d. The cat instantly
vanished, and, on my reaching the carriage in a state of breathless
haste and trepidation, Delia told me she had found her reticule--she had
been sitting on it all the time!"

In a subsequent note in his diary a year or so later Mr. Dane says:
"After innumerable enquiries _re_ the history of No. ---- Lower Seedley
Road prior to our inhabiting it, I have at length elicited the fact that
twelve years ago a Mr. and Mrs. Barlowe lived there. They had one son,
Arthur, whom they spoilt in the most outrageous fashion, even to the
extent of encouraging him in acts of cruelty. To afford him amusement
they used to buy rats for his dog--a fox-terrier--to worry, and on one
occasion procured a stray cat, which the servants afterwards declared
was mangled in the most shocking manner before being finally destroyed
by Arthur. Here, then, in my opinion, is a very feasible explanation for
the hauntings--the phenomenon seen was the phantasm of the poor,
tortured cat. For if human tragedies are re-enacted by ghosts, why not
animal tragedies too? It is absurd to suppose man has the monopoly of
soul or spirit."

_The Cat on the Post_

In her _Ghosts and Family Legends_ Mrs. Crowe narrates the following
case of a haunting by the phantom of a cat:--

"After the doctor's story, I fear mine will appear too trifling," said
Mrs. M., "but as it is the only circumstance of the kind that ever
happened to myself, I prefer giving it you to any of the many stories I
have heard.

"About fifteen years ago I was staying with some friends at a
magnificent old seat in Yorkshire, and our host being very much crippled
with the gout, was in the habit of driving about the park and
neighbourhood in a low pony phaeton, on which occasions I often
accompanied him. One of our favourite excursions was to the ruins of an
old abbey just beyond the park, and we generally returned by a
remarkably pretty rural lane leading to the village, or rather small
town, of C----.

"One fine summer's evening we had just entered this lane when, seeing
the hedges full of wild flowers, I asked my friend to let me alight and
gather some. I walked before the carriage picking honeysuckles and roses
as I went along, till I came to a gate that led into a field. It was a
common country gate with a post on each side, and on one of these posts
sat a large white cat, the finest animal of the kind I had ever seen;
and as I have a weakness for cats I stopped to admir