1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:06,480 Uncle Cornelius his story. It was a dull evening in November. A drizzling 2 00:00:06,519 --> 00:00:11,160 mist had been falling all day about the old farm. Harry Haywood and his 3 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:16,440 two sisters sat in the house place expecting a visit from their uncle, Cornelius 4 00:00:16,480 --> 00:00:22,280 Heywood. This uncle lived alone, occupying the first floor above a chemist's shop 5 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:26,239 in the town, and had just enough of money over to buy books that 6 00:00:26,359 --> 00:00:30,800 nobody seemed ever to have heard of but himself, for he was a student 7 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:37,159 in all those regions of speculation in which anything to be called knowledge is impossible. 8 00:00:38,320 --> 00:00:42,240 What a dreary night, said Kate. I wish uncle would come and 9 00:00:42,320 --> 00:00:46,759 tell us a story. A cheerful wish, said Harry. Uncle Corny is 10 00:00:46,799 --> 00:00:50,960 a lively companion, isn't he. You can't even blunder through a Joe Miller 11 00:00:51,039 --> 00:00:54,600 without tacking a moral to it, and then trying to persuade you that the 12 00:00:54,679 --> 00:00:58,359 joke of it depends on the moral. Here he comes, said Kate, 13 00:00:58,439 --> 00:01:03,159 as three distinct glows the knob of his walking stick announced the arrival of Uncle 14 00:01:03,200 --> 00:01:07,920 Cornelius. She ran to the door to open it. The air had been 15 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,400 very still all day, but as he entered, he seemed to have brought 16 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:15,040 the wind with him, for the first moan of it pressed against, rather 17 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:19,200 than shook, the casement of the low sealed room. Uncle Cornelius was very 18 00:01:19,239 --> 00:01:23,599 tall, and very thin, and very pale, with large gray eyes that 19 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:30,599 looked greatly larger because he wore spectacles of the most delicate hair steel with the 20 00:01:30,719 --> 00:01:34,560 largest pebble eyes that ever were seen. He gave them a kindly greeting, 21 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:38,760 but too much in earnest, even in shaking hands to smile over it. 22 00:01:40,519 --> 00:01:45,400 He sat down in the armchair by the chimney corner. I have been particular 23 00:01:45,439 --> 00:01:49,200 in my description of him in order that my reader may give due weight to 24 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:53,079 his words. I am such a believer in words that I believe everything depends 25 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:59,120 on who says them. Uncle Cornelius Heywood's story, told word for word by 26 00:01:59,239 --> 00:02:02,760 Uncle Timothy Warren would not have been the same story at all. Not one 27 00:02:02,799 --> 00:02:07,359 of the listeners would have believed a syllable of it from the lips of round 28 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:13,120 bodied, red faced, small eyed little Uncle tim Whereas from Uncle Corny, 29 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:19,199 disbelieve one of his stories. If you could one word more concerning him, 30 00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:24,879 his interest in everything conjectured or believed relative to the awful borderland of this world, 31 00:02:24,879 --> 00:02:30,360 and the next was only equaled by his disgust at the vulgar, unimaginative 32 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:36,919 forms which curiosity about such subjects has assumed in the present day. With a 33 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,479 yearning after the unseen, like that of a child for the lifting of the 34 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:45,240 curtain of a theater, he declared that, rather than accept such a spirit 35 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:50,280 world, as the would be seers of the nineteenth century thought or pretended, 36 00:02:50,319 --> 00:02:57,960 to reveal the prophets of a poperized workhouse immortality invented by a poverty stricken soul, 37 00:02:58,479 --> 00:03:02,280 an ascent so greedy that it would gor John Carrion, he would rejoice 38 00:03:02,319 --> 00:03:07,080 to believe that a man had just as much of a soul as the cabbage 39 00:03:07,199 --> 00:03:12,960 of Iamblicus, namely an aerial double of his body. I'm so glad you're 40 00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:15,319 come, uncle, said Kate. Why wouldn't you come to dinner? We 41 00:03:15,439 --> 00:03:20,960 have been so gloomy. Well, Katie, you know I don't admire eating. 42 00:03:21,479 --> 00:03:23,800 I never could bear to see a cow tearing up the grass with her 43 00:03:23,840 --> 00:03:28,639 long tongue. As he spoke, he looked very much like a cow, 44 00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:32,479 yet a way of opening his jaws while he kept his lips closely pressed together, 45 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:37,879 that made his cheeks fall in and his face look awfully long and dismal. 46 00:03:38,599 --> 00:03:43,400 I consider eating he went on such an animal exercise that it ought always 47 00:03:43,439 --> 00:03:47,479 to be performed in private. You never saw me dine kate, never, 48 00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:52,639 Uncle, But I have seen you drink nothing but water. I must confess, 49 00:03:53,479 --> 00:03:57,360 yes, that is another affair. According to one eye witness, that 50 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:00,719 is no more than the disembodied can do. I must confess, however, 51 00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:05,680 that, although well attested, the story is to me scarcely credible. Fancy 52 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:11,759 a glass of Bavarian beer lifted into the air without a visible hand, turned 53 00:04:11,840 --> 00:04:15,560 upside down, and set empty on the table, and no splash on the 54 00:04:15,639 --> 00:04:19,519 floor or anywhere else. A solitary gleam of humor shone through the great eyes 55 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:24,839 of the spectacles as he spoke. Oh, Uncle, how can you believe 56 00:04:24,959 --> 00:04:29,160 such nonsense? Said Janet. I do not say I believed it, did 57 00:04:29,199 --> 00:04:32,120 I? But why not? The story has at least a touch of imagination 58 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:36,560 in it. That is a strange reason for believing a thing, Uncle said 59 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:42,000 Harry, you might have a worse Harry. I grant it is not sufficient, 60 00:04:42,079 --> 00:04:45,959 but it is better than that commonplace aspect, which is the ground of 61 00:04:46,040 --> 00:04:49,920 most faith. I believe I did say that the story puzzled me, But 62 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,360 how can you give it any quarter at all? Uncle? It does me 63 00:04:54,439 --> 00:04:58,040 no harm. There it is between the boards of an old German book. 64 00:04:58,439 --> 00:05:01,879 There, let it remain well. You will never persuade me to believe such 65 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:06,319 things, said Janet. Wait till I ask you, Janet returned her uncle 66 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:11,519 gravely. I have not the slightest desire to convince you. How do we 67 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:15,680 get into this unprofitable current of talk. We will change it at once our 68 00:05:15,800 --> 00:05:20,040 consols. Harry, oh, uncle, said Kate. We were longing for 69 00:05:20,079 --> 00:05:24,480 a story, and just as I thought you were coming to one, off 70 00:05:24,480 --> 00:05:28,879 you go to consols. I thought a ghost story at least was coming, 71 00:05:28,959 --> 00:05:31,399 said Janet. You did your best to stop at Janet, said Harry. 72 00:05:32,480 --> 00:05:38,480 Janet began an angry retort, but Cornelius interrupted her. You never heard me 73 00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:42,720 tell a ghost story, Janet. You have just told one about a drinking 74 00:05:42,759 --> 00:05:46,720 ghost, Uncle, said Janet, in such a tone that Cornelius replied, 75 00:05:46,199 --> 00:05:49,560 well, take that for your story, and let us talk of something else. 76 00:05:50,319 --> 00:05:54,720 Janet apparently saw that she had been rude, and said as sweetly as 77 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:58,720 she might. Ah, but you didn't make that one, uncle, You 78 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:02,680 got it out of a German book. Make it make a ghost story, 79 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:09,120 repeated Cornelius. No that I never did. Such things are not to be 80 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:13,759 trifled with, are they? Said Janet. I at least have no inclination 81 00:06:13,879 --> 00:06:17,399 to trifle with them. But really and truly, uncle, persisted Janet, 82 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:23,560 you don't believe in such things? Why should I either believe or disbelieve in 83 00:06:23,639 --> 00:06:28,519 them? They are not essential to salvation. I presume you must do the 84 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:32,199 one or the other. I suppose I beg your pardon. You suppose wrong. 85 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,720 It would take twice the proof I have ever had to make me believe 86 00:06:35,759 --> 00:06:41,240 in them, and exactly your prejudice, and allow me to say ignorance to 87 00:06:41,279 --> 00:06:46,160 make me disbelieve in them. Neither is within my reach. I postpone judgment. 