct of protection of the child gave me
+strength. Besides, it was coming on so quickly--we could not have
+escaped--it was coming, nay, it _was behind_ us.
+
+"Leila!" gasped Dormy, "the cold--you feel it now?"
+
+Yes, truly--like no icy breath that I had ever felt before was that
+momentary but horrible thrill of utter cold. If it had lasted another
+second I think it would have killed us both. But, mercifully, it passed,
+in far less time than it has taken me to tell it, and then we seemed in
+some strange way to be released.
+
+"Open your eyes, Dormy," I said, "you won't see anything, I promise you.
+I want to rush across to the dining-room."
+
+He obeyed me. I felt there was time to escape before that awful presence
+would again have arrived at the dining-room door, though it was
+_coming_--ah, yes, it was coming, steadily pursuing its ghastly round.
+And, alas! the dining-room door was closed. But I kept my nerve to some
+extent. I turned the handle without over much trembling, and in another
+moment, the door shut and locked behind us, we stood in safety, looking
+at each other, in the bright cheerful room we had left so short a time
+ago.
+
+_Was_ it so short a time? I said to myself. It seemed hours!
+
+And through the door open to the hall came at that moment the sound
+of cheerful laughing voices from the drawing-room. Some one was coming
+out. It seemed impossible, incredible, that within a few feet of the
+matter-of-fact pleasant material life, this horrible inexplicable drama
+should be going on, as doubtless it still was.
+
+Of the two I was now more upset than my little brother. I was older and
+"took in" more. He, boy-like, was in a sense triumphant at having proved
+himself correct and no coward, and though he was still pale, his eyes
+shone with excitement and a queer kind of satisfaction.
+
+But before we had done more than look at each other, a figure appeared
+at the open doorway. It was Sophy.
+
+"Leila," she said, "mamma wants to know what you are doing with Dormy?
+He is to go to bed at once. We saw you go out of the room after him,
+and then a door banged. Mamma says if you are playing with him it's very
+bad for him so late at night."
+
+Dormy was very quick. He was still holding my hand, and he pinched it to
+stop my replying.
+
+"Rubbish!" he said. "I am speaking to Leila quietly, and she is coming
+up to my room while I undress. Good night, Sophy."
+
+"Tell mamma Dormy really wants me," I added, and then Sophy departed.
+
+"We musn't tell _her_, Leila," said the boy. "She'd have 'sterics."
+
+"Whom shall we tell?" I said, for I was beginning to feel very helpless
+and upset.
+
+"Nobody, to-night," he replied sensibly. "You _mustn't_ go in there,"
+and he shivered a little as he moved his head towards the gallery;
+"you're not fit for it, and they'd be wanting you to. Wait till the
+morning and then I'd--I think I'd tell Philip first. You needn't be
+frightened to-night, sister. It won't stop you sleeping. It didn't me
+the time I saw it before."
+
+He was right. I slept dreamlessly. It was as if the intense nervous
+strain of those few minutes had utterly exhausted me.
+
+
+PART II.
+
+Phil is our soldier brother. And there is nothing fanciful about _him_!
+He is a rock of sturdy common-sense and unfailing good nature. He was
+the very best person to confide our strange secret to, and my respect
+for Dormy increased.
+
+We did tell him--the very next morning. He listened very attentively,
+only putting in a question here and there, and though, of course, he was
+incredulous--had I not been so myself?--he was not mocking.
+
+"I am glad you have told no one else," he said, when we had related the
+whole as circumstantially as possible. "You see mother is not very
+strong yet, and it would be a pity to bother father, just when he's
+taken this place and settled it all. And for goodness' sake, don't let a
+breath of it get about among the servants; there'd be the--something to
+pay, if you did."
+
+"I won't tell anybody," said Dormy.
+
+"Nor shall I," I added. "Sophy is far too excitable, and if she knew,
+she would certainly tell Nannie." Nannie is our old nurse.
+
+"If we tell any one," Philip went on, "that means," with a rather
+irritating smile of self-confidence, "if by any possibility I do not
+succeed in making an end of your ghost and we want another opinion about
+it, the person to tell would be Miss Larpent."
+
+"Yes," I said, "I think so, too."
+
+I would not risk irritating him by saying how convinced I was that
+conviction awaited _him_ as surely it had come to myself, and I knew
+that Miss Larpent, though far from credulous, was equally far from
+stupid scepticism concerning the mysteries "not dreamt of" in ordinary
+"philosophy".
+
+"What do you mean to do?" I went on. "You have a theory, I see. Won't
+you tell me what it is?"
+
+"I have two," said Phil, rolling up a cigarette as he spoke. "It is
+either some queer optical illusion, partly the effect of some odd
+reflection outside--or it is a clever trick."
+
+"A trick!" I exclaimed; "what _possible_ motive could there be for a
+trick?"
+
+Phil shook his head.
+
+"Ah," he said, "that I cannot at present say."
+
+"And what are you going to do?"
+
+"I shall sit up to-night in the gallery and see for myself."
+
+"Alone?" I exclaimed, with some misgiving. For big, sturdy fellow as he
+was, I scarcely liked to think of him--of _any one_--alone with that
+awful thing.
+
+"I don't suppose you or Dormy would care to keep me company," he
+replied, "and on the whole I would rather not have you."
+
+"I wouldn't do it," said the child honestly, "not for--for nothing."
+
+"I shall keep Tim with me," said Philip, "I would rather have him than
+any one."
+
+Tim is Phil's bull-dog, and certainly, I agreed, much better than
+nobody.
+
+So it was settled.
+
+Dormy and I went to bed unusually early that night, for as the day wore
+on we both felt exceedingly tired. I pleaded a headache, which was not
+altogether a fiction, though I repented having complained at all when I
+found that poor mamma immediately began worrying herself with fears
+that "after all" I, too, was to fall a victim to the influenza.
+
+"I shall be all right in the morning," I assured her.
+
+I knew no further details of Phil's arrangements. I fell asleep almost
+at once. I usually do. And it seemed to me that I had slept a whole
+night when I was awakened by a glimmering light at my door, and heard
+Philip's voice speaking softly.
+
+"Are you awake, Lel?" he said, as people always say when they awake you
+in any untimely way. Of course, _now_ I was awake, very much awake
+indeed.
+
+"What is it?" I exclaimed eagerly, my heart beginning to beat very fast.
+
+"Oh, nothing, nothing at all," said my brother, advancing a little into
+the room. "I just thought I'd look in on my way to bed to reassure you.
+I have seen _nothing_, absolutely nothing."
+
+I do not know if I was relieved or disappointed.
+
+"Was it moonlight?" I asked abruptly.
+
+"No," he replied, "unluckily the moon did not come out at all, though
+it is nearly at the full. I carried in a small lamp, which made things
+less eerie. But I should have preferred the moon."
+
+I glanced up at him. Was it the reflection of the candle he held, or did
+he look paler than usual?
+
+"And," I added suddenly, "did you _feel_ nothing?"
+
+He hesitated.
+
+"It--it was chilly, certainly," he said. "I fancy I must have dosed a
+little, for I did feel pretty cold once or twice."
+
+"Ah, indeed!" thought I to myself. "And how about Tim?"
+
+Phil smiled, but not very successfully.
+
+"Well," he said, "I must confess Tim did not altogether like it. He
+started snarling, then he growled, and finished up with whining in a
+decidedly unhappy way. He's rather upset--poor old chap!"
+
+And then I saw that the dog was beside him--rubbing up close to Philip's
+legs--a very dejected, reproachful Tim--all the starch taken out of him.
+
+"Good-night, Phil," I said, turning round on my pillow. "I'm glad
+you are satisfied. To-morrow morning you must tell me which of your
+theories holds most water. Good-night, and many thanks."
+
+He was going to say more, but my manner for the moment stopped him, and
+he went off.
+
+Poor old Phil!
+
+We had it out the next morning. He and I alone. He was _not_ satisfied.
+Far from it. In the bottom of his heart I believe it was a strange
+yearning for a breath of human companionship, for the sound of a human
+voice, that had made him look in on me the night before.
+
+_For he had felt the cold passing him._
+
+But he was very plucky.
+
+"I'll sit up again to-night, Leila," he said.
+
+"Not to-night," I objected. "This sort of adventure requires one to be
+at one's best. If you take my advice you will go to bed early and have a
+good stretch of sleep, so that you will be quite fresh by to-morrow.
+There will be a moon for some nights still."
+
+"Why do you keep harping on the moon?" said Phil rather crossly, for
+him.
+
+"Because--I have some idea that it is only in the moonlight that--that
+anything is to be _seen_."
+
+"Bosh!" said my brother politely--he was certainly rather
+discomposed--"we are talking at cross-purposes. You are satisfied----"
+
+"Far from satisfied," I interpolated.
+
+"Well, convinced, whatever you like to call it--that the whole thing is
+supernatural, whereas I am equally sure it is a trick; a clever trick I
+allow, though I haven't yet got at the motive of it."
+
+"You need your nerves to be at their best to discover a trick of this
+kind, if a trick it be," I said quietly.
+
+Philip had left his seat, and walked up and down the room; his way of
+doing so gave me a feeling that he wanted to walk off some unusual
+consciousness of irritability. I felt half provoked and half sorry for
+him.
+
+At that moment--we were alone in the drawing-room--the door opened, and
+Miss Larpent came in.
+
+"I cannot find Sophy," she said, peering about through her rather
+short-sighted eyes, which, nevertheless, see a great deal sometimes; "do
+you know where she is?"
+
+"I saw her setting off somewhere with Nugent," said Philip, stopping
+his quarter-deck exercise for a moment.
+
+"Ah, then it is hopeless. I suppose I must resign myself to very
+irregular ways for a little longer," Miss Larpent replied with a smile.
+
+She is not young, and not good looking, but she is gifted with a
+delightful way of smiling, and she is--well, the dearest and almost the
+wisest of women.
+
+She looked at Philip as he spoke. She had known us nearly since our
+babyhood.
+
+"Is there anything the matter?" she said suddenly. "You look fagged,
+Leila, and Philip seems worried."
+
+I glanced at Philip. He understood me.
+
+"Yes," he replied, "I am irritated, and Leila is----" he hesitated.
+
+"What?" asked Miss Larpent.
+
+"Oh, I don't know--obstinate, I suppose. Sit down, Miss Larpent, and
+hear our story. Leila, you can tell it."
+
+I did so--first obtaining a promise of secrecy, and making Phil relate
+his own experience.
+
+Our new _confidante_ listened attentively, her face very grave. When
+she had heard all, she said quietly, after a moment's silence:--
+
+"It's very strange, very. Philip, if you will wait till to-morrow night,
+and I quite agree with Leila that you had better do so, I will sit up
+with you. I have pretty good nerves, and I have always wanted an
+experience of that kind."
+
+"Then you don't think it is a trick?" I said eagerly. I was like Dormer,
+divided between my real underlying longing to explain the thing, and get
+rid of the horror of it, and a half childish wish to prove that I had
+not exaggerated its ghastliness.
+
+"I will tell you that the day after to-morrow," she said. I could not
+repress a little shiver as she spoke.
+
+She _had_ good nerves, and she was extremely sensible.
+
+But I almost blamed myself afterwards for having acquiesced in the plan.
+For the effect on her was very great. They never told me exactly what
+happened; "You _know_," said Miss Larpent. I imagine their experience
+was almost precisely similar to Dormy's and mine, intensified, perhaps,
+by the feeling of loneliness. For it was not till all the rest of
+the family was in bed that this second vigil began. It was a bright
+moonlight night--they had the whole thing complete.
+
+It was impossible to throw off the effect; even in the daytime the four
+of us who had seen and heard, shrank from the gallery, and made any
+conceivable excuse for avoiding it.
+
+But Phil, however convinced, behaved consistently. He examined the
+closed door thoroughly, to detect any possible trickery. He explored
+the attics, he went up and down the staircase leading to the offices,
+till the servants must have thought he was going crazy. He found
+_nothing_--no vaguest hint even as to why the gallery was chosen by the
+ghostly shadow for its nightly round.
+
+Strange to say, however, as the moon waned, our horror faded, so that we
+almost began to hope the thing was at an end, and to trust that in time
+we should forget about it. And we congratulated ourselves that we had
+kept our own counsel and not disturbed any of the others--even father,
+who would, no doubt, have hooted at the idea--by the baleful whisper
+that our charming castle by the sea was haunted!
+
+And the days passed by, growing into weeks. The second detachment of
+our guests had left, and a third had just arrived, when one morning as I
+was waiting at what we called "the sea-door" for some of the others to
+join me in a walk along the sands, some one touched me on the shoulder.
+It was Philip.
+
+"Leila," he said, "I am not happy about Dormer. He is looking ill again,
+and----"
+
+"I thought he seemed so much stronger," I said, surprised and
+distressed, "quite rosy, and so much merrier."
+
+"So he was till a few days ago," said Philip. "But if you notice him
+well you'll see that he's getting that white look again. And--I've got
+it into my head--he is an extraordinarily sensitive child, that it has
+something to do with the moon. It's getting on to the full."
+
+For the moment I stupidly forgot the association.
+
+"Really, Phil," I said, "you are too absurd! Do you actually--oh," as he
+was beginning to interrupt me, and my face fell, I feel sure--"you don't
+mean about the gallery."
+
+"Yes, I do," he said.
+
+"How? Has Dormy told you anything?" and a sort of sick feeling came
+over me. "I had begun to hope," I went on, "that somehow it had gone;
+that, perhaps, it only comes once a year at a certain season, or
+possibly that newcomers see it at the first and not again. Oh, Phil,
+we _can't_ stay here, however nice it is, if it is really haunted."
+
+"Dormy hasn't said much," Philip replied. "He only told me he had _felt
+the cold_ once or twice, 'since the moon came again,' he said. But I can
+see the fear of more is upon him. And this determined me to speak to
+you. I have to go to London for ten days or so, to see the doctors about
+my leave, and a few other things. I don't like it for you and Miss
+Larpent if--if this thing is to return--with no one else in your
+confidence, especially on Dormy's account. Do you think we must tell
+father before I go?"
+
+I hesitated. For many reasons I was reluctant to do so. Father would be
+exaggeratedly sceptical at first, and then, if he were convinced, as I
+_knew_ he would be, he would go to the other extreme and insist upon
+leaving Finster, and there would be a regular upset, trying for mother
+and everybody concerned. And mother liked the place, and was looking so
+much better!
+
+"After all," I said, "it has not hurt any of us. Miss Larpent got
+a shake, so did I. But it wasn't as great a shock to us as to you,
+Phil, to have to believe in a ghost. And we can avoid the gallery
+while you are away. No, except for Dormy, I would rather keep it to
+ourselves--after all, we are not going to live here always. Yet it is so
+nice, it seems such a pity."
+
+It was such an exquisite morning; the air, faintly breathing of the sea,
+was like elixir; the heights and shadows on the cliffs, thrown out by
+the darker woods behind, were indeed, as Janet Miles had said,
+"wonderful".
+
+"Yes," Phil agreed, "it is an awful nuisance. But as for Dormy," he went
+on, "supposing I get mother to let me take him with me? He'd be as jolly
+as a sand-boy in London, and my old landlady would look after him like
+anything if ever I had to be out late. And I'd let my doctor see
+him--quietly, you know--he might give him a tonic or something."
+
+I heartily approved of the idea. So did mamma when Phil broached
+it--she, too, had thought her "baby" looking quite pale lately. A London
+doctor's opinion would be such a satisfaction. So it was settled, and
+the very next day the two set off. Dormer, in his "old-fashioned,"
+reticent way, in the greatest delight, though only by one remark did the
+brave little fellow hint at what was, no doubt, the principal cause of
+his satisfaction.
+
+"The moon will be long past the full when we come back," he said. "And
+after that there'll only be one other time before we go, won't there,
+Leila? We've only got this house for three months?"
+
+"Yes," I said, "father only took it for three," though in my heart I
+knew it was with the option of three more--six in all.
+
+And Miss Larpent and I were left alone, not with the ghost, certainly,
+but with our fateful knowledge of its unwelcome proximity.
+
+We did not speak of it to each other, but we tacitly avoided the
+gallery, even, as much as possible, in the daytime. I felt, and so, she
+has since confessed, did she, that it would be impossible to endure
+_that cold_ without betraying ourselves.
+
+And I began to breathe more freely, trusting that the dread of the
+shadow's possible return was really only due to the child's overwrought
+nerves.
+
+Till--one morning--my fool's paradise was abruptly destroyed.
+
+Father came in late to breakfast--he had been for an early walk, he
+said, to get rid of a headache. But he did not look altogether as if he
+had succeeded in doing so.
+
+"Leila," he said, as I was leaving the room after pouring out his
+coffee--mamma was not yet allowed to get up early--"Leila, don't go. I
+want to speak to you."
+
+I stopped short, and turned towards the table. There was something very
+odd about his manner. He is usually hearty and eager, almost impetuous
+in his way of speaking.
+
+"Leila," he began again, "you are a sensible girl, and your nerves are
+strong, I fancy. Besides, you have not been ill like the others. Don't
+speak of what I am going to tell you."
+
+I nodded in assent; I could scarcely have spoken. My heart was beginning
+to thump. Father would not have commended my nerves had he known it.
+
+"Something odd and inexplicable happened last night," he went on.
+"Nugent and I were sitting in the gallery. It was a mild night, and the
+moon magnificent. We thought the gallery would be pleasanter than the
+smoking-room, now that Phil and his pipes are away. Well--we were
+sitting quietly. I had lighted my reading-lamp on the little table at
+one end of the room, and Nugent was half lying in his chair, doing
+nothing in particular except admiring the night, when all at once he
+started violently with an exclamation, and, jumping up, came towards me.
+Leila, his teeth were chattering, and he was _blue_ with cold. I was
+very much alarmed--you know how ill he was at college. But in a moment
+or two he recovered.
+
+"'What on earth is the matter?' I said to him. He tried to laugh.
+
+"'I really don't know,' he said; 'I felt as if I had had an electric
+shock of _cold_--but I'm all right again now.'
+
+"I went into the dining-room, and made him take a little brandy and
+water, and sent him off to bed. Then I came back, still feeling rather
+uneasy about him, and sat down with my book, when, Leila--you will
+scarcely credit it--I myself felt the same shock exactly. A perfectly
+_hideous_ thrill of cold. That was how it began. I started up, and then,
+Leila, by degrees, in some instinctive way, I seemed to realise what had
+caused it. My dear child, you will think I have gone crazy when I tell
+you that there was a shadow--a shadow in the moonlight--_chasing_ me,
+so to say, round the room, and once again it caught me up, and again
+came that appalling sensation. I would not give in. I dodged it after
+that, and set myself to watch it, and then----"
+
+I need not quote my father further; suffice to say his experience
+matched that of the rest of us entirely--no, I think it surpassed them.
+It was the worst of all.
+
+Poor father! I shuddered for him. I think a shock of that kind is harder
+upon a man than upon a woman. Our sex is less sceptical, less entrenched
+in sturdy matters of fact, more imaginative, or whatever you like to
+call the readiness to believe what we cannot explain. And it was
+astounding to me to see how my father at once capitulated--never even
+_alluding_ to a possibility of trickery. Astounding, yet at the same
+time not without a certain satisfaction in it. It was almost a relief to
+find others in the same boat with ourselves.
+
+I told him at once all _we_ had to tell, and how painfully exercised we
+had been as to the advisability of keeping our secret to ourselves. I
+never saw father so impressed; he was awfully kind, too, and so sorry
+for us. He made me fetch Miss Larpent, and we held a council of--I
+don't know what to call it!--not "war," assuredly, for none of us
+thought of fighting the ghost. How could one fight a shadow?
+
+We decided to do nothing beyond endeavouring to keep the affair from
+going further. During the next few days father arranged to have some
+work done in the gallery which would prevent our sitting there, without
+raising any suspicions on mamma's or Sophy's part.
+
+"And then," said father, "we must see. Possibly this extraordinary
+influence only makes itself felt periodically."
+
+"I am almost certain it is so," said Miss Larpent.
+
+"And in this case," he continued, "we may manage to evade it. But I do
+not feel disposed to continue my tenancy here after three months are
+over. If once the servants get hold of the story, and they are sure to
+do so sooner or later, it would be unendurable--the worry and annoyance
+would do your mother far more harm than any good effect the air and
+change have had upon her."
+
+I was glad to hear this decision. Honestly, I did not feel as if I
+could stand the strain for long, and it might kill poor little Dormy.
+
+But where should we go? Our own home would be quite uninhabitable till
+the autumn, for extensive alterations and repairs were going on there. I
+said this to father.
+
+"Yes," he agreed, "it is not convenient,"--and he hesitated. "I cannot
+make it out," he went on, "Miles would have been _sure_ to know if the
+house had a bad name in any way. I think I will go over and see him
+to-day, and tell him all about it--at least I shall inquire about some
+other house in the neighbourhood--and _perhaps_ I will tell him our
+reason for leaving this."
+
+He did so--he went over to Raxtrew that very afternoon, and, as I quite
+anticipated would be the case, he told me on his return that he had
+taken both our friends into his confidence.
+
+"They are extremely concerned about it," he said, "and very
+sympathising, though, naturally, inclined to think us a parcel of very
+weak-minded folk indeed. But I am glad of one thing--the Rectory there,
+is to be let from the first of July for three months. Miles took me to
+see it. I think it will do very well--it is quite out of the village,
+for you really can't call it a town--and a nice little place in its way.
+Quite modern, and as unghost-like as you could wish, bright and cheery."
+
+"And what will mamma think of our leaving so soon?" I asked.
+
+But as to this father reassured me. He had already spoken of it to her,
+and somehow she did not seem disappointed. She had got it into her head
+that Finster did not suit Dormy, and was quite disposed to think that
+three months of such strong air were enough at a time.
+
+"Then have you decided upon Raxtrew Rectory?" I asked.
+
+"I have the refusal of it," said my father. "But you will be almost
+amused to hear that Miles begged me not to fix absolutely for a few
+days. He is coming to us to-morrow, to spend the night."
+
+"You mean to see for himself?"
+
+Father nodded.
+
+"Poor Mr. Miles!" I ejaculated. "You won't sit up with him, I hope,
+father?"
+
+"I offered to do so, but he won't hear of it," was the reply. "He is
+bringing one of his keepers with him--a sturdy, trustworthy young
+fellow, and they two with their revolvers are going to nab the ghost, so
+he says. We shall see. We must manage to prevent our servants suspecting
+anything."
+
+This _was_ managed. I need not go into particulars. Suffice to say that
+the sturdy keeper reached his own home before dawn on the night of the
+vigil, no endeavours of his master having succeeded in persuading him to
+stay another moment at Finster, and that Mr. Miles himself looked so ill
+the next morning when he joined us at the breakfast-table that we, the
+initiated, could scarcely repress our exclamations, when Sophy, with the
+curious instinct of touching a sore place which some people have, told
+him that he looked exactly "as if he had seen a ghost".
+
+His experience had been precisely similar to ours. After that we heard
+no more from him--about the pity it was to leave a place that suited us
+so well, etc., etc. On the contrary, before he left, he told my father
+and myself that he thought us uncommonly plucky for staying out the
+three months, though at the same time he confessed to feeling completely
+nonplussed.
+
+"I have lived near Finster St. Mabyn's all my life," he said, "and
+my people before me, and _never_, do I honestly assure you, have
+I heard one breath of the old place being haunted. And in a shut-up
+neighbourhood like this, such a thing would have leaked out."
+
+We shook our heads, but what could we say?
+
+
+PART III.
+
+We left Finster St. Mabyn's towards the middle of July.
+
+Nothing worth recording happened during the last few weeks. If
+the ghostly drama were still re-enacted night after night, or only
+during some portion of each month, we took care not to assist at the
+performance. I believe Phil and Nugent planned another vigil, but gave
+it up by my father's expressed wish, and on one pretext or another he
+managed to keep the gallery locked off without arousing any suspicion in
+my mother or Sophy, or any of our visitors.
+
+It was a cold summer,--those early months of it at least--and that made
+it easier to avoid the room.
+
+Somehow none of us were sorry to go. This was natural, so far as
+several were concerned, but rather curious as regarded those of the
+family who knew no drawback to the charms of the place. I suppose it was
+due to some instinctive consciousness of the influence which so many of
+the party had felt it impossible to resist or explain.
+
+And the Rectory at Raxtrew was really a dear little place. It was so
+bright and open and sunny. Dormy's pale face was rosy with pleasure the
+first afternoon when he came rushing in to tell us that there were tame
+rabbits and a pair of guinea-pigs in an otherwise empty loose box in the
+stable-yard.
+
+"Do come and look at them," he begged, and I went with him, pleased to
+see him so happy.
+
+I did not care for the rabbits, but I always think guinea-pigs rather
+fascinating, and we stayed playing with them some little time.
+
+"I'll show you another way back into the house," said Dormy, and he led
+me through a conservatory into a large, almost unfurnished room, opening
+again into a tiled passage leading to the offices.
+
+"This is the Warden boys' playroom," he said. "They keep their cricket
+and football things here, you see, and their tricycle. I wonder if I
+might use it?"
+
+"We must write and ask them," I said. "But what are all these big
+packages?" I went on. "Oh, I see, its our heavy luggage from Finster.
+There is not room in this house for our odds and ends of furniture, I
+suppose. It's rather a pity they have put it in here, for we could have
+had some nice games in this big room on a wet day, and see, Dormy, here
+are several pairs of roller skates! Oh, we must have this place
+cleared."
