The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-01-29

Ing novel m bed, had hearu crach | or two behind Q wardrobe, but there
 was not much in that. MT. Kettlewell,
 a rising young barrlster, was ready | enough with an explanation of that It
 was the heat of the room which made
 the wood expand, or some rubbish Of
 that kind. And this, thought MT, Pil- kington, Is at the dlnner-table Of one to whom ghosts of all periods are as fa-
 miliar sight as hanson cabs,
 There was never any difficulty In forming pleasant house-party under
 the same roof that covered Jack and Mary Pilkington. for his friends and her admirers were enough by them
 selves to fill a baTack. Add to this
 some thousand acres of excellent
 grouse-shooting and you will undef- stand that MT. Pllkington was anxious that the ghosts should be willing to do his theories credit during the month of August, He planned a supernatural demonstration upon a large and effec- | tive scale Kettlewell should have, not a haunted chamber for they all seemed
 to be haunted, but the one haunted by
 the most impressive apparition. MT. Pllkington rather leaned to the Damer- el who had suffered as a heretic on
 Tower Hill in the reign of Queen Mary, for he had such a taking way of re-
 moving his head, or appearing with it under his arm, that even the enthusi-
 ast himself had been little startled at the first glimpse of his pleasantries. Meantime, while Mir Pilkington was | revilving these plans things at the Ab-
 bey were not going as smoothly as
 could be wished. The ghosts, who
 upon some points were absurdly sensi-
 tive, felt far from satisfied with the
 way in which their residence was being treated. For the new proprietor, while | keeping much of the house in the old state had yet ventured injudicously
 upon certain structural Improvements.
 As no Damerel had ever improved any
 thing, it looked rather like an ill-na- tured reflection upon their lost oppor-
 tunities when Pillsington pulled down the dusty old audit room and replaced | 1t with a modern billiard-room in fam | ing red brick At first the spectral denizens tolerated this, chiefly owing to | the counsel of the Damerel who had 1 been stabbed in a card-room scufflel | during the regency. But they soon saw | through him, which, as he was a ghost, 1 was not difficult, and recognized that l his toleration was due entirely to his
 own proficiency at billiards. Even the
 regency buck soon wearied of oppo nents to whom the modern develop
 ments of the game were strange, and
 grew impatient because the Damerel | who was shot at Culloden could never | ,.0r ,hnr r1,a ha o1,o1 | Altogether they voted the billiard-room
 a pernicdous innovation, and lamented
 in tones of great discontent the absence 1 of the dingy old audit chamber where
 they had held so many a cheerful revel l A more outrageous alteration in I creased their annoyance. The new I master of the Abbey naturally felt i'll 1 at ease with nothing on the premises in l the shape of a bathroom, and ruthless ly swept away dark closet, into which even the boldest housemaid had pene- I trated with hesitation, in order to l make room for an apartment glittering
 with pitch-pine fittings and Pilking- tons patent taps polished to an amaz- 1 ing brilliancy. The smell of the var nish and the glitter of the brass were
 more than the ghosts could tolerate, while no spectre with an atom of self respect would think of disappearing behind a screen so aggreEsively mod
 ern. Ghosts will stand certain
 amount, but the history of the super
 natural demonstrates that you must humor them to some extent with ap-
 propriate quarters. This kind of thing,
 murmured the Damerels, was emphati-
 cally going too far.
 The unsuspecting MT. Pilkington re-
 turned in person about the end of July
 for another solitary bout with the spec , tres, as he called 1t. He hoped to be
 able to interview and photograph his
 old friends, but on the first night he cosild not hear so much as rap on the
 wall or a scream under the window. Ii , was with real relief that on the second evening he perceived the wicker chair in the library tenanted by the Cavalier Damerel, who, with his sable velvet and flowing curls, made one of the most picturesque ghosts in the collec- , tion.
 (Continued on Seventh Page.)