88 00:06:46,959 --> 00:06:49,480 But you young people, of course, are wiser and know all about 89 00:06:49,519 --> 00:06:54,519 the question. Oh uncle, I'm so sorry, said Kate. I'm sure 90 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:58,079 I did not mean to vex you, not at all, Not at all, 91 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:01,040 my dear. It wasn't you, do you know? Kate went on, 92 00:07:01,240 --> 00:07:06,160 anxious to prevent anything unpleasant, for there was something very black perched on 93 00:07:06,240 --> 00:07:11,959 Janet's forehead. I have taken to reading about that kind of thing. I 94 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,879 beg you will give it up at once. You will bewilder your brains till 95 00:07:15,879 --> 00:07:19,079 you are ready to believe anything, if only it be absurd enough. Nay, 96 00:07:19,120 --> 00:07:24,519 you may come to find the element of vulgarity essential to believe. I 97 00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:28,480 should be sorry to the heart to believe concerning a horse or dog what they 98 00:07:28,560 --> 00:07:32,560 tell you nowadays about Shakespeare and Burns. What have you been reading, my 99 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:38,800 girl? Don't be alarmed, uncle, only some highland legends which are too 100 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:43,600 absurd, either for my belief or for your theories. I don't know that, 101 00:07:43,720 --> 00:07:46,959 Kate. Why what could you do with such shapeless creatures as hot their 102 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:51,360 fords and pools? For instance? They are as featureless as the faces of 103 00:07:51,399 --> 00:07:57,360 the mountains, and so much the more terrible. But that does not make 104 00:07:57,399 --> 00:08:01,560 it easier to believe in them, said Harry. I only said, returned 105 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:07,360 his uncle, that their shapelessness adds to their horror. But you allowed almost 106 00:08:07,399 --> 00:08:09,600 at least, Uncle, said Kate, that you could find a place in 107 00:08:09,639 --> 00:08:16,120 your theories even for those shapeless creatures. Cornelius sat silent for a moment, 108 00:08:16,319 --> 00:08:20,360 then, having first doubled the length of his face and restored it to its 109 00:08:20,439 --> 00:08:24,000 natural condition, said thoughtfully, I suspect, Katy, if you were to 110 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:30,759 come upon an ichthyosaurus or a pterodactyl asleep in the shoreburry, you would hardly 111 00:08:30,839 --> 00:08:33,639 expect your report of it to be believed all at once, either by Harry 112 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:39,159 or Janet. I suppose not, Uncle, But I can't see what. 113 00:08:39,919 --> 00:08:43,519 Of course such a thing could not happen here and now. But there was 114 00:08:43,559 --> 00:08:46,559 a time when and a place where such a thing may have happened. Indeed, 115 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:52,399 in my time a traveler two have got pretty soundly disbelieved for reporting what 116 00:08:52,480 --> 00:08:58,000 they saw the last of an expiring race which had strayed over the natural verge 117 00:08:58,000 --> 00:09:03,200 of its history, coming to life in some neglected swamp, itself a remnant 118 00:09:03,279 --> 00:09:07,399 of the slime of chaos. I never heard you talk like that before, 119 00:09:07,519 --> 00:09:09,600 Uncle, said Harry. If you go on like that, you'll land me 120 00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:13,720 in a swamp. I'm afraid I wasn't talking to you at all, Harry. 121 00:09:15,080 --> 00:09:18,440 Kate challenged me to find a place for kelpies and such like in the 122 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:24,000 theories. She does me the honor of supposing I cultivate. Then you think 123 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:26,720 uncle that all these stories are only legends, which, if you could follow 124 00:09:26,759 --> 00:09:31,600 them up, would lead you back to some one of the awful monsters that 125 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:37,440 have since quite disappeared from the Earth. It is possible those stories may be 126 00:09:37,519 --> 00:09:41,399 such legends, but that was not what I intended to lead you to. 127 00:09:41,919 --> 00:09:45,120 I gave you that only a something like what I am going to say. 128 00:09:45,159 --> 00:09:50,320 Now? What if, mind, I only suggested, What if the direful 129 00:09:50,399 --> 00:09:56,519 creatures whose report lingers in these tales should have an origin far older still? 130 00:09:56,440 --> 00:10:03,000 What if they were remnants of a vanishing period of the Earth's history long antecedent 131 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:07,879 to the birth of Mastodon and Iguanodon, a stage, namely, when the 132 00:10:07,919 --> 00:10:13,559 world as we call it had not yet become quite visible, was not yet 133 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:18,360 so far finished as to part from the invisible world that was its mother, 134 00:10:20,039 --> 00:10:24,759 and which on its part, had not then become quite invisible, was only 135 00:10:24,960 --> 00:10:31,039 almost such, and when, as a credible consequence, strange shapes of those 136 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:37,519 now invisible regions gorgons and chimeras dire might be expected to glue, mellowed occasionally 137 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:43,440 from the awful fauna of an ever generating world upon that one which was being 138 00:10:43,519 --> 00:10:48,679 born of it. Hence the life periods of a world being long and slow, 139 00:10:48,320 --> 00:10:54,480 some of these huge, unformed bulks of half created matter might somehow, 140 00:10:54,679 --> 00:11:01,240 like the megatherium of later times, a baby creation to them at age long 141 00:11:01,440 --> 00:11:07,600 intervals, clothed in a mighty terror of shapelessness, into the half recognition of 142 00:11:07,679 --> 00:11:13,879 human beings, whose consternation at the uncertain vision were barrier enough to prevent all 143 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:18,519 further knowledge of its substance. I begin to have some notion of your meaning, 144 00:11:18,720 --> 00:11:24,159 uncle, said Kate. But then said Janet, all that must be 145 00:11:24,279 --> 00:11:28,279 over by this time. That world has been invisible now for many years, 146 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,960 ever since you were born. I suppose, Janet, the changes of a 147 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,919 world are not to be measured by the changes of its generations. Oh but 148 00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:41,919 uncle, there can't be any such things. You know that as well as 149 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:46,919 I do. Yes, just as well, and no better. There can't 150 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:50,960 be any ghosts now, nobody believes such things. Oh as to ghosts, 151 00:11:52,039 --> 00:11:54,960 that is quite another thing. I did not know you were talking with reference 152 00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:58,720 to them. It is no wonder if one can get nothing sensible out of 153 00:11:58,759 --> 00:12:03,559 you, Janet, when your discrimination is no greater than to lump everything marvelous 154 00:12:03,960 --> 00:12:09,240 helpies, ghosts, vampires, devils, which is fairies, nightmares, and 155 00:12:09,360 --> 00:12:13,639 I don't know what all under them one head of ghosts, and we haven't 156 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:16,600 been saying a word about them. If one were to disprove to you the 157 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:22,840 existence of the effrets of Eastern tales, you would consider the whole argument concerning 158 00:12:22,879 --> 00:12:28,720 the reappearance of the departed Upset. I congratulate you on your powers of analysis 159 00:12:28,759 --> 00:12:33,480 and induction, Miss Janet, But it matters very little whether we believe in 160 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:39,639 ghosts, as you say or not. Provided we believe that we are ghosts. 161 00:12:39,679 --> 00:12:43,360 That within this body, which so many people are ready to consider their 162 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:50,159 own very selves, there lies a ghostly embryo at least, which has an 163 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,320 inner side to it God only can see, which says I, concerning itself, 164 00:12:54,840 --> 00:12:58,159 and which will soon have to know whether or not it can appear to 165 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:03,279 those whom is left behind, and thus solve the question of ghosts for itself. 166 00:13:03,679 --> 00:13:09,399 At least, then you do believe in ghosts, uncle, said Janet, 167 00:13:09,399 --> 00:13:13,000 in a tone that certainly was not respectful. Surely I said nothing of 168 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:18,519 the sort, Janet, the man most convinced that he had himself had such 169 00:13:18,519 --> 00:13:22,519 an interview as you hint at, would find ought to find it impossible to 170 00:13:22,559 --> 00:13:26,519 convince anyone else of it. You're quite out of my depth, uncle, 171 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:31,200 said Harry. Surely any honest man ought to be believed. Honesty is not 172 00:13:31,360 --> 00:13:35,840 all by any means that it is necessary to being believed. It is impossible 173 00:13:35,919 --> 00:13:41,159 to convey a conviction of anything. All you can do is to convey a 174 00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:46,440 conviction that you are convinced. Of course, what satisfied you might satisfy another. 175 00:13:46,960 --> 00:13:50,600 But till you can present him with the sources of your conviction, you 176 00:13:50,679 --> 00:13:56,320 cannot present him with the conviction. And perhaps not even then you can tell 177 00:13:56,399 --> 00:14:01,200 him all about it. Can't you tell a man about a ghost affording him 178 00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:05,480 the source of your conviction? Is it the same as a ghost appearing to 179 00:14:05,559 --> 00:14:09,720 him? Really, Harry, you cannot even convey the impression a dream has 180 00:14:09,799 --> 00:14:15,440 made upon you. But isn't that just because it is only a dream? 