+
+We spoke to father about it--he came and looked at the room and agreed
+with us that it would be a pity not to have the full use of it. Roller
+skating would be good exercise for Dormy, he said, and even for Nat, who
+would be joining us before long for his holidays.
+
+So our big cases, and the chairs and tables we had bought from Hunter,
+in their careful swathings of wisps and matting, were carried out to an
+empty barn--a perfectly dry and weather-tight barn--for everything at
+the Rectory was in excellent repair. In this, as in all other details,
+our new quarters were a complete contrast to the picturesque abode we
+had just quitted.
+
+The weather was charming for the first two or three weeks--much warmer
+and sunnier than at Finster. We all enjoyed it, and seemed to breathe
+more freely. Miss Larpent, who was staying through the holidays this
+year, and I congratulated each other more than once, when sure of not
+being overheard, on the cheerful, wholesome atmosphere in which we found
+ourselves.
+
+"I do not think I shall ever wish to live in a very old house again,"
+she said one day. We were in the play-room, and I had been persuading
+her to try her hand--or feet--at roller skating. "Even now," she went
+on, "I own to you, Leila, though it may sound very weak-minded, I cannot
+think of that horrible night without a shiver. Indeed, I could fancy I
+feel that thrill of indescribable cold at the present moment."
+
+She _was_ shivering--and, extraordinary to relate, as she spoke, her
+tremor communicated itself to me. Again, I could swear to it, again I
+felt that blast of unutterable, unearthly cold.
+
+I started up. We were seated on a bench against the wall--a bench
+belonging to the play-room, and which we had not thought of removing, as
+a few seats were a convenience.
+
+Miss Larpent caught sight of my face. Her own, which was very white,
+grew distressed in expression. She grasped my arm.
+
+"My dearest child," she exclaimed, "you look blue, and your teeth are
+chattering! I do wish I had not alluded to that fright we had. I had no
+idea you were so nervous."
+
+"I did not know it myself," I replied. "I often think of the Finster
+ghost quite calmly, even in the middle of the night. But just then, Miss
+Larpent, do you know, I really _felt_ that horrid cold again!"
+
+"So did I--or rather my imagination did," she replied, trying to talk in
+a matter-of-fact way. She got up as she spoke, and went to the window.
+"It can't be _all_ imagination," she added. "See, Leila, what a gusty,
+stormy day it is--not like the beginning of August. It really is cold."
+
+"And this play-room seems nearly as draughty as the gallery at Finster,"
+I said. "Don't let us stay here--come into the drawing-room and play
+some duets. I wish we could quite forget about Finster."
+
+"Dormy has done so, I hope," said Miss Larpent.
+
+That chilly morning was the commencement of the real break-up in the
+weather. We women would not have minded it so much, as there are always
+plenty of indoor things we can find to do. And my two grown-up brothers
+were away. Raxtrew held no particular attractions for them, and Phil
+wanted to see some of our numerous relations before he returned to
+India. So he and Nugent started on a round of visits. But, unluckily,
+it was the beginning of the public school holidays, and poor Nat--the
+fifteen-year-old boy--had just joined us. It was very disappointing
+for him in more ways than one. He had set his heart on seeing Finster,
+impressed by our enthusiastic description of it when we first went
+there, and now his anticipations had to come down to a comparatively
+tame and uninteresting village, and every probability--so said the
+wise--of a stretch of rainy, unsummerlike weather.
+
+Nat is a good-natured, cheery fellow, however--not nearly as clever or
+as impressionable as Dormy, but with the same common sense. So he wisely
+determined to make the best of things, and as we were really sorry for
+him, he did not, after all, come off very badly.
+
+His principal amusement was roller-skating in the play-room. Dormy had
+not taken to it in the same way--the greater part of _his_ time was
+spent with the rabbits and guinea-pigs, where Nat, when he himself had
+had skating enough, was pretty sure to find him.
+
+I suppose it is with being the eldest sister that it always seems my
+fate to receive the confidences of the rest of the family, and it was
+about this time, a fortnight or so after his arrival, that it began to
+strike me that Nat looked as if he had something on his mind.
+
+"He is sure to tell me what it is, sooner or later," I said to myself.
+"Probably he has left some small debts behind him at school--only he did
+not look worried or anxious when he first came home."
+
+The confidence was given. One afternoon Nat followed me into the
+library, where I was going to write some letters, and said he wanted to
+speak to me. I put my paper aside and waited.
+
+"Leila," he began, "you must promise not to laugh at me."
+
+This was not what I expected.
+
+"Laugh at you--no, certainly not," I replied, "especially if you are in
+any trouble. And I have thought you were looking worried, Nat."
+
+"Well, yes," he said, "I don't know if there is anything coming over
+me--I feel quite well, but--Leila," he broke off, "do you believe in
+ghosts?"
+
+I started.
+
+"Has any one----" I was beginning rashly, but the boy interrupted me.
+
+"No, no," he said eagerly, "no one has put anything of the kind into my
+head--no one. It is my own senses that have seen--felt it--or else, if
+it is fancy, I must be going out of my mind, Leila--I do believe there
+is a ghost here _in the play-room_."
+
+I sat silent, an awful dread creeping over me, which, as he went on,
+grew worse and worse. Had the thing--the Finster shadow--attached itself
+to us--I had read of such cases--had it journeyed with us to this
+peaceful, healthful house? The remembrance of the cold thrill
+experienced by Miss Larpent and myself flashed back upon me. And Nat
+went on.
+
+Yes, the cold was the first thing he had been startled by, followed,
+just as in the gallery of our old castle, by the consciousness of the
+terrible shadow-like presence, gradually taking form in the moonlight.
+For there had been moonlight the last night or two, and Nat, in his
+skating ardour, had amused himself alone in the play-room after Dormy
+had gone to bed.
+
+"The night before last was the worst," he said. "It stopped raining,
+you remember, Leila, and the moon was very bright--I noticed how it
+glistened on the wet leaves outside. It was by the moonlight I saw
+the--the shadow. I wouldn't have thought of skating in the evening but
+for the light, for we've never had a lamp in there. It came round the
+walls, Leila, and then it seemed to stop and fumble away in one
+corner--at the end where there is a bench, you know."
+
+Indeed I did know; it was where our governess and I had been sitting.
+
+"I got so awfully frightened," said Nat honestly, "that I ran off. Then
+yesterday I was ashamed of myself, and went back there in the evening
+with a candle. But I saw nothing: the moon did not come out. Only--I
+felt the cold again. I believe it was there--though I could not see it.
+Leila, what _can_ it be? If only I could make you understand! It is so
+_much_ worse than it sounds to tell."
+
+I said what I could to soothe him. I spoke of odd shadows thrown by the
+trees outside swaying in the wind, for the weather was still stormy. I
+repeated the time-worn argument about optical illusions, etc., etc.,
+and in the end he gave in a little. It _might_ have been his fancy.
+And he promised me most faithfully to breathe no hint--not the very
+faintest--of the fright he had had, to Sophy or Dormy, or any one.
+
+Then I had to tell my father. I really shrank from doing so, but there
+seemed no alternative. At first, of course, he pooh-poohed it at once by
+saying Dormy must have been talking to Nat about the Finster business,
+or if not Dormy, _some one_--Miss Larpent even! But when all such
+explanations were entirely set at nought, I must say poor father looked
+rather blank. I was sorry for him, and sorry for myself--the idea of
+being _followed_ by this horrible presence was too sickening.
+
+Father took refuge at last in some brain-wave theory--involuntary
+impressions had been made on Nat by all of us, whose minds were still
+full of the strange experience. He said he felt sure, and no doubt he
+tried to think he did, that this theory explained the whole. I felt glad
+for him to get any satisfaction out of it, and I did my best to take it
+up too. But it was no use. I felt that Nat's experience had been an
+"objective" one, as Miss Larpent expressed it--or, as Dormy had said at
+the first at Finster: "No, no, sister--it's something _there_--it's
+nothing to do with _me_."
+
+And earnestly I longed for the time to come for our return to our own
+familiar home.
+
+"I don't think I shall ever wish to leave it again," I thought.
+
+But after a week or two the feeling began to fade again. And father very
+sensibly discovered that it would not do to leave our spare furniture
+and heavy luggage in the barn--it was getting all dusty and cobwebby. So
+it was all moved back again to the play-room, and stacked as it had been
+at first, making it impossible for us to skate or amuse ourselves in any
+way there, at which Sophy grumbled, but Nat did not.
+
+Father was very good to Nat. He took him about with him as much as he
+could to get the thought of that horrid thing out of his head. But yet
+it could not have been half as bad for Nat as for the rest of us, for
+we took the greatest possible precautions against any whisper of the
+dreadful and mysterious truth reaching him, that the ghost had _followed
+us_ from Finster.
+
+Father did not tell Mr. Miles or Jenny about it. They had been worried
+enough, poor things, by the trouble at Finster, and it would be too bad
+for them to think that the strange influence was affecting us in the
+_second_ house we had taken at their recommendation.
+
+"In fact," said father with a rather rueful smile, "if we don't take
+care, we shall begin to be looked upon askance as a haunted family! Our
+lives would have been in danger in the good old witchcraft days."
+
+"It is really a mercy that none of the servants have got hold of the
+story," said Miss Larpent, who was one of our council of three. "We must
+just hope that no further annoyance will befall us till we are safe at
+home again."
+
+Her hopes were fulfilled. Nothing else happened while we remained at the
+Rectory--it really seemed as if the unhappy shade was limited locally,
+in one sense. For at Finster, even, it had never been seen or felt save
+in the one room.
+
+The vividness of the impression of poor Nat's experience had almost died
+away when the time came for us to leave. I felt now that I should rather
+enjoy telling Phil and Nugent about it, and hearing what _they_ could
+bring forward in the way of explanation.
+
+We left Raxtrew early in October. Our two big brothers were awaiting us
+at home, having arrived there a few days before us. Nugent was due at
+Oxford very shortly.
+
+It was very nice to be in our own house again, after several months'
+absence, and it was most interesting to see how the alterations,
+including a good deal of new papering and painting, had been carried
+out. And as soon as the heavy luggage arrived we had grand consultations
+as to the disposal about the rooms of the charming pieces of furniture
+we had picked up at Hunter's. Our rooms are large and nicely shaped,
+most of them. It was not difficult to make a pretty corner here and
+there with a quaint old chair or two and a delicate spindle-legged
+table, and when we had arranged them all--Phil, Nugent, and I, were the
+movers--we summoned mother and Miss Larpent to give their opinion.
+
+They quite approved, mother even saying that she would be glad of a few
+more odds and ends.
+
+"We might empower Janet Miles," she said, "to let us know if she sees
+anything very tempting. Is that really all we have? They looked so much
+more important in their swathings."
+
+The same idea struck me. I glanced round.
+
+"Yes," I said, "that's all, except--oh, yes, there are the tapestry
+"_portieres_"--the best of all. We can't have them in the drawing-room,
+I fear. It is too modern for them. Where shall we hang them?"
+
+"You are forgetting, Leila," said mother. "We spoke of having them in
+the hall. They will do beautifully to hang before the two side doors,
+which are seldom opened. And in cold weather the hall is draughty,
+though nothing like the gallery at Finster."
+
+Why did she say that? It made me shiver, but then, of course, she did
+not know.
+
+Our hall is a very pleasant one. We sit there a great deal. The side
+doors mother spoke of are second entrances to the dining-room and
+library--quite unnecessary, except when we have a large party, a dance
+or something of that sort. And the "_portieres_" certainly seemed the
+very thing, the mellow colouring of the tapestry showing to great
+advantage. The boys--Phil and Nugent, I mean--set to work at once, and
+in an hour or two the hangings were placed.
+
+"Of course," said Philip, "if ever these doors are to be opened, this
+precious tapestry must be taken down, or very carefully looped back. It
+is very worn in some places, and in spite of the thick lining it should
+be tenderly handled. I am afraid it has suffered a little from being so
+long rolled up at the Rectory. It should have been hung up!"
+
+Still, it looked very well indeed, and when father, who was away at some
+magistrates' meeting, came home that afternoon, I showed him our
+arrangements with pride.
+
+He was very pleased.
+
+"Very nice--very nice indeed," he said, though it was almost too dusk
+for him to judge quite fully of the effect of the tapestry. "But, dear
+me, child, this hall is very cold. We must have a larger fire. Only
+October! What sort of a winter are we going to have?"
+
+He shivered as he spoke. He was standing close to one of the
+"_portieres_"--smoothing the tapestry half absently with one hand. I
+looked at him with concern.
+
+"I _hope_ you have not got a chill, papa," I said.
+
+But he seemed all right again when we went into the library, where tea
+was waiting--an extra late tea for his benefit.
+
+The next day Nugent went to Oxford. Nat had already returned to school.
+So our home party was reduced to father and mother, Miss Larpent, Phil
+and I, and the children.
+
+We were very glad to have Phil settled at home for some time. There was
+little fear of his being tempted away, now that the shooting had begun.
+We were expecting some of our usual guests at this season; the weather
+was perfect autumn weather; we had thrown off all remembrance of
+influenza and other depressing "influences," and were feeling bright
+and cheerful, when again--ah, yes, even now it gives me a faint, sick
+sensation to recall the horror of that _third_ visitation!
+
+But I must tell it simply, and not give way to painful remembrances.
+
+It was the very day before our first visitors were expected that the
+blow fell, the awful fear made itself felt. And, as before, the victim
+was a new one--the one who, for reasons already mentioned, we had
+specially guarded from any breath of the gruesome terror--poor little
+Sophy!
+
+What she was doing alone in the hall late that evening I cannot quite
+recall--yes, I think I remember her saying she had run downstairs when
+half-way up to bed, to fetch a book she had left there in the afternoon.
+She had no light, and the one lamp in the hall--we never sat there after
+dinner--was burning feebly. _It was bright moonlight._
+
+I was sitting at the piano, where I had been playing in a rather sleepy
+way--when a sudden touch on my shoulder made me start, and, looking up,
+I saw my sister standing beside me, white and trembling.
+
+"Leila," she whispered, "come with me quickly. I don't want mamma to
+notice."
+
+For mother was still nervous and delicate.
+
+The drawing-room is very long, and has two or three doors. No-one else
+was at our end. It was easy to make our way out unperceived. Sophy
+caught my hand and hurried me upstairs without speaking till we reached
+my own room, where a bright fire was burning cheerfully.
+
+Then she began.
+
+"Leila," she said, "I have had such an awful fright. I did not want to
+speak until we were safe up here."
+
+"What was it?" I exclaimed breathlessly. Did I already suspect the
+truth? I really do not know, but my nerves were not what they had been.
+
+Sophy gasped and began to tremble. I put my arm round her.
+
+"It does not sound so bad," she said. "But--oh, Leila, what _could_ it
+be? It was in the hall," and then I think she explained how she had come
+to be there. "I was standing near the side door into the library that we
+never use--and--all of a sudden a sort of darkness came along the wall,
+and seemed to settle on the door--where the old tapestry is, you know.
+I thought it was the shadow of something outside, for it was bright
+moonlight, and the windows were not shuttered. But in a moment I saw it
+could not be that--there is nothing to throw such a shadow. It seemed
+to wriggle about--like--like a monstrous spider, or--" and there she
+hesitated--"almost like a deformed sort of human being. And all at once,
+Leila, my breath went and I fell down. I really did. I was _choked_ with
+cold. I think my senses went away, but I am not sure. The next thing I
+remember was rushing across the hall and then down the south corridor to
+the drawing-room, and then I was so thankful to see you there by the
+piano."
+
+I drew her down on my knee, poor child.
+
+"It was very good of you, dear," I said, "to control yourself, and not
+startle mamma."
+
+This pleased her, but her terror was still uppermost.
+
+"Leila," she said piteously, "can't you explain it? I did so hope you
+could."
+
+What _could_ I say?
+
+"I--one would need to go to the hall and look well about to see what
+could cast such a shadow," I said vaguely, and I suppose I must
+involuntarily have moved a little, for Sophy started, and clutched me
+fast.
+
+"Oh, Leila, don't go--you don't mean you are going now?" she entreated.
+
+Nothing truly was farther from my thoughts, but I took care not to say
+so.
+
+"I won't leave you if you'd rather not," I said, "and I tell you what,
+Sophy, if you would like very much to sleep here with me to-night, you
+shall. I will ring and tell Freake to bring your things down and undress
+you--on one condition."
+
+"What?" she said eagerly. She was much impressed by my amiability.
+
+"That you won't say _one word_ about this, or give the least shadow of a
+hint to any one that you have had a fright. You don't know the trouble
+it will cause."
+
+"Of course I will promise to let no one know, if you think it better,
+for you are so kind to me," said Sophy. But there was a touch of
+reluctance in her tone. "You--you mean to do something about it though,
+Leila," she went on. "I shall never be able to forget it if you don't."
+
+"Yes," I said, "I shall speak to father and Phil about it to-morrow.
+If any one has been trying to frighten us," I added unguardedly, "by
+playing tricks, they certainly must be exposed."
+
+"Not _us_," she corrected, "it was only me," and I did not reply. Why I
+spoke of the possibility of a trick I scarcely know. I had no hope of
+any such explanation.
+
+But another strange, almost incredible idea was beginning to take shape
+in my mind, and with it came a faint, very faint touch of relief. Could
+it be not the _houses_, nor the _rooms_, nor, worst of all, we ourselves
+that were haunted, but something or things among the old furniture we
+had bought at Raxtrew?
+
+And lying sleepless that night a sudden flash of illumination struck
+me--could it--whatever the "it" was--could it have something to do with
+the tapestry hangings?
+
+The more I thought it over the more striking grew the coincidences. At
+Finster it had been on one of the closed doors that the shadow seemed
+to settle, as again here in our own hall. But in both cases the
+"_portieres_" had hung in front!
+
+And at the Rectory? The tapestry, as Philip had remarked, had been there
+rolled up all the time. Was it possible that it had never been taken out
+to the barn at all? What _more_ probable than that it should have been
+left, forgotten, under the bench where Miss Larpent and I had felt
+for the second time that hideous cold? And, stay, something else was
+returning to my mind in connection with that bench. Yes--I had it--Nat
+had said "it seemed to stop and fumble away in one corner--at the end
+where there is a bench, you know."
+
+And then to my unutterable thankfulness at last I fell asleep.
+
+
+PART IV.
+
+I told Philip the next morning. There was no need to bespeak his
+attention. I think he felt nearly as horrified as I had done myself at
+the idea that our own hitherto bright, cheerful home was to be haunted
+by this awful thing--influence or presence, call it what you will. And
+the suggestions which I went on to make struck him, too, with a sense of
+relief.
+
+He sat in silence for some time after making me recapitulate as
+precisely as possible every detail of Sophy's story.
+
+"You are sure it was the door into the library?" he said at last.
+
+"Quite sure," I replied; "and, oh, Philip," I went on, "it has just
+occurred to me that _father_ felt a chill there the other evening."
+
+For till that moment the little incident in question had escaped my
+memory.
+
+"Do you remember which of the "_portieres_" hung in front of the door at
+Finster?" said Philip.
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"Dormy would," I said, "he used to examine the pictures in the tapestry
+with great interest. I should not know one from the other. There is an
+old castle in the distance in each, and a lot of trees, and something
+meant for a lake."
+
+But in his turn Philip shook his head.
+
+"No," he said, "I won't speak to Dormy about it if I can possibly help
+it. Leave it to me, Leila, and try to put it out of your own mind as
+much as you possibly can, and don't be surprised at anything you may
+notice in the next few days. I will tell you, first of any one, whenever
+I have anything to tell."
+
+That was all I could get out of him. So I took his advice.
+
+Luckily, as it turned out, Mr. Miles, the only outsider, so to say
+(except the unfortunate keeper), who had witnessed the ghostly drama,
+was one of the shooting party expected that day. And him Philip at
+once determined to consult about this new and utterly unexpected
+manifestation.
+
+He did not tell me this. Indeed, it was not till fully a week later that
+I heard anything, and then in a letter--a very long letter from my
+brother, which, I think, will relate the sequel of our strange ghost
+story better than any narration at second-hand, of my own.
+
+Mr. Miles only stayed two nights with us. The very day after he
+came he announced that, to his great regret, he was obliged--most
+unexpectedly--to return to Raxtrew on important business.
+
+"And," he continued, "I am afraid you will all feel much more vexed with
+me when I tell you I am going to carry off Phil with me."
+
+Father looked very blank indeed.
+
+"Phil!" he exclaimed, "and how about our shooting?"
+
+"You can easily replace us," said my brother, "I have thought of that,"
+and he added something in a lower tone to father. He--Phil--was leaving
+the room at the time. _I_ thought it had reference to the real reason of
+his accompanying Mr. Miles, but I was mistaken. Father, however, said
+nothing more in opposition to the plan, and the next morning the two
+went off.
+
+We happened to be standing at the hall door--several of us--for we were
+a large party now--when Phil and his friend drove away. As we turned to
+re-enter the house, I felt some one touch me. It was Sophy. She was
+going out for a constitutional with Miss Larpent, but had stopped a
+moment to speak to me.
+
+"Leila," she said in a whisper, "why have they--did you know that the
+tapestry had been taken down?"
+
+She glanced at me with a peculiar expression. I had not observed it.
+Now, looking up, I saw that the two locked doors were visible in the
+dark polish of their old mahogany as of yore--no longer shrouded by the
+ancient _portieres_. I started in surprise.
+
+"No," I whispered in return, "I did not know. Never mind, Sophy. I
+suspect there is a reason for it which we shall know in good time."
+
+I felt strongly tempted--the moon being still at the full--to visit the
+hall that night--in hopes of feeling and seeing--_nothing_. But when
+the time drew near, my courage failed; besides I had tacitly promised
+Philip to think as little as I possibly could about the matter, and any
+vigil of the kind would certainly not have been acting in accordance
+with the spirit of his advice.
+
+I think I will now copy, as it stands, the letter from Philip which I
+received a week or so later. It was dated from his club in London.
+
+
+  "MY DEAR LEILA,
+
+     "I have a long story to tell you and a very extraordinary one. I
+     think it is well that it should be put into writing, so I will
+     devote this evening to the task--especially as I shall not be
+     home for ten days or so.
+
+     "You may have suspected that I took Miles into my confidence as
+     soon as he arrived. If you did you were right. He was the best
+     person to speak to for several reasons. He looked, I must say,
+     rather--well 'blank' scarcely expresses it--when I told him of
+     the ghost's re-appearance, not only at the Rectory, but in our
+     own house, and on both occasions to persons--Nat, and then
+     Sophy--who had not heard a breath of the story. But when I went
+     on to propound your suggestion, Miles cheered up. He had been,
+     I fancy, a trifle touchy about our calling Finster haunted,
+     and it was evidently a satisfaction to him to start another
+     theory. We talked it well over, and we decided to test the
+     thing again--it took some resolution, I own, to do so. We sat
+     up that night--bright moonlight luckily--and--well, I needn't
+     repeat it all. Sophy was quite correct. It came again--the
+     horrid creeping shadow--poor wretch, I'm rather sorry for it
+     now--just in the old way--quite as much at home in ----shire,
+     apparently, as in the Castle. It stopped at the closed library
+     door, and fumbled away, then started off again--ugh! We watched
+     it closely, but kept well in the middle of the room, so that
+     the cold did not strike us so badly. We both noted the special
+     part of the tapestry where its hands seemed to sprawl, and we
+     meant to stay for another round; but--when it came to the point
+     we funked it, and went to bed.
+
+     "Next morning, on pretence of examining the date of
+     the tapestry, we had it down--you were all out--and we
+     found--_something_. Just where the hands felt about, there had
+     been a cut--three cuts, three sides of a square, as it were,
+     making a sort of door in the stuff, the fourth side having
+     evidently acted as a hinge, for there was a mark where it had
+     been folded back. And just where--treating the thing as a
+     door--you might expect to find a handle to open it by, we found
+     a distinct dint in the tapestry, as if a button or knob had
+     once been there. We looked at each other. The same idea had
+     struck us. The tapestry had been used to conceal a small door
+     in the wall--the door of a secret cupboard probably. The
+     ghostly fingers had been vainly seeking for the spring which in
+     the days of their flesh and bone they had been accustomed to
+     press.
+
+     "'The first thing to do,' said Miles, 'is to look up Hunter and
+     make him tell where he got the tapestry from. Then we shall
+     see.'
+
+     "'Shall we take the _portieres_ with us?' I said.
+
+     "But Miles shuddered, though he half laughed too.
+
+     "'No, thank you,' he said. 'I'm not going to travel with the
+     evil thing.'
+
+     "'We can't hang it up again, though,' I said, 'after this last
+     experience.'
+
+     "In the end we rolled up the two _portieres_, not to attract
+     attention by only moving one, and--well, I thought it just
+     possible the ghost might make a mistake, and I did not want
+     any more scares while I was away--we rolled them up together,
+     first carefully measuring the cut, and its position in the
+     curtain, and then we hid them away in one of the lofts that no
+     one ever enters, where they are at this moment, and where the
+     ghost may have been disporting himself, for all I know, though
+     I fancy he has given it up by this time, for reasons you shall
+     hear.
+
+     "Then Miles and I, as you know, set off for Raxtrew. I smoothed
+     my father down about it, by reminding him how good-natured they
+     had been to us, and telling him Miles really needed me. We went
+     straight to Hunter. He hummed and hawed a good deal--he had
+     not distinctly promised not to give the name of the place the
+     tapestry had come from, but he knew the gentleman he had bought
+     it from did not want it known.
