"What others? Only the wicked!"

"Aunt Eleanour! Aunt Eleanour!" called the children once more.

"I must go to them! But, Mr. Lyndsay, think over what I have said."

And I remained and obeyed her, and beheld, entire, distinct, the spectre
that drives men to madness or despair--illimitable omnipotent Malice. In
its shadow the colour of the flowers was quenched, and the music of the
birds rang false. Yet it wore the consecration of time and authority!
What if it were true?

"Mr. Lyndsay," said Denis at my elbow, "Aunt Eleanour has sent me to
fetch you to tea. Mr. Lyndsay, do you hear? Why do you look so strange?"

He caught my hand anxiously as he spoke, and by that little human touch
the spell was broken. The phantom vanished; and, looking into the
child's eyes, I felt it was a lie.

CHAPTER IV

CANON VERNADE'S GOSPEL

There was no Mrs. de Noel in the carriage when it returned; she had gone
to London to stay with Mrs. Donnithorne, whom Atherley spoke of as Aunt
Henrietta, and was not expected home till Wednesday.

"I am sorry," Lady Atherley observed, as we drove home through the dusk;
"I should like to have had her here when Uncle Augustus was with us. I
would have asked Mrs. Mostyn to dine with us, but I am not sure she and
Uncle Augustus would get on. When her sister, Mrs. Donnithorne, met
Uncle Augustus and his wife at lunch at our house once, she said she
thought no minister of the Gospel ought to allow his child to take part
in worldly amusements or ceremonials. It was very awkward, because Uncle
Augustus's eldest girl had been presented only the day before. And Aunt
Clara, Uncle Augustus's wife, you know, who is rather quick, said it
depended whether the minister of the Gospel was a gentleman or a
shoe-black, because Mrs. Donnithorne was attending a dissenting chapel
then where the preacher was quite a common uneducated sort of person.
And after that they would not talk to each other, and, altogether, I
remember, it was very unpleasant. I do think it is such a pity," cried
Lady Atherley with real feeling, "when people will take up these extreme
religious views, as all the Atherleys do. I am sure it is quite a
comfort to have someone like you in the house, Mr. Lyndsay, who is not
particular about religion."

* * * * *

"If this is the best Aunt Eleanour has to show in the way of a ghost,
she does well to keep so quiet about it," was Atherley's comment on that
part