£100,000 versus Ghosts. A novel

Front matter

£100,000 versus GHOSTS £100,000 — GHOSTS. a 1Rov>el. BY MRS. EOBEET JOCELYN. " If, then, your valour can the sight sustain Of rustling curtains, and of clinking chain ; If )-our courageous tongue have powers to talk, When round your bed the horrid ghost shall walk, If you dare ask it why it leaves its tomb, I'll see your sheets well air'd, and show the room." — Scott. IN TWO VOLUMES. YOL. I F. V. WHITE & CO., 31, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND. 1888. PRINTED BY KELLY AND CO., GATE STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, AND KINGSTON-ON-TIIAMES. CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. — Mr Inheritance . . . . 1 II. — Is Aunt Molly Right on Wrong ? . 21 III.—" Grump and I " . . . 47 IY. — " First Impressions "... 64 V. — Settling In ..... 80 VI. — A Pleasant Night .... 95 VII.— Ghost No. i 108 VIII. — " Sat Nothing about it" . . 122 IX. — Grump comes well to the Fore 139 X. — A Terrible Experience. . . 154 XL — Beneath the Lime Trees . . 1 GO XII. — Do You wish me to go away? . 186 XIII. — Nita's Lecture .... 204 XIV. — Jack pays us a Visit . . . £100,000 versus GHOSTS POPULAR NEW JMOVELS.

Now Ready, the Seventh Edition of ARMY SOCIETY." By JOHN STRANGE Winter, Author of " Booties' Baby." Cloth gilt, 6s. ; also, picture boards, 2s. Also, Now Ready, in Cloth G-ilt, 3s. 6d. each. GARRISON GOSSIP," Gathered in Blankhampton. By JOHN Strange Winter. Also, picture boards, 2s. A SIEGE BABY." By the same AUTHOR. IN THE SHIRES." By Sir RANDAL H. ROBERTS, Bart. THE GIRL IN THE BROWN HABIT." A Sporting Novel. By Mrs. Edward Khnnard. Also, picture boards, 2s. BY WOMAN'S WIT." By Mrs. ALEXANDER, Author of "The Wooing O't." MONA'S CHOICE." By the same AUTHOR. KILLED IN THE OPEN." By Mrs. Edward Kennard. Also, picture boards, 2s. IN A GRASS COUNTRY." By Mrs. H. LOVETT-CAMERON. Also, picture boards, 2s. ' A DEVOUT LOVER." By the same author. THE OUTSIDER." By HAWLEY SMART. STRAIGHT AS A DIE."

By Mrs. Edward Kennard. Also, picture boards, 2s. TWILIGHT TALES." By Mrs. Edward Kennard. Illustrated. SHE CAME BETWEEN." By Mrs. ALEXANDER-FRASER. THE CRUSADE OP THE 'EXCELSIOR.'" By BRET HARTE. ;CURB AND SNAFFLE." By Sir Randal H. Roberts, Bart. 1 A REAL GOOD THING." By Mrs. EDWARD KENNARD. 'DREAM FACES." By The Hoxble. Mrs. Fetherstonhaugh. F. V. WHITE & CO., 31, Soutnampton Street, Strand, London, W.C. £100,000 versus GHOSTS. CHAPTEE I. MY INHERITANCE. " I shall leave Glen Farlock to Kate ! " The scene is cast in a somewhat uniquely furnished library. The time of day six thirty by the clock on the mantelpiece. And the speaker is a very old, very wizen, sour faced man. And for the rest ? There is Uncle Harry and Aunt Jean, Aunt Maria, Cousin Jack, Mama, Mary, Nita, Tom, Jim and I. / am Kathleen Cathcart, the second daughter of the third son of the late Sir Harry Cathcart, of Deane Royal, Slow shire. vol. i. £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS.