+
+     "'Why?' said Miles. 'Is it some family that has come down in
+     the world, and is forced to part with things to get some ready
+     money?'
+
+     "'Oh, dear no!' said Hunter. 'It is not that, at all. It
+     was only that--I suppose I must give you the name--Captain
+     Devereux--did not want any gossip to get about, as to ----'
+
+     "'Devereux!' repeated Miles, 'you don't mean the people at
+     Hallinger?'
+
+     "'The same,' said Hunter. 'If you know them, sir, you will be
+     careful, I hope, to assure the captain that I did my best to
+     carry out his wishes?'
+
+     "'Certainly,' said Miles, 'I'll exonerate you.'
+
+     "And then Hunter told us that Devereux, who only came into the
+     Hallinger property a few years ago, had been much annoyed by
+     stories getting about of the place being haunted, and this had
+     led to his dismantling one wing, and--Hunter thought, but was
+     not quite clear as to this--pulling down some rooms altogether.
+     But he, Devereux, was very touchy on the subject--he did not
+     want to be laughed at.
+
+     "'And the tapestry came from him--you are certain as to that?'
+     Miles repeated.
+
+     "'Positive, sir. I took it down with my own hands. It was
+     fitted on to two panels in what they call the round room at
+     Hallinger--there were, oh, I daresay, a dozen of them, with
+     tapestry nailed on, but I only bought these two pieces--the
+     others were sold to a London dealer.'
+
+     "'The round room,' I said. Leila, the expression struck me.
+
+     "Miles, it appeared, knew Devereux fairly well. Hallinger is
+     only ten miles off. We drove over there, but found he was in
+     London. So our next move was to follow him there. We called
+     twice at his club, and then Miles made an appointment, saying
+     that he wanted to see him on private business.
+
+     "He received us civilly, of course. He is quite a young
+     fellow--in the Guards. But when Miles began to explain to him
+     what we had come about, he stiffened.
+
+     "'I suppose you belong to the Psychical Society?' he said. 'I
+     can only repeat that I have nothing to tell, and I detest the
+     whole subject.'
+
+     "'Wait a moment,' said Miles, and as he went on I saw that
+     Devereux changed. His face grew intent with interest and a
+     queer sort of eagerness, and at last he started to his feet.
+
+     "'Upon my soul,' he said, 'I believe you've run him to earth
+     for me--the ghost, I mean, and if so, you shall have my endless
+     gratitude. I'll go down to Hallinger with you at once--this
+     afternoon, if you like, and see it out.'
+
+     "He was so excited that he spoke almost incoherently, but after
+     a bit he calmed down, and told us all he had to tell--and that
+     was a good deal--which would indeed have been nuts for the
+     Psychical Society. What Hunter had said was but a small part of
+     the whole. It appeared that on succeeding to Hallinger, on the
+     death of an uncle, young Devereux had made considerable changes
+     in the house. He had, among others, opened out a small wing--a
+     sort of round tower--which had been completely dismantled and
+     bricked up for, I think he said, over a hundred years. There
+     was some story about it. An ancestor of his--an awful
+     gambler--had used the principal room in this wing for his
+     orgies. Very queer things went on there, the finish up being
+     the finding of old Devereux dead there one night, when his
+     servants were summoned by the man he had been playing
+     with--with whom he had had an awful quarrel. This man, a low
+     fellow, probably a professional cardsharper, vowed that he had
+     been robbed of a jewel which his host had staked, and it was
+     said that a ring of great value had disappeared. But it was
+     all hushed up--Devereux had really died in a fit--though soon
+     after, for reasons only hinted at, the round tower was shut
+     up, till the present man rashly opened it again.
+
+     "Almost at once, he said, the annoyances, to use a mild term,
+     began. First one, then another of the household were terrified
+     out of their wits, just as we were, Leila. Devereux himself had
+     seen it two or three times, the 'it,' of course, being his
+     miserable old ancestor. A small man, with a big wig, and long,
+     thin, claw-like fingers. It all corresponded. Mrs. Devereux is
+     young and nervous. She could not stand it. So in the end the
+     round tower was shut up again, all the furniture and hangings
+     sold, and locally speaking, the ghost laid. That was all
+     Devereux knew.
+
+     "We started, the three of us, that very afternoon, as excited
+     as a party of schoolboys. Miles and I kept questioning
+     Devereux, but he had really no more to tell. He had never
+     thought of examining the walls of the haunted room--it was
+     wainscotted, he said--and might be lined all through with
+     secret cupboards, for all he knew. But he could not get
+     over the extraordinariness of the ghost's sticking to the
+     _tapestry_--and indeed it does rather lower one's idea of
+     ghostly intelligence.
+
+     "We went at it at once--the tower was not _bricked_ up again,
+     luckily--we got in without difficulty the next morning--Devereux
+    making some excuse to the servants, a new set who had not heard
+    of the ghost, for our eccentric proceedings. It was a tiresome
+    business. There were so many panels in the room, as Hunter had
+    said, and it was impossible to tell in which _the_ tapestry had
+    been fixed. But we had our measures, and we carefully marked a
+    line as near as we could guess at the height from the floor that
+    the cut in the _portieres_ must have been. Then we tapped and
+    pummelled and pressed imaginary springs till we were nearly sick
+    of it--there was nothing to guide us. The wainscotting was dark
+    and much shrunk and marked with age, and full of joins in the
+    wood any one of which might have meant a door.
+
+     "It was Devereux himself who found it at last. We heard an
+     exclamation from where he was standing by himself at the other
+     side of the room. He was quite white and shaky.
+
+     "'Look here,' he said, and we looked.
+
+     "Yes--there was a small deep recess, or cupboard in the
+     thickness of the wall, excellently contrived. Devereux had
+     touched the spring at last, and the door, just matching the
+     cut in the tapestry, flew open.
+
+     "Inside lay what at first we took for a packet of letters, and
+     I hoped to myself they contained nothing that would bring
+     trouble on poor Devereux. They were not letters, however, but
+     two or three incomplete packs of cards--grey and dust-thick
+     with age--and as Miles spread them out, certain markings on
+     them told their own tale. Devereux did not like it,
+     naturally--their supposed owner had been a member of his house.
+
+     "'The ghost has kept a conscience,' he said, with an attempt at
+     a laugh. 'Is there nothing more?'
+
+     "Yes--a small leather bag--black and grimy, though originally,
+     I fancy, of chamois skin. It drew with strings. Devereux pulled
+     it open, and felt inside.
+
+     "'By George!' he exclaimed. And he held out the most
+     magnificent diamond ring I have ever seen--sparkling away as if
+     it had only just come from the polisher's. 'This must be _the_
+     ring,' he said.
+
+     "And we all stared--too astonished to speak.
+
+     "Devereux closed the cupboard again, after carefully examining
+     it to make sure nothing had been left behind. He marked the
+     exact spot where he had pressed the spring so as to find it at
+     any time. Then we all left the round room, locking the door
+     securely after us.
+
+     "Miles and I spent that night at Hallinger. We sat up late
+     talking it all over. There are some queer inconsistencies about
+     the thing which will probably never be explained. First and
+     foremost--why has the ghost stuck to the tapestry instead of to
+     the actual spot he seemed to have wished to reveal? Secondly,
+     what was the connection between his visits and the full
+     moon--or is it that only by the moonlight the shade becomes
+     perceptible to human sense? Who can say?
+
+     "As to the story itself--what was old Devereux's motive in
+     concealing his own ring? Were the marked cards his, or his
+     opponent's, of which he had managed to possess himself, and had
+     secreted as testimony against the other fellow?
+
+     "I incline, and so does Miles, to this last theory, and when we
+     suggested it to Devereux, I could see it was a relief to him.
+     After all, one likes to think one's ancestors were gentlemen!
+
+     "'But what, then, has he been worrying about all this century
+     or more?' he said. 'If it were that he wanted the ring returned
+     to its real owner--supposing the fellow _had_ won it--I could
+     understand it, though such a thing would be impossible. There
+     is no record of the man at all--his name was never mentioned in
+     the story.'
+
+     "'He may want the ring restored to its proper owner all the
+     same,' said Miles. 'You are its owner, as the head of the
+     family, and it has been your ancestor's fault that it has been
+     hidden all these years. Besides, we cannot take upon ourselves
+     to explain motives in such a case. Perhaps--who knows?--the
+     poor shade could not help himself. His peregrinations may have
+     been of the nature of punishment.'
+
+     "'I hope they are over now,' said Devereux, 'for his sake and
+     everybody else's. I should be glad to think he wanted the ring
+     restored to us, but besides that, I should like to do
+     something--something _good_ you know--if it would make him
+     easier, poor old chap. I must consult Lilias.' Lilias is Mrs.
+     Devereux.
+
+     "This is all I have to tell you at present, Leila. When I come
+     home we'll have the _portieres_ up again and see what happens.
+     I want you now to read all this to my father, and if he has no
+     objection--he and my mother, of course--I should like to invite
+     Captain and Mrs. Devereux to stay a few days with us--as well
+     as Miles, as soon as I come back."
+
+Philip's wish was acceded to. It was with no little anxiety and interest
+that we awaited his return.
+
+The tapestry _portieres_ were restored to their place--and on the first
+moonlight night, my father, Philip, Captain Devereux and Mr. Miles held
+their vigil.
+
+What happened?
+
+_Nothing_--the peaceful rays lighted up the quaint landscape of
+the tapestry, undisturbed by the poor groping fingers--no gruesome
+unearthly chill as of worse than death made itself felt to the midnight
+watchers--the weary, may we not hope repentant, spirit was at rest at
+last!
+
+And never since has any one been troubled by the shadow in the
+moonlight.
+
+"I cannot help hoping," said Mrs. Devereux, when talking it over, "that
+what Michael has done may have helped to calm the poor ghost."
+
+And she told us what it was. Captain Devereux is rich, though not
+immensely so. He had the ring valued--it represented a very large sum,
+but Philip says I had better not name the figures--and then he, so to
+say, bought it from himself. And with this money he--no, again, Phil
+says I must not enter into particulars beyond saying that with it he did
+something very good, and very useful, which had long been a pet scheme
+of his wife's.
+
+Sophy is grown up now and she knows the whole story. So does our mother.
+And Dormy too has heard it all. The horror of it has quite gone. We feel
+rather proud of having been the actual witnesses of a ghostly drama.
+
+
+
+
+"THE MAN WITH THE COUGH."
+
+
+I am a German by birth and descent. My name is Schmidt. But by education
+I am quite as much an Englishman as a "Deutscher," and by affection much
+more the former. My life has been spent pretty equally between the two
+countries, and I flatter myself I speak both languages without any
+foreign accent.
+
+I count England my headquarters now: it is "home" to me. But a few years
+ago I was resident in Germany, only going over to London now and then on
+business. I will not mention the town where I lived. It is unnecessary
+to do so, and in the peculiar experience I am about to relate I think
+real names of people and places are just as well, or better, avoided.
+
+I was connected with a large and important firm of engineers. I had been
+bred up to the profession, and was credited with a certain amount of
+talent; and I was considered--and, with all modesty, I think I deserved
+the opinion--steady and reliable, so that I had already attained a fair
+position in the house, and was looked upon as a "rising man". But I was
+still young, and not quite so wise as I thought myself. I came very near
+once to making a great mess of a certain affair. It is this story which
+I am going to tell.
+
+Our house went in largely for patents--rather too largely, some thought.
+But the head partner's son was a bit of a genius in his way, and his
+father was growing old, and let Herr Wilhelm--Moritz we will call the
+family name--do pretty much as he chose. And on the whole Herr Wilhelm
+did well. He was cautious, and he had the benefit of the still greater
+caution and larger experience of Herr Gerhardt, the second partner in
+the firm.
+
+Patents and the laws which regulate them are queer things to have to do
+with. No one who has not had personal experience of the complications
+that arise could believe how far these spread and how entangled they
+become. Great acuteness as well as caution is called for if you would
+guide your patent bark safely to port--and perhaps more than anything,
+a power of holding your tongue. I was no chatterbox, nor, when on a
+mission of importance, did I go about looking as if I were bursting
+with secrets, which is, in my opinion, almost as dangerous as revealing
+them. No one, to meet me on the journeys which it often fell to my lot
+to undertake, would have guessed that I had anything on my mind but an
+easy-going young fellow's natural interest in his surroundings, though
+many a time I have stayed awake through a whole night of railway travel
+if at all doubtful about my fellow-passengers, or not dared to go to
+sleep in a hotel without a ready-loaded revolver by my pillow.
+
+For now and then--though not through me--our secrets did ooze out. And
+if, as _has_ happened, they were secrets connected with Government
+orders or contracts, there was, or but for the exertion of the greatest
+energy and tact on the part of my superiors, there _would_ have been, to
+put it plainly, the devil to pay.
+
+One morning--it was nearing the end of November--I was sent for to Herr
+Wilhelm's private room. There I found him and Herr Gerhardt before a
+table spread with papers covered with figures and calculations, and
+sheets of beautifully executed diagrams.
+
+"Lutz," said Herr Wilhelm. He had known me from childhood, and often
+called me by the abbreviation of my Christian name, which is Ludwig,
+or Louis. "Lutz, we are going to confide to you a matter of extreme
+importance. You must be prepared to start for London to-morrow."
+
+"All right, sir," I said, "I shall be ready."
+
+"You will take the express through to Calais--on the whole it is the
+best route, especially at this season. By travelling all night you will
+catch the boat there, and arrive in London so as to have a good night's
+rest, and be clear-headed for work the next morning."
+
+I bowed agreement, but ventured to make a suggestion.
+
+"If, as I infer, the matter is one of great importance," I said, "would
+it not be well for me to start sooner? I can--yes," throwing a rapid
+survey over the work I had before me for the next two days--"I can be
+ready to-night."
+
+Herr Wilhelm looked at Herr Gerhardt. Herr Gerhardt shook his head.
+
+"No," he replied; "to-morrow it must be," and then he proceeded to
+explain to me why.
+
+I need not attempt to give all the details of the matter with which I
+was entrusted. Indeed, to "lay" readers it would be impossible. Suffice
+it to say, the whole concerned a patent--that of a very remarkable and
+wonderful invention, which it was hoped and believed the Governments
+of both countries would take up. But to secure this being done in a
+thoroughly satisfactory manner it was necessary that our firm should go
+about it in concert with an English house of first-rate standing. To
+this house--the firm of Messrs. Bluestone and Fagg I will call them--I
+was to be sent with full explanations. And the next half-hour or more
+passed in my superiors going minutely into the details, so as to satisfy
+themselves that I understood. The mastering of the whole was not
+difficult, for I was well grounded technically; and like many of the
+best things the idea was essentially simple, and the diagrams were
+perfect. When the explanations were over, and my instructions duly
+noted, I began to gather together the various sheets, which were all
+numbered. But, to my surprise, Herr Gerhardt, looking over me, withdrew
+two of the most important diagrams, without which the others were
+valueless, because inexplicable.
+
+"Stay," he said; "these two, Ludwig, must be kept separate. These we
+send to-day, by registered post, direct to Bluestone and Fagg. They
+will receive them a day before they see you, and with them a letter
+announcing your arrival."
+
+I looked up in some disappointment. I had known of precautions of the
+kind being taken, but usually when the employe sent was less reliable
+than I believed myself to be. Still, I scarcely dared to demur.
+
+"Do you think that necessary?" I said respectfully. "I can assure you
+that from the moment you entrust me with the papers they shall never
+quit me day or night. And if there were any postal delay--you say time
+is valuable in this case--or if the papers were stolen in the
+transit--such things have happened--my whole mission would be
+worthless."
+
+"We do not doubt your zeal and discretion, my good Schmidt," said Herr
+Gerhardt. "But in this case we must take even extra precautions. I
+had not meant to tell you, fearing to add to the certain amount of
+nervousness and strain unavoidable in such a case, but still, perhaps
+it is best that you should know that we _have_ reason for some special
+anxiety. It has been hinted to us that some breath of this"--and he
+tapped the papers--"has reached those who are always on the watch for
+such things. We cannot be too careful."
+
+"And yet," I persisted, "you would trust the post?"
+
+"We do not trust the post," he replied. "Even if these diagrams were
+tampered with, they would be perfectly useless. And tampered with they
+will not be. But even supposing anything so wild, the rogues in question
+knowing of your departure (and they are _more_ likely to know of it than
+of our packet by post), were they in collusion with some traitor in the
+post-office, are sharp enough to guess the truth--that we have made a
+Masonic secret of it--the two separate diagrams are valueless without
+your papers; _your_ papers reveal nothing without Nos. 7 and 13."
+
+I bowed in submission. But I was, all the same, disappointed, as I said,
+and a trifle mortified.
+
+Herr Wilhelm saw it, and cheered me up.
+
+"All right, Lutz, my boy," he said. "I feel just like you--nothing I
+should enjoy more than a rush over to London, carrying the whole
+documents, and prepared for a fight with any one who tried to get hold
+of them. But Herr Gerhardt here is cooler-blooded than we are."
+
+The elder man smiled.
+
+"I don't doubt your readiness to fight, nor Ludwig's either. But it
+would be by no such honestly brutal means as open robbery that we should
+be outwitted. Make friends readily with no one while travelling, Lutz,
+yet avoid the appearance of keeping yourself aloof. You understand?"
+
+"Perfectly," I said. "I shall sleep well to-night, so as to be prepared
+to keep awake throughout the journey."
+
+The papers were then carefully packed up. Those consigned to my care
+were to be carried in a certain light, black handbag with a very good
+lock, which had often before been my travelling companion.
+
+And the following evening I started by the express train agreed upon.
+So, at least, I have always believed, but I have never been able to
+bring forward a witness to the fact of my train at the start being the
+right one, as no one came with me to see me off. For it was thought best
+that I should depart in as unobtrusive a manner as possible, as, even in
+a large town such as ours, the members and employes of an old and
+important house like the Moritzes' were well known.
+
+I took my ticket then, registering no luggage, as I had none but what I
+easily carried in my hand, as well as _the_ bag. It was already dusk, if
+not dark, and there was not much bustle in the station, nor apparently
+many passengers. I took my place in an empty second-class compartment,
+and sat there quietly till the train should start. A few minutes before
+it did so, another man got in. I was somewhat annoyed at this, as in my
+circumstances nothing was more undesirable than travelling alone with
+one other. Had there been a crowded compartment, or one with three or
+four passengers, I would have chosen it; but at the moment I got in, the
+carriages were all either empty or with but one or two occupants. Now, I
+said to myself, I should have done better to wait till nearer the time
+of departure, and then chosen my place.
+
+I turned to reconnoitre my companion, but I could not see his face
+clearly, as he was half leaning out of the window. Was he doing so on
+purpose? I said to myself, for naturally I was in a suspicious mood. And
+as the thought struck me I half started up, determined to choose another
+compartment. Suddenly a peculiar sound made itself heard. My companion
+was coughing. He drew his head in, covering his face with his hand, as
+he coughed again. You never heard such a curious cough. It was more like
+a hen clucking than anything I can think of. Once, twice he coughed;
+then, as if he had been waiting for the slight spasm to pass, he sprang
+up, looked eagerly out of the window again, and, opening the door,
+jumped out, with some exclamation, as if he had just caught sight of a
+friend.
+
+And in another moment or two--he could barely have had time to get in
+elsewhere--much to my satisfaction, the train moved off.
+
+"Now," thought I, "I can make myself comfortable for some hours. We do
+not stop till M----: it will be nine o'clock by then. If no one gets in
+there I am safe to go through till to-morrow alone; then there will only
+be ---- Junction, and a clear run to Calais."
+
+I unstrapped my rug and lit a cigar--of course I had chosen a
+smoking-carriage--and, delighted at having got rid of my clucking
+companion, the time passed pleasantly till we pulled up at M----. The
+delay there was not great, and to my enormous satisfaction no one
+molested my solitude. Evidently the express to Calais was not in very
+great demand that night. I now felt so secure that, notwithstanding my
+intention of keeping awake all night, my innermost consciousness had not
+I suppose quite resigned itself to the necessity, for, not more than a
+hour or so after leaving M----, possibly sooner, I fell fast asleep.
+
+It seemed to me that I had slept heavily, for when I awoke I had great
+difficulty in remembering where I was. Only by slow degrees did I
+realise that I was not in my comfortable bed at home, but in a chilly,
+ill-lighted railway-carriage. Chilly--yes, that it was--very chilly; but
+as my faculties returned I remembered my precious bag, and forgot all
+else in a momentary terror that it had been taken from me. No; there it
+was--my elbow had been pressed against it as I slept. But how was this?
+The train was not in motion. We were standing in a station; a dingy
+deserted-looking place, with no cheerful noise or bustle; only one or
+two porters slowly moving about, with a sort of sleepy "night duty,"
+surly air. It could not be the Junction? I looked at my watch. Barely
+midnight! Of course, not the Junction. We were not due there till four
+o'clock in the morning or so.
+
+What, then, were we doing here, and what _was_ "here"? Had there been
+an accident--some unforeseen necessity for stopping? At that moment a
+curious sound, from some yards' distance only it seemed to come, caught
+my ear. It was that croaking, cackling cough!--the cough of my momentary
+fellow-passenger, towards whom I had felt an instinctive aversion. I
+looked out of the window--there was a refreshment-room just opposite,
+dimly lighted, like everything else, and in the doorway, as if just
+entering, was a figure which I felt pretty sure was that of the man with
+the cough.
+
+"Bah!" I said to myself, "I must not be fanciful. I daresay the fellow's
+all right. He is evidently in the same hole as myself. What in Heaven's
+name are we waiting here for?"
+
+I sprang out of the carriage, nearly tumbling over a porter slowly
+passing along.
+
+"How long are we to stay here?" I cried. "When do we start again for
+----?" and I named the Junction.
+
+"For ----" he repeated in the queerest German I ever heard--was it
+German? or did I discover his meaning by some preternatural cleverness
+of my own? "There is no train for ---- for four or five hours, not
+till----" and he named the time; and leaning forward lazily, he took
+out my larger bag and my rug, depositing them on the platform. He did
+not seem the least surprised at finding me there--I might have been
+there for a week, it seemed to me.
+
+"No train for five hours? Are you mad?" I said.
+
+He shook his head and mumbled something, and it seemed to me that he
+pointed to the refreshment-room opposite. Gathering my things together I
+hurried thither, hoping to find some more reliable authority. But there
+was no one there except a fat man with a white apron, who was clearing
+the counter--and--yes, in one corner was the figure I had mentally
+dubbed "The man with the cough".
+
+I addressed the cook or waiter--whichever he was. But he only shook his
+head--denied all knowledge of the trains, but informed me that--in other
+words--I must turn out; he was going to shut up.
+
+"And where am I to spend the night, then?" I said angrily, though
+clearly it was not the aproned individual who was responsible for the
+position in which I found myself.
+
+There was a "Restauration," he informed me, near at hand, which I
+should find still open, straight before me on leaving the station, and
+then a few doors to the right, I would see the lights.
+
+Clearly there was nothing else to be done. I went out, and as I did so
+the silent figure in the corner rose also and followed me. The station
+was evidently going to bed. As I passed the porter I repeated the hour
+he had named, adding: "That is the first train for ---- Junction?"
+
+He nodded, again naming the exact time. But I cannot do so, as I have
+never been able to recollect it.
+
+I trudged along the road--there were lamps, though very feeble ones; but
+by their light I saw that the man who had been in the refreshment-room
+was still a few steps behind me. It made me feel slightly nervous, and I
+looked round furtively once or twice; the last time I did so he was not
+to be seen, and I hoped he had gone some other way.
+
+The "Restauration" was scarcely more inviting than the station
+refreshment-room. It, too, was very dimly lighted, and the one or two
+attendants seemed half asleep and were strangely silent. There was a
+fire, of a kind, and I seated myself at a small table near it and asked
+for some coffee, which would, I thought, serve the double purpose of
+warming me and keeping me awake.
+
+It was brought me, in silence. I drank it, and felt the better for it.
+But there was something so gloomy and unsociable, so queer and almost
+weird about the whole aspect and feeling of the place, that a sort of
+irritable resignation took possession of me. If these surly folk won't
+speak, neither will I, I said to myself childishly. And, incredible as
+it may sound, I did _not_ speak. I think I paid for the coffee, but I am
+not quite sure. I know I never asked what I had meant to ask--the name
+of the town--a place of some importance, to judge by the size of the
+station and the extent of twinkling lights I had observed as I made my
+way to the "Restauration". From that day to this I have never been able
+to identify it, and I am quite sure I never shall.
+
+What was there peculiar about that coffee? Or was it something peculiar
+about my own condition that caused it to have the unusual effect I now
+experienced? That question, too, I cannot answer. All I remember is
+feeling a sensation of irresistible drowsiness creeping over me--mental,
+or moral I may say, as well as physical. For when one part of me feebly
+resisted the first onslaught of sleep, something seemed to reply: "Oh,
+nonsense! you have several hours before you. Your papers are all right.
+No one can touch them without awaking you."
+
+And dreamily conscious that my belongings were on the floor at my
+feet--_the_ bag itself actually resting against my ankle--my scruples
+silenced themselves in an extraordinary way. I remember nothing more,
+save a vague consciousness through all my slumber of confused and
+chaotic dreams, which I have never been able to recall.
+
+I awoke at last, and that with a start, almost a jerk. Something had
+awakened me--a sound--and as it was repeated to my now aroused ears I
+knew that I had heard it before, off and on, during my sleep. It was the
+extraordinary cough!