181 00:14:15,480 --> 00:14:18,600 Not at all? The impression may be deeper and clearer on your mind than 182 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:22,679 any fact of the next morning will make. You will forget the next day 183 00:14:22,679 --> 00:14:28,279 altogether, but the impression of the dream will remain through all the following whirl 184 00:14:28,440 --> 00:14:33,279 and storm of what you call facts. Now, a conviction may be likened 185 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:37,000 to a deep impression on the judgment or the reason, or both. No 186 00:14:37,039 --> 00:14:41,720 one can feel it, but the person who is convinced it cannot be conveyed. 187 00:14:43,679 --> 00:14:46,320 I fancy that is just what those who believe in spirit rapping would say. 188 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:52,000 There are the true and false of convictions, as of everything else. 189 00:14:52,639 --> 00:14:56,519 I mean that a man may take that for a conviction in his own mind, 190 00:14:56,080 --> 00:15:01,480 which is not a conviction, but only resembles one. But those to 191 00:15:01,559 --> 00:15:05,679 whom you refer profess to appeal to facts. It is on the ground of 192 00:15:05,720 --> 00:15:11,159 those facts, and with the more earnestness, the more reason they can give 193 00:15:11,279 --> 00:15:16,840 for receiving them as facts, that I refuse all their deductions with abhorrence. 194 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:22,600 I mean that if what they say is true, the thinker must reject with 195 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:28,240 contempt the claim to anything like revelation therein. Then you do not believe in 196 00:15:28,320 --> 00:15:33,720 ghosts after all, said Kate, in a tone of surprise. I did 197 00:15:33,799 --> 00:15:37,919 not say so, my dear, Will you be reasonable or will you not? 198 00:15:39,120 --> 00:15:43,519 Dear uncle, do tell us what you really think. I have been 199 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:46,120 telling you what I think ever since I came, Katie, and you won't 200 00:15:46,159 --> 00:15:50,039 take in a word I say. I have been taking in every word, 201 00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:54,240 Uncle, and trying hard to understand it as well, did you ever see 202 00:15:54,240 --> 00:16:00,240 a ghost? Uncle? Cornelius Heywood was silent. He shut his lips and 203 00:16:00,279 --> 00:16:04,639 opened his jaws till his cheeks almost met in the vacuum. A strange expression 204 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:10,840 crossed the strange countenance, and the great eyes of his spectacles looked as if, 205 00:16:10,879 --> 00:16:15,200 at the very moment they were seeing something no other spectacles could see. 206 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:19,559 Then his jaws closed with a snap, his countenance brightened, A flash of 207 00:16:19,679 --> 00:16:25,480 humor came through the goggle eyes of Pebble, and at length he actually smiled 208 00:16:25,519 --> 00:16:29,559 as he said, Really, Katie, you must take me for a simpleton. 209 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:33,080 How uncle to think if I had ever seen a ghost, I would 210 00:16:33,080 --> 00:16:37,919 confess the fact before a set of creatures like you, all spinning your webs 211 00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:44,320 like so many spiders to catch and devour old Daddy long legs. By this 212 00:16:44,360 --> 00:16:48,279 time Harry had grown quite grave. Indeed, I am very sorry, uncle, 213 00:16:48,360 --> 00:16:52,360 he said, if I have deserved such a rebuke. No, no, 214 00:16:52,639 --> 00:16:56,919 my boy, said Cornelius, I did not mean it more than half. 215 00:16:56,679 --> 00:17:00,679 If I had meant it, I would not have said it. If 216 00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:04,480 you really would like here, he paused. Indeed we should, uncle, 217 00:17:04,599 --> 00:17:08,319 said Kate, earnestly. You should have heard what we were saying just before 218 00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:14,640 you came in. All you were saying, Katy, Yes, answered Kate 219 00:17:14,680 --> 00:17:18,400 thoughtfully. The worst we said was that you could not tell a story without 220 00:17:19,039 --> 00:17:23,640 well we did say, tacking a moral to it. Well, well, 221 00:17:23,680 --> 00:17:27,519 I mustn't push it. A man has no right to know what people say 222 00:17:27,559 --> 00:17:33,400 about him. It unfits him for occupying his real position amongst them. He 223 00:17:33,720 --> 00:17:37,440 least of all, has anything to do with it. If his friends won't 224 00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:41,440 defend him, he can't defend himself. Besides, what people say is so 225 00:17:41,599 --> 00:17:45,440 often untrue. I don't mean to others, but to themselves. Their hearts 226 00:17:45,440 --> 00:17:51,079 are more honest than their mouths. But Janet doesn't want a strange story. 227 00:17:51,160 --> 00:17:55,640 I'm sure Janet certainly was not one to have chosen for a listener to such 228 00:17:55,640 --> 00:18:00,160 a tale. Her eyes were so small that no satisfaction could possibly come of 229 00:18:00,240 --> 00:18:03,039 it. Oh, I don't mind, uncle, she said, with half 230 00:18:03,039 --> 00:18:08,079 affected indifference, as she searched in her box for silk to mend her gloves. 231 00:18:08,279 --> 00:18:11,519 You are not very encouraging, I must say, returned her uncle, 232 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:17,599 making another cow face. I will go away if you like, said Janet, 233 00:18:17,599 --> 00:18:21,519 pretending to rise. No, never mind, said her uncle hastily. 234 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:23,160 If you don't want me to tell it, I want you to hear it. 235 00:18:23,559 --> 00:18:26,279 And before I have done that may have come to the same thing. 236 00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:30,559 Perhaps then you really are going to tell us a ghost story, said Kate, 237 00:18:32,079 --> 00:18:34,839 drawing her chair nearer to her uncle's, and then finding this did not 238 00:18:36,039 --> 00:18:41,680 satisfy her sense of propinquity to the source of the expected pleasure, drawing a 239 00:18:41,720 --> 00:18:45,200 stool from the corner and seating herself almost on the hearthrug at his knee. 240 00:18:47,359 --> 00:18:51,279 I did not say, so, returned Cornelius. Once more, I said, 241 00:18:51,319 --> 00:18:53,599 I would tell you a strange story. You may call it a ghost 242 00:18:53,599 --> 00:18:57,400 story if you like. I do not pretend to determine what it is. 243 00:18:59,039 --> 00:19:03,880 I confess it will look like one. Though after so many delays, Uncle 244 00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:08,759 Cornelius now plunged almost hurriedly into his narration. In the year eighteen twenty, 245 00:19:08,839 --> 00:19:12,240 he said, in the month of August, I fell in love. Here 246 00:19:12,319 --> 00:19:17,200 the girls glanced at each other. The idea of Uncle Corney in love and 247 00:19:17,279 --> 00:19:21,559 in the very same century in which they were now listening to the confession was 248 00:19:21,599 --> 00:19:26,319 too astonishing to pass without ocular remark. But if he observed it. He 249 00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:29,880 took no notice of it. He did not even pause. In the month 250 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:33,000 of September I was refused. Consequently, in the month of October, I 251 00:19:33,039 --> 00:19:37,039 was ready to fall in love again. Take particular care of yourself, Harry, 252 00:19:37,119 --> 00:19:41,119 for a whole month, at least after your first disappointment, for you 253 00:19:41,119 --> 00:19:45,359 will never be more likely to do a foolish thing. Please yourself after the 254 00:19:45,400 --> 00:19:48,240 second. If you are silly, then you may take what you get, 255 00:19:48,359 --> 00:19:52,640 for you will deserve it, except it be good fortune. Did you do 256 00:19:52,759 --> 00:19:56,519 a foolish thing, then, uncle, said Harry demurely. I did, 257 00:19:56,799 --> 00:20:00,920 as you will see, for I fell in love. I don't see anything 258 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:06,319 so very foolish in that. I have repented it since, though, don't 259 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:08,839 interrupt me again, please. In the middle of October. Then, in 260 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:14,119 the year eighteen twenty, in the evening, I was walking across Russell Square 261 00:20:14,160 --> 00:20:17,759 on my way home from the British Museum, where I had been reading all 262 00:20:17,839 --> 00:20:21,799 day. You see, I have a full intention of being precise, Janet. 263 00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:25,240 I'm sure I don't know why you make the remark to me, Uncle, 264 00:20:25,359 --> 00:20:29,680 said Janet, with an involuntary toss of her head. Her uncle only 265 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:33,200 went on with his narrative. I begin at the very beginning of my story, 266 00:20:33,319 --> 00:20:37,960 he said, for I want to be particular as to everything that can 267 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:41,440 appear to have had anything to do with what came afterwards. I had been 268 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:45,400 reading, I say, all the morning in the British Museum, and as 269 00:20:45,400 --> 00:20:49,480 I walked, I took off my spectacles to ease my eyes. I need 270 00:20:49,519 --> 00:20:53,039 not tell you that I am shortsighted now, for that you know well enough. 