A PAIR OF HANDS

AN OLD MAID'S GHOST-STORY

"Yes," said Miss Le Petyt, gazing into the deep fireplace and letting
her hands and her knitting lie for the moment idle in her lap.
"Oh, yes, I have seen a ghost. In fact I have lived in a house with one
for quite a long time."

"How you _could_--" began one of my host's daughters; and "_You_, Aunt
Emily?" cried the other at the same moment.

Miss Le Petyt, gentle soul, withdrew her eyes from the fireplace and
protested with a gay little smile. "Well, my dears, I am not quite the
coward you take me for. And, as it happens, mine was the most harmless
ghost in the world. In fact"--and here she looked at the fire again--
"I was quite sorry to lose her."

"It was a woman, then? Now _I_ think," said Miss Blanche, "that female
ghosts are the horridest of all. They wear little shoes with high red
heels, and go about _tap, tap_, wringing their hands."

"This one wrung her hands, certainly. But I don't know about the high
red heels, for I never saw her feet. Perhaps she was like the Queen of
Spain, and hadn't any. And as for the hands, it all depends _how_ you
wring them. There's an elderly shop-walker at Knightsbridge, for
instance--"

"Don't be prosy, dear, when you know that we're just dying to hear the
story."

Miss Le Petyt turned to me with a small deprecating laugh. "It's such a
little one."

"The story, or the ghost?"

"Both."

And this was Miss Le Petyt's story:--

"It happened when I lived down in Cornwall, at Tresillack on the south
coast. Tresillack was the name of the house, which stood quite alone at
the head of a coombe, within sound of the sea but without sight of it;
for though the coombe led down to a wide open beach, it wound and
twisted half a dozen times on its way, and its overlapping sides closed
the view from the house, which was advertised as 'secluded.' I was very
poor in those days. Your father and all of us were poor then, as I
trust, my dears, you will never be; but I was young enough to be
romantic and wise enough to like independence, and this word 'secluded'
took my fancy.

"The misfortune was that it had taken the fancy, or just suited the
requirements, of several previous tenants. You know, I dare say, the
kind of person who rents a secluded house in the country? Well, yes,
there are several kinds; but they seem to agree in being odious. No one
knows where they come from, though they soon remove all doubt