+
+I looked up. Yes, there he was! At some two or three yards' distance
+only, at the other side of the fireplace, which, and this I have
+forgotten to mention as another peculiar item in that night's peculiar
+experiences, considering I have every reason to believe I was still in
+Germany, was not a stove, but an open grate.
+
+And he had not been there when I first fell asleep; to that I was
+prepared to swear.
+
+"He must have come sneaking in after me," I thought, and in all
+probability I should neither have noticed nor recognised him but for
+that traitorous cackle of his.
+
+Now, my misgivings aroused, my first thought, of course, was for my
+precious charge. I stooped. There were my rugs, my larger bag, but--no,
+not the smaller one; and though the other two were there, I knew at
+once that they were not quite in the same position--not so close to me.
+Horror seized me. Half wildly I gazed around, when my silent neighbour
+bent towards me. I could declare there was nothing in his hand when he
+did so, and I could declare as positively that I had already looked
+under the small round table beside which I sat, and that the bag was not
+there. And yet when the man, with a slight cackle, caused, no doubt, by
+his stooping, raised himself, the thing was in his hand!
+
+Was he a conjurer, a pupil of Maskelyne and Cook? And how was it that,
+even as he held out my missing property, he managed, and that most
+cleverly and unobtrusively, to prevent my catching sight of his face? I
+did not see it then--I never did see it!
+
+Something he murmured, to the effect that he supposed the bag was what I
+was looking for. In what language he spoke I know not; it was more that
+by the action accompanying the mumbled sounds I gathered his meaning,
+than that I heard anything articulate.
+
+I thanked him, of course, mechanically, so to say, though I began to
+feel as if he were an evil spirit haunting me. I could only hope that
+the splendid lock to the bag had defied all curiosity, but I felt in a
+fever to be alone again, and able to satisfy myself that nothing had
+been tampered with.
+
+The thought recalled my wandering faculties. How long had I been asleep?
+I drew out my watch. Heavens! It was close upon the hour named for the
+first train in the morning. I sprang up, collected my things, and dashed
+out of the "Restauration". If I had not paid for my coffee before, I
+certainly did not pay for it then. Besides my haste, there was another
+reason for this--there was no one to pay to! Not a creature was to be
+seen in the room or at the door as I passed out--always excepting the
+man with the cough.
+
+As I left the place and hurried along the road, a bell began, not to
+ring, but to toll. It sounded most uncanny. What it meant, of course, I
+have never known. It may have been a summons to the workpeople of some
+manufactory, it may have been like all the other experiences of that
+strange night. But no; this theory I will not at present enter upon.
+
+Dawn was not yet breaking, but there was in one direction a faint
+suggestion of something of the kind not far off. Otherwise all was dark.
+I stumbled along as best as I could, helped in reality, I suppose, by
+the ugly yellow glimmer of the woebegone street, or road lamps. And it
+was not far to the station, though somehow it seemed farther than when I
+came; and somehow, too, it seemed to have grown steep, though I could
+not remember having noticed any slope the other way on my arrival. A
+nightmare-like sensation began to oppress me. I felt as if my luggage
+was growing momentarily heavier and heavier, as if I should _never_
+reach the station; and to this was joined the agonising terror of
+missing the train.
+
+I made a desperate effort. Cold as it was, the beads of perspiration
+stood out upon my forehead as I forced myself along. And by degrees the
+nightmare feeling cleared off. I found myself entering the station at a
+run just as--yes, a train was actually beginning to move! I dashed,
+baggage and all, into a compartment; it was empty, and it was a
+second-class one, precisely similar to the one I had occupied before; it
+might have been the very same one. The train gradually increased its
+speed, but for the first few moments, while still in the station and
+passing through its immediate _entourage_, another strange thing struck
+me--the extraordinary silence and lifelessness of all about. Not one
+human being did I see, no porter watching our departure with the
+faithful though stolid interest always to be seen on the porter's
+visage. I might have been alone in the train--it might have had a
+freight of the dead, and been itself propelled by some supernatural
+agency, so noiselessly, so gloomily did it proceed.
+
+You will scarcely credit that I actually and for the third time fell
+asleep. I could not help it. Some occult influence was at work upon me
+throughout those dark hours, I am positively certain. And with the
+daylight it was dispelled. For when I again awoke I felt for the first
+time since leaving home completely and normally myself, fresh and
+vigorous, all my faculties at their best.
+
+But, nevertheless, my first sensation was a start of amazement, almost
+of terror. The compartment was nearly full! There were at least five or
+six travellers besides myself, very respectable, ordinary-looking folk,
+with nothing in the least alarming about them. Yet it was with a gasp of
+extraordinary relief that I found my precious bag in the corner beside
+me, where I had carefully placed it. It was concealed from view. No one,
+I felt assured, could have touched it without awaking me.
+
+It was broad and bright daylight. How long had I slept?
+
+"Can you tell me," I inquired of my opposite neighbour, a cheery-faced
+compatriot--"Can you tell me how soon we get to ---- Junction by this
+train? I am most anxious to catch the evening mail at Calais, and am
+quite out in my reckonings, owing to an extraordinary delay at ----. I
+have wasted the night by getting into a stopping train instead of the
+express."
+
+He looked at me in astonishment. He must have thought me either mad or
+just awaking from a fit of intoxication--only I flatter myself I did
+not look as if the latter were the case.
+
+"How soon we get to ---- Junction?" he repeated. "Why, my good sir, you
+left it about three hours ago! It is now eight o'clock. We all got in at
+the Junction. You were alone, if I mistake not?"--he glanced at one or
+two of the others, who endorsed his statement. "And very fast asleep
+you were, and must have been, not to be disturbed by the bustle at the
+station. And as for catching the evening boat at Calais"--he burst into
+a loud guffaw--"why, it would be very hard lines to do no better than
+that! _We_ all hope to cross by the mid-day one."
+
+"Then--what train _is_ this?" I exclaimed, utterly perplexed.
+
+"The express, of course. All of us, excepting yourself, joined it at the
+Junction," he replied.
+
+"The express?" I repeated. "The express that leaves"--and I named my own
+town--"at six in the evening?"
+
+"Exactly. You have got into the right train after all," and here came
+another shout of amusement. "How did you think we had all got in if you
+had not yet passed the Junction? You had not the pleasure of our
+company from M----, I take it? M----, which you passed at nine o'clock
+last night, if my memory is correct."
+
+"Then," I persisted, "this is the double-fast express, which does not
+stop between M---- and your Junction?"
+
+"Exactly," he repeated; and then, confirmed most probably in his belief
+that I was mad, or the other thing, he turned to his newspaper, and left
+me to my extraordinary cogitations.
+
+Had I been dreaming? Impossible! Every sensation, the very taste of
+the coffee, seemed still present with me--the curious accent of the
+officials at the mysterious town, I could perfectly recall. I still
+shivered at the remembrance of the chilly waking in the "Restauration";
+I heard again the cackling cough.
+
+But I felt I must collect myself, and be ready for the important
+negotiation entrusted to me. And to do this I must for the time banish
+these fruitless efforts at solving the problem.
+
+We had a good run to Calais, found the boat in waiting, and a fair
+passage brought us prosperously across the Channel. I found myself in
+London punctual to the intended hour of my arrival.
+
+At once I drove to the lodgings in a small street off the Strand which I
+was accustomed to frequent in such circumstances. I felt nervous till I
+had an opportunity of thoroughly overhauling my documents. The bag had
+been opened by the Custom House officials, but the words "private
+papers" had sufficed to prevent any further examination; and to my
+unspeakable delight they were intact. A glance satisfied me as to this
+the moment I got them out, for they were most carefully numbered.
+
+The next morning saw me early on my way to--No. 909, we will
+say--Blackfriars Street, where was the office of Messrs. Bluestone &
+Fagg. I had never been there before, but it was easy to find, and had I
+felt any doubt, their name stared me in the face at the side of the open
+doorway. "Second-floor" I thought I read; but when I reached the first
+landing I imagined I must have been mistaken. For there, at a door ajar,
+stood an eminently respectable-looking gentleman, who bowed as he saw
+me, with a discreet smile.
+
+"Herr Schmidt?" he said. "Ah, yes; I was on the look-out for you."
+
+I felt a little surprised, and my glance involuntarily strayed to the
+doorway. There was no name upon it, and it appeared to have been freshly
+painted. My new friend saw my glance.
+
+"It is all right," he said; "we have the painters here. We are using
+these lower rooms temporarily. I was watching to prevent your having the
+trouble of mounting to the second-floor."
+
+And as I followed him in, I caught sight of a painter's ladder--a small
+one--on the stair above, and the smell was also unmistakable.
+
+The large outer office looked bare and empty, but under the
+circumstances that was natural. No one was, at the first glance, to be
+seen; but behind a dulled glass partition screening off one corner I
+fancied I caught sight of a seated figure. And an inner office, to which
+my conductor led the way, had a more comfortable and inhabited look.
+Here stood a younger man. He bowed politely.
+
+"Mr. Fagg, my junior," said the first individual airily. "And now, Herr
+Schmidt, to business at once, if you please. Time is everything. You
+have all the documents ready?"
+
+I answered by opening my bag and spreading out its contents. Both men
+were very grave, almost taciturn; but as I proceeded to explain things
+it was easy to see that they thoroughly understood all I said.
+
+"And now," I went on, when I had reached a certain point, "if you will
+give me Nos. 7 and 13 which you have already received by registered
+post, I can put you in full possession of the whole. Without them, of
+course, all I have said is, so to say, preliminary only."
+
+The two looked at each other.
+
+"Of course," said the elder man, "I follow what you say. The key of the
+whole is wanting. But I was momentarily expecting you to bring it out.
+We have not--Fagg, I am right, am I not--we have received nothing by
+post?"
+
+"Nothing whatever," replied his junior. And the answer seemed simplicity
+itself. Why did a strange thrill of misgiving go through me? Was it
+something in the look that had passed between them? Perhaps so. In any
+case, strange to say, the inconsistency between their having received no
+papers and yet looking for my arrival at the hour mentioned in the
+letter accompanying the documents, and accosting me by name, did not
+strike me till some hours later.
+
+I threw off what I believed to be my ridiculous mistrust, and it was
+not difficult to do so in my extreme annoyance.
+
+"I cannot understand it," I said. "It is really too bad. Everything
+depends upon 7 and 13. I must telegraph at once for inquiries to be
+instituted at the post-office."
+
+"But your people must have duplicates," said Fagg eagerly. "These can be
+forwarded at once."
+
+"I hope so," I said, though feeling strangely confused and worried.
+
+"They must send them direct _here_," he went on.
+
+I did not at once answer. I was gathering my papers together.
+
+"And in the meantime," he proceeded, touching my bag, "you had better
+leave _these_ here. We will lock them up in the safe at once. It is
+better than carrying them about London."
+
+It certainly seemed so. I half laid down the bag on the table, but at
+that moment from the outer room a most peculiar sound caught my ears--a
+faint cackling cough! I _think_ I concealed my start. I turned away as
+if considering Fagg's suggestion, which, to confess the truth, I had
+been on the very point of agreeing to. For it would have been a great
+relief to me to know that the papers were in safe custody. But now a
+flash of lurid light seemed to have transformed everything.
+
+"I thank you," I replied. "I should be glad to be free from the
+responsibility of the charge, but I dare not let these out of my own
+hands till the agreement is formally signed."
+
+The younger man's face darkened. He assumed a bullying tone.
+
+"I don't know how it strikes _you_, Mr. Bluestone," he said, "but it
+seems to me that this young gentleman is going rather too far. Do you
+think your employers will be pleased to hear of your insulting us, sir?"
+
+But the elder man smiled condescendingly, though with a touch of
+superciliousness. It was very well done. He waved his hand.
+
+"Stay, my dear Mr. Fagg; we can well afford to make allowance. You will
+telegraph at once, no doubt, Herr Schmidt, and--let me see--yes, we
+shall receive the duplicates of Nos. 7 and 13 by first post on Thursday
+morning."
+
+I bowed.
+
+"Exactly," I replied, as I lifted the now locked bag. "And you may
+expect me at the same hour on Thursday morning."
+
+Then I took my departure, accompanied to the door by the urbane
+individual who had received me.
+
+The telegram which I at once despatched was not couched precisely as he
+would have dictated, I allow. And he would have been considerably
+surprised at my sending off another, later in the day, to Bluestone &
+Fagg's telegraphic address, in these words:---
+
+"Unavoidably detained till Thursday morning.--SCHMIDT."
+
+This was _after_ the arrival of a wire from home in answer to mine.
+
+By Thursday morning I had had time to receive a letter from Herr
+Wilhelm, and to secure the services of a certain noted detective,
+accompanied by whom I presented myself at the appointed hour at 909. But
+my companion's services were not required. The birds had flown, warned
+by the same traitor in our camp through whom the first hints of the new
+patent had leaked out. With him it was easy to deal, poor wretch! but
+the clever rogues who had employed him and personated the members of the
+honourable firm of Bluestone & Fagg were never traced.
+
+The negotiation was successfully carried out. The experience I had gone
+through left me a wiser man. It is to be hoped, too, that the owners of
+909 Blackfriars Street were more cautious in the future as to whom they
+let their premises to when temporarily vacant. The re-painting of the
+doorway, etc., at the tenant's own expense had already roused some
+slight suspicion.
+
+It is needless to add that Nos. 7 and 13 had been duly received on the
+second-floor.
+
+I have never known the true history of that extraordinary night. Was it
+all a dream, or a prophetic vision of warning? Or was it in any sense
+true? _Had_ I, in some inexplicable way, left my own town earlier than I
+intended, and really travelled in a slow train?
+
+Or had the man with a cough, for his own nefarious purposes, mesmerised
+or hypnotised me, and to some extent succeeded?
+
+I cannot say. Sometimes, even, I ask myself if I am quite sure that
+there ever was such a person as "the man with the cough"!
+
+
+
+
+"HALF-WAY BETWEEN THE STILES."
+
+(A RIGHT-OF-WAY INCIDENT.)
+
+
+By the road, Scarby village is good three miles from Colletwood, the
+nearest town and railway station. But there is a short cut over the
+hills for foot passengers. _Over_ the hills they call it, but _between_
+the hills would be more correct, for there is a sort of tableland once
+you have climbed a short, steep bit up from the town, which extends
+nearly to Scarby, sloping gradually down to the village.
+
+And on each side of this tableland the hills rise again, north and
+south, much higher to the north than to the south. So this flat stretch,
+though at some considerable height, is neither bleak nor exposed, being
+sheltered on the colder side, and fairly open to the sunshine south and
+west.
+
+It is a pleasant place, and so it must have been considered in the old
+days; for a large monastery stood there once, of which the ruins are
+still to be seen, and of which the memory is still preserved in the
+name--"Monksholdings".
+
+Pleasant, but a trifle inconvenient, as the only carriage-road makes a
+great round from Colletwood, winding along the base of the hill on the
+north side till it reaches the village, then up again by the gradual
+slope, half a mile or so--a drive in all of three to four miles,
+whereas, as the bird flies or the pedestrian walks, the distance from
+the town is barely a quarter of that.
+
+In the old days there was probably no road at all, the hill-path
+doubtless serving all requirements. Naturally enough, therefore, it came
+to be looked upon as entirely public property, and people forgot--if,
+indeed, any one had ever thought of it--that though the monastery was a
+ruin, the once carefully kept land round about the old dwelling-place of
+Monksholdings was still private property.
+
+And the sensation was great when suddenly the news reached the
+neighbourhood that this "unique estate," as the agents called it, was
+sold--sold by the old Duke of Scarshire, who scarcely remembered that
+he owned it, to a man who meant to live on it, to build a house which
+should be a home for several months of the year for himself and his
+family.
+
+There was considerable growling and grumbling; and this rose to its
+height when a rumour got about that the hill-path--such part of it, that
+is to say, as lay within the actual demesne--was to be closed--_must_ be
+closed, if the site already chosen for the new house was to be retained;
+for the house would actually stand upon the old foot-track, and there
+could be no two opinions that this position had been well and wisely
+selected.
+
+Things grew warlike, boding no agreeable reception for the newcomers--a
+Mr. Raynald and his family, newcomers to England, it was said, as well
+as to Scarshire. Every one plunged into questions of right-of-way; the
+local legalities raised and discussed knotty points; Colletwood and
+Scarby were aflame. But it all ended, flatly enough, in a compromise!
+
+Mr. Raynald turned out to be one of the most reasonable and courteous of
+men. He came, saw, and--conquered. The goodwill of his future neighbours
+was won e'er he knew he had risked its loss. Henceforward congratulations,
+reciprocated and repeated, on the charming additions to Scarby society
+were the order of the day, and the _detour_, skirting the south boundary
+of the Monksholdings grounds, which the footpath was now inveigled into
+making, was voted "a great improvement".
+
+And in due time the mansion rose.
+
+"A great improvement" also, to the aspect of the surrounding landscape.
+It was in perfectly good taste--unpretentious and quietly picturesque.
+It might have been there always for any jarring protest to the contrary.
+
+And just half-way along the old foot-track, that is to say, between the
+two stiles which let the traveller to or from Scarby in or out of the
+Monksholdings demesne, stood Sybil Raynald's grand piano!
+
+The stiles remained as an interesting survival; but they were made use
+of by no one not bound for the house itself. And beside each was a
+gate--a good oaken gate, that suited the place, as did everything about
+it; and beside each gate a quaint miniature dwelling, one of which came
+to be known as the east, and the other as the west, Monksholdings lodge.
+
+The first time the Raynalds came down to their new home they made but
+a short stay there. It was already late in the season, and though the
+preceding summer had been a magnificent one for drying fresh walls and
+plaster, it would scarcely have done to risk damp or chilly weather in
+so recently-built a house.
+
+They stayed long enough to confirm the favourable impression the head of
+the family had already made, and to lead themselves to look forward with
+pleasure to a less curtailed stay in Scarshire.
+
+The last morning of their visit, Sybil, the eldest daughter, up and
+about betimes, turned to her father, when she had taken her place beside
+him at the breakfast-table, with a suspicion of annoyance on her usually
+cheerful face.
+
+"Papa," she said, "I have seen that old man _again_, leaning on the
+stile by the Scarby lodge and looking in--along the drive--_so_ queerly.
+I don't quite like it. It gave me rather a ghosty feeling; or else he is
+out of his mind."
+
+Her brother, Mark by name, began to laugh, after the manner of brothers.
+
+"How very oddly you express yourself!" he said. "I should like to
+experience 'a ghosty feeling'. A ghost is just what this place wants to
+make it perfect. But it should be the spirit of one of the original
+monks."
+
+Mr. Raynald turned to his son rather sharply.
+
+"I don't want any nonsense of that kind set about, Mark," he said. "It
+would frighten the younger children when they come down here. I will ask
+about the old man. It is quite possible he is half-witted, or something
+of that sort. I forgot about it when Sybil mentioned it before. But no
+doubt he is perfectly harmless. Has no one seen him but you, Sybil?"
+
+The girl shook her head.
+
+"None of _us_," she replied. "And I wasn't exactly frightened. There was
+something very pathetic about him. He looked at me closely, murmuring
+some words, and then shook his head. That was all."
+
+But just then her father was called away to give some last directions,
+and in the bustle of hurry to catch their train the matter passed from
+the minds of the younger as well as the elder members of the family.
+
+It returned to Sybil's memory, however, when she found herself in their
+London house again, and called upon by her younger sisters to relate
+every detail of Monksholdings and its neighbourhood. But mindful of her
+father's warning, she said nothing to Esther or Annis of the figure at
+the gate. It was only to Miss March--Ellinor March--the dearly-loved
+governess, who was more friend than teacher to her three pupils, that
+she spoke of it, late in the evening, when the younger ones had gone to
+bed, and her father and mother were busy with Indian letters in Mr.
+Raynald's study.
+
+The two girls, we may say--for Ellinor was still some years under
+thirty--were alone in the drawing-room. Ellinor had been playing
+something tender and faintly weird--it died away under her fingers, and
+she sat on at the piano in silence.
+
+Sybil spoke suddenly.
+
+"That is _so_ melancholy," she said, "something so long ago about it,
+like the ghost of a sorrow rather than a sorrow itself. I know--I know
+what it makes me think of. Listen, Ellinor."
+
+For out of school hours the two threw formality aside. And Sybil told of
+the sad, wistful old face looking over the stile.
+
+"Now it has come back to me," she said, "I can't forget it."
+
+Ellinor, too, was impressed.
+
+"Yes," she said, "it sounds very pitiful. Who knows what tragedy is
+bound up in it?" and she sighed.
+
+Sybil understood her. Miss March's own history was a strange one.
+
+"We must find out about it when we go down to Monksholdings next year,"
+she said.
+
+"And perhaps," added Ellinor, "even if he is half-witted, we might do
+something to comfort the poor man."
+
+Sybil hesitated.
+
+"Then you don't think he can be a ghost?" she said, looking half ashamed
+of the suggestion.
+
+Miss March smiled--her smile was sad.
+
+"In one sense, no, I should think it highly improbable; in another, yes,
+there must be the ghost of some great sorrow about the face you
+describe," she said.
+
+So there was.
+
+This is the story.
+
+At the farther end of Scarby village--the farther end, that is to say,
+from Monksholdings and the path between the hills--the road drops
+again somewhat suddenly. Only for a short distance, however; Mayling
+Farm--"Giles's" as it is colloquially called--which is the first house
+you come to when you reach level ground again, being by no means low
+lying.
+
+On the contrary, the west windows command a grand view of the great
+Scarshire plain beneath, bordered by the faint hazy blue, scarcely to be
+distinguished from clouds, of the long range of hills concealing the
+far-off glimmer of the ocean, which otherwise might sometimes be
+perceptible.
+
+Mayling is a very old place, and the Giles's had been there "always," so
+to speak--steady-going, unambitious, save as regards their farming and
+its success; they had been just the make of men to settle on to their
+ground as if it and they could have no existence apart. A fine race
+physically as well as morally, though some twenty-five years or so
+before the Raynalds bought Monksholdings, a run of ill luck, a whole
+chapter of casualties, had brought them down to but one representative,
+and he scarcely the typical Farmer Giles of Mayling.
+
+This was Barnett, the youngest of four stalwart sons; the youngest and
+the only survivor. He was already forty when his father died, earnestly
+commending to him the "old place," which even at eighty the aged farmer
+felt himself better fitted to manage than the somewhat delicate,
+sensitive man whom his brothers had made good-natured fun of in his
+youth as a "book-worm".
+
+But Barnett was intelligent and sensible, and he rose to the occasion.
+Circumstances helped him. The year after old Giles's death Barnett for
+the first time fell in love, wisely and well. His affection was bestowed
+on a worthy object--Marion Grover, the daughter of a yeoman in the next
+county--and was fully returned.
+
+Marion was years younger than her lover, fifteen at least, eminently
+practical, healthy, and pretty. She brought her husband just exactly
+what he was most in need of--brightness, energy, and youth. It was an
+ideal marriage, and everything prospered at Mayling. Four years after
+the advent of the new Mrs. Giles you would scarcely have recognised the
+farmer, he seemed another man.
+
+He adored his wife, and could hardly find it in his heart to regret that
+their child was not a son, even though, failing an heir, the old name
+must die out; for if there was one creature the husband and wife loved
+more than each other it was their baby girl.
+
+A month or two after this child's second birthday the singular
+catastrophe occurred which changed the world to poor Barnett Giles,
+leaving him but a wreck of his former self, physically and mentally.
+
+Young Mrs. Giles was strong in every way, and from the first she took
+the line of saving her husband all extra fatigue or annoyance which
+she could possibly hoist on to her own brave shoulders. There was
+something quaint and even pathetic in the relations of the couple. For,
+notwithstanding Marion's being so much Barnett's junior, her attitude
+towards him had a decided suggestion of the maternal about it, though at
+times of real emergency his sound judgment and advice never failed her.
+It was within a week or two of Christmas; the weather was bitingly,
+raspingly cold. And though as yet no snow had fallen, the weather-wise
+were predicting it daily.
+
+"I _must_ go over to Colletwood this week," said Mrs. Giles, "and I must
+take Nelly. Her new coat is waiting to be tried at the dressmaker's, and
+I must get her some boots and several other things before Christmas. And
+there is a whole list of other shopping too--all our Christmas presents
+to see to."
+
+Her husband was looking out of the window, it was still very early in
+the day.
+
+"I doubt if the snow will hold off much longer," he said.
+
+"And once it begins it may be heavy," his wife replied, "and then I
+might not be able to go for ever so long, even by the road,"--for a deep
+fall of snow at Scarby was practically a stoppage to all traffic. "I'll
+tell you what, Barnett, we'll go to-day and make sure of it. I will put
+other things aside and start before noon. A couple of hours, or three at
+the most, will do everything, and then Nelly and I will be back long
+before dark. You'll come to meet us, won't you?"
+
+"Of course I will--if you go. But," and again he glanced at the sky.
+The morning was, so far, clear and bright, though very cold, but over
+towards the north there was a suspicious look about the blue-grey
+clouds. "I don't know," he said, "but that you'd better wait till
+to-morrow and see if it blows off again."
+
+But Marion shook her head.
+
+"I've a feeling," she said, "that if I don't go to-day, I won't go at
+all. And I really must. I'll take Betsy to carry the child till we're
+just above the town, and then send her home, so as not to be tired for
+coming back. Not that I'm _ever_ tired, as you know," with a smile.
