The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-12-14
HIS OLDEST FRIENDS.
Her First Love and Her Second Husband
WRITTEN fo6 THE SUNDAY CALL BY MISS M E. BRAD0ox

traditions. A house without a. ghost story.
n family without traditions would be hardly
respectable"
al said there is no ghost, but did not say
there are no family traditions"
"There arc traditions, then?" asked the
stout lady.
Yes"
"Ghostly ones?"
''There is one that savors of the super
natural. but as | never vet believed in
story of that kind when heard it told of
another mans family, am not likely to be-
lieve in this legend because it is told of NY
own ancestors.
"A legend! the very words has fascina-
ton! cried Nine. Eyremonde. please let
us hear it."
Then you own to a ghost" exclaimed
Nine. Belfort, who has the density of large
bodies. "Pray show us the haunted room.
l feel sure it is one of the turret rooms, so
quaint, so historical, SO uncanny."
again, eheTe dame, must / assert that no
ghOst-not the shadow of a shade-haS ever
been asserted to walk these corridors, or
harder IN any room, garnet or cellar OF this
chateau. Ii you god ladies will graciously
of ST. Waller de Roi. while we take our
coffee"
1T is long story, then?"
Not very long. but too long to be told in
this passage. while your maids are running
about with your luggage, and while my
lest the dinner should be delayed SO long as
to spoil his best efforts
His guests took the hint, and ran off to
their various rooms, Mime. st. Waller and
her housekeeper going about with them to
show them where they were lodged. Lamps
were being lighted in the corridors: many
wax candles were burning ON toilet-tables
and mantelpieces. As the great clock
ehimed the half-hour after 6. all the win
dOws in the chateau cleaned and twinkled
fhrnnph h,a Datnhar liuh
early In the month, the evenings were soft
and gray. and the woods were still green.
The dinner VAS excellent, the guests were
full OF vivacity and light airy talk. The
dinng-hall with its dark-0ak panelng,
family portraits, gobcim tapestry and quaint
Henry Deux ottery, was picture which
delighted the eye of Adnlphe Tolpache, the
painter. background who he was likely
to use in many lite pictured tete-a-tete,
conhdential, risque, suggestive. On the ap-
pearance of cotfee.and liqueurS Nine. Eyre
monde turned to her host by whose side she
was sitting
moment has Gomez
Maxine bowed a smiling assent.
Wei get rid of the servants first" he
murmured in her ear. THAT will do, Rob-
ert, TO the major-domo; you and Jacques
can put your Sa1vers on the table yonder,"
pointing TO table in recess.
he welltrained servant understood the
underlings. As the heavy oak door closed
upon them Maxine leaned forward with his
folded arms on the table-clotb.
Now, then, for the ghost story" he said.
II Is ghost story, but, l am happy to say,
the ghost has nothing to do with this house.
We have no haunted room from which the
too-daring guest emerges. after a self-im-
posed ordeal, with his hair blanched and his
brain turned. Our ghosts are out-of-door
ghosts; The legend of st. Waller issthe
legend of the phantom char-a-bancs
"a phantom char-a- bancs. A new man
ner OF ghost par dieu. What does it do,
this char-a-bancs ?"
Very little. 1t is supposed to be seen
driving through the woods in the evening
dusk: seen by the owner of the estate. a
curious old-world carriage, carriage be-
longing to period in which coaches were
novelty, and when a court beauty was
known to barter all for u gilt coach; beauty
oil RANK and social status, mark you, who
had resisted every other lure
I'VE know our de Grammont merci."
laughed ,Viyien; 'revenez a votre char
a-bancs."
1T is seen in the cleaning some
where along that wooded road that
leads to the home-farm at least that is tie
traditional place. 1t is seen by the owner
of the estate, and in that strange antiouated
Tehicie he sees strange set of passengers
the friends he valued most, the friends who
have gone before"
vided," exclaimed Tolpache. mot single
ghost, not the old-estabished family spectre.
but whole company of appartions. crew
of phantons. Apres, mon ami? When the
lord OF the soil has seen the spectral char-a-
bancs, what then?"
He is forewarned OF his approaching
death. Ii the legend is to be believed, no
man ever long survived the appari,ion of
that vehicle, the passing of these nolseless
wheels"
India rubber tires" said Tolpache: "a
carnival trick Of cher st. Valentines fast
and furious friends. A thing done once, per-
haps in the wild days of the regency, and
exaggerated by rumor into family custom.
Historic de rire. That is the way ancestral
ghosts are made"
My dear Tolpaehe. If you are sceptic,
so am no more believe in my family ap-
paratlon than you do; only these ladies'
wanted the story and were inclined to be-
lieye in the char-a-bancs. Nine BeIfors
insisted on being told in what direction the
road lay by which the char-a-bancs was sup
posed to travel, in order that she might take
her morning constitutional on that very
road"
CHAPTER II.