"No, miss. I'll go and do it myself; I'm not afraid of man, ghost, or
devil, saving your presence, ladies," replied John.

"Where is Sir Jasper?" suddenly asked the major.

"Here I am. What a deuce of a noise someone has been making. It
disturbed a capital dream. Why, Tavie, what is it?" And Sir Jasper came
out of the library with a sleepy face and tumbled hair.

They told him the story, whereat he laughed heartily, and said the maids
were a foolish set to be scared by a shadow. While he still laughed and
joked, Mrs. Snowdon entered, looking alarmed, and anxious to know the
cause of the confusion.

"How interesting! I never knew you kept a ghost. Tell me all about it,
Sir Jasper, and soothe our nerves by satisfying our curiosity," she said
in her half-persuasive, half-commanding way, as she seated herself on
Lady Treherne's sacred sofa.

"There's not much to tell, except that this place used to be an abbey,
in fact as well as in name. An ancestor founded it, and for years the
monks led a jolly life here, as one may see, for the cellar is twice as
large as the chapel, and much better preserved. But another ancestor, a
gay and gallant baron, took a fancy to the site for his castle, and, in
spite of prayers, anathemas, and excommunication, he turned the poor
fellows out, pulled down the abbey, and built this fine old place. Abbot
Boniface, as he left his abbey, uttered a heavy curse on all who should
live here, and vowed to haunt us till the last Treherne vanished from
the face of the earth. With this amiable threat the old party left Baron