+
+He gave in, only stipulating that at all costs they should start to
+return by a certain hour, unless the snow should have already begun, in
+which case Marion was to run no risks, but either to hire a fly to bring
+her home by the road, or to stay in the town with some of her friends
+till the weather cleared again.
+
+"And I'll meet you," he added. "Let us set our watches together--I'll
+start from here so as to be at--let me see----"
+
+"Half-way between the stiles," said Marion. "We can each see the other
+from one stile to the opposite one, you know, even though it's a good
+bit of a way. Yes, dear, I'll time it as near as I can to meet half-way
+between the stiles."
+
+And with these words the last on her lips, she set off, a picture of
+health and happiness--little Nelly crowing back to "Dada" from over
+stout Betsy's shoulder.
+
+Betsy was home again within the hour.
+
+But the mother and child--alas and alas! It was the immortal story of
+"Lucy Gray" in an almost more pathetic shape.
+
+Farmer Giles, as I have said, was a studious, often absent-minded man.
+There was not much to do at that season and in such weather, and what
+there was, some amount of supervision on his part was enough for. After
+his early dinner he got out his books for an hour or two's quiet reading
+till it should be time to set off to meet his darlings. No fear of his
+forgetting _that_ time, but till the clock struck, and he saw it was
+approaching nearly, he never looked out--he was unconscious of the rapid
+growth of the lurid, steely clouds; he had no idea that the snowflakes
+were already falling, falling, more and more closely and thickly with
+each instant that passed.
+
+Then rose the storm spirit and issued his orders--all too quickly
+obeyed. Before Barnett Giles had left the village street he found
+himself in what now-a-days would be called a "blizzard". And his pale
+face grew paler, and his heart beat as if to choke him, when at last he
+reached the first stile and stood there panting, to regain his breath.
+It was all he could do to battle on through the fury of the wind, the
+blinding, whirling snow, which seemed to envelop him as if in sheets.
+Not for many and many a day will that awful snowstorm be forgotten in
+Scarshire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was at the appointed trysting place they found him--"half-way between
+the stiles". But not till late that evening, when Betsy, more alarmed by
+his absence than by her mistress's not returning, at last struggled out
+through the deep-lying snow to alarm the nearest neighbours.
+
+"The missis and Miss Nell will have stayed the night in the town," she
+said. "But I misdoubt me if the master will ever have got so far, though
+he may have been tempted on when he did not meet them."
+
+By this time the fury of the storm had spent itself, and they found poor
+Giles after a not very protracted search, and brought him home--dead,
+they thought at first.
+
+No, he was not dead, but it was less than half _life_ that he
+returned to. For his first inquiry late the next day, when glimmering
+consciousness had begun to revive--"Marion, the baby?"--seemed by some
+subtle instinct to answer itself truthfully, in spite of the kindly
+endeavour to deceive him for the time.
+
+"Dead!" he murmured. "I knew it. Half-way between the stiles," and he
+turned his face to the wall.
+
+They almost wished he had died too--the rough but kind-hearted
+country-folk who were his neighbours. But he lived. He never asked and
+never knew the details of the tragedy, which, indeed, was never fully
+known by any one.
+
+All that came to light was that the dead body of Marion Giles was
+brought by some semi-gipsy wanderers to the workhouse of a town several
+miles south of Colletwood, early on the morning after the blizzard. They
+had found it, they said, at some little distance from the road along
+which they were journeying, so that she must have lost her way long
+before approaching the Monksholdings confines, not improbably, indeed,
+in attempting to retrace her steps to the town which she had so
+imprudently quitted. But of the child the tramps said nothing, and after
+making the above deposition, they were allowed to go on their way, which
+they expressed themselves as anxious to do; for reasons of their own, no
+doubt; possibly the same reasons which had prevented their returning to
+Colletwood with the young woman's corpse, as would have seemed more
+natural.
+
+And afterwards no very special inquiry was made about the baby. The
+father was incapable of it, and in those days people accepted things
+more carelessly, perhaps. It was taken for granted that "Little Nell"
+had fallen down some cliff, no doubt, and lay buried there, with the
+snow for her shroud, like a strayed lambkin. Her tiny bones might yet be
+found, years hence, maybe, by a shepherd in search of some bleating
+wanderer, or--no more might ever be known of the infant's fate!
+
+Barnett Giles rose from his bed, after many weeks, with all the look of
+a very old man. At first it was thought that his mind was quite gone;
+but it did not prove to be so. After a time, with the help of an
+excellent foreman, or bailiff, he showed himself able to manage his farm
+with a strange, mechanical kind of intelligence. It seemed as if the
+sense of duty outlived the loss of other perceptions, though these, too,
+cleared by degrees to a considerable extent, and material things,
+curious as it may appear, prospered with him.
+
+But he rarely spoke unless obliged to do so; and whenever he felt
+himself at leisure, and knew that his work was not calling for him, he
+seemed to relapse into the half-dreamy state which was his more real
+life. Then he would pass through the village and slowly climb the slope
+to the stile, where he would stand for hours together, patiently gazing
+before him, while he murmured the old refrain: "'Half-way between the
+stiles,' she said. I shall meet them there, 'half-way between the
+stiles'."
+
+Fortunately, perhaps, it was not often he attempted to climb over; he
+contented himself with standing and gazing. Fortunately so, for
+otherwise the changes at Monksholdings would have probably terribly
+shocked his abnormally sensitive brain. But he did not seem to notice
+them, nor the new route of the old right-of-way agreed to by the
+compromise. He was content with his post--standing, leaning on the
+stile, and gazing before him.
+
+His, of course, was the worn, wistful face which had half frightened,
+half appealed to Sybil Raynald.
+
+But she forgot about it again, or other things put it temporarily
+aside, so that when the Raynalds came down to Monksholdings again the
+following Easter it did not at once occur to her to remind her father of
+the inquiry he had promised to make.
+
+Miss March was not with her pupils and their parents at first. She had
+gone to spend a holiday week with the friends who had brought her up
+and seen to her education--good, benevolent people, if not specially
+sympathetic, but to whom she felt herself bound by ties of sincerest
+gratitude, though her five years with the Raynald family had given her
+more of the feeling of a "home" than she had ever had before.
+
+And her arrival at Monksholdings was the occasion of much rejoicing.
+There was everything to show her, and every one, from Mark down to
+little Robin, wanted to be her guide. It was not till the morning of the
+next day that Sybil managed to get her to herself for a _tete-a-tete_
+stroll.
+
+Ellinor had some things to tell her quondam pupil. Mrs. Bellairs, her
+self-appointed guardian, was growing old and somewhat feeble.
+
+"I fear she is not likely to live many years," said Miss March, "and she
+thinks so herself. She has a curious longing, which I never saw in her
+before, to find out my history--to know if there is no one really
+belonging to me to whom she can give me back, as it were, before she
+dies. She gave me the little parcel containing the clothes I had on when
+she rescued me from being sent to a workhouse. They are carefully washed
+and mended, and though I was a poor, dirty little object when I was
+found, they do not look really as if I had been a beggar child," with a
+little smile.
+
+"You a beggar child!" exclaimed Sybil indignantly. "Of course not.
+Perhaps, on the contrary, you were somebody very grand."
+
+"No, no," said Ellinor sensibly. "In that case I should have been
+advertised for and inquired after. No, I have never thought that, and I
+should not wish it. I should be more than thankful to know I came of
+good, honest people, however simple; to have some one of my very own."
+
+"I forget the actual details," said Sybil, "though you have often told
+me about it. You were found--no, not literally in the workhouse, was
+it?"
+
+"They were going to take me there," said Miss March. "It was at a
+village near Bath where Mr. and Mrs. Bellairs were then living, and
+one day, after a party of gipsies had been encamping on the common, a
+cottager's wife heard something crying in the night, and found me in her
+little garden. She was too poor to keep me herself, and felt certain I
+was a child the gipsies had stolen and then wanted to get rid of. I was
+fair-haired and blue-eyed, not like them. She was a friend or relation
+of some of Mrs. Bellairs's servants, and so the story got round to my
+kind old friend. And you know the rest--how they first thought of
+bringing me up in quite a humble way, and then finding me--well,
+intelligent and naturally rather refined, I suppose, I got a really good
+education, and my good luck did not desert me, dear, when I came to be
+your governess."
+
+Sybil smiled.
+
+"And can you remember _nothing_?"
+
+Ellinor hesitated.
+
+"Queer, dreamy fragments come back to me sometimes," she said. "I have
+a feeling of having seen hills long, long ago. It is strange," she
+went on, for by this time they had left the private grounds and were
+strolling along the hill-path in the direction of the town, "it is
+strange that since I came here I seem to have got hold of a tiny bit of
+these old memories, if they are such. It must be the hills," and she
+stood still and gazed round her with a deep breath of satisfaction, "I
+could only have been between two and three when I was found," she went
+on. "The only words I said were 'Dada' and 'Nennie'--it sounded like
+'Nelly'. That was why Mrs. Bellairs called me 'Ellinor,' and 'March,'
+because it was in that month she took me to her house."
+
+Sybil walked on in silence for a moment or two.
+
+"It _is_ such a romantic story," she said at last. "I am never tired of
+thinking about it."
+
+They entered Monksholdings again from the east entrance, Ellinor glanced
+at the stile.
+
+"By-the-bye," she said, "this is one of the two old stiles, I suppose.
+Have you ever seen your ghost again, Sybil? Have you found out anything
+about him?"
+
+Sybil looked round her half nervously.
+
+"It is the other stile he haunts," she said. "I rather avoid it, at
+least, I mean to do so now. It is curious you speak of it, for till
+yesterday I had not seen him again, and had almost forgotten about it.
+But yesterday afternoon, just before you came, there he was--exactly
+the same, staring in. I meant to speak to papa about it, but with the
+pleasure and bustle of your arrival, I forgot it. Remind me about it. I
+am afraid he is out of his mind."
+
+"Poor old man!" said Ellinor. "I wish we could do something to comfort
+him. I feel as if everybody _must_ be happy here. It is such a charming,
+exhilarating place. Dear me, how windy it is! The path is all strewn
+with the white petals of the cherry blossom."
+
+"They have degenerated into wild cherry trees," said Sybil. "Long ago
+papa says these must have been good fruit trees of many kinds, and this
+is a great cherry country, you know."
+
+The wind dropped that afternoon, but only temporarily. It rose again so
+much during the night that by the next morning the grounds looked, to
+use little Annis's expression, "quite untidy".
+
+"And down in the village, or just beyond it," said Mark, who had been
+for an early stroll, "at one place it really looks as if it had been
+snowing. The road skirts that old farmhouse; you know it, father? I
+forget the name--there's a grand cherry orchard there."
+
+"'Mayling Farm,' you must mean," said Mr. Raynald. "Farmer Giles's. Oh,
+by the way, that reminds me, Sybil," but a glance round the table made
+him stop short. They were at breakfast. He scarcely felt inclined to
+relate the tragic story before the younger children, "they might look
+frightened or run away if they came across the poor fellow," he
+reflected. "I will tell Sybil about it afterwards."
+
+Easter holidays were not yet over, though the governess had returned, so
+regular routine was set aside, and the whole of the young party, Ellinor
+included, spent that morning in a scramble among the hills.
+
+The children seemed untirable, and set off again somewhere or other in
+the afternoon. Sybil was busy with her mother, writing letters and
+orders to be despatched to London, so that towards four o'clock or so,
+when Miss March, having finished her own correspondence, entered the
+drawing-room, she found it deserted.
+
+Sybil had promised to practise some duets with her, and while waiting on
+the chance of her coming, Ellinor seated herself at the piano and began
+to play--nothing very important--just snatches of old airs which she
+wove into a kind of half-dreamy harmony, one melting into another as
+they occurred to her.
+
+All at once a shadow fell on the keys, and then she remembered having
+heard the door softly open a moment or two before--so softly, that she
+had not looked round, imagining it to be the wind, which, though fallen
+now, still lingered about.
+
+Now her ideas took another shape.
+
+"It is Sybil, no doubt," she thought with a smile. "She is going to make
+me jump," and she waited, half expecting to feel Sybil's hands suddenly
+clasped over her eyes from behind.
+
+But this was not to be the mode of attack, apparently, though she heard
+what sounded like stealthy footsteps.
+
+"You need not try to startle me, Sybbie," she exclaimed laughingly,
+without turning or ceasing to play, "I hear you."
+
+It was no laughing voice which replied.
+
+On the contrary, a sigh, almost a groan, close to her made her look
+up sharply--a trifle indignant perhaps at the joke being carried so
+far--and she saw, a pace or two from her only, the figure of an old
+man--a white-haired, somewhat bent form, a worn face with wistful blue
+eyes--gazing at her.
+
+She had scarcely time to feel frightened, for almost instantaneously
+Sybil's "ghost" recurred to her memory.
+
+"He has found his way in, then," she thought, not without a slight
+and natural tremor, which, however, disappeared as she gazed, so
+pathetically gentle was the whole aspect of the intruder.
+
+But--his face changed curiously--the sight of hers, now fully in
+his view, seemed strangely to affect him. With a gesture of utter
+bewilderment he raised his hand to his forehead as if to brush something
+away--the cloud still resting on his brain--then a smile broke over the
+old face, a wonderful smile.
+
+"Marion," he said, "at last? I--I thought I was dreaming. I heard you
+playing in my dream. It is the right place though, 'Half-way between the
+stiles,' you said. I have waited so long and come so often, and now it
+is snowing again. Just a little, dear, nothing to hurt. Marion, my
+darling, why don't you speak? Is it all a dream--this fine room, the
+music and all? Are _you_ a dream?"
+
+He closed his eyes as if he were fainting. Inexpressibly touched, all
+Ellinor's womanly nature went out to him. She started forward, half
+leading, half lifting him to a seat close at hand.
+
+"I--I am not Marion," she said, and afterwards she wondered what had
+inspired the words, "but I am"--not "Ellinor," something made her change
+the name as he spoke--"I am Nelly."
+
+He opened his eyes again.
+
+"Little Nell," he said, "has she sent you down to me from heaven? My
+little Nell!"
+
+And then he fell back unconscious--this time he had fainted.
+
+She thought he was dead, but it was not so--her cries for help soon
+brought her friends, Mr. Raynald first of all. He did not seem startled,
+he soothed Ellinor at once.
+
+"It is poor old Giles," he said. "I know all about him, he has found his
+way in at last."
+
+"But--but----," stammered the girl, "there is something else, Mr.
+Raynald. I--I seem to remember something."
+
+She looked nearly as white as their poor visitor, and as Mr. Raynald
+glanced at her, a curious expression flitted across his own face.
+
+Could it be so? He knew all her story.
+
+"Wait a little, my dear," he said. "We must attend to poor Giles first."
+
+They were very kind and tender to the old man, but he seemed to be
+barely conscious, even after restoratives had brought him out of the
+actual fainting fit. Then Mrs. Raynald proposed that his servants--his
+housekeeper if he had one--should be sent for.
+
+And when faithful Betsy, stout as of old, though less nimble, made her
+appearance, her irrepressible emotion at the sight of Ellinor, pale and
+trembling though the young governess was, gave form and substance to Mr.
+Raynald's suspicions.
+
+Yes, they had met at last--father and daughter--"half-way between the
+stiles". He was "Dada," she was little "Nell". Might it not be that
+Marion's prayers had brought them together?
+
+Every reasonable proof was forthcoming--the little parcel of clothes,
+the correspondence in the dates, the strong resemblance to her mother.
+
+And--joy does not often kill. Barnett was able to understand it all
+better than might have been expected. He was never _quite_ himself, but
+infinitely better both in mind and body than poor old Betsy had ever
+dreamt of seeing him. And he was perfectly content--content to live as
+long as it should please God to spare him to his little Nell; ready to
+go to his Marion when the time should come.
+
+And Ellinor had her wish--a home, though not a "grand" one; some one of
+her "very own" to care for; a father's devoted love, and, to complete
+her happiness, the friends who had grown so dear to her close at hand.
+
+More may yet be hers in the future, for she is still young. Her father
+may live to see his grandchildren playing about the farmstead at
+Mayling, so that, though the name be changed, the old stock will still
+nourish where so many generations of its ancestors have sown and
+reaped.
+
+
+
+
+AT THE DIP OF THE ROAD.
+
+
+Have I ever seen a ghost?
+
+I do not know.
+
+That is the only reply I can truthfully make to the question now-a-days
+so often asked. And sometimes, if inquirers care to hear more, I go on
+to tell them the one experience which makes it impossible for me to
+reply positively either in the affirmative or negative, and restricts me
+to "I do not know".
+
+This was the story.
+
+I was staying with relations in the country. Not a very isolated or
+out-of-the-way part of the world, and yet rather inconvenient of access
+by the railway. For the nearest station was six miles off. Though the
+family I was visiting were nearly connected with me I did not know much
+of their home or its neighbourhood, as the head of the house, an uncle
+of mine by marriage, had only come into the property a year or two
+previously to the date of which I am writing, through the death of an
+elder brother.
+
+It was a nice place. A good comfortable old house, a prosperous,
+satisfactory estate. Everything about it was in good order, from the
+farmers, who always paid their rents, to the shooting, which was always
+good; from the vineries, which were noted, to the woods, where the
+earliest primroses in all the country side were yearly to be found.
+
+And my uncle and aunt and their family deserved these pleasant things
+and made a good use of them.
+
+But there was a touch of the commonplace about it all. There was nothing
+picturesque or romantic. The country was flat though fertile, the house,
+though old, was conveniently modern in its arrangements, airy, cheery,
+and bright.
+
+"Not even a ghost, or the shadow of one," I remember saying one day with
+a faint grumble.
+
+"Ah, well--as to that," said my uncle, "perhaps we----" but just then
+something interrupted him, and I forgot his unfinished speech.
+
+Into the happy party of which for the time being I was one, there fell
+one morning a sudden thunderbolt of calamity. The post brought news of
+the alarming illness of the eldest daughter--Frances, married a year or
+two ago and living, as the crow flies, at no very great distance. But
+as the crow flies is not always as the railroad runs, and to reach the
+Aldoyns' home from Fawne Court, my uncle's place, was a complicated
+business--it was scarcely possible to go and return in a day.
+
+"Can one of you come over?" wrote the young husband. "She is already out
+of danger, but longing to see her mother or one of you. She is worrying
+about the baby"--a child of a few months old--"and wishing for nurse."
+
+We looked at each other.
+
+"Nurse must go at once," said my uncle to me, as the eldest of the
+party. Perhaps I should here say that I am a widow, though not old, and
+with no close ties or responsibilities. "But for your aunt it is
+impossible."
+
+"Quite so," I agreed. For she was at the moment painfully lamed by
+rheumatism.
+
+"And the other girls are almost too young at such a crisis," my uncle
+continued. "Would you, Charlotte----" and he hesitated. "It would be
+such a comfort to have personal news of her."
+
+"Of course I will go," I said. "Nurse and I can start at once. I will
+leave her there, and return alone, to give you, I have no doubt, better
+news of poor Francie."
+
+He was full of gratitude. So were they all.
+
+"Don't hurry back to-night," said my uncle. "Stay till--till Monday if
+you like." But I could not promise. I knew they would be glad of news at
+once, and in a small house like my cousin's, at such a time, an inmate
+the more might be inconvenient.
+
+"I will try to return to-night," I said. And as I sprang into the
+carriage I added: "Send to Moore to meet the last train, unless I
+telegraph to the contrary."
+
+My uncle nodded; the boys called after me, "All right;" the old butler
+bowed assent, and I was satisfied.
+
+Nurse and I reached our journey's end promptly, considering the four or
+five junctions at which we had to change carriages. But on the whole
+"going," the trains fitted astonishingly.
+
+We found Frances better, delighted to see us, eager for news of her
+mother, and, finally, disposed to sleep peacefully now that she knew
+that there was an experienced person in charge. And both she and her
+husband thanked me so much that I felt ashamed of the little I had done.
+Mr. Aldoyn begged me to stay till Monday; but the house was upset, and I
+was eager to carry back my good tidings.
+
+"They are meeting me at Moore by the last train," I said. "No, thank
+you, I think it is best to go."
+
+"You will have an uncomfortable journey," he replied. "It is Saturday,
+and the trains will be late, and the stations crowded with the market
+people. It will be horrid for you, Charlotte."
+
+But I persisted.
+
+It _was_ rather horrid. And it was queer. There was a sort of uncanny
+eeriness about that Saturday evening's journey that I have never
+forgotten. The season was very early spring. It was not very cold, but
+chilly and ungenial. And there were such odd sorts of people about. I
+travelled second-class; for I am not rich, and I am very independent.
+I did not want my uncle to pay my fare, for I liked the feeling of
+rendering him some small service in return for his steady kindness to
+me. The first stage of my journey was performed in the company of two
+old naturalists travelling to Scotland to look for some small plant
+which was to be found only in one spot in the Highlands. This I gathered
+from their talk to each other. You never saw two such extraordinary
+creatures as they were. They both wore black kid gloves much too large
+for them, and the ends of the fingers waved about like feathers.
+
+Then followed two or three short transits, interspersed with weary
+waitings at stations. The last of these was the worst, and tantalising,
+too, for by this time I was within a few miles of Moore. The station was
+crowded with rough folk, all, it seemed to me, more or less tipsy. So I
+took refuge in a dark waiting-room on the small side line by which I was
+to proceed, where I felt I might have been robbed and murdered and no
+one the wiser.
+
+But at last came my slow little train, and in I jumped, to jump out
+again still more joyfully some fifteen minutes later when we drew up at
+Moore.
+
+I peered about for the carriage. It was not to be seen; only two or
+three tax-carts or dog-carts, farmers' vehicles, standing about, while
+their owners, it was easy to hear, were drinking far more than was good
+for them in the taproom of the Unicorn. Thence, nevertheless--not to
+the taproom, but to the front of the inn--I made my way, though not
+undismayed by the shouts and roars breaking the stillness of the quiet
+night. "Was the Fawne Court carriage not here?" I asked.
+
+The landlady was a good-natured woman, especially civil to any member of
+the "Court" family. But she shook her head.
+
+"No, no carriage had been down to-day. There must have been some
+mistake."
+
+There was nothing for it but to wait till she could somehow or other
+disinter a fly and a horse, and, worst of all a driver. For the "men"
+she had to call were all rather--"well, ma'am, you see it's Saturday
+night. We weren't expecting any one."
+
+And when, after waiting half an hour, the fly at last emerged, my heart
+almost failed me. Even before he drove out of the yard, it was very
+plain that if ever we reached Fawne Court alive, it would certainly be
+more thanks to good luck than to the driver's management.
+
+But the horse was old and the man had a sort of instinct about him. We
+got on all right till we were more than half way to our journey's end.
+The road was straight and the moonlight bright, especially after we had
+passed a certain corner, and got well out of the shade of the trees
+which skirted the first part of the way.
+
+Just past this turn there came a dip in the road. It went down, down
+gradually, for a quarter of a mile or more, and I looked up anxiously,
+fearful of the horse taking advantage of the slope. But no, he jogged
+on, if possible more slowly than before, though new terrors assailed me
+when I saw that the driver was now fast asleep, his head swaying from
+side to side with extraordinary regularity. After a bit I grew easier
+again; he seemed to keep his equilibrium, and I looked out at the side
+window on the moon-flooded landscape, with some interest. I had never
+seen brighter moonlight.
+
+Suddenly from out of the intense stillness and loneliness a figure, a
+human figure, became visible. It was that of a man, a young and active
+man, running along the footpath a few feet to our left, apparently
+from some whim, keeping pace with the fly. My first feeling was of
+satisfaction that I was no longer alone, at the tender mercies of my
+stupefied charioteer. But, as I gazed, a slight misgiving came over me.
+Who could it be running along this lonely road so late, and what was his
+motive in keeping up with us so steadily. It almost seemed as if he had
+been waiting for us, yet that, of course, was impossible. He was not
+very highwayman-like certainly; he was well-dressed--neatly-dressed that
+is to say, like a superior gamekeeper--his figure was remarkably good,
+tall and slight, and he ran gracefully. But there was something queer
+about him, and suddenly the curiosity that had mingled in my observation
+of him was entirely submerged in alarm, when I saw that, as he ran, he
+was slowly but steadily drawing nearer and nearer to the fly.
+
+"In another moment he will be opening the door and jumping in," I
+thought, and I glanced before me only to see that the driver was more
+hopelessly asleep than before; there was no chance of his hearing if
+I called out. And get out I could not without attracting the strange
+runner's attention, for as ill-luck would have it, the window was drawn
+up on the right side, and I could not open the door without rattling the
+glass. While, worse and worse, the left hand window was down! Even that
+slight protection wanting!
+
+I looked out once more. By this time the figure was close, close to the
+fly. Then an arm was stretched out and laid along the edge of the door,
+as if preparatory to opening it, and then, for the first time I saw his
+face. It was a young face, but terribly, horribly pale and ghastly, and
+the eyes--all was so visible in the moonlight--had an expression such as
+I had never seen before or since. It terrified me, though afterwards on
+recalling it, it seemed to me that it might have been more a look of
+agonised appeal than of menace of any kind.
+
+I cowered back into my corner and shut my eyes, feigning sleep. It was
+the only idea that occurred to me. My heart was beating like a sledge
+hammer. All sorts of thoughts rushed through me; among them I remember
+saying to myself: "He must be an escaped lunatic--his eyes are so
+awfully wild".
