Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-06

ghost-not the shadow Of shade-has ever
been asserted to walk these corridors or harbor
| In any room, garnet cellar of this chateau.
III you good ladies will graciously wait till after
dinner will tell you the story. Of st. Waller lie
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 chef is
| doubtless IN fever of impotence lest the din
ner should be delayed so long as to spoil his
| best efforts"
His guests took the hint and ran off to their
| various rooms, Madame 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 can
| dies were burning upon toilet tables and man
| tle-pieces. As the great clock chimed the half
| hour after all the windows in the chateau
cleaned and twinkled through the October
| twilight IL was still earl in the month. the
evenings were soft and gray and the woods
| were still green.
The dinner excellent, the guests were
full Of vivacity and light. airy talk. The din
Ing hall, with its dark oak paneling, family por-
traits, gobelin tapestry and quaint Henri Deux
| pottery. was picture which delighted the eve
of Adolphe Tolpache, the painter-a back
ground which he was likely to use in many a
/ little pictured tete-a-tete, confidential, risque.
suggestive. On the appearance of coffee and
hqueurs Madame Evremonde turned to her
1
Your family tradition" she said; "the mo-
ment has come"
| Maxine bowed a smiling assent
I'VE ii get rid of the servants first" he muir
INJURED in her ear. That will do, Robert" to the
| major domo; You and Jaques can put your
salvers on the table yonder," pointing to a
| table in a recess
The well-trained servant understood the dis
mlssal and at once withdrew with his under
| llngs- As the heavy oak door closed upon them
Ma m II II
| the table cloth
Now then for the ghost story" he said. at
Is ghost story, but, 1 am happy to say, the
ghost has nothing to do with this house. We
have no haunted room from which the too
daring guest energies, after self-imposed
ordeal, with his hair blanched and his brain
turned. Our ghosts are out of door ghosts
The legend of st. Waller is the legend of the
phantom char-a-bancs."
"A phantom char-a-bancs. new manner Of
ghost, par Dleu. What does it do, this char-a-
bancs?"
Very little. 1t is supposed to be seen driv-
ing through the woods in the evening dusk;
seen by the owner of the estate. A curious old
world carriage, a carriage belonging to period
In which coaches were a novelty and when q
court beauty was known to barter her reputa-
ton for gilt coach; beauty of rank and So
other lure
ave know our de Grammont, merci, laughed
VIVIAN; reyenez a votre char-a-bancs."
1t is seen in the cleaning somewhere along
that wooded road that leads to the home farm;
at least. that is the traditional place 1t is seen
by the owner of the estate, and in that strange
antlquated vehicle he sees strange set of pas
sengers-the friends he valued most, the friends
who have gone BEFORE
Que diable! Your estate is we'll provided"
exclaimed TOlrache. ''Not a single ghost. not
the old-established family spectre but a whole
company of apparitions, a crew of phantoms
Apres, mon ami: When the lord Of the soil
has seen the spectral char-a-bancs, what
them"
He Is forewarned of his approaching DEATH
lf the legend is to be believed. no man ever
long survived the appariton of that vehicle
the passing of those noisless Wheels
'lndia-rubber tires" said Tolpache: "a car
nival trick of cher st. Valliers fast and furious
friends. thing done once. perhaps 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 Tolpache. if you are a skeptic, so
am l. no more believe in my family appari-
ton than you do; only these ladies wanted the
story and were inclined to believe in the phan-
tom char -a-bancs. Madame Belfort insisted upon
being told in what direction the road Law by
which the char-a-bancs was supposed to travel,
in order that she might take her morning con,
stitutional on that very road"