left it a few hours before. Now, no person in the flesh could have
performed such a feat as that."

"I cannot agree with you there," I ventured. "It seems to me less
difficult to believe the whole thing a trick, than to attribute the
occurrence to supernatural agency. In fact, while I do not say it is
impossible for ghosts to be, I cannot accept the fact of their
existence."

"Well, I can, then," retorted the Colonel. "Why, sir, once at the Cape
of Good Hope--" but there he paused. Apparently he recollected just in
time that the Cape of Good Hope was a long way from River Hall.

"And Mrs. Morris," I suggested, leading him back to the banks of the
Thames. "You mentioned some shock--"

"Yes," he said, frankly. "She met the same person on the staircase I saw
in the library. He carried in one hand a lighted candle, and in the
other a bundle of bank-notes. He never looked at her as he passed--never
turned his head to the spot where she stood gazing after him in a
perfect access of terror, but walked quietly downstairs, crossed the
hall, and went straight into the library without opening the door. She
fainted dead away, and has never known an hour's good health since."

"According to all accounts, she had not before, or good temper either,"
I thought; but I only said, "You had told Mrs. Morris, I presume, of
your adventure in the library?"

"No," he answered; "I had not; I did not mention it to anyone except a
brother officer, who dined with me the next evening."