"'Yes, a white cat; a beautiful creature and----'

"'Bless me!' cried two or three, 'the lady's seen the white cat of
C----. It hasn't been seen these twenty years.'

"'Master wishes to know if you'll soon be done, ma'am. The pony is
getting restless,' said James.

"Of course I hurried out, and got into the carriage, telling my friend
that the cat was well known to the people at C----, and that it was
twenty years old.

"In those days, I believe, I never thought of ghosts, and least of all
should have thought of the ghost of a cat; but two evenings afterwards,
as we were driving down the lane, I again saw the cat in the same
position and again my companion could not see it, though the groom did.
I alighted immediately, and went up to it. As I approached it turned its
head and looked full towards me with its soft mild eyes, and a friendly
expression, like that of a loving dog; and then, without moving from the
post, it began to fade gradually away, as if it were a vapour, till it
had quite disappeared. All this the groom saw as well as myself; and now
there could be no mistake as to what it was. A third time I saw it in
broad daylight, and my curiosity greatly awakened, I resolved to make
further enquiries amongst the inhabitants of C----, but before I had an
opportunity of doing so, I was summoned away by the death of my eldest
child, and I have never been in that part of the world since.

"However, I once mentioned the circumstance to a lady who was acquainted
with that neighbourhood, and she said she had heard of the white cat of