+
+How long I sat thus I don't know--whenever I dared to glance out
+furtively he was still there. But all at once a strange feeling of
+relief came over me. I sat up--yes, he was gone! And though, as I took
+courage, I leant out and looked round in every direction, not a trace of
+him was to be seen, though the road and the fields were bare and clear
+for a long distance round.
+
+When I got to Fawne Court I had to wake the lodge-keeper--every one was
+asleep. But my uncle was still up, though not expecting me, and very
+distressed he was at the mistake about the carriage.
+
+"However," he concluded, "all's well that ends well. It's delightful to
+have your good news. But you look sadly pale and tired, Charlotte."
+
+Then I told him of my fright--it seemed now so foolish of me, I said.
+But my uncle did not smile--on the contrary.
+
+"My dear," he said. "It sounds very like our ghost, though, of course,
+it may have been only one of the keepers."
+
+He told me the story. Many years ago in his grandfather's time, a young
+and favourite gamekeeper had been found dead in a field skirting the
+road down there. There was no sign of violence upon the body; it was
+never explained what had killed him. But he had had in his charge a
+watch--a very valuable one--which his master for some reason or other
+had handed to him to take home to the house, not wishing to keep it on
+him. And when the body was found late that night, the watch was not on
+it. Since then, so the story goes, on a moonlight night the spirit of
+the poor fellow haunts the spot. It is supposed that he wants to tell
+what had become of his master's watch, which was never found. But no one
+has ever had courage to address him.
+
+"He never comes farther than the dip in the road," said my uncle. "If
+you had spoken to him, Charlotte, I wonder if he would have told you his
+secret?"
+
+He spoke half laughingly, but I have never quite forgiven myself for my
+cowardice. It was the look in those eyes!
+
+
+
+
+"---- WILL NOT TAKE PLACE."
+
+
+"'Lingard,' 'Trevannion,'" murmured Captain Murray, as he ran his eye
+down the column of the morning paper specially devoted to so-called
+fashionable intelligence, "Lingard, Arthur Lingard; yes, I've met him;
+a very good fellow. And Trevannion; don't you know a Miss Trevannion,
+Bessie?"
+
+Mrs. Murray glanced up from her teacups.
+
+"What do you say, Walter? Trevannion; yes, I have met a girl of the name
+at my aunt's. A pretty girl, and I think I heard she was going to be
+married. Is that what you are talking about?"
+
+"No," her husband replied. "It's the other way--broken off, I wonder
+why."
+
+"What an old gossip you are," said Mrs. Murray. "No good reason at all,
+I daresay. People are so capricious now-a-days."
+
+"Still, they don't often announce a marriage till it's pretty certain
+to come off. This sort of thing," tapping the paper as he spoke, "isn't
+exactly pleasant."
+
+"Very much the reverse," agreed Mrs. Murray, and then they thought no
+more about it.
+
+"I wonder why," said a good many people that morning, when they caught
+sight of the announcement. For the two principals it concerned--Arthur
+Lingard, especially--had a large circle of friends and acquaintances, and
+their engagement had been the subject of much and hearty congratulation.
+It seemed so natural and fitting that these two should marry. Both
+young, amiable, good-looking, and sufficiently well off. Even the most
+cynical could discern no cloud in the bright sky of their future, no
+crook in the lot before them.
+
+And now--
+
+No marvel that Captain Murray's soliloquy was repeated by many.
+
+But who would have guessed that in one heart it was ever ringing with
+maddening anguish?
+
+"I wonder why, oh, I wonder why he has done it. Oh, if he would but tell
+me, it could not surely seem quite so unendurable."
+
+And Daisy Trevannion pressed her aching head, and her poor swollen eyes
+on to her mother's loving bosom in a sort of wild despair.
+
+"Mamma, mamma," she cried, "help me. I cannot be angry with him. I wish
+I could. He was so gentle, so sweet--and he is so heartbroken, I can see
+by his letter. Oh, mamma, what can it be?"
+
+But to this, even the devoted mother, who would gladly have given her
+own life to save her child this misery, could find no answer.
+
+This was what had happened.
+
+They had been engaged about three months, the wedding day was
+approximately fixed, when one morning the blow fell.
+
+A letter to Daisy's father, enclosing one to herself--a letter which
+made Mr. Trevannion draw his brows together in instinctive indignation,
+and then as the first impulse cooled a little, caused him to turn to his
+daughter with a movement of irritation, underneath which, hope had,
+nevertheless, found time to reassert itself.
+
+"Daisy," he exclaimed sharply, "what is the meaning of all this
+nonsense? Have you been quarrelling with Lingard? You're a bit of a
+spoilt child I know, my dear, but I don't like playing with edged
+tools--a man like Arthur won't stand being trifled with. Do you hear,
+Daisy--eh, what?"
+
+For the girl had scarcely caught the sense of his words, so absorbed was
+she in those of the short, all too short, but terrible letter she had
+just read--the letter addressed to herself, which began "Daisy, my
+Daisy, for the last time," and ended abruptly with the simple signature,
+"Arthur Lingard".
+
+She gazed up at her father--her white face all drawn, and as it were,
+withered with that minute's agony--her eyes dulled and yet wild. Never
+was there such a metamorphosis from the happy, laughing girl who had
+hurried in with some pretty excuse for her unpunctuality.
+
+"Daisy, my child! Daisy," her father repeated, repenting already of his
+hasty remarks, "don't take it so seriously." "Margaret," to his wife,
+"speak to her."
+
+And Mrs. Trevannion, as pale almost as her daughter, drew the sheet of
+note-paper from the girl's unresisting hands, while her husband held out
+to her his own letter.
+
+"Some complete mistake," she said, "some misplaced quixotry. Daisy, my
+own darling, do not take it so seriously. Your father will see him--you
+will, will you not, Hugh?" detecting the proud hesitation in her
+husband's face. "It is not as if we did not know him well, and all about
+him. Your father will find out, Daisy, and make it all right."
+
+Mr. Trevannion did not contradict her, but murmured some consolatory
+words, and then the mother led Daisy away, and to a certain extent the
+girl allowed herself to be reassured.
+
+"I will consult Keir if necessary," said the father when out of hearing
+of his daughter. "He is the natural person, both as our own connection
+and because he introduced Lingard, and thinks so highly of him. But
+first I will see Arthur alone. The fewer mixed up in such a case the
+better."
+
+Mrs. Trevannion agreed. She was constitutionally sanguine, but a painful
+idea struck her as her husband spoke.
+
+"Hugh," she said hesitatingly, "you don't think--it surely is not
+possible that his--that Arthur's brain is affected?"
+
+"His brain--tut, nonsense! What a woman's idea!" replied Mr. Trevannion
+irritably. "Why, he is receiving compliments on every side, from the
+very highest quarters, too, on that article of his on the Capricorn
+Islands. Brain affected, indeed!"
+
+And to a whisper of, "I was thinking of over-work," which followed him
+apologetically, he vouchsafed no reply.
+
+Some intensely trying days passed. Mr. Trevannion's interview with his
+recalcitrant son-in-law-to-be, proved a complete failure. Nothing,
+absolutely nothing was to be "got out of the fellow," he told his wife
+in mingled anger and wretchedness, for the poor man was a devoted
+father. Arthur was gentleness itself, respectful, deferential even,
+to the man whose peculiarly disagreeable position he felt for
+inexpressibly. But he was as firm, as hard in his decision that all
+should be, must be, over between Miss Trevannion and himself, as if his
+own heart had suddenly turned to iron, as if he possessed no feelings at
+all. He grew white to the lips, with a terrible death-like whiteness,
+when he named her; he said with a quiet, deliberate emphasis, more
+impressive by far than any passionate declaration, that never, never
+while he lived, would he forgive himself for the trouble he had brought
+into her young life, but that he was powerless to do otherwise, he was
+absolutely without a choice. As to the reason for the breaking off of
+the engagement to be given to the world, he left it entirely in the
+Trevannions' own hands; he would contradict nothing they thought it best
+to say; but, if possible, he grew still whiter when his visitor from
+under his shaggy eyebrows glanced at him with a look of contempt while
+he replied cuttingly that he had no love of falsehood. For his part he
+would tell the truth, and in the end he believed it would be best for
+Daisy that all the world should know the way in which she had been
+treated.
+
+"Best for her and worst for you," he repeated.
+
+And Arthur only said:--
+
+"I hope so. It must be as you think well."
+
+Then Trevannion softened again a little.
+
+"I shall say nothing to any one at present," he went on. "I must see
+Keir; possibly he may understand you better than I can."
+
+But, "No, it will be no use," the young man repeated coldly, though his
+very heart was wrung for the father, crushing down his own pride while
+he thought he saw still the ghost of a hope. "It will be no use. No one
+can do anything."
+
+"And you adhere to your determination not to see my--not to see Daisy
+again?"
+
+Lingard bowed his head.
+
+And Mr. Trevannion left him.
+
+Philip Keir was no blood relation of the Trevannions, but a cousin by
+marriage and a very intimate friend. He was some years older than Mr.
+Lingard, and it was through him that the acquaintance resulting in
+Daisy's engagement had begun. He was a reserved man, with a frank and
+cordial manner. Daisy thought she knew him well, but as to this she was
+in some directions entirely mistaken.
+
+He was away from home when Mr. Trevannion called on him, driving
+straight to his chambers from the fruitless interview with Lingard.
+Philip did not return for a couple of days, and had left no address.
+Hence ensued the painful interval of suspense alluded to.
+
+But on the third evening a hansom dashed up to the Trevannions' door,
+and Mr. Keir jumped out. It was late, but there was no hesitation as to
+admitting him.
+
+"I found your note," he said, as he grasped his host's hand, "and came
+straight on. I have only just got back. What is the matter? Tell me at
+once."
+
+He was a self-controlled man, but his agitation was evident. "Daisy?" he
+added hastily.
+
+"Yes," replied the father. The two were alone in his study. "Poor
+Daisy!" And then he told the story.
+
+Keir listened, though not altogether in silence, for broken
+exclamations, which he seemed unable to repress, broke out from him more
+than once.
+
+"Impossible----inconceivable!" he muttered, "Lingard, of all men, to
+behave like a----" he stopped short, at a loss for a comparison.
+
+"Then you can throw no light upon it--none whatever?" said Mr.
+Trevannion. "We had hoped--foolishly, perhaps--I had somehow hoped that
+you might have helped us. You know him well, you see, you have been so
+much together, your acquaintance is of old date, and you must understand
+any peculiarities of his character."
+
+His tone still sounded as if he could not bring himself finally to
+accept the position. Keir was inexpressibly sorry for him.
+
+"I know of none," he said. "Frankly, I know of nothing about him that is
+not estimable. And, as you say, we have been much and most intimately
+associated. We have travelled together half over the world, we have been
+dependent on each other for months at a time, and the more I have seen
+of him the more I have admired and--yes--loved him. If I had to pick a
+fault in him I would say it is a curious spice of obstinacy--I have seen
+it very strongly now and then. Once," and his face grew grave, "once, we
+nearly quarrelled because he would not give in on a certain point. It
+was in Siberia, not long ago," and here Philip gave a sort of shiver,
+"it was very horrible--no need to go into details. He, Arthur, got it
+into his head that a particular course of action was called for, and
+there was no moving him. However it ended all right. I had almost
+forgotten it. But he was determined."
+
+Mr. Trevannion listened, but vaguely. Keir's remarks scarcely seemed to
+the point.
+
+"Obstinate!" he repeated. "Yes, but that doesn't explain things. There
+was no question of giving in. They had had no quarrel. Daisy was
+perfectly happy. The only thing she can say on looking back over the
+last week or two closely, is that Arthur had seemed depressed now and
+then, and when she taxed him with it he evaded a reply. You don't think,
+Philip, that there is anything of that kind--melancholia, you know--in
+his family?"
+
+"Bless you, no, my dear sir. He comes of the healthiest stock possible.
+People one knows all about for generations. No, no, it's nothing of that
+kind," Keir replied. "And--what man ever had such happy prospects?"
+
+"Then what in heaven's name is it?" said Mr. Trevannion, bringing his
+hand down violently on the table beside which they were sitting. "Can
+you get it out of him, if you can do nothing else for us, Philip? It is
+our right to know; it is--it is due to my child, it is----" he stopped,
+his face working with emotion. "He won't see her, you know," he added
+disconnectedly.
+
+"I will try," said Philip. "It is indeed the least I can do. If--if I
+could get him to see her--Daisy; surely that would be the best chance."
+
+Mr. Trevannion looked at him sharply, scrutinisingly.
+
+"You--you are satisfied then--entirely satisfied that there is nothing
+we need dread her being mixed up in, so to say? Nothing wrong--nothing
+to shock a girl like her? You see," half apologetically, "his refusing
+to see her makes one afraid----"
+
+"I am as sure of him as of myself--surer," said Philip earnestly. "There
+is nothing in his past to explain it--nothing."
+
+"An early secret marriage; a wife he thought dead turning up again,"
+suggested the father. "It sounds absurd, sensational--but after
+all--there must be some reason."
+
+"Not that," said Keir, getting up as he spoke. "Well then, I will see
+him first thing in the morning, and communicate with you as soon as
+possible after I have done so. You will tell Mrs. Trevannion and--and
+Daisy that I will do my best?"
+
+"My wife is still in the drawing-room. Will you not see her to-night?"
+
+Philip shook his head.
+
+"It is late," he said, "and I am dusty and unpresentable. Besides, there
+is really nothing to say. To-morrow it shall be as you all think best. I
+will see Mrs. Trevannion--and Daisy," here he flushed a little, but his
+host did not observe it, "if you like and if she wishes it. Heaven send
+I may have better news than I expect."
+
+And with a warm pressure of his old friend's hand, Mr. Keir left him.
+
+The two younger men met the next morning. There was no difficulty about
+it, for Lingard, knowing by instinct that the interview must take place,
+had determined to face it. So of the two he was the more prepared, the
+more forearmed.
+
+The conversation was long--an hour, two hours passed before poor Philip
+could make up his mind to accept the ultimatum contained in the few hard
+words with which Arthur Lingard first greeted him.
+
+"I know what you have come about. I knew you must come. You could not
+help yourself. But, Philip, it will save you pain--I don't mind for
+myself; nothing can matter now--if you will at once take my word for it
+that nothing you can say will do the least shadow of good. No, don't
+shake hands with me. I would rather you didn't."
+
+And he put his right arm behind his back and stood there, leaning
+against the mantelpiece, facing his friend.
+
+Philip looked up at him grimly.
+
+"No," he said, "I've given my word to--to these poor dear people, and
+I'll stick to it. You've got to make up your mind to a cross-examination,
+Lingard."
+
+But through or below the grimness was a terrible pity. Philip's heart
+was very tender for the man whose inexplicable conduct was yet filling
+him with indignation past words. Arthur was so changed--the last week or
+two had done the work of years--all the youthfulness, the almost boyish
+brightness, which had been one of his charms, was gone, dead. He was
+pale with a strange indescribable pallor, that told of days, and worse
+still, of nights of agony; the lines of his face were hardened; the lips
+spoke of unalterable determination. Only once had Philip seen him look
+thus, and then it was but in expression--the likeness and the contrast
+struck him curiously. The other time it had been resolution temporarily
+hardening a youthful face; now--what did it remind him of? A monk who
+had gone through a life-time of spiritual struggle alone, unaided by
+human sympathy? A martyr--no, there was no enthusiasm. It was all dull,
+dead anguish of unalterable resolve.
+
+There was silence for a moment. Keir was choking down an uncomfortable
+something in his throat, and bracing himself to the inquisitorial
+torture before him to perform.
+
+"Well," said Arthur, at last.
+
+And Philip looked up at him again.
+
+How queer his eyes were--they used to be so deeply blue. Daisy had often
+laughed at his changeable eyes, as she called them--blue in the daytime,
+almost black at night, but always lustrous and liquid. Now, they were
+glassy, almost filmy. What was it? A sudden thought struck Philip.
+
+"Arthur!" he exclaimed, "Arthur, old fellow, are you going blind? Is
+that the mystery? If it is that, good Lord, how little you know her, if
+you think that----"
+
+Arthur's pale lips grew visibly paler. He had been unprepared for attack
+in this direction, and for the moment he quailed before it.
+
+"No," he whispered hoarsely, "it is not that. Would to God it were!"
+
+But almost instantly he had mastered himself, and from that moment
+throughout the interview not even the mention of Daisy's name had power
+to stir him.
+
+And Philip, annoyed with his own impulsiveness, stiffened again.
+
+"You are determined not to reveal your secret," he began, "but I want to
+come to an understanding with you on one point. If I guess it, if I put
+my finger on it, will you give me the satisfaction of owning that I have
+done so."
+
+Lingard hesitated.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I will do so on one condition--your word of honour,
+your oath, never to tell it to any human being."
+
+"Not to--her--Daisy?"
+
+"Least of all."
+
+Philip groaned. This did not look very promising for the meeting with
+Daisy, which at the bottom of his heart he believed in as his last--his
+trump card.
+
+Still, he had gained something.
+
+"Then, my first question seems, in the face of that, almost a mockery. I
+was going to ask you," and he half gasped--"it is nothing--nothing about
+her that is at the root of all this misery? No fancy," again the gasp,
+"that--that she doesn't care for you, or love you enough? No nonsense
+about your not being suited to each other, or that you couldn't make a
+girl of her sensitive, high-strung nature happy?"
+
+"No," said Arthur, and the word seemed to ring through the room. "No, I
+know she loves me as I love her. Oh, no, not quite like that, I trust,"
+and his voice was firm through all the tragedy of the last sentence.
+"And I believe I could have made her very happy. Leave her name out of
+it now, Phil, once for all. It has nothing to do personally with the
+woman who is, and always will be, to me my perfect ideal of sweetness
+and excellence and truth and beauty."
+
+"Then it has to do with yourself," murmured Keir. "Come, the radius is
+narrowing. I flew out at poor Trevannion when he suggested it, but all
+the same, it's nothing in your past you're ashamed of that's come to
+light, is it? The best fellows in the world make fools of themselves
+sometimes, you know. Don't mind my asking."
+
+"I don't mind," said Arthur wearily, "but it's no use. No, it's nothing
+like that. I have done nothing I am ashamed of. I am not secretly
+married, nor have I committed forgery," with a very ghastly attempt at a
+smile.
+
+"Then," said Philip, "is it something about your family. Have you found
+out that there's a strain of insanity in the Lingards perhaps? People
+exaggerate that kind of thing now-a-days. There's a touch of it in us
+all, I take it."
+
+"No," said Arthur, again "my family's all right. I've no very near
+relations except my sister, but you know her, and you know all about us.
+We're not adventurers in any sense of the word."
+
+"Far from it," agreed Philip warmly. Then for a moment or two he
+relapsed into silence. "Does your sister--does Lady West know
+about--about this mysterious affair?" he asked abruptly, after some
+pondering.
+
+"Nothing whatever. I, of course, was bound by every consideration not to
+tell her--to tell no one anything till it was understood by--the
+Trevannions. And I had no reason for consulting her or--any friend,"
+Arthur replied.
+
+He spoke jerkily and with effort, as if he were putting force on himself
+to endure what yet he was convinced was absolutely useless torture.
+
+But his words gave Keir a new opening, which he was quick to seize.
+
+"That's just it," he exclaimed eagerly. "That's just where it strikes
+me you've gone wrong. You should have consulted some one--not myself,
+not your sister even; I don't say whom, but some one sensible and
+trustworthy. I believe your mind has got warped. You've been thinking
+over this trouble, whatever it is, till you can't see it rightly. You've
+exaggerated it out of all proportion, and you shouldn't trust your own
+morbid judgment."
+
+Lingard did not answer. He stood motionless, his eyes fixed upon the
+ground. For an instant a wild hope dashed through Philip that at last
+he had made some impression. But as Arthur slowly raised his dim, worn
+eyes, and looked him in the face, it faded again, even before the young
+man spoke.
+
+"To satisfy you, I will tell you this much. I have consulted one
+person--a man whom you would allow was trustworthy and wise and good.
+From him I have hidden nothing whatever, and he agrees with me that I
+have no choice--that duty points unmistakably to the course I am
+pursuing."
+
+Again a flash of suggestion struck his hearer.
+
+"One person--a man," he repeated. "Arthur, is it some priest? Have they
+been converting or perverting you, my boy? Are you going over to Rome,
+fancying yourself called to be a Trappist, or a--those fellows at the
+Grande Chartreuse, you remember?"
+
+For the second time during the interview, Arthur smiled, and his smile
+was a trifle less ghastly this time.
+
+"No, again," he said. "You're quite on a wrong tack. I have not the
+slightest inclination that way. I--I wish I had. No, my adviser is no
+priest. But he's one of the best of men, all the same, and one of the
+wisest."
+
+"You won't tell me who he is?"
+
+"I cannot."
+
+"And"--Philip was reluctant to try his last hope, and felt conscious
+that he would do it clumsily--"Arthur," he burst out, "you will see
+her--Daisy--once more? She has a right to it. You are putting enough
+upon her without refusing this one request of hers."
+
+He stood up as he spoke. He himself had grown strangely pale, and seeing
+this, as he glanced at him, Lingard's own face became ashen.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+"Good God!" he said, "I think this might have been spared me. No, I will
+not see her again. The only thing I can do for her is to refuse this
+last request. Tell her so, Philip--tell her what I say. And now leave
+me. Don't shake hands with me. I don't wish it, and I daresay you don't.
+If--if we never meet again, you and I--and who knows?--if this is our
+goodbye, thank you, old fellow, thank you for all you have tried to do.
+Perhaps I know the cost of it to you better than you imagine. Good-bye,
+Phil!"
+
+Keir turned towards the door. But he looked back ere he reached it.
+Arthur was standing as he had been--motionless.
+
+"You're not thinking of killing yourself, are you?" he said quietly.
+
+Arthur looked at him. His eyes had a different expression now--or was
+it that something was gleaming softly in them that had not been there
+before?
+
+"No, no--I am not going to be false to my colours. I--I don't care to
+talk much about it, but--I am a Christian, Phil."
+
+"At least I can put that horrid idea out of the poor child's head,
+then," thought Keir to himself. Though to Arthur he did not reply, save
+by a bend of his head.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Time passed. And in his wings there was healing.
+
+At twenty-four, Daisy Trevannion, though her face bore traces of
+suffering of no common order, was yet a sweet and serene woman. To some
+extent she had outlived the strange tragedy of her earlier girlhood.
+
+It had never been explained. The one person who might naturally have
+been looked to, to throw some light on the mystery, Lingard's sister,
+Lady West, was, as her brother had stated, completely in the dark. At
+first she had been disposed to blame Daisy, or her family; and though
+afterwards convinced that in so doing she was entirely mistaken, she
+never became in any sense confidential with them on the matter. And
+after a few months they met no more. For her husband was sent abroad,
+and detained there on an important diplomatic mission.
+
+Now and then, in the earlier days of her broken engagement, Daisy would
+ask Philip to "try to find out if Mary West knows where he is". And to
+please her he did so. But all he learnt was--what indeed was all the
+sister had to tell--that Arthur was off again on his old travels--to
+the Capricorn Islands or to the moon, it was not clear which.
+
+"He has promised that I shall hear from him once a year--as near my
+birthday as he can manage. That is all I can tell you," she said, trying
+to make light of it.
+
+And whether this promise was kept or no, one thing was certain--Arthur
+Lingard had entirely disappeared from London society.
+
+At twenty-five, Daisy married Philip. He had always loved her, though he
+had never allowed her to suspect it; and knowing herself and her history
+as he did, he was satisfied with the true affection she could give
+him--satisfied, that is to say, in the hope and belief that his own
+devotion would kindle ever-increasing response on her side. And his
+hopes were not disappointed. They were very happy.
+
+Now for the sequel to the story--such sequel, that is to say, as there
+is to give--a suggestion of explanation rather than any positive
+_denoument_ of the mystery.
+
+They--Philip and Daisy--had been married for two or three years when one
+evening it chanced to them to dine at the house of a rather well-known
+literary man with whom they were but slightly acquainted. They had been
+invited for a special reason; their hosts were pleasant and genial
+people who liked to get those about them with interests in common.
+And Keir, though his wings were now so happily clipt, still held his
+position as a traveller who had seen and noted much in his former
+wanderings.
+
+"We think your husband may enjoy a talk with Sir Abel Maynard, who is
+with us for a few days," Mrs. Thorncroft had said in her note.
+
+And Sir Abel, not being of the surly order of lions who refuse to roar
+when they know that their audience is eager to hear them, made himself
+most agreeable. He appreciated Mr. Keir's intelligence and sympathy, and
+was by no means indifferent to Mrs. Keir's beauty, though "evidently,"
+he thought to himself, "she is not over fond of reminiscences of her
+husband's travels. Perhaps she is afraid of his taking flight again."
+
+During dinner the conversation turned, not unnaturally, on a subject
+just at that moment much to the fore. For it was about the time of the
+heroic Damien's death.
+
+"No," said Sir Abel, in answer to some inquiry, "I never visited his
+place. But I have seen lepers--to perfection. By-the-by," he went on
+suddenly, "I came across a queer, a very queer, story a while ago. I
+wonder, Keir, if you can throw any light upon it?"
+
+But at that moment Mrs. Thorncroft gave the magic signal and the women
+left the room.
+
+By degrees the men came straggling upstairs after them, then a little
+music followed, but it was not till much later in the evening than was
+usual with him that Philip made his appearance in the drawing-room,
+preceded by Sir Abel Maynard. Philip looked tired and rather "distrait,"
+thought Daisy, whose eyes were keen with the quick discernment of
+perfect affection, and she was not sorry when, before very long, he
+whispered to her that it was getting late, might they not leave soon?