271 00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:57,359 But I must tell you that I was shortsighted then, and helpless enough 272 00:20:57,400 --> 00:21:03,359 without my spectacles, though I was not quite so much as I am now, 273 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:08,119 for I find at all nonsense about shortsighted eyes improving with age. Well. 274 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:12,119 I was walking along the south side of Russell Square with my spectacles in 275 00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:17,759 my hand, and feeling a little bewildered in consequence, for it was quite 276 00:21:17,799 --> 00:21:22,759 the dusk of the evening, and shortsighted people require more light than others. 277 00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:26,240 I was feeling, in fact, almost blind. I had got more than 278 00:21:26,279 --> 00:21:30,960 half way to the other side when from the crossing that cuts off the corner 279 00:21:32,279 --> 00:21:36,920 in the direction of Montague Place, just as I was about to turn towards 280 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:41,240 it, an old lady stepped upon the curbstone of the pavement looked at me 281 00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:45,319 for a moment and passed an occurrence. Not very remarkable, certainly, But 282 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:49,480 the lady was remarkable, and so was her dress. I am not good 283 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:53,720 at observing, and am still worse at describing dress. Therefore, I can 284 00:21:53,759 --> 00:21:59,039 only say that hers reminded me of an old picture. That is, I 285 00:21:59,079 --> 00:22:03,519 had never seen any anything like it except in old pictures. She had no 286 00:22:03,640 --> 00:22:07,599 bonnet and looked as if she had walked straight out of an ancient drawing room 287 00:22:07,599 --> 00:22:11,720 in her evening attire. Of her face, I shall say nothing now. 288 00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:15,279 The next instant I met a man on the crossing who stopped and addressed me. 289 00:22:15,839 --> 00:22:21,279 So shortsighted was I that though I recognized his voice as one I ought 290 00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:25,559 to know, I could not identify him until I had put on my spectacles, 291 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:29,880 which I did instinctively in the act of returning his greeting. At the 292 00:22:29,920 --> 00:22:33,000 same moment, I glanced over my shoulder after the old lady. She was 293 00:22:33,079 --> 00:22:37,279 nowhere to be seen. Where are you looking at, said James Heatheridge. 294 00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:41,759 I was looking after that old lady, I answered, But I can't see 295 00:22:41,799 --> 00:22:47,279 her. What old lady? Said Heatheridge, with just a touch of impatience. 296 00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:49,839 You must have seen her, I returned, You are not more than 297 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:55,160 three yards behind her. Where is she? Then? She must have gone 298 00:22:55,160 --> 00:22:57,480 down one of the areas, I think, But she looked a lady, 299 00:22:57,599 --> 00:23:03,559 though an old fashioned. Have you been dining, asked James, in a 300 00:23:03,599 --> 00:23:07,599 tone of doubtful inquiry. No, I replied, not suspecting the insinuation. 301 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:12,440 I've only just come from the museum. Then I advise you to call on 302 00:23:12,519 --> 00:23:18,960 your medical man before you go home. Medical man returned, I have no 303 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:22,160 medical man. What do you mean I never was better in my life. 304 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,160 I mean that there was no old lady. It was an illusion, and 305 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:30,480 that indicates something wrong. Besides, you did not know me when I spoke 306 00:23:30,519 --> 00:23:34,119 to you. That is nothing, I returned. I had just taken off 307 00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:38,400 my spectacles, and without them I shouldn't know my own father. How was 308 00:23:38,440 --> 00:23:42,880 it you saw the old lady? Then the affair was growing serious under my 309 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:48,720 friends cross questioning. I did not at all like the idea of his supposingly 310 00:23:48,839 --> 00:23:52,799 subject to hallucinations, so I answered with a laugh, Ah, to be 311 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:57,359 sure that explains it. I am so blind without my spectacles that I shouldn't 312 00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:03,079 know an old lady from a big dog. There was no big dog, 313 00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:07,160 said Heatheridge, shaking his head, as the fact for the first time dawned 314 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:11,200 upon me that although I had seen the old lady clearly enough to make a 315 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:15,759 sketch of her, even to the features of her careworn, eager old face, 316 00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:21,279 I had not been able to recognize the well known countenance of James Heatheridge. 317 00:24:22,279 --> 00:24:25,599 That's what comes of reading till the optic nerve is weakened. He went 318 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:29,559 on. You will cause yourself serious injury if you do not pull up in 319 00:24:29,599 --> 00:24:33,279 time. I'll tell you what I'm going home next week. Will you go 320 00:24:33,359 --> 00:24:37,880 with me? You are very kind, I answered, not altogether rejecting the 321 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,720 proposal, for I felt that a little change to the country would be pleasant, 322 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:45,519 and I was quite my own master, for I had, unfortunately means 323 00:24:45,559 --> 00:24:51,279 equal to my wants, and had no occasion to follow any profession. Not 324 00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:55,160 a very desirable thing for a young man. I can tell you, Master 325 00:24:55,279 --> 00:24:59,799 Harry, I need not keep you over the commonplaces of pressing and yielding. 326 00:25:00,319 --> 00:25:03,960 It is enough to say that he pressed and that I yielded. The day 327 00:25:03,039 --> 00:25:07,480 was fixed for our departure together, but something or other I forget what occurred 328 00:25:07,519 --> 00:25:11,200 to make him advance the date, and it was resolved that I should follow 329 00:25:11,319 --> 00:25:15,160 later in the month. It was a drizzly afternoon in the beginning of the 330 00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:19,400 last week of October when I left the town of Bradford and a post chaise 331 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:25,200 to drive to Luton Grange, the property of my friend's father. I had 332 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,920 hardly left the town and the twilight had only begun to deepen when glancing from 333 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:33,240 one of the windows of the chaise, I fancied I saw between me and 334 00:25:33,319 --> 00:25:38,200 the hedge the dim figure of a horse keeping pace with us. I thought, 335 00:25:38,319 --> 00:25:41,839 in the first interval of unreason, that it was a shadow from my 336 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:48,000 own horse, but reminded myself the next moment that there could be no shadow 337 00:25:48,079 --> 00:25:51,960 where there was no light. When I looked again, I was at the 338 00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:56,400 first glance convinced that my eyes had deceived me. At the second, I 339 00:25:56,480 --> 00:26:00,319 believe once more that a shadow is something with the movements of a horse, 340 00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:07,000 and harness was keeping pace with us. I turned away again with some discomfort, 341 00:26:07,279 --> 00:26:11,160 and not till we had reached an open moorland road, whence a little 342 00:26:11,240 --> 00:26:15,920 watery light was visible on the horizon. Could I summon up courage enough to 343 00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:19,240 look out once more. Certainly, then there was nothing to be seen, 344 00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:23,640 and I persuaded myself that it had been all a fancy, and lighted a 345 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:29,000 cigar. With my feet on the cushions before me. I had soon lifted 346 00:26:29,039 --> 00:26:33,519 myself on the clouds of tobacco, far above all the terrors of the night, 347 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:37,359 and believed them vanished forever. But my cigar coming to an end, 348 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,440 just as we turned into the avenue that led up to the grange, I 349 00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:47,720 found myself once more glancing nervously out of the window. The moment the trees 350 00:26:47,759 --> 00:26:52,240 were about me, there was, if not a shadowy horse out there by 351 00:26:52,240 --> 00:26:56,680 the side of the chaise, yet certainly more than half that conviction in here 352 00:26:56,960 --> 00:27:02,599 in my consciousness. When I saw my friend, however, standing on the 353 00:27:02,599 --> 00:27:07,720 doorstep, dark against the glow of the hall fire, I forgot all about 354 00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:10,880 it. And I need not add that I did not make it a subject 355 00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:15,359 of conversation when I entered, for I was well aware that it was essential 356 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:19,079 to a man's reputation that his senses should be accurate, though his heart might, 357 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:25,400 without prejudice swarm with shadows, and his judgment be a very stable of 358 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:30,039 hobbies. I was kindly received. Missus Heatheridge had been dead for some years, 359 00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,720 and Latitia, the eldest of the family, was at the head of 360 00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:38,599 the household. She had two sisters, little more than girls. The father 361 00:27:38,759 --> 00:27:45,680 was a burly yet gentlemanlike Yorkshire squire who ate well, drank well, looked 362 00:27:45,799 --> 00:27:49,240 radiant, and hunted twice a week in this pastime. His son joined him 363 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:53,839 when in the humor which happened scarcely so often, I, who had never 364 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:59,119 crossed a horse in my life, took his apology for not being able to 365 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:03,279 mount me very coolly, assuring him that I would rather loiter about with a 366 00:28:03,319 --> 00:28:07,039 book than be in at the death of the best hunted fox in Yorkshire. 