Mr. Watson asked with interest.

"I am informed," Dominey replied, "that he is the spirit of a
schoolmaster who once lived here, and for whose departure from the world
I am supposed to be responsible. Such a spook is neither a credit nor a
comfort to the family."

Their host spoke with such an absolute absence of emotion that every one
was conscious of a curious reluctance to abandon a subject full of such
fascinating possibilities. Terniloff was the only one, however, who made
a suggestion.

"We might have a battue in the wood," he proposed.

"I am not sure," Dominey told them, "that the character of the wood is
not more interesting than the ghost who is supposed to dwell in it. You
remember how terrified the beaters were yesterday at the bare suggestion
of entering it? For generations it has been held unclean. It is
certainly most unsafe. I went in over my knees on the outskirts of it
this morning. Shall we say half-past ten in the gun room?"

Seaman followed his host out of the room.

"My friend," he said, "you must not allow these local circumstances to
occupy too large a share of your thoughts. It is true that these are the
days of your relaxation. Still, there is the Princess for you to think
of. After all, she has us in her power. The merest whisper in Downing
Street, and behold, catastrophe!"

Dominey took his friend's arm.

"Look here, Seaman," he rejoined, "it's easy enough to say there is the
Princess to be considered, but will you kindly tell me what on earth
more I can do to make her see the position? Necessity demands that I
should be on the best of terms with Lady Dominey and I should not make
myself in any way conspicuous with the Princess."

"I am not sure," Seaman reflected, "that the terms you are on with Lady
Dominey matter very much to any one. So far as regards the Princess, she
is an impulsive and passionate person, but she is also _grande dame_ and
a diplomatist. I see no reason why you should not marry her secretly in
London, in the name of Everard Dominey, and have the ceremony repeated
under your rightful name later on."

They had paused to help themselves to cigarettes, which were displayed
with a cabinet of cigars on a round table in the hall. Dominey waited
for a moment before he answered.

"Has the Princess confided to you that that is her wish?" he asked.

"Something of the sort," Seaman acknowledged. "She wishes the
suggestion, however, to come from you."

"And your advic