Chapter II. Is Aunt Molly Right Or

WRONG? 11 Is Lady Alice in, Margaret ? " " Yes, sir." " All right. Thanks." This conversation having taken place in our hall, and being distinctly audible to my mother and I, who were sitting in the drawing-room, we were not surprised when Jack entered the room unannounced. I was busily engaged in feeding eight young rabbits with a bottle and a piece of a quill pen, the basket with seven of them in it was deposited in a corner of the room, the carpet turned back underneath it, and an apron of Grumpy's — you will £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. 22 hear more of Grumpy by - and - bye taking its place. The eighth rabbit was in my hand, vainly struggling against my resolute endeavours to save its life. The rabbits were Jim's, and their mother had come to an untimely end a few hours previously. Tom had come over from Illminster, where his regiment was quar tered, in the morning, and while we were having our luncheon his fox-terrier had his.

Left in the garden, and no doubt feeling neglected, and seeing no reason why he should not have his dinner as well as his master, he went on a voyage of discovery, discovered Jim's rabbits, found one of them running about outside its hutch and eat it. Jim had been deeply concerned, and had at once sought my assistance. Luckily for the eight motherless young animals I took an interest in rabbits, and resolved to rear them with a bottle. Mother was the easiest going, most placid woman imaginable, and she raised no objection to the society of rabbits in her drawing-room. She sat at the table in the window, quietly doing her accounts, and allowed me to move the chairs, turn back the carpet, and make a general litter in the room without a murmur. She got up and shook hands with Jack when he entered.

I merely nodded to him and remained where I was, sitting on the floor. " How is your uncle this morning, Jack ? " were mama's first words. " No better and no worse, Aunt Alice. I expect he will remain in his present state until — the end. He is quite unconscious still, and continues to sleep nearly all the time." £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. " You have got the night nurse ? " " Yes, she came yesterday." " I am glad of that. You were knock mg yourself up completely, Jack." " Not I, Aunt Alice. But I think it will be better to have her all the same. Why, Kitty, what have you got there ? Rabbits I What in the world are you doing with them ? " Only feeding them," I replied, smiling at his astonishment. "Would you like to undertake one of them ? " " I should not mind," he replied with a laugh. " Here, where is the thing you feed them with ?

" " There is a bottle on that table, Jack, which Jim was using before he went to Illminster wutli Tom. A minute more and Jack is sitting on a stool close beside me, with an apron spread across his knees, hard at work. Very comical he looked as he sat there, care fully imitating my method of rabbit-rear ing, with a half-anxious, half-amused, ex pression upon his handsome face ; but if you could have seen him I think you would have liked him and the way in which he fed that struggling little rabbit. I know it struck me forcibly just then, what a thoroughly good sort he was, and I wondered whether Tom, when he was five years older, would be at all like him. There were just five years between Jack and Tom, Jack was twenty-eight, and Tom twenty-three ; but there were far more than five years between them in many ways.

Tom was a very good young fellow, ex tremely kind-hearted, very kind to my mother, and a very good brother to us ; but, poor dear, he was very raw, self-con scious, self-important, and egotistical. In £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. fact he had all those faults which young men are so often blessed with, and it remained an open question whether time and experience would knock them out of him, or stamp them irrevocabl}'" into him. Between Jack's efforts and mine the rabbits were soon fed and tucked up into their basket. I then removed them to the kitchen, leaving Jack with my mother in the drawing-room. When I returned there I found him busily engaged in tidying the room, and at the same time unburdening his mind to mama upon a subject which weighed heavily there just then. " I am afraid he will not be conscious again, Aunt Alice.

Doctor Dimple says there is little hope of it, and I fear he is right," he was observing, in a rather nervous manner as I entered tbe room. "I am afraid not, Jack," replied my mother gravely. " It is quite out of all reason that this legacy which he is leaving Kitty should be tied up with this ridiculous, unearthly stipulation," he continued, quite anxiously. " I had so hoped to be able to talk to him about it, and point out how wrong it is." " I really wish, Jack, that you would mind your own business," I exclaimed im patiently, and I fear with some temper. " My dear Kitty, Jack is very kind about it, and I am quite sure he only considers what is best for you," murmured mama. " I believe that thoroughly, mama. Of course Jack is very kind about it ; but when I have told him I do not wish him to interfere in the matter, I really wish he would do as I ask him.