367 00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,920 I very soon found myself at home with the Heatheridges, and very soon again 368 00:28:11,039 --> 00:28:17,039 I began to find myself not so much at home for Miss Heatherage. Letitia, 369 00:28:17,160 --> 00:28:21,279 as I soon ventured to call her, was fascinating. I have told 370 00:28:21,319 --> 00:28:23,880 you, Katie, that there was an empty place in my heart looked to 371 00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:27,079 the door, then, Katie, that was what made me so ready to 372 00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:32,519 fall in love with Letitia. Her figure was graceful, and I think even 373 00:28:32,599 --> 00:28:36,880 now her face would have been beautiful but for a certain contraction of the skin 374 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:42,319 over the nostrils, suggesting an invisible thumb and forefinger pinching them, which repelled 375 00:28:42,319 --> 00:28:47,599 me, Although I did not then know what it indicated. I had not 376 00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:51,640 been with her one evening before the impression it made on me had vanished, 377 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:56,440 and that so entirely that I could hardly recall the perception of the peculiarity which 378 00:28:56,519 --> 00:29:03,920 had occasioned it. Her observation was remarkably keen, and her judgment generally correct. 379 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:08,039 She had great confidence in it herself. Nor was she devoid of sympathy 380 00:29:08,119 --> 00:29:12,880 with some of the forms of human imagination. Only they never seemed to possess 381 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:18,240 for her any relation to practical life that was to be ordered by the judgment 382 00:29:18,319 --> 00:29:22,559 alone. I do not mean, she ever said, so, I am 383 00:29:22,599 --> 00:29:26,680 only giving the conclusions I came to afterwards. It is not necessary that you 384 00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:33,119 should have any more thorough acquaintance with her mental character. One point in her 385 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:38,640 moral nature of special consequence to my narrative will show itself by and by I 386 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,319 did all I could to make myself agreeable to her, and the more I 387 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:47,599 succeeded, the more delightful she became. In my eyes. We walked in 388 00:29:47,640 --> 00:29:51,519 the garden and grounds. Together. We read, or rather I read and 389 00:29:51,640 --> 00:29:56,839 she listened. Read poetry, Katie, sometimes till we could not read any 390 00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,920 more for certain haziness and huskiness, which, look now, I am afraid 391 00:30:02,079 --> 00:30:07,279 considerably more absurd than they really were, or even ought to look. In 392 00:30:07,359 --> 00:30:11,839 short, I considered myself thoroughly in love with her. And wasn't she in 393 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:17,200 love with you? Uncle, don't interrupt me, child, I don't know, 394 00:30:17,559 --> 00:30:21,920 I hoped so. Then I hope the contrary. Now she liked me. 395 00:30:22,039 --> 00:30:25,960 I am sure that is not much to say. Liking is very pleasant 396 00:30:26,039 --> 00:30:30,440 and very cheap. Love is as rare as a star. I thought the 397 00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:33,720 stars were anything but rare, Uncle. That's because you never went out to 398 00:30:33,720 --> 00:30:38,400 find one for yourself, Katie. They would prove a few miles apart then, 399 00:30:40,359 --> 00:30:42,720 but it would be big enough when I did find it, right, 400 00:30:42,839 --> 00:30:48,079 my dear, That is the way with love. Letitia was a good housekeeper. 401 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:52,119 Everything was punctual as clockwork. I used the word advisedly. If her 402 00:30:52,119 --> 00:30:57,160 father, who was punctual to one date the dinner hour, made any remark 403 00:30:57,279 --> 00:31:03,559 to the contrary as he took the carving knife, Letitia would instantly send one 404 00:31:03,559 --> 00:31:07,599 of her sisters to question the old clock in the hall and report the time 405 00:31:07,640 --> 00:31:10,559 to half a minute. It was sure to be found that if there was 406 00:31:10,599 --> 00:31:14,519 a mistake, the mistake was in the clock. But although it was certainly 407 00:31:14,559 --> 00:31:18,839 a virtue to have her household in such perfect order, it was not a 408 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:23,079 virtue to be impatient with every infringement of its rules on the part of others. 409 00:31:23,119 --> 00:31:26,960 She was very severe, for instance, upon her two younger sisters, 410 00:31:27,039 --> 00:31:32,440 if the moment after the second bell had rung they were not seated at the 411 00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:36,799 dinner table. Washed and aproned. Order was a very idol with her. 412 00:31:37,559 --> 00:31:41,599 Hence the house was too tidy for any sense of comfort. If you left 413 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,960 an open book on the table, you would, on returning to the room 414 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,279 a moment after, find it. Put aside, what the furniture of the 415 00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:52,279 drawing room was like, I never saw, for not even on Christmas Day, 416 00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:56,720 which was the last day I spent there, was it uncovered. Everything 417 00:31:56,759 --> 00:32:01,279 in it was kept in bibbs and pinafore. Even the carpet was covered with 418 00:32:01,319 --> 00:32:07,519 a cold and slippery sheet of brown. Holland mister Heatheridge never entered that room, 419 00:32:07,559 --> 00:32:14,559 and therein was wise James remonstrated once. She answered him quite kindly, 420 00:32:14,720 --> 00:32:19,599 even playfully, but no change followed. What was worse, she made very 421 00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:23,640 wretched tea. Her father never took tea, neither did James. I was 422 00:32:23,759 --> 00:32:28,559 rather fond of it, but I soon gave it up. Everything her father 423 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:34,599 partook of was first rate. Everything else was somewhat poverty stricken. My pleasure 424 00:32:34,599 --> 00:32:40,519 in Letitia's society prevented me from making practical deductions from such trifles. I shouldn't 425 00:32:40,519 --> 00:32:45,880 have thought you knew anything about eating, uncle, said Janet. The less 426 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:49,519 a man eats, the more he likes to have it good Janet. In 427 00:32:49,599 --> 00:32:52,519 short, there can be no harm in saying it now. Letitia was so 428 00:32:52,599 --> 00:32:57,960 far from being like the name of her baptism. And most names are so 429 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:02,039 good that they are worth thinking about. No children are named after bad ideas. 430 00:33:02,759 --> 00:33:08,079 Letitia was so far unlike hers as to be stingy, an abominable fault. 431 00:33:08,839 --> 00:33:12,920 But I repeat, the notion of such a fact was far from me 432 00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,519 then and now from my story. The first of November was a very lovely 433 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:21,960 day, quite one of the halcyon days of Saint Martin's summer. I was 434 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:24,480 sitting in a little arbor I had just discovered with a book in my hand, 435 00:33:24,799 --> 00:33:30,000 not reading, however, but daydreaming. When lifting my eyes from the 436 00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:32,920 ground, I was startled to see through a thin shrub in front of the 437 00:33:34,039 --> 00:33:38,279 arbor what seemed the form of an old lady seated, apparently reading from a 438 00:33:38,319 --> 00:33:44,400 book on her knee. The sight instantly recalled the old lady of Russell Square. 