of it, I suppose he is justified in
touching up the incidental details. He says, for instance, that we were
told the story of the ghost which is said to haunt the house, just
before going to bed. As far as I remember, it was only mentioned at
luncheon, and then sceptically. Instead of there being snow falling
outside and an eerie wind wailing through the skeleton trees, the night
was still and muggy. Lastly, I did not know, until the journal reached
my hands, that he was put into the room known as the Haunted Chamber,
nor that in that room the fire is noted for casting weird shadows upon
the walls. This, however, may be so. The legend of the manor-house ghost
he tells precisely as it is known to me. The tragedy dates back to the
time of Charles I., and is led up to by a pathetic love-story, which I
need not give. Suffice it that for seven days and nights the old steward
had been anxiously awaiting the return of his young master and mistress
from their honeymoon. On Christmas eve, after he had gone to bed, there
was a great clanging of the door-bell. Flinging on a dressing-gown,
he hastened downstairs. According to the story, a number of servants
watched him, and saw by the light of his candle that his face was an
ashy white. He took off the chains of the door, unbolted it, and pulled
it open. What he saw no human being knows; but it must have been
something awful, for, without a cry, the old steward fell dead in the
hall. Perhaps the strangest part of the story is this: that the shadow
of a burly man, holding a pistol in his hand, entered by the open
door, stepped over the steward's body, and, gliding up the stairs,
disappeared, no one could say where. Such is the legend. I shall not
tell the many ingenious explanations of it that have been offered.
Every Christmas eve, however, the silent scene is said to be gone
through again; and tradition declares that no person lives for twelve
months at whom the ghostly intruder points his pistol.

On Christmas Day the gentleman who tells the tale in a scientific
journal created some sensation at the breakfast-table by solemnly
asserting that he had seen the ghost. Most of the men present scouted
his story, which may be condensed into a few words. He had retired
to his bedroom at a fairly early hour, and as he opened the door his
candle-light was blown out. He tried to get a light from the fire, but
it was too low, and eventually he went to bed in the semi-darkness. He
was wakene