+Nor was she sorry that during the interval before her husband made this
+suggestion, Sir Abel, who had been devoting himself to her, had avoided
+all mention of his travels, and had been amusing her with his criticism
+of a popular novel instead. She could never succeed altogether in
+banishing the painful association of Arthur Lingard from allusion to
+her husband's old wanderings.
+
+Poor Arthur! Where was he now?
+
+"Philip, dear," she said, slipping her hand into his when they found
+themselves alone, and with a longish drive before them, in their own
+little brougham, "there is something the matter. You have heard
+something? Tell me what it is."
+
+Keir hesitated.
+
+"Yes," he said, "I suppose it is best to tell you. It is the strange
+story Sir Abel alluded to before you left the room."
+
+"About--about Arthur? Is it about Arthur?" whispered she, shivering a
+little.
+
+Philip put his arm round her.
+
+"I can't say. We shall perhaps never know certainly," he replied. "But
+it looks very like it. Listen, dear. Some little time ago--two or
+three years ago--Maynard spent some days at one of those awful leper
+settlements--never mind where. I would just as soon you did not know.
+There, to his amazement, among the most devoted of the attendants upon
+the poor creatures he found an Englishman, young still, at least by his
+own account, though to judge by his appearance it would have been
+impossible to say. For he was himself far gone, very far gone in some
+ways, in the disease. But he was, or had been, a man of strong
+constitution and enormous determination. Ill as he was, he yet managed
+to tend others with indescribable devotion. They looked upon him as a
+saint. Maynard did not like to inquire what had brought him to such a
+pass--he, the poor fellow, was a perfect gentleman. But the day Sir Abel
+was leaving, the Englishman took him to some extent into his confidence,
+and asked him to do him a service. This was his story. Some years
+before, in quite a different part of the world, the young man had nursed
+a leper--a dying leper--for some hours. He believed for long that he had
+escaped all danger, in fact he never thought of it; but it was not so.
+There must have been an unhealed wound of some kind--a slight scratch
+would do it--on his hand. No need to go into the details of his first
+misgivings, of the horror of the awful certainty at last. It came upon
+him in the midst of the greatest happiness; he was going to be married
+to a girl he adored."
+
+"Oh, Philip, Philip, why did he not tell?" Daisy wailed.
+
+"He consulted the best and greatest physician, who--as a friend, he
+said--approved of the course he had mapped out for himself. He decided
+to tell no one, to break off his engagement, and die out of her--the
+girl's--life; not once, after he was sure, did he see her again. He
+would not even risk touching her hand. And he believed that telling
+would only have brought worse agony upon her in the end than the agony
+he was forced to inflict. For he was a doomed man, though they gave him
+a few years to live. And he did the only thing he could do with those
+years. He set off to the settlement in question. Maynard was to call
+there some months later on his way home, and the young man knew he would
+be dead then, and so he was. But he showed Maynard a letter explaining
+all, that he had got ready--all but the address--_that_, he would not
+add till he was in the act of dying. There must be no risk of her
+knowing till he was dead. And this letter Maynard was to fetch on his
+return. He did so, but--there had been no time to add the address--death
+had come suddenly. All sorts of precautions had been ordered by the poor
+fellow as to disinfecting the letter and so on. But it did not seem to
+Maynard that these had been taken. So he contented himself by spreading
+out the paper on the sea-shore and learning it by heart, and then
+leaving it. The sum total of it was what I have told you, but not one
+name was named."
+
+Daisy was sobbing quietly.
+
+"Was it he?" she said.
+
+"Yes, I feel sure of it," Philip replied. "For I can supply the missing
+link. The one time I really quarrelled with Arthur was when we were in
+Siberia. He _would_ spend a night in a dying leper's hut. I would have
+done it myself, I believe and hope, had it been necessary. But by riding
+on a few miles we could have got help for the poor creature--which
+indeed I did--and more efficient help than ours. But Lingard was
+determined, and no ill seemed to come of it. I had almost forgotten the
+circumstance. I never associated it with the mystery that caused you
+such anguish, my poor darling."
+
+"It was he," whispered Daisy. "Philip, he was a hero after all."
+
+"Not even you can feel that, as I do," Keir replied.
+
+Then they were silent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few weeks afterwards came a letter from Lady West, in her far-off
+South American home. Daisy had not heard from her for years.
+
+"By circuitous ways, I need not explain the details," she wrote, "I have
+learnt that my darling brother is dead. I thought I had better tell you.
+I am sure his most earnest wish was that you should live to be happy,
+dear Daisy, as I trust you are. And I know you have long forgiven him
+the sorrow he caused you--it was worse still for him."
+
+"I wonder," said Daisy, "if she knows more?"
+
+But the letter seemed to add certainty to their own conviction.
+
+
+
+
+THE CLOCK THAT STRUCK THIRTEEN.
+
+
+"You misunderstand me wilfully, Helen. I neither said nor inferred
+anything of the kind."
+
+"What did you mean then, for if words to you bear a different
+interpretation from what they do to me, I must trouble you to speak in
+_my_ language when addressing me," angrily retorted a young girl, with
+what nature had intended to be a very pretty face with a charming
+expression, but which at the present moment was far from deserving the
+latter part of the description. Eyes flashing, cheeks burning and hands
+clenched in the excess of her indignation, stood Helen Beaumont by the
+window of her pretty little sitting-room, or "studio" as she loved to
+call it, presenting a striking contrast to the peaceful scene without;
+where a carefully tended garden still looked bright with the remaining
+flowers of late September. Her companion, standing in the attitude
+invariably assumed now-a-days by novelists' heroes, namely, leaning
+against the mantelpiece, was a young man of equally prepossessing
+appearance with her own. At first glance no one would have suspected him
+of sharing any of the young lady's excitement, for his expression was so
+calm as almost to merit the description of sleepy. Looking more closely,
+however, the signs of some unusual disturbance or annoyance were to be
+descried, for his face was slightly flushed and his blue eyes had lost
+the look of sweet temper evidently their ordinary expression.
+
+"What I meant to say, Helen, was not, as you choose to misinterpret it,
+that I blame you for proper womanly courage and spirit, than which, I
+consider few things more admirable, nor as you are well aware do I
+admire the sweetly silly and affectedly timid order of young ladies. But
+this I do mean and repeat, that I think your persistence in this foolish
+scheme a piece of sheer bravado and foolhardiness, totally unworthy of
+any sensible person's approval, and what is more----"
+
+"Thank you, Malcolm, or rather Mr. Willoughby, I have heard quite
+enough,"--and as she spoke, Helen turned from the window out of which
+she had been gazing while Malcolm spoke, with, it must be confessed,
+very little interest in the varied tints of the dahlias blooming in all
+their rich brilliance on the terrace,--"I have heard quite enough, and
+think myself exceedingly fortunate in having heard it now before it
+is too late. You may imagine," she continued, "that I am speaking in
+temper, but it is not so. I have for some time suspected, and now feel
+convinced, that we are not suited to each other. Your own words bear
+witness to your opinion of me, 'self-willed, foolhardy, unwomanly,' and
+I know not what other pretty expressions you have applied to me, and for
+my part I tell you simply that I cannot and will not marry a man whose
+opinion of what a woman should be is like yours; and who insults me
+constantly as you do, by telling me how far short I fall of his ideal.
+Marry your ideal, Malcolm Willoughby, and I shall wish you joy of her.
+Some silly little fool who dares not move a step alone in her bewitching
+helplessness. But do not think to convert _me_ into such a piece of
+contemptible inanity," and so saying she turned towards the door.
+
+"Helen," said Malcolm quietly, so quietly that Helen was arrested in
+spite of herself, "you are unjust, unreasonable and ungenerous. You know
+that I never cared for any woman but you, you know that nothing pleases
+me more than to witness your superiority in numberless particulars to
+the general run of girls, and you know too the pride and pleasure I take
+in your skill as an artist; but blinded by self-will you will not see
+the perfect reasonableness of my request that you will abandon this
+absurd expedition. If not for your own sake, at least do so for Edith's,
+who is as you know left in your special charge by Leonard."
+
+The first part of this speech seemed, to judge by Helen's transparent
+countenance, likely to soften and move her, but the unlucky word
+"absurd" and the tone in which Malcolm spoke, as if it was necessary to
+remind her of her duty, effectually did away with any good result that
+his remonstrance might have worked. She turned, with her hand on the
+door, and saying, "I have told you my decision, Mr. Willoughby, and I
+wish you good-evening," left the room. Malcolm remained behind, lost
+in thought of no pleasurable nature. At last he too left the little
+sitting-room, after first ringing the bell and ordering his horse to be
+brought round. Making his way to the front entrance he there "mounted
+and rode away," his spirits, poor fellow, by no means the better for
+his visit.
+
+It is time, I think, to explain the cause of the lovers' quarrel
+above described. Helen and Edith Beaumont were orphans, left to the
+guardianship of their brother Leonard, in whose house we have seen the
+former. Delicacy, induced by a severe illness some months previously,
+had obliged Mr. Beaumont, accompanied by his wife, to go for the autumn
+and winter months to the south of France, leaving his sisters at home
+under the nominal chaperonage of an elderly aunt, who performed her duty
+to the perfect satisfaction of her nieces by letting them do exactly as
+they liked. More correctly speaking, perhaps, exactly as Helen liked,
+for the younger of the two, Edith, a girl of seventeen and four years
+her sister's junior, could hardly be said to have likes or dislikes
+distinct from those of Helen. Possibly Mr. Beaumont might not have left
+the two to their own devices with so easy a mind, had he not quitted
+home happy in the knowledge of Helen's engagement to his friend and
+neighbour Malcolm Willoughby. The gentleman in question lived within a
+few miles of our heroine's home, having succeeded some years before to
+his father's property. His only sister, Mrs. Lindsay, was at this time
+living with him for a few months while awaiting her husband's return
+from India, and though some years older, was, next to her sister,
+Helen's most valued friend and companion. Malcolm Willoughby was a man
+of high character, peculiarly fitted, by his unusual amount of sterling
+good sense, to be the guide of an impulsive, enthusiastic girl like
+pretty Helen Beaumont, whom to know was to love, and who would have been
+altogether charming but for her inordinate amount of self-will and
+inveterate dislike to being, as she expressed it, "ordered" to do or not
+to do whatever came into her head. She and her sister had real talent as
+artists, and their spirited and well-executed landscapes bore but little
+resemblance to the insipid productions of most young lady painters. To
+improving herself in this direction Helen had devoted much time and
+labour. Unfortunately, it had so absorbed her thoughts and desires that
+in its pursuance she was inclined sometimes to forget what were for
+her more important avocations. Helen's fortunate engagement to Mr.
+Willoughby had for some time past corrected these only objectionable
+tendencies in her character, and all had gone smoothly and happily till
+the date at which our story commences, when, unluckily, some artist
+friends had filled her head with their descriptions of the exquisite
+autumn scenery, "effects of foliage," etc., to be seen in a mountainous
+and hitherto little explored part of Wales. Her imagination, and through
+her that of her sister Edith, ran wild on the subject, and now nothing
+would satisfy her but a journey to the spot in question, by themselves,
+in order that they might enjoy their freedom to the utmost, and revel in
+the delight of painting some of the wonderful Welsh scenery described to
+them. The idea had at first been mooted half in joke, but an impolitic
+expression of strong disapprobation on the part of Mr. Willoughby had
+done more to determine Helen on carrying it out than all the anticipated
+artistic enjoyment.
+
+"It will be just the opportunity I wanted," thought the foolish girl,
+"of showing him that I do not intend to be a silly nonentity of a wife
+with no opinion of my own, and hedged in by all the absurd old-fashioned
+conventionalities which will not allow a woman to have an existence of
+her own or give her opportunity to cultivate what talents she may
+possess."
+
+And once determined, Miss Helen remained inflexible. In vain Mr.
+Willoughby remonstrated, in vain even their indulgent old aunt expressed
+her horror at the idea of "two young girls scouring the country by
+themselves," her own feebleness rendering her accompanying them out of
+the question. Go to Wales Helen and Edith must, and go they would, till
+at last the discussion with her _fiance_ terminated in the disastrous
+manner above recorded.
+
+I will not undertake to describe Helen's feelings, when, in the solitude
+of her own room, she thought over what she had done. Had she herself
+been obliged to put them into words, I believe she would have repeated
+that she had not acted in temper and that the stand she had made for her
+womanly freedom, as she would have expressed it, had been an act of
+supreme heroism and devotion to the cause of right. She said all this
+to herself and tried hard, very hard to believe it; and to stifle the
+little voice at the very bottom of her heart which whispered that
+she had behaved like a silly, self-willed, petted child, and shown
+herself undeserving of so good a gift as the love of a man like
+Malcolm Willoughby. The little voice was smothered for the time by
+exaggerated anticipations of the delights of their tour and attempted
+self-congratulations at her newly regained liberty to do as she chose;
+for Malcolm did not come near her again, and it took all her pride to
+hide from herself and others the shock she felt through all her being
+when, in the course of a few days, she heard accidentally that Mr.
+Willoughby was leaving home for an uncertain length of time.
+
+"He has taken me at my word," thought she, "but of course I meant him to
+do so," and she hurried on the preparations for their journey which they
+were now on the eve of.
+
+"You will at least take Maxwell," said Aunt Fanny timidly.
+
+"Maxwell, aunt! No, thank you," said Helen ironically; "she would be
+crying for her spring mattress the first night and thinking she was
+going to die if she heard the wind howl. No, thank you, I mean to be
+independent for once in my life, and so does Edith."
+
+Other twenty-four hours saw our two young ladies on their way.
+Unaccustomed as they were to travelling alone they got on very well for
+the greater part of their journey, till they arrived at a certain
+railway station in Wales, of name unpronounceable by civilised tongue,
+but which sounded to them like that of the place where they were to
+leave the railway. Never doubting but what they were right in so doing
+Helen and Edith calmly descended from their carriage, watched the train
+disappear in the tunnel hard by, and then began to make inquiries for a
+conveyance to transport themselves and their luggage, white umbrellas,
+easels and all, the five or six miles which they imagined were all that
+divided them from their destination. A colloquy ensued with the most
+intelligible of two or three fly-drivers, carmen, or whatever these
+personages are called in Wales; but what was Helen's consternation on
+learning that fifteen miles at least remained to be traversed; they
+having left the railway at Llanfar, two stations too soon, instead of
+remaining in it till they reached Llanfair, the point nearest to the
+farm-house where lodgings had been taken for them. No chance of a train
+to Llanfair till to-morrow morning, for the line was a new one, and the
+traffic as yet but small. No prospect of a night's accommodation where
+they were. Nothing for it but to trust to the driver's assurance that he
+and his unpromising-looking horse could easily convey them to the
+farm-house, with the inevitably unpronounceable name. With some
+unconfessed misgivings Helen and Edith mounted the vehicle awaiting
+them, and drove off along a muddy, jolting lane into the quickly
+gathering gloom.
+
+Shivering on her uncomfortable seat, did Helen wish herself at home
+again in her own little sitting-room, with Aunt Fanny peacefully
+knitting, Edith kneeling on the hearth-rug, and Malcolm's face bright
+with the reflection of the ruddy log fire so welcome in autumn evenings;
+all together as was their wont, enjoying "blind man's holiday"?
+
+I think we had better not press the question too closely. However, "it's
+a long lane that has no ending," and even this dreary journey gradually
+drew to a close. They passed but few houses of any kind, one or two
+straggling hamlets were left behind, and for some two or three miles the
+road had been perfectly solitary, when they suddenly heard wheels
+advancing to meet them, and in a few minutes a car like their own drove
+towards them, and being hailed by their driver, drew up at their side. A
+jabbering ensued of directions asked and given, and they again drove on.
+
+"Are you sure you know the way?" said Helen timidly.
+
+"Oh yes, miss," the driver answered confidently, and further informed
+them that the car they had met, had just returned from their own
+destination (being translated), the Black Nest Farm, having there
+deposited a traveller who had taken the middle course of leaving the
+railway at the intermediate stoppage between Llanfar and Llanfair. Other
+three-quarters of an hour and they pulled up at last before a house
+which the darkness prevented their seeing more of than that it was long
+and low. They stumbled up the rough garden path, and in answer to their
+knock, the door was opened by a tidy, clean-looking old woman, with a
+flickering candle in her hand, evidently surprised at their appearance.
+She had, she said, quite given up thoughts of their coming that night,
+and feared the fire in the sitting-room was out. Thankful to have
+reached the Black Nest at last, a chilly room seemed a smaller evil than
+the two girls would have considered it at home; and after all, things
+were not so bad, for the fire in the little farmhouse parlour, to which
+their landlady conducted them, was not quite out, and a little judicious
+coaxing soon brought it round.
+
+Their hostess's and their own first idea was of course _tea_. What a
+blessing, by the way, it is that British womankind in general, high and
+low, rich and poor, old and young, have this _one_ taste in common!
+Refreshed by the homely meal speedily set before them, Helen and Edith
+proceeded, under the guidance of the old woman (apparently the only
+inhabitant of the house), and the flickering candle, to inspect their
+sleeping apartment. The result was not eminently satisfactory, for it
+struck them as gloomy, ill-ventilated, and a long way from their
+parlour, though but few rooms appeared to intervene between the two.
+This puzzled them at the time, but was afterwards explained by the fact
+that Black Nest Farm-house had originally consisted of two one-storeyed
+cottages standing at some yards distance from each other, and which, on
+becoming the property of one owner, had been united by a long passage;
+which arrangement was looked upon in the neighbourhood as a triumph of
+architectural ingenuity. On returning to their sitting-room Helen's eye
+fell on a door beside their own which she had not before noticed, and
+she inquired if that was a bedroom. To which the old woman replied in
+the affirmative, but added that they could not have it, as it and a
+small sitting-room opening out of it were engaged by a "strange
+gentleman". And besides this, she added, the bedroom was not so
+desirable for ladies, having a second, or rather third door to the
+outside of the house. The only other room they could have was so small
+that she did not think they would like it, but they should see for
+themselves, and so saying she turned towards a recess in the passage.
+Helen followed her, but the flickering candle suddenly throwing light in
+a new direction, she gave a little exclamation of alarm at what appeared
+at the first moment to be a very ugly grinning portrait high up on the
+wall.
+
+"It's only the clock, miss," said the old woman. "Though, to be sure, it
+is quare," and as she spoke she threw the light more fully upon the
+object that had startled Helen, which she now perceived to be a very
+antique clock, standing high in a dark wooden case, and with the face
+she had seen, peeping at you as it were from behind the dial-plate. An
+ugly, coarsely painted face, with a disagreeably mocking expression it
+seemed to Helen; nor was it the only repulsive feature in this very
+remarkable clock, for the artist appeared to have outdone himself in the
+grotesquely hideous devices at the bottom of the dial. Death's heads,
+cross-bones, and other equally unpleasant objects of various kinds,
+curiously intermingled with a condensed solar system, in which sun, moon
+and stars appeared jumbled together haphazard. The general object of the
+whole evidently being to bring before the spectator the ghastly side of
+his future, and to read him a wholesome, but certainly not attractive,
+homily on the shortness of life, and the speed with which time was
+ticking away. Helen felt half fascinated by its hideousness.
+
+"Dear me, what a very curious clock!" she ejaculated, and the old woman
+repeated, with a little inward chuckle at what she evidently considered
+the admiration drawn forth by her heirloom:--
+
+"Yes, sure it _is_ quare."
+
+An uncanny object it certainly was, and Helen felt relieved that the
+room in its immediate vicinity was so small as to be out of the question
+for the accommodation of her sister and herself. Re-entering the
+sitting-room she found poor Edith looking so utterly worn-out that she
+proposed that they should at once go to bed; which they accordingly did,
+followed by the old woman with offers of assistance. Passing the door of
+"the strange gentleman's" room, they heard sounds of some one moving
+inside, and Edith sleepily remarked that she wondered what could have
+brought a gentleman to an outlandish place like the Black Nest, unless,
+like themselves, he came to take views in the neighbourhood. Helen
+pricked up her ears at this and inquired of Mrs. Jones if their
+fellow-lodger was an artist. Mrs. Jones thought not, but seemed
+unwilling to pursue the topic of the strange gentleman further. In
+rather a forced manner she changed the subject by inquiring if the young
+ladies would like to hire her pony while there, as it was rough walking,
+and her grandson Griffith, the only other inhabitant of the cottage, a
+little lad of twelve, could lead it for them, and show them the way
+whenever they chose. Helen gladly closed with the offer.
+
+"Dear me, Mrs. Jones," she exclaimed "how very lonely you must be living
+here with no one but a little boy. Have you no near neighbours?"
+
+"None nearer than three miles ma'am, for the farm-men live at a
+distance, save old Thomas in the last cottage you passed, but he is
+bed-ridden. My widow daughter, Griffith's mother, was with me till she
+took ill, two winters ago, and died before the doctor could get to her.
+Yes, it is lonesome like in winter to be sure. It's not often that
+gentry like you, miss, care to be in these parts so late in the year."
+
+Further inquiries elicited that the nearest church was a good five miles
+off, that there was no doctor nearer than Llanfar, that the butcher only
+came in the winter once a fortnight and that irregularly; in consequence
+of which the Black Nesters had often to depend upon their own scanty
+resources, the roads being almost impassable in stormy weather.
+
+"Don't you think it feels rather dreary, Helen?" said Edith, as she was
+falling asleep.
+
+"_Eerie_, rather, I should say," replied her sister, "but that, you
+know, is the beauty of it. In the morning, I daresay, it will look
+bright enough, but I confess I do not like that clock. Listen, can't
+you hear its ticking, faintly, even here, at the end of that long
+passage?"
+
+"What clock do you mean? I saw no clock," said Edith, but almost before
+Helen could answer, her soft regular breathing told that she was asleep.
+Helen however, could not so quickly compose herself. She felt excited
+and vaguely uneasy; and when she at last fell asleep, it was only to
+have her discomfort increased, by absurd, yet alarming dreams. With
+them all the ugly clock was grotesquely intermingled. Sometimes it was
+herself, sometimes Edith, and once Malcolm, whom she fancied in some
+position of terrible peril, always associated with the clock, and at
+last she awoke with a half-smothered scream of horror at the most
+frightful dream of all; in which the "strange gentleman," their
+fellow-lodger, was pursuing her with a veil over his face, which just as
+he caught her fell off, and disclosed, horrible to relate, the face on
+the clock.
+
+Edith started up as Helen convulsively clutched her, and exclaiming,
+"What in the world is the matter?" really thought Helen was going out of
+her mind when she replied, "That horrible clock;" and as she spoke, as
+if invoked, the clock began to strike: "One, two, three, four," and so
+on. "Is it never going to stop?" said Helen. Poor Edith, half asleep
+still, listened with her.
+
+"Edith, I am almost certain that clock struck _thirteen_," said Helen in
+an awe-struck voice; and then they heard a door shut at the end of the
+passage.
+
+"Helen, you have been dreaming, and you are only half awake now," said
+Edith. "It is not like you to waken me in this frightening way, please
+let me go to sleep."
+
+"I am very sorry," said Helen penitently, and she too closed her eyes
+and tried hard to go to sleep, which of course she did, as soon as she
+left off trying, and had made up her mind to lie awake till daylight.
+
+The morning broke clear and fresh; and, as Helen had said, things in
+general bore a very different aspect to that of the night before.
+Indoors, the quaint old house now looked simply picturesque, and Mrs.
+Jones the _beau ideal_ of a cheery old hostess. Even the face of the
+clock, when Helen pointed it out to Edith, seemed to have lost its
+mocking grin, and to be merely bidding them good-morning, with a comical
+smile at the consternation it had awakened the night before.
+
+Out-of-doors they soon turned their steps. There was no view from the
+house, but a short voyage of discovery quickly explained to them their
+locality. Black Nest Farm stood at the foot of a hill close on to the
+high road, or what passed for such in that hitherto little frequented
+neighbourhood. On the opposite side of the road but little was to be
+seen, as the meadows were soon lost in a thick belt of wood; but
+immediately behind the house was a tempting prospect, for there a little
+winding path led up the hill to one of the spots Helen and Edith most
+ardently desired to paint, and of which their friends had given them a
+glowing description. It was rather a long walk to the Black Lake, Mrs.
+Jones informed them, but their enthusiasm knew no bounds, and hardly
+permitted them to do justice to their breakfast of ham and eggs,
+home-made bread and home-churned butter. See them then starting on their
+expedition,--their painting materials, and some creature comforts in the
+shape of sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs, safely packed on the pony's
+back, Griffith leading him and acting as guide. A pretty stiff pull it
+was, enthusiasm notwithstanding, and rather hard work for the little
+feet, sensibly shod in good strong boots it is true, but unaccustomed
+nevertheless to mountain scrambling. But at last their circuitous path
+brought them to the summit, and there a curious prospect broke upon
+them. They stood at the edge of the great Welsh tableland. There it
+stretched away before them, miles and miles beyond their view; a vast
+expanse of wild, brown moor, unrelieved by tree or shrub, but here and
+there dotted by great patches of what Edith at first sight took to be
+"lovely emerald moss". Treacherous loveliness, for it told, as they
+learnt from Griffith, of fearful bog-pits, down whose slimy sides once
+slipped no man or beast could ever regain firm ground.
+
+"What a horrible death that would be," said Helen, shuddering, "far
+worse than regular drowning in clean water. It would be slow suffocation
+in nasty, dirty mud."