439 00:33:45,119 --> 00:33:47,720 I started to my feet, and then, clear of the intervening bush, 440 00:33:47,799 --> 00:33:52,039 saw only a great stone, such as abounded on the moors in the 441 00:33:52,079 --> 00:33:57,200 neighborhood, with a lump of quartz set on the top of it. Some 442 00:33:57,519 --> 00:34:01,039 childish taste had put it there for an ornament. Smiling at my own folly, 443 00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:06,680 I sat down again and reopened my book. After reading for a while, 444 00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:10,360 I glanced up again and once more started to my feet, overcome by 445 00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:15,119 the fancy that there verily sat the old lady reading. You will say it 446 00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:21,360 indicated an excited condition of the brain, possibly, but I was, as 447 00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:25,559 far as I can recall, quite collected and reasonable. I was almost vexed 448 00:34:25,559 --> 00:34:30,440 this second time, and sat down once more to my book. Still, 449 00:34:30,599 --> 00:34:35,480 every time I looked up, I was startled afresh. I doubt, however, 450 00:34:35,559 --> 00:34:38,639 if the trifle is worth mentioning, or has any significance, even in 451 00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:45,079 relation to what followed. After dinner, I strolled out by myself, leaving 452 00:34:45,119 --> 00:34:49,519 father and son over their claret. I did not drink wine, and from 453 00:34:49,519 --> 00:34:53,320 the lawn I could see the windows of the library, whither Letitia commonly retired 454 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:58,599 from the dinner table. It was a very lovely, soft night. There 455 00:34:58,679 --> 00:35:02,079 was no moon, but the star looked wider awake than usual. Dew was 456 00:35:02,159 --> 00:35:07,159 falling, but the grass was not yet wet, and I wondered about on 457 00:35:07,199 --> 00:35:10,480 it for half an hour. The stillness was somehow strange. It had a 458 00:35:10,519 --> 00:35:15,039 wonderful feeling in it, as if something were expected, as if the quietness 459 00:35:15,119 --> 00:35:19,639 were the mold in which some event or other was about to be cast. 460 00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:24,679 Even then I was a reader of certain sorts of recondite lore. Suddenly I 461 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:30,159 remembered that this was the eve of all souls. This was a night on 462 00:35:30,199 --> 00:35:34,840 which the dead came out of their graves to visit their old homes. Poor 463 00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:38,159 dead, I thought with myself, have you any place to call a home? 464 00:35:38,239 --> 00:35:42,719 Now? If you have, surely you will not wander back here, 465 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,960 or all that you called home has either vanished or given itself to others to 466 00:35:47,039 --> 00:35:52,079 be their home now and yours no more. What an awful doom the old 467 00:35:52,119 --> 00:35:57,880 fancy has allotted you to dwell in your graves all the year, and creep 468 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:02,039 out this one night to enter at the midnight door left open for welcome, 469 00:36:02,599 --> 00:36:07,239 A poor welcome, truly, just an open door, a clean swept floor, 470 00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:13,159 and a fire to warm your rain sodden limbs. The household asleep, 471 00:36:13,199 --> 00:36:16,679 and the houseplace swarming with the ghosts of ancient times, the miser, the 472 00:36:16,760 --> 00:36:22,880 spendthrift, the profligate, the coquette. For the good ghosts sleep and are 473 00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:28,559 troubled, with no waking like yours. Not one man sleepless like yourselves, 474 00:36:28,639 --> 00:36:32,440 to question you and be answered after the fashion of the old nursery rhyme. 475 00:36:34,079 --> 00:36:38,159 What makes your eyes so hold I've lain so long among them mold? What 476 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:44,719 makes your feet so broad? I've walked more than I ever rode? Yet 477 00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:47,719 who can tell I went on to myself? It may be your hell to 478 00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:52,159 return. Thus it may be that only on this one night of all the 479 00:36:52,239 --> 00:36:55,960 year you can show yourself to him who can see you, But that the 480 00:36:57,039 --> 00:37:00,559 place where you were wicked is the hades to which you are doomed for ages. 481 00:37:01,679 --> 00:37:06,360 I thought and thought till I began to feel the air alive about me, 482 00:37:06,639 --> 00:37:09,360 and was enveloped in the vapors that dimmed the eyes of those who strained 483 00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:14,840 them. For one peep through the dull mica windows that will not open on 484 00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:19,400 the world of ghosts. At length, I cast my fancies away and fled 485 00:37:19,480 --> 00:37:23,159 from them to the library, where a bodily presence of Letitia made the world 486 00:37:23,199 --> 00:37:29,920 of ghosts appear shadowy. Indeed, what a reality there is about a bodily 487 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:32,960 presence, I said to myself, as I took my chamber candle in my 488 00:37:34,079 --> 00:37:37,400 hand. But what is there more real in a body? I said again, 489 00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:42,480 as I crossed the hall. Surely nothing, I went on as I 490 00:37:42,519 --> 00:37:47,039 ascended the broad staircase to my room. The body must vanish if there be 491 00:37:47,119 --> 00:37:52,480 a spirit that will remain. A body can but vanish, a ghost can 492 00:37:52,519 --> 00:37:58,320 appear. I woke in the morning with a sense of such discomfort as made 493 00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:02,599 me spring out of bed. At once my foot lighted upon my spectacles. 494 00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:06,639 How they came to be on the floor I could not tell, for I 495 00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,360 never took them off when I went to bed. When I lifted them, 496 00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:14,599 I found they were in two pieces. The bridge was broken. This was 497 00:38:14,679 --> 00:38:19,599 awkward. I was so utterly helpless without them. Indeed, before I could 498 00:38:19,679 --> 00:38:22,960 lay my hand on my hair brush, I had to peer through one eye 499 00:38:22,039 --> 00:38:27,400 of the parted pair. When I looked at my watch after I was dressed, 500 00:38:27,599 --> 00:38:30,920 I found I had risen an hour earlier than usual. I groped my 501 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:37,719 way downstairs to spend the hour before breakfast in the library. No sooner was 502 00:38:37,760 --> 00:38:40,760 I seated with a book than I heard the voice of Letitia scolding the butler 503 00:38:42,000 --> 00:38:46,159 in no very gentle tones for leaving the garden door open all night. The 504 00:38:46,239 --> 00:38:51,639 moment I heard this, the strange occurrences I am about to relate began to 505 00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:57,519 dawn upon my memory the door had been opened the night long between all saints 506 00:38:57,559 --> 00:39:00,960 and all souls. In the middle of that night, I awoke. Suddenly. 507 00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:06,280 I knew it was not the morning by the sensations I had, for 508 00:39:06,400 --> 00:39:09,840 the night feels altogether different from the morning. It was quite dark, My 509 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:15,679 heart was beating violently, and I either hardly could or hardly dared breathe. 510 00:39:15,199 --> 00:39:20,719 A nameless terror was upon me, and my sense of hearing was, apparently, 511 00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:25,400 by the force of its expectation, unnaturally roused and keen. There it 512 00:39:25,599 --> 00:39:30,679 was a slight noise in the room, slight but clear, and with an 513 00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:36,360 unknown significance about it. It was awful to think it would come again. 514 00:39:37,079 --> 00:39:40,119 I do believe it was only one of those creeks and the timbers which announced 515 00:39:40,159 --> 00:39:45,960 the torpid age, long sinking flow of every house back to the dust, 516 00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:51,159 a motion to which the flow of the glacier is as a torrent, but 517 00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:55,440 which is no less inevitable and sure. Day and night it ceases not but 518 00:39:55,639 --> 00:40:00,639 only in the night, when house and heart are still do we hear it? 519 00:40:00,440 --> 00:40:05,960 No wonder it should sound fearful, for are we not the immortal dwellers 520 00:40:06,079 --> 00:40:09,800 in ever crumbling clay? The clay is so near us, and yet not 521 00:40:10,039 --> 00:40:15,719 of us, that its every movement starts afresh dismay, For what will its 522 00:40:15,760 --> 00:40:21,880 final ruin disclose when it falls from about us? Where shall we find that 523 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:25,840 we have existed all the time? My skin tingled with the bursting of the 524 00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:31,280 moisture from its purse. Something was in the room beside me, A confused, 525 00:40:31,519 --> 00:40:37,480 indescribable sense of utter loneliness, and yet awful presence was upon me, 526 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:45,719 mingled with a dreary, hopeless desolation, as of burnt out love and aimless 527 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:50,800 life. All at once I found myself sitting up. The terror that a 528 00:40:50,840 --> 00:40:54,679 cold hand might be laid upon me, or a cold breath blow on me, 529 00:40:55,239 --> 00:41:00,679 or a corpse like face bend down through the darkness over me had broken 530 00:41:00,760 --> 00:41:06,400 my bonds. I would meet half way whatever might be. Approaching the moment 531 00:41:06,480 --> 00:41:10,840 that my will burst into action, the terror began to ebb. The room 532 00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:15,400 in which I slept was a large one, perfectly dreary with tidiness. I 533 00:41:15,519 --> 00:41:21,000 did not know till afterwards that it was Letitia's room, which she had given 534 00:41:21,079 --> 00:41:25,079 up to me rather than prepare another. The furniture, all but one article, 535 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:30,559 was modern and commonplace. I could not help remarking to myself afterwards how 536 00:41:30,639 --> 00:41:37,320 utterly void the room was, of the nameless charm of feminine occupancy. I 537 00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:40,920 had seen nothing to wake a suspicion of its being a lady's room. The 538 00:41:42,119 --> 00:41:47,559 article I've accepted was an ancient bureau, elaborate and ornate, which stood on 539 00:41:47,559 --> 00:41:52,039 one side of the large bow window. The very morning before, I had 540 00:41:52,039 --> 00:41:55,920 seen a bunch of keys hanging from the upper part of it, and had 541 00:41:55,960 --> 00:42:00,440 peeped in, finding however, that the pigeonholes were full of papers. I 542 00:42:00,519 --> 00:42:05,000 closed it at once. I should have been glad to use it, but 543 00:42:05,199 --> 00:42:08,239 clearly it was not for me. At that bureau, the figure of a 544 00:42:08,320 --> 00:42:14,280 woman was now seated, and the posture of one writing. A strange dim 545 00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:19,000 light was around her. But whence it proceeded, I never thought of inquiring, 546 00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:22,719 as if I too had stepped over the bourne and was a ghost myself. 