ugh heartily._)

BELDON. Oh, I say come now, that'll do.

PENFOLD (_seriously_). Personally I don't think it's a subject for
jesting. I have never seen an apparition myself, but I have known people
who have, and I consider that they form a very interesting link between
us and the after life. There's a ghost story connected with this house,
you know.

OMNES. Eh! Oh? Really!

MALCOLM (_rising and going to mantelpiece, takes up his glass of
toddy_). Well, I have used this house for some years now. I travel for
Blennet and Burgess--wool--and come here regularly three times a year,
and I've never heard of it. (_Sits down again on his chair, holding
glass in his hand._)

LEEK. And I've been here pretty often too, though I have only been in
practice here for a couple of years, and I have never heard it
mentioned, and I must say I don't believe in anything of the sort. In my
opinion ghosts are the invention of weak-minded idiots.

PENFOLD. Weak-minded idiots or not, there is a ghost story connected
with this house, but it dates a long time back.

(_GEORGE, the waiter, enters D. L. with tray and serviette._)

Oh, here's George, he'll bear me out. You've heard of Jerry Bundler,
George?

GEORGE (_C._). Well, I've just 'eard odds and ends, sir, but I never put
much count to 'em. There was one chap 'ere, who was under me when fust I
come, he said he seed it, and the Guv'nor sacked him there and then.
(_Goes to table by window, puts tray down, takes up glass and wipes it
slowly._)

(_MEN laugh._)

PENFOLD. Well, my father was a native of this town, and he knew the
story well. He was a truthful man and a steady churchgoer. But I have
heard him declare that once in his life he saw the ghost of Jerry
Bundler in this house; let me see, George, you don't remember my old
dad, do you?

(_GEORGE puts down glasses over table._)

GEORGE. No, sir. I come here forty years ago next Easter, but I fancy he
was before my time.

PENFOLD. Yes, though not by long. He died when I was twenty, and I shall
be sixty-two next month, but that's neither here nor there.

(_GEORGE goes up to table C. tidying up and listening._)

LEEK. Who was this Jerry Bundler?

PENFOLD. A London thief, pickpocket, highwayman--anything he could turn
his dishonest hand to, and he was run to earth in this house some eighty
years ago.

(_GEORGE puts glass down and stands listening._)

He took his last supper in this room.

(_PENFOLD leans forward. BELDO