+
+A few minutes' careful walking brought them in sight of the Black Lake,
+the special object of their excursion. And it certainly was well worth
+coming to see, if not to paint; probably too, better seen in the
+greyness of a late autumn day than in the summer sun, whose bright rays
+reflected on its surface would have little harmonised with its character
+of gloom and loneliness. The lake was equal to several acres in extent,
+but from where they stood could not all be seen, as its farther end
+was hidden by the undulations of the land. In colour it was a dull,
+leaden grey, and looking at it, one's mind spontaneously reverted to
+travellers' descriptions of the Dead Sea, for _dead_ was essentially the
+word by which to describe it. There were no fish to be caught in it
+Griffith told them, and as for its depth he had never heard tell of any
+one's sounding it. The effect of the whole scene was very peculiar, and
+so Helen and Edith felt it to be, as they stood gazing at the leaden
+water and the great, apparently boundless moorland. It was difficult to
+realise that they were so far above the ordinary haunts of men, for
+there was nothing in that great plain to remind them of the existence
+even of hills and mountains, except a steady-blowing breeze of that
+peculiar freshness pertaining only to sea or mountain air. Pleasantly
+invigorating at first, but soon becoming too chilly to make one care to
+stand about, or, worse still, to _sit_, as our young ladies now
+prepared to do.
+
+"We are very lucky in the weather," remarked Helen, as they prepared for
+their sketching. "I should fancy it is just the day to see the lake to
+the best advantage."
+
+"Or disadvantage," said Edith, "for I do think it is the most horrible
+place I ever saw. I don't know," added she dreamily, "but what it would
+seem even more desolate on a bright, sunny day. I don't know why."
+
+"I understand how you mean," replied her sister, "the contrast would be
+so strange. Like a skeleton dressed in a golden robe. Dear me, I am
+becoming quite poetical. But look, Edith, how do you like this?" And a
+consultation on their work ensued.
+
+Very cold work it became, as it grew to afternoon, notwithstanding the
+pleasurable excitement of their occupation, and Edith, for one, was not
+sorry when Helen at last thought it time to pack up their painting
+materials and turn homewards. A drizzling rain began to fall as they
+neared the foot of the hill, and they both felt thankful to reach the
+farm-house,--tired, muddy and damp, and in not _quite_ such high
+spirits as when they set off on their expedition. A savoury odour
+meeting them on their entrance, Helen suddenly bethought herself that
+she had utterly forgotten to order anything for their "high tea," or
+whatever one likes to call the said incongruous meal. It was therefore
+an agreeable surprise to her after remembering her neglect to see on
+entering their little sitting-room the brightest of fires, and the table
+daintily set out with evident preparation for a tempting repast; part of
+which, in the shape of a delicious-looking ham, "a new-made pat of
+butter and a wheaten loaf so fine," had already made its appearance.
+Damp clothes and muddy boots discarded, they sat down with an excellent
+appetite to their meal, and the savoury odour which had greeted them was
+soon explained by the appearance of Mrs. Jones bearing a chicken stewed
+in mushrooms.
+
+"Mushrooms!" exclaimed Helen, "the thing of all others I like. How
+clever you are, Mrs. Jones, to get us all these good things! I shall
+leave our food to your providing, I think, in future."
+
+Mrs. Jones laughed and said a friend had sent some things from Llanfar,
+and a friend also had gathered the mushrooms, the last of their season,
+thinking the young ladies might like them.
+
+"Your friends are as good as yourself then, Mrs. Jones," said Helen; but
+as she spoke she was startled by what sounded like a half-smothered
+laugh or exclamation of some kind just outside the door. Almost at the
+same moment her friend the clock began to strike, and she therefore
+fancied the sound she had heard must have come from it. "Its internal
+arrangements are, I daresay, as peculiar as its outside," thought she to
+herself, and refrained therefore from mentioning to Edith what she
+thought she had heard. All the rest of the evening, however, though she
+would hardly have owned it to herself, she felt a little nervous and
+uneasy, particularly when she heard the clock strike.
+
+"I wonder what our fellow-lodger does with himself all day," said Edith
+that evening.
+
+"I am sure I don't know, or care either," said Helen, "indeed, I hardly
+believe there is such a being at all."
+
+They went early to bed, and fell quickly asleep. After having slept, it
+seemed to her for several hours, Helen woke suddenly with the feeling
+that something had wakened her, and found that the clock was busy
+striking, and to her confused fancy had been striking for ever so long
+before she woke. Its strokes ceased before she was sufficiently awake to
+count them, but a moment or two afterwards she heard a door shut as it
+had done the night before.
+
+"It is very annoying that I can't get a good night's rest here," thought
+she. A whispered "Helen," told her that Edith too was awake.
+
+"The clock _did_ strike thirteen," said Edith, "and there _must_ be
+somebody in that room, for I heard the door shut again."
+
+"And so did I," said Helen, whereupon they lay still in awe-struck
+silence, till they both fell fast asleep again.
+
+The next day was Saturday, and though somewhat stiff and tired with
+their exertions, Friday's programme was repeated. The sketches proceeded
+satisfactorily, but our heroines were less fortunate in other respects,
+for just as they were about to leave the Black Lake in the afternoon,
+the rain came on in torrents. Long before they got back to the
+farm-house the poor girls were thoroughly drenched. Edith escaped with
+no ill results, but Helen sat shivering over the fire all the evening,
+passed an uneasy night in which it seemed to her that the clock never
+left off striking at all, and woke on Sunday morning with every symptom
+of a delightfully bad cold. The prospect outside was not cheering. Rain,
+rain, rain. Down it came in torrents. No chance of making their way to
+the five miles' off church, no chance even of a quiet stroll along the
+lanes; and, worst of all, no books to read, for such a possibility as a
+whole day in the house had never presented itself to their inexperienced
+imaginations! It was very dull. Helen was almost cross with Edith for
+being so exceedingly sympathetic. It was kind of course, but provoking
+nevertheless, as to Helen's sensitiveness it seemed to convey a tacit
+reproach. She would not allow to herself that they were at all to be
+pitied. All the same she was not sorry when the time came at last for
+them to go to bed.
+
+"I wish we had brought some sherry with us," said Edith. "A little white
+wine whey would have been the very thing for your cold."
+
+"What's the good of wishing," replied her sister rather snappishly, "you
+had better call Mrs. Jones and ask her to make me some gruel." But on
+Mrs. Jones's appearance, and when the request had been made, both the
+girls felt rather surprised at her volunteering the very thing they had
+been wishing for.
+
+She had, she said, "some very nice sherry wine, given her by a friend,"
+and many years ago, when she was in service in Chester, she had learnt
+to make white wine whey. Sure enough a tempting-looking basinful shortly
+after made its appearance.
+
+Thanks to its soporific influence Helen soon fell asleep, but woke (as
+she had got strangely into the habit of doing) just at midnight, or
+as Edith had taken to calling it, "thirteen o'clock". The clock was
+half-way through its striking when she woke, and a sudden impulse seized
+her to jump up, and, opening the door slightly, to peep out and either
+see who it was that always shut a door after the clock struck, or, by
+seeing nothing, satisfy herself that the sound had all along been merely
+the creation of her own and Edith's imagination.
+
+She opened the door very cautiously, and instantly perceived that there
+was a light at the end of the passage in the recess where stood the
+clock. Helen's heart beat more loudly, and she wished devoutly that she
+had allowed her curiosity to remain unsatisfied, when to her horror the
+light moved out of the recess, and she saw that it was held by a tall
+dark figure with its back turned towards her. The passage was so long
+and the light flickered so much that it was impossible for her to
+distinguish anything but the general outline of the person who held it.
+Not Mrs. Jones or Griffith, assuredly, but poor Helen was too frightened
+to do more than lock the door with her trembling fingers and leap back
+into bed, thereby awakening Edith, who on hearing Helen's story calmly
+assured her that she had either been dreaming, or had seen the strange
+gentleman their fellow-lodger whose existence Helen had rashly dared to
+question. Oddly enough she had forgotten all about him, and felt
+somewhat relieved by Edith's matter-of-fact solution.
+
+"Only what should he be doing at the clock at this time of night? I hope
+he is not out of his mind;"--to which Edith replied:--
+
+"I do believe he gets up to make it strike thirteen on purpose to tease
+us."
+
+Monday morning wore a more promising aspect than Sunday, for such clouds
+as there were, bespoke nothing worse than showers, and our young ladies
+succeeded in obtaining an hour or two's sketching at the lake. Helen,
+however, felt still considerably the worse of her terrible wetting,
+and was actually the first to propose that they should return to the
+farm-house. Somewhat weakened by her cold, and tired too, she mounted
+the little pony at Edith's suggestion, and they were proceeding cheerily
+enough on their way--Griffith, loaded with their painting materials,
+some little distance behind--when a stumble on the pony's part brought
+him suddenly to the ground. Helen had been paying little attention to
+her steed, and, unprepared for the shock, fell on her side with some
+little force. A most undignified procedure had there been any one to
+witness it, but which would have drawn forth nothing but a laugh had it
+not been that in the fall her foot caught in the stirrup. Her sharp cry
+of pain terrified Edith, who, however, soon succeeded in disentangling
+her, as the poor little pony remained perfectly quiet, but a moment's
+examination, and a vain attempt to stand, showed them that the ankle was
+badly sprained. All that could be done was to mount Helen again as well
+as Edith and Griffith could manage, and to make the best of their way
+home. Arrived there, hot applications soon reduced the pain, but it was
+easy to be seen, even by their inexperienced eyes, that Helen must not
+attempt to move for several days to come.
+
+Here was a charming ending to their expedition! Helen, even, felt
+woefully disconcerted, and poor Edith fairly began to cry.
+
+"If it were not that you would not like it, I would write to Mrs.
+Lindsay to come and nurse you," said Edith, "she is so good and kind,
+and I know she would come in a minute, for she has nothing to prevent
+her."
+
+"Mrs. Lindsay! Edith," exclaimed Helen indignantly, "the very last
+person I would apply to, however good and kind she may be. Do you really
+think that. I would put myself under such an obligation to the sister of
+the man I have----" "Quarrelled with for nothing at all," said the
+little voice at the bottom of her heart. Edith said nothing, but for the
+first time in her life took an independent resolution and acted upon it.
+Her love for Helen conquered her fear of displeasing her. What this
+resolution was we shall not disclose, nor shall we tell whose hand
+addressed a letter to Mrs. Lindsay carried that evening by the post-boy
+to Llanfar. The strangest coincidence was that _two_ letters bearing the
+same direction left the Black Nest Farm that evening.
+
+Tired out with the pain of her ankle, Helen, for the first time since
+their arrival, slept past midnight and only woke to hear the clock
+strike five. All too soon for her comfort, for her thoughts were none
+of the brightest, as she lay waiting for the daylight. Her folly, her
+headstrong determination, right or wrong, to carry out her own way,
+began to show themselves to her more clearly; or rather, she began to
+allow herself to see them in their true light. And when at last the
+morning came, and she was established for the day on the hard little
+horse-hair sofa in their sitting-room, her spirits were not improved by
+the perusal of a letter from her Aunt Fanny. The good old lady, after
+deploring their absence and pathetically describing her anxiety on their
+behalf, made mention of a visit from Mrs. Lindsay, who had come to tell
+her how unhappy she was about her brother. "He left home," wrote Aunt
+Fanny, "two days after that unfortunate conversation with you without
+telling his sister what was the matter. At least she only gathered that
+something unpleasant had happened from his saying that you were leaving
+home, and that he did not expect to see you before you went. He left no
+direction beyond telling her to write to his club, which she has done
+two or three times, but got no answer. She says he looked so unlike
+himself that she fears he has fallen ill somewhere and cannot write to
+tell her. Oh, Helen, I do wish you had never thought of this
+expedition."
+
+"How very silly Mrs. Lindsay is to be so fanciful," said Helen, in which
+view of the case tender-hearted little Edith did not at all agree,
+though she hardly dared to say so. They spent a dull day, for Edith
+would not consent to leave her sister, and their paintings were at a
+standstill for want of another day's sketching from the original.
+
+"To-morrow, Edith," said Helen, "you might go to the lake for an hour or
+so without me and finish your sketch, and I might go on with mine from
+yours," to which Edith made no objection.
+
+By night Helen's feverish uneasiness had increased, and Edith secretly
+congratulated herself on her resolute step of the day before. And a
+wretched night followed. In reality Helen was very anxious and unhappy
+about Malcolm Willoughby, and her dreams were full of terrors that
+something had befallen him. Through all, the disagreeable clock again
+thrust forward its ugly face, and she woke in an indescribable state of
+horror, fancying that the clock was standing by her bedside, striking
+loudly in her ears to a kind of "refrain" of the words: "I told you so.
+I told you so." Of course the clock _was_ striking, and had evidently
+awakened her by so doing.
+
+"Thirteen again," whispered Edith, "it is really very disagreeable."
+
+"It sounds to _me_ like the voice of my conscience," said Helen,
+"warning me that some terrible punishment is coming upon me for my
+wicked folly. Yes, Edith, I see it all now, and as soon as ever I can
+move we shall go home, and I shall ask poor Aunt Fanny to forgive me. I
+wish every other consequence of my wrong-doing could be done away with
+as easily as her displeasure." And all her pride broken down, poor Helen
+burst into tears, and Edith's affectionate words of soothing were of no
+avail to stop her sobs. She felt rather better in the morning however,
+partly, perhaps, because the day was bright and sunny. About mid-day
+she fell into a doze on her sofa, and waking after an hour's sleep was
+surprised to miss Edith. A note in pencil pinned to the table-cover
+caught her attention. It bore these words: "You are so nicely asleep I
+don't like to waken you. I shall come back as early as I can, but don't
+be alarmed if I am a little later than you expect."
+
+"She has gone to finish the sketch," thought Helen uneasily. "I wish I
+had not asked her to do so, it looks dull and overcast."
+
+She rang the hand-bell for Mrs. Jones, who appeared with a basin of
+soup, and told her that the young lady had set off a quarter of an hour
+before.
+
+"It can't be helped now," said Helen, "but I wish I had not proposed
+it."
+
+The afternoon seemed long and dull, and yet Helen felt sorry when it
+began to close in, for no Edith had yet appeared. Still it was not later
+than they had been out together more than once. Helen tried to think it
+was not yet dusk outside, but felt this comfort fail her when it
+gradually grew so indisputably dark that Mrs. Jones brought in candles
+without her asking for them.
+
+"Are you not uneasy about my sister and Griffith, Mrs. Jones?" said
+Helen; but her anxiety was tenfold increased when Mrs. Jones replied
+calmly:--
+
+"Griffith is not with the young lady to-day. I had to send him a message
+to Llanfair, and as like as not he will stay at his uncle's till the
+morning. The young lady said it did not matter, and I saddled the pony
+for her myself."
+
+"Griffith not with her!" exclaimed Helen. "Oh, Mrs. Jones, what will
+become of her?"
+
+"Don't be alarmed, miss," said the old woman, "the pony is very steady,
+and the darkness comes on so sudden-like, it seems later than it is."
+
+And with this scanty consolation Helen was obliged to remain satisfied.
+Mrs. Jones stirred up the fire and set the tea all ready, but Helen grew
+sick at heart as the time went on, and still no Edith. Six, struck the
+clock, and ticked on again to seven. Helen could bear it no longer.
+
+"Mrs. Jones," cried she, "can you not get any one to go to look for my
+sister? She may be on her way down the hill, and have got into some
+difficulty with the pony."
+
+"Indeed, miss, I don't know what I can do. There's no one nearer than
+old Thomas and he can't move."
+
+"The strange gentleman!" said Helen suddenly; "your other lodger. Would
+he not help me?"
+
+"He has been out since early this morning," replied Mrs. Jones, "and he
+told me he was not sure of being back to-night. He has gone to meet a
+friend."
+
+Helen felt more in despair than before. It seemed an aggravation of her
+anxiety to have to lie still on the sofa doing nothing. Indeed had she
+been able to do so, nothing would have prevented her making her way to
+the Black Lake, and too probably losing her own life in the endeavour to
+save her sister's. As it was, she managed at last to drag herself to the
+door in hopes of hearing footsteps up the path, but nothing broke the
+silence save the tick, tick of the clock. It wore on to nine, despite
+her wretchedness and indescribable anxiety. She pictured to herself her
+sister, her dear little Edith, left so specially in her charge, cowering
+on the moor, alone in that dreary darkness, sobbing in despair of ever
+finding her way out of that frightful desert. Or, worse still, lying
+cold and dead in one of those fearful pits under the mockingly beautiful
+moss; whence, in all probability, her poor body even would never be
+recovered. It was too frightful. Helen almost shrieked aloud: "Oh, my
+darling, my little sister, come back, do come back. Oh, Malcolm, if
+only you were here. How terribly I am punished for my self-will!" And
+terribly punished she was, for the memory of that night's suffering was
+too painful to recall in after years without a shudder. Mrs. Jones was
+in helpless distress, though in hopes of every moment hearing the pony
+and the young lady at the gate, and she returned to her own domains
+saying she had better have hot water ready as Miss Edith would be
+fainting for her tea. Helen remained alone at the window of the
+sitting-room.
+
+The night was fine but very dark. Darker than she had ever seen a night
+before, it seemed to Helen. She was almost in a stupor of despair. She
+sank down half-unconsciously before the fire and never knew how long she
+had lain there when she was roused by the clock striking. "One, two,
+three, four,"--she counted aloud as if bewitched, till when it got to
+the fatal _thirteen_, her over-strained nerves gave way, and with a
+scream she ran or stumbled, she knew not how, along the passage to seek
+for Mrs. Jones. As she passed the front-door she was arrested by the
+sharp sounds of steps coming quickly up the garden path. The door was
+pushed open. The only light was what came through the open door of the
+room she had just left, and she could distinguish nothing but a tall
+dark figure hurrying towards her. She screamed with terror but stood,
+unable to move, when to her intense relief a voice from behind the
+person she saw, exclaimed eagerly: "Helen, dearest Helen, don't be
+frightened. I am quite safe," and some one rushed past the tall person,
+now close to her, and kissing her passionately, Helen felt, rather than
+saw, that it was Edith.
+
+"Malcolm! Malcolm! she is fainting!" called Edith, and the tall person
+pressed forward, caught her up in his arms like a baby, and, unconscious
+now of everything, Helen was carried back into the sitting-room, laid on
+the hard little sofa, and there held tenderly by the strong yet gentle
+arms whose protecting care she, poor foolish child, had fancied she
+could so well dispense with.
+
+It was the first time in her life that Helen Beaumont had ever fainted,
+and it was not long before she began to recover.
+
+"Malcolm! oh, Malcolm!" were her first words on returning consciousness
+(and it seemed to her afterwards as if some one else had spoken them for
+her, her good angel perhaps!), "can you ever forgive me?"
+
+"My darling," was the whispered answer, "you know you need not ask it."
+And then Helen felt as if she were just going to die, but was too happy
+to care, and too languid to ask even how all this had come about. But
+now a third person came forward saying:--
+
+"Malcolm, let me stay beside her," and, wonderful to tell, the sweet
+voice and kind face were Mrs. Lindsay's. Helen thought she must be
+dreaming, but lay still as she was told, and then drank something or
+other Mrs. Lindsay brought her; so before long she was able to sit up
+and begin to wonder what was the meaning of it all.
+
+"Are you not amazed, Helen?" said Edith; "but first of all you must
+forgive me for frightening you so, for indeed I have been nearly as
+wretched as you, thinking of what you must have been feeling." And
+before Helen could reply the eager girl ran on with her explanations.
+"Who do you think has been our fellow-lodger all this time, Helen? Who
+do you think is the 'strange gentleman'? Only fancy Malcolm's having
+been here ever since we came! It was he that travelled by the same
+train, and seeing as it moved off at Llanfar that we had got out, he did
+so at the next station, and arrived here before us. He had inquired
+about Mrs. Jones, and heard what a good creature she was; and he had
+time to have a talk with her, and to take her to some extent into his
+confidence."
+
+Helen looked at first, as this recital went on, as if she were wavering
+between a return to her old dislike to being interfered with, and
+gratitude to Malcolm for his undeserved devotion. The good angel
+triumphed, as Malcolm, who was watching her anxiously, quickly
+perceived.
+
+"I did not interfere with you, Helen," he said in a low voice, "but it
+was the greatest comfort to me to be able to protect and care for you,
+even though you did not know it."
+
+The tears started to Helen's eyes.
+
+"Oh, Malcolm, I know how good you are, but----"
+
+"Never mind any 'buts,'" said Mrs. Lindsay brightly, catching the last
+word. "'All's well, that ends well.'"
+
+"I know now who foraged for us so successfully," said Edith. "Who was
+the mysterious friend that gave Mrs. Jones the mushrooms!"
+
+"And nearly betrayed myself by laughing at the door, when passing I
+heard Helen's enthusiastic thanks to Mrs. Jones," said Malcolm.
+
+"Yes, and frightened me horribly by so doing," added Helen, "as I really
+began to think that clock was bewitched, and had a special ill-will
+against me. In fact it took the place of my conscience for the time
+being."
+
+"I have the very greatest regard for the clock," said Malcolm demurely,
+"and I intend to make Mrs. Jones an offer for it forthwith."
+
+"Please don't," said Helen piteously. "I daresay it is very silly, but I
+really don't quite like that clock, though, after all, its warning of
+ill-luck has brought the very reverse to me. But I have not heard yet
+what kept Edith out so late, or how in the world you and Mrs. Lindsay
+met her at the Black Lake."
+
+"The Black Lake?" said Mrs. Lindsay, "what do you mean?"
+
+Whereupon Edith hastened on with that part of her story relating to her
+own adventures. She, it appeared, feeling confident in Mrs. Lindsay's
+ready kindness, and never doubting but what she would at once respond to
+her appeal by coming to nurse Helen, instead of going to the Black Lake
+to sketch, as Helen imagined, set off on the pony to meet her friend
+at the station, having proposed to her to come by a certain train.
+Overtaking Griffith on the road to Llanfair, as she expected from Mrs.
+Jones's account, he accompanied her to the village, where she gave over
+the pony to his care. As she entered the station she saw a return train
+about to start for the Junction about half an hour's journey from where
+she was. Finding by her watch that she was in ample time, it struck her
+that she might as well go so far to meet her friend, but on arriving at
+the Junction she was startled to find that with the new month a change
+had taken place in the trains, and that consequently Mrs. Lindsay could
+not arrive till late in the evening. Worse still she herself could not
+now get back to Helen till she was frightened to think what hour, the
+evening train in question not going farther than Llanfar, the station
+near the Junction at which she and her sister had by mistake got out on
+their arrival, and which was fifteen miles from the Black Nest. It is
+needless to describe her distress of mind all the long hours she had to
+sit in the little waiting-room at the Junction; or her corresponding
+delight when, on the train coming up, she descried looking out of a
+window the familiar face of Malcolm Willoughby, and found that he was
+accompanied by his sister whom he had gone to meet half-way on her
+journey.
+
+Helen woke at noon the next day feeling indescribably happy, she could
+not tell why till the sight of Mrs. Lindsay's sweet face recalled to her
+mind all her misery of the night before and the relief and happiness
+with which it had ended.
+
+"How little I deserve it!" thought she humbly and gratefully, "and how
+can I ever repay Malcolm for his goodness?"
+
+Their dull little parlour looked very different now that it was
+enlivened by the presence of the two newcomers; and Helen could scarcely
+believe it to be the same room in which, but yesterday, she had passed
+hours of such agonising suspense. So thoroughly penitent and softened
+did she feel that she offered no opposition to anything proposed, and it
+was therefore arranged that as soon as Helen was well enough to travel
+they should all return home together to relieve poor Aunt Fanny's
+anxiety.
+
+"I wonder," said Helen, with a little sigh, a few days afterwards, when
+they were packing up their painting materials, "I wonder if I shall ever
+finish my sketch of the Black Lake."
+
+"I don't like to make rash promises," said Malcolm, "but if somebody I
+know is _very_ good perhaps next summer she may see the Black Lake
+again, provided she will neither catch cold nor tumble off her pony."
+
+Edith laughed and Helen blushed.
+
+"But there's one thing still," said Edith, "which I don't understand.
+Why, Malcolm, did you always shut your door as the clock struck
+thirteen?"
+
+"Very simply explained," replied he. "The first night I was here I was
+sitting up reading till midnight and thought I heard it strike thirteen.
+I thought it very odd, and for a night or two I listened till it began
+to strike and then opened my door to make sure I was not mistaken. And
+one night I went out with my candle to examine the clock, trying to make
+out the cause of it, and to see if I could put it right. No man, they
+say, can resist meddling with a clock even though he is no mechanical
+genius."
+
+"All the same," said Edith triumphantly, "notwithstanding your
+examinations, you and no one else can tell the reason why that clock
+does strike thirteen."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
+
+
+Hyphenation is inconsistent; in a small number of instances, missing
+punctuation has been added.
+
+A duplicated word "than" was removed from the sentence "...of a "home"
+than she had ever had before."
+
+Several obvious misspellings have been corrected. The following
+additional change was made to punctuation in keeping with the logic of
+the plot (original is followed by corrected version):
+
+    The more I thought it over the more striking grew the
+    coincidences at Finster. It had been on one of the closed doors
+    that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall.
+
+    The more I thought it over the more striking grew the
+    coincidences. At Finster it had been on one of the closed doors
+    that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Uncanny Tales, by Mary Louisa Molesworth
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