547 00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:28,920 All fear was now gone. I got out of bed and softly crossed 548 00:42:28,920 --> 00:42:32,199 the room to where she was seated. If she should be beautiful, I 549 00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:37,440 thought, for I had often dreamed of a beautiful ghost that made love to 550 00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:40,840 me. The figure did not move. She was looking at a faded brown 551 00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:46,079 paper, some old love letter, I thought, and stepped nearer. So 552 00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:52,440 cool was I now that I actually peeped over her shoulder. With mingled surprise 553 00:42:52,519 --> 00:42:55,199 and dismay, I found that the dim page over which she bent was that 554 00:42:55,360 --> 00:43:01,239 of an old account book, ancient household record in rusty ink, held up 555 00:43:01,280 --> 00:43:06,679 to the glimpses of the waning moon which shone through the parting and the curtains, 556 00:43:06,760 --> 00:43:10,519 their entries of shillings and pence of pounds, there was not one, 557 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:15,519 No doubt, pounds and farthings are much the same in the world of thought, 558 00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:20,280 the true spirit world. But in the ghosts world this eagerness over shillings 559 00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:24,000 and pence must mean something awful. To think that coins which had since been 560 00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:29,320 worn smooth in other pockets, and purses which had gone back to the mint 561 00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:32,360 and been melted down to come out again and yet again with the heads of 562 00:43:32,440 --> 00:43:37,440 new kings and queens, That dinners eaten by men and women and children whose 563 00:43:37,480 --> 00:43:43,239 bodies had since been eaten by the worms, that polish for the floors, 564 00:43:43,360 --> 00:43:47,960 inches of whose thickness had since been worn away. That the hundred nameless trifles 565 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:53,679 of a life utterly vanished should be perplexing, annoying, and worst of all 566 00:43:54,000 --> 00:44:00,360 interesting the soul of a ghost who had been in hades for centuries. The 567 00:44:00,440 --> 00:44:05,679 writing was very old fashioned, and the words were contracted. I could read 568 00:44:05,760 --> 00:44:13,840 nothing but the moneys and one single entry corinths versus currents for a Christmas pudding. 569 00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:17,159 Most likely, Ah, poor lady, the pudding and not the Christmas 570 00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:22,000 was her care, not the delight of the children over it, but the 571 00:44:22,079 --> 00:44:25,480 beggarly pence which it cost, and she cannot get it out of her head, 572 00:44:25,599 --> 00:44:30,119 although her brain was powdered, all as thin as flower ages ago in 573 00:44:30,119 --> 00:44:37,119 the mortar of death, alas poor ghost. It needs no treasured hoard left 574 00:44:37,159 --> 00:44:42,239 behind, no floor stained with the blood of the murdered child, no wickedly 575 00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:46,159 hidden parchment of landed rights. An old account book is enough for the hell 576 00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:52,559 of the housekeeping gentlewoman. She never lifted her face or seemed to know that 577 00:44:52,639 --> 00:44:55,519 I stood behind her. I left her and went into the bow window, 578 00:44:55,599 --> 00:45:00,639 where I could see her face. I was right. It was the same 579 00:45:00,719 --> 00:45:04,760 old lady I had met in Russell Square, walking in front of James Heatherage. 580 00:45:05,559 --> 00:45:09,159 Her withered lips went moving, as if they would have uttered words had 581 00:45:09,159 --> 00:45:15,000 the breath been commissioned. Thither, her brow was contracted over her thin nose, 582 00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:19,199 and once and again her shining forefinger went up to her temple, as 583 00:45:19,239 --> 00:45:23,000 if she were pondering some deep problem of humanity. How long I stood gazing 584 00:45:23,039 --> 00:45:27,400 at her, I do not know, But at last I withdrew to my 585 00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:30,679 bed and left her struggling to solve that which she could never solve. Thus 586 00:45:31,679 --> 00:45:37,079 it was a symbolic problem of her own life and she had failed to eat 587 00:45:37,159 --> 00:45:40,440 it. I remember nothing more. She may be sitting there, still solving 588 00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:45,639 at the unsolvable. I should have felt no inclination with the broad son of 589 00:45:45,679 --> 00:45:50,840 the squire's face, the keen eyes of James, and the beauty of Letitia 590 00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:54,280 before me at the breakfast table to say a word about what I had seen, 591 00:45:54,559 --> 00:46:00,199 even if I had not been afraid of the doubt concerning my sanity which 592 00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:04,519 the story would certainly awaken. What with the memories of the night and the 593 00:46:04,559 --> 00:46:08,559 want of my spectacles, I passed a very dreary day, dreading the return 594 00:46:08,639 --> 00:46:13,360 of the night. For cool as I had been in her presence, I 595 00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:17,639 could not regard the possible reappearance of the ghost with equanimity. But when the 596 00:46:17,760 --> 00:46:23,000 night did come, I slept soundly till the morning the next day. Not 597 00:46:23,199 --> 00:46:27,760 being able to read with comfort, I went wandering about the place, and 598 00:46:27,840 --> 00:46:31,679 at length began to fit the outside and inside of the house together. It 599 00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:37,440 was a large and rambling edifice, parts of it very old, parts comparatively 600 00:46:37,519 --> 00:46:40,679 modern. I first found my own window, which looked out of the back. 601 00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:45,559 Below this window, on one side there was a door. I wondered 602 00:46:45,599 --> 00:46:50,880 whither it led, but found it locked at the moment James approached from the 603 00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:54,559 stables. Where does this door lead, I asked him, I will get 604 00:46:54,599 --> 00:46:59,239 the key, he answered, It is rather a queer old place. We 605 00:46:59,320 --> 00:47:02,320 used to like it when we were children. There's a stair, you see, 606 00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:06,800 he said, as he threw the door open. It leads up over 607 00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:10,239 the kitchen. I followed him up the stair. There's a door into your 608 00:47:10,320 --> 00:47:15,440 room, he said, but it's always locked now. And here's Granny's room, 609 00:47:15,440 --> 00:47:17,360 as they call it. Though why, I have not the least idea, 610 00:47:17,559 --> 00:47:21,960 he added, as he pushed open the door of an old fashioned parlor, 611 00:47:22,519 --> 00:47:25,400 smelling very musty. A few old books lay on a side table. 612 00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:30,320 A china ball stood beside them, with some shriveled, scentless rose leaves in 613 00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:35,840 the bottom of it. The cloth that covered the table was riddled by moss, 614 00:47:36,039 --> 00:47:40,239 and the spider legged chairs were covered with dust. A conviction sees me 615 00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:45,760 that the old bureau must have belonged to this room, and I soon found 616 00:47:45,760 --> 00:47:49,599 the place where I judged it must have stood. But the same moment I 617 00:47:49,679 --> 00:47:52,559 caught sight of a portrait on the wall above the spot I had fixed upon 618 00:47:53,320 --> 00:47:59,119 by jove. I cried involuntarily. That's the very old lady I met in 619 00:47:59,199 --> 00:48:04,320 Russell Square. Nonsense, said James. Old fashioned ladies are like babies. 620 00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:07,920 They all look the same. That's a very old portrait, so I see, 621 00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:12,840 I answered, it is like a zukro. I don't know whose it 622 00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:15,079 is, he answered hurriedly, And I thought he looked a little queer. 