afraid, but I could scarcely reconcile myself to the idea of ghosts
with the room filled with sunshine. Resuming my seat I went on with my
writing, but not for long. The mewing grew nearer. I distinctly heard
something crawl out from under the sofa; there was then a pause, during
which you could have heard the proverbial pin fall, and then something
sprang upon me and dug its claws in my knees. I looked down, and to my
horror and distress, perceived, standing on its hind-legs, pawing my
clothes, a large, tabby cat, without a head--the neck terminating in a
mangled stump. The sight so appalled me that I don't know what happened,
but nurse and the children came in and found me lying on the floor in
hysterics. Can't we leave the house at once?'

"_Wednesday, November 30th._--Left No. ---- Lower Seedley Road at 2 p.m.
Had an awful scurry to get things packed in time, and dread opening
certain of the packing-cases lest we shall find all the crockery
smashed. Just as we were starting Delia cried out that she had left her
reticule behind, and I was despatched in search of it. I searched
everywhere--till I was worn out, for I know what Delia is--and was
leaving the premises in full anticipation of being sent back again, when
there was a loud commotion in the hall, just as if a dog had suddenly
pounced on a cat, and the next moment a large tabby, with the head hewn
away as Delia had described, rushed up to me and tried to spring on to
my shoulders. At this juncture one of the servants cautiously opened the
hall door from without, and informed me I was wanted. The cat instantly
vanished, and, on my reaching the carriage in a state of breathless
haste and trepidation, Delia told me she had found her reticule--she had
been sitting on it all the time!"

In a subsequent note in his diary a year or so later Mr. Dane says:
"After innumerable enquiries _re_ the history of No. ---- Lower Seedley