Los Angeles herald., 1909-03-21
By NORM AN MES
4uthor of ParSon Croft, The Surge of Var" Etc
Cnnyrlght by ne


Copyright. 1909, by the National Press Agency
the face so gentle and refined that with the chvary
of his he shrank from pursuit.
Instead he went back into the ''long hail. pressed
the electric bell, and in brown study waited the ap
pearance of the butler.
Ibid you ring, sr9'' said the man, an old servant
of the Warne family.
Yes Bland, yes replied the other, abstract
eddy. Let me see Oh, what is this tomfool story
[ have heard about a ghost9 Who what is it that
they say down in the village haunts this weird old
place9''
Bland looked curiousy at his master, and then
smile fickered his wrinked old features-the new
squire hardly the man to see ghost, he fancied
'Why, sir, we heard tell how it is Lady Mar
garet that walks, replied he, with less ncredulity
in his tones than his words implied
And which is Lady Margaret demanded the
other with an impatient of his hand in the di-
rection of the pictures upon the walls, and his eyes
upon the portrait of lady that hung to the right
of the door leading into the porch.
''That be Lady Margaret, sir yonder, rejoined
the old servant, indicating wizened old DAME whose
hard features were set in Elizabethan ruff; and
forthwith the butler, who knew the family history
of the Warnes by heart would have plunged into the
details of an evil story concerning the i'll end of
Margaret Warne about the year 1888, when his mas,
ter cut him short-he had heard the tale before, and
it had somewhat shaken his faith in the golden age
of Good Queen Bess
eyes, Bland guess 1 know as much about the
old girl is good for me, - he said; but was
just running through these pictures and fixing 4
name to each wanted your help. Now, who's the
lady right there beside the door, with the brown
eyes and the scarf about her shouldersf'
The old shufiied to the further end of the
hall. ''Why, that be Miss Alice Warne, Mistress
Alice should say, daughter to Squire Richard, who
lived in the reign of Queen Anne. y
Wyland made no remark; his gaze was fixed upon
the portrait, and it seemed he had lost all interest
in the Warnes, for he dismissed the butler shortly,
having heard but 1.-THE of all that the latter had
said concerning the old-time owners of the hall.
The squire stood silent before the burned out fire,
while the clock chimed quarter by quarter and the
moonlight filtered through the painted windows.
'tWell, l guess I've had kind of shake to-
night, he muttered, he turned to go upstairs.
perhaps d better give the doctor call tomor-
row. To ghost is enough to make one think,
but to see the wrong ONE
He whstled he glanced at his face in Vene
tian mirror upon the stairs, 81 don It take much
stock in the old lady, anyway, though We bought
her, the other the ghost for me- and it seems she
kind of my very own. -
Naunton Wyland paid visit to his doctor upon
the following day, who assured him that there was
little amss, merely suggesting that he should change
his brand of whisky; not that the patient had de
scrbed his case either fully or faithfully bare ref
erence to the Hangdon ghost and the admission of
a slight attack of nerves all that he had vol
unteered
THAT spring and summer the squire saw more of
his ghost, a rule at intervals of month or
less Sometimes he would meet her on the stair,
she would the room in which he sitting
he would catch momentary glimpse of her blue
skirts turning some corner of the building or the
vision of oval face framed in lattice window.
Nor did he trouble the doctor again speak of the
matter to any one none the visitor but he, and
he content 1t his ghost, should
share it with him-his fear that it might
preoecupied in his manner, given to wandering about
the house at dusk, to daydrea,ns and the deep-set
stare of thought.
Continued or Page 49,