623 00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:20,519 Is she one of the family, I asked. They say so, But 624 00:48:20,679 --> 00:48:22,599 who or what she was? I don't know. You must ask Letty, 625 00:48:22,639 --> 00:48:27,599 he answered. The more I look at it, I said, the more 626 00:48:27,679 --> 00:48:31,559 I am convinced it is the same old lady. Well, he returned with 627 00:48:31,599 --> 00:48:36,480 a laugh. My old nurse used to say she was rather restless. But 628 00:48:36,599 --> 00:48:40,440 it's all nonsense. That bureau in my room looks about the same date as 629 00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:45,400 this furniture, I remarked. It used to stand just there, he answered, 630 00:48:45,440 --> 00:48:50,400 pointing to the space under the picture. Well, I remember with what 631 00:48:50,559 --> 00:48:52,599 awe we used to regard it, for, they said, the old lady 632 00:48:52,679 --> 00:48:58,280 kept her accounts at it. Still we never dared touch the bundles of yellow 633 00:48:58,320 --> 00:49:02,480 papers in the pigeon holes. I remember thinking Letty a very heroine once when 634 00:49:02,519 --> 00:49:07,480 she touched one of them with the tip of her forefinger. She had got 635 00:49:07,559 --> 00:49:10,079 yet more courageous by the time she had it moved into her own room. 636 00:49:12,079 --> 00:49:15,280 Then that is your sister's room. I am occupied, I said, yes, 637 00:49:16,079 --> 00:49:20,039 I am ashamed of keeping her out of it. Oh, she'll do 638 00:49:20,159 --> 00:49:23,119 well enough if I were she, though, I added, I would send 639 00:49:23,119 --> 00:49:28,159 that bureau back to its own place. What do you mean, Heywood, 640 00:49:28,320 --> 00:49:32,199 do you believe every old wife's tale that was ever told. She may get 641 00:49:32,239 --> 00:49:38,000 affright some day, That's all I replied. He smiled with such an evident 642 00:49:38,119 --> 00:49:43,760 mixture of pity and contempt that for the moment I almost disliked him, and, 643 00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:47,559 feeling certain that Letitia would receive any such hint in a somewhat similar manner, 644 00:49:49,039 --> 00:49:52,679 I did not feel inclined to offer her any advice with regard to the 645 00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:57,440 bureau, Little kour joined. The rest of my visit worthy of remark, 646 00:49:57,960 --> 00:50:01,760 somehow or other, I did not make my progress with Letitia. I believe 647 00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:06,400 I had begun to see into her character a little, and therefore did not 648 00:50:06,519 --> 00:50:09,639 get deeper in love. As the days went on, I know I became 649 00:50:09,719 --> 00:50:15,639 less absorbed in her society, though I was still anxious to make myself agreeable 650 00:50:15,760 --> 00:50:20,960 to her. Or perhaps more properly, to give her a favorable impression of 651 00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:24,559 me. I do not know whether she perceived any difference in my behavior, 652 00:50:25,159 --> 00:50:30,159 but I remember that I began again to remark the pinched look of her nose, 653 00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:34,440 and to be a little annoyed with her for always putting aside my book. 654 00:50:35,159 --> 00:50:37,719 At the same time, I dare say I was provoking, for I 655 00:50:37,800 --> 00:50:44,519 never was given to tidiness myself. At length. Christmas Day arrived. After 656 00:50:44,599 --> 00:50:47,280 breakfast, the Squire, James, and the two girls arranged to walk to 657 00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:52,599 church. Letitia was not in the room at the moment. I excuse myself 658 00:50:52,639 --> 00:50:55,440 on the ground of a headache, for I had had a bad night. 659 00:50:57,199 --> 00:50:59,920 When they left, I went up to my room, threw myself on the 660 00:51:00,119 --> 00:51:02,920 bed, and was soon fast asleep. Along I slept, I did not 661 00:51:04,119 --> 00:51:07,760 know, but I woke again with that indescribable yet well known sense of not 662 00:51:07,960 --> 00:51:13,599 being alone. The feeling was scarcely less terrible in the daylight than it had 663 00:51:13,639 --> 00:51:17,039 been in the darkness. With the same sudden effort as before, I sat 664 00:51:17,159 --> 00:51:22,320 up in the bed. There was the figure at the open bureau in precisely 665 00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:25,679 the same position as on the former occasion, but I could not see it 666 00:51:25,760 --> 00:51:30,599 so distinctly. I rose as gently as I could, and approached it after 667 00:51:30,639 --> 00:51:36,159 the first physical terror. I am not a coward. Just as I got 668 00:51:36,199 --> 00:51:39,159 near enough to see the account book open on the folding cover of the bureau, 669 00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:45,280 she started up, and turning revealed the face of Letitia. She blushed 670 00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:51,079 Crimson. I beg your pardon, mister Haywood, she said, in great 671 00:51:51,119 --> 00:51:55,039 confusion. I thought you had gone to church with the rest. I had 672 00:51:55,119 --> 00:52:00,599 lain down with a headache and gone to sleep, I replied. Forgive me, 673 00:52:00,679 --> 00:52:04,159 miss Heatheridge, I added, for my mind was full of the dreadful 674 00:52:04,199 --> 00:52:07,760 coincidence. Don't you think you would have been better at church than balancing your 675 00:52:07,760 --> 00:52:13,320 accounts on Christmas Day? The better day, the better deed. She said, 676 00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:15,599 with a somewhat offended air, and turned to walk from the room. 677 00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:22,320 Excuse me, Letitia, I resumed, very seriously, But I want to 678 00:52:22,360 --> 00:52:27,679 tell you something. She looked conscious. It never crossed me that perhaps she 679 00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:30,960 fancied I was going to make a confession. Far other things were then in 680 00:52:31,039 --> 00:52:35,800 my mind, for I thought how awful it was if she, too, 681 00:52:35,840 --> 00:52:39,400 like the ancestral ghost, should have to do an age long penance. Of 682 00:52:39,480 --> 00:52:45,400 haunting that bureau and those horrid figures, and I had suddenly resolved to tell 683 00:52:45,400 --> 00:52:50,960 her the whole story. She listened with varying complexion and face half turned aside. 684 00:52:51,800 --> 00:52:53,760 When I had ended, which I fear I did was something of a 685 00:52:53,920 --> 00:52:59,119 personal appeal, she lifted her head and looked me in the face, with 686 00:52:59,239 --> 00:53:02,880 just a slight girl on her thin lip, and answered me. If I 687 00:53:02,960 --> 00:53:07,360 had wanted a sermon, mister Haywood, I should have gone to church for 688 00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:10,760 it. As for the ghost, I am sorry for you, so saying, 689 00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:15,199 she walked out of the room. The rest of the day I did 690 00:53:15,199 --> 00:53:19,360 not find very merry. I pleaded my headache as an excuse for going to 691 00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:24,159 bed early. How I hated the room now next morning, immediately after breakfast, 692 00:53:24,239 --> 00:53:30,159 I took my leave of Luton Grange and lost a good wife, perhaps 693 00:53:30,199 --> 00:53:34,519 for the sake of a ghost, uncle, said Janet. If I lost 694 00:53:34,559 --> 00:53:37,960 a wife at all, it was a stingy one. I should have been 695 00:53:37,960 --> 00:53:43,079 ashamed of her all my life long. Better than a spendthrift, said Janet. 696 00:53:43,679 --> 00:53:45,840 How do you know that? Returned her uncle? All the difference I 697 00:53:45,880 --> 00:53:51,800 see is that the extravagant ruins, the rich and the stingy robs the poor. 698 00:53:52,719 --> 00:53:57,199 But perhaps she repented, Uncle said Kate, I don't think she did. 699 00:53:57,320 --> 00:54:01,079 Katie. Look here, Uncle Nelius drew from the breast pocket of his 700 00:54:01,199 --> 00:54:06,920 coat a black edged letter. I have kept up my friendship with her brother, 701 00:54:07,039 --> 00:54:10,079 he said. All he knows about the matter is that either we had 702 00:54:10,119 --> 00:54:15,960 a quarrel or she refused me. He is not sure which I must say 703 00:54:15,039 --> 00:54:20,599 for Letitia that she was no tattler. Well, here's a letter I had 704 00:54:20,679 --> 00:54:24,440 from James this very morning. I will read it to you, my dear 705 00:54:24,519 --> 00:54:29,480 Heywood. We have had a terrible shot this morning. Letty did not come 706 00:54:29,519 --> 00:54:32,000 down to breakfast, and Lizzie went to see if she was ill. We 707 00:54:32,119 --> 00:54:36,760 heard her scream, and rushing up, there was poor Letty sitting at the 708 00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:40,559 old Bureau quite dead. She had fallen forward on the desk, and herb's 709 00:54:40,639 --> 00:54:45,559 housekeeping book was crumpled up under her. She had been so all night long, 710 00:54:45,599 --> 00:54:51,079 we suppose, for she was not undressed and was quite cold. The 711 00:54:51,199 --> 00:54:54,760 doctor say it was disease of the heart. There, said Uncle Corney, 712 00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:59,840 folding up the letter. Do you think the ghost had anything to do with 713 00:55:00,039 --> 00:55:04,000 that? Uncle asked Kate, almost under her breath. How should I know, 714 00:55:04,199 --> 00:55:08,320 my dear. Possibly it's very sad, said Janet. But I don't 715 00:55:08,400 --> 00:55:12,880 see the good of it all. If the ghost had come to tell that 716 00:55:12,920 --> 00:55:16,039 she had hidden away money in some secret place in the old bureau, one 717 00:55:16,079 --> 00:55:20,719 would see why she had been permitted to come back. But what was the 718 00:55:20,760 --> 00:55:23,800 good of those accounts after they were over and done with? I don't believe 719 00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:30,119 in the ghost, ah, Janet, Janet, But those wretched accounts were 720 00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:34,719 not over and done with. You see, that is the misery of it. 721 00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:39,360 Uncle Cornelius rose, without another word, bade them good night, and 722 00:55:39,519 --> 00:55:46,440 walked out into the wind. And if Uncle Cornelius His story by George McDonald