e horror of such a possibility to the
normal mind is sufficient argument against it. Causes beyond our
apparent knowledge were responsible for the death of Nurse Forrester;
but who shall presume to say that was really so? Why imagine anything so
irregular? I prefer to think that had the post-mortem been conducted by
somebody else, subtle reasons for her death might have appeared. Science
is fallible, and even specialists make outrageous mistakes."

"You believe she died from natural causes beyond the skill of those
particular surgeons to discover?" asked Colonel Vane.

"That is my opinion. Needless to say, I should not tell Mannering so.
But to what other conclusion can a reasonable man come? I do not, of
course, deny the supernatural, but it is weak-minded to fall back upon
it as the line of least resistance."

Then Fayre-Michell repeated his question. He had listened with intense
interest to the story.

"Would you deny that ghosts, so to call them, can be associated with one
particular spot, to the discomfort and even loss of reason, or life, of
those that may be in that spot at the psychological moment, Sir Walter?"

"Emphatically I would deny it," declared the elder. "However tragic the
circumstances that might have befallen an unfortunate being in life at
any particular place, it is, in my opinion, monstrous to suppose his
disembodied spirit will hereafter be associated with the place. We
must be reasonable, Felix. Shall the God Who gave us reason be Himself
unreasonable?"

"And yet there are authentic--However, I admit the weight of your
argument."

"At the same time," ventured Mr. Travers, "none can deny that many
strange and terrible things happen, from hidden causes quite beyond
human power to explain."

"They do, Ernest; and so I lock up my Grey Room and rule it out of our
scheme of existence. At present it is full of lumber--old furniture and
a pack of rubbishy family portraits that only deserve to be burned, but
will some day be restored, I suppose."

"Not on my account, Uncle Walter," said Henry Lennox. "I have no more
respect for them than yourself. They are hopeless as art."

"No, no one must restore them. The art is I believe very bad, as you
say, but they were most worthy people, and this is the sole memorial
remaining of them."

"Do let us see the room, governor," urged Tom May. "Mary showed it to me
the first time I came here, and I thought it about the jolliest spot in
the house."

"S