He ought to know by this time that I do not like to be considered." £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. " How like you, Kitty ! So ungracious, dear!" "I am afraid I am," I returned as humbly as I could. " But please, Jack, leave the matter alone, there's a good boy." " My dear girl, it would be far better if I secured this legacy for you. As it stands now, you will never possess it." " Nonsense ! Jack ! " " I cannot say I approve of it, Kitty. The legacy ought to be yours, apart from this wretched condition." " Apart from the condition, it would not have been left to me. " It would not have been left to you, Kitty, if your poor uncle had been quite sane," mama remarked quietly. " And I feel it is very unfair to Jack — and others, that it has been left to you." " Oh, excuse me aunt, but that is really nonsense.

Kitty has as much right to have a legacy as anyone else has ; in fact she has more right to have one than most people have who we could mention. She has always been very good to the poor old man, and she is certainly a great favourite of his. As to other people, no doubt everj7one who ought to have one will have a good legacy. And as to me, why, you know that it will make no possible differ ence to me." " Yes, Jack. If that were not so I should be very much troubled about it." " But as to this condition : it is un reasonable and barbarous ! It drives a fellow fairly wild to think of you and Kitty and little Nita going to that horribly haunted hole ! " " It is probably a charming place, and the ghosts no worse than other ghosts. Very likely they will not be half as tiresome £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. 30 as some people are, or give one a quarter of the trouble," I interrupted, rather viciously.

"They are no joking matter, Kitty. They killed one of Uncle Edward's un fortunate tenants there, and " " Oh ! Jack, please say no more ! " I exclaimed imploringly, glancing as I spoke at my mother. She met my glance and smiled — a far more resolute smile than I could have believed possible under the circumstances. " You need not be afraid of me, Kitty I know the value of £100,000 far too well to give it up without a struggle — greatly as I object to ghosts," she said quietly. " If they were ordinary, everyday ghosts it would not matter so much. But there — what must be, must be, and I "suppose it cannot be helped." " No, Jack. We must make the best of it. It will not affect Kate in the least, if I know anything about her, so you need not be so very anxious," returned Mama, with another smile.

" I think Kitty will be all right, Aunt Alice ; I agree with you there. I am thinking of you and Nita. Nita is so delicate, so totally unfit to go to Glen Farlock." Mama glanced at Jack curiously as he spoke, and there was an expression on her face which I could not understand. " Nita is not really delicate, Jack. She looks rather thin and pale, but she is not delicate. She is just as fit to go to Glen Farlock as anybody else is," she said, almost brusquely. Jack coloured, and said no more. He got up and wTalked to the window, and when there, stood with his back to us, looking out into the garden. £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. " I must be going back. I promised my mother to go home to tea this afternoon, to meet Uncle Henry, who is coming over to Deane Royal to-day," he remarked pre sently. " And, by-the-bye, Kitty, she wanted to know if you would come back with me, to assist her, in case Aunt Jean comes also ?

" " I do not think I can manage it, Jack. Those rabbits will want feeding ao-ain soon." " Never mind the rabbits, Kitty ; Grumpy and I will feed them. You had better o-0 • you cannot stay indoors all the afternoon. I did not especially want to go to Deane Royal to assist Aunt Maria entertain Aunt Jean ; but after this observation of my mother's, I could not very well refuse to do so. So I ran upstairs and put on my hat. When I returned to the drawing-room, I found Nita there. Jack had sat down again, and seemed to have forgotten that he was obliged to be back at Deane Royal at tea-time. I waited several minutes to see if he would again be seized with a wish to depart, and, seeing no signs of any such an inclination on his part, I quietly escaped from the room and went to the kitchen to give Grump some last instructions as to the young rabbits.

It was nearly five o'clock when I again returned to the drawing-room, and this time Jack noticed my entrance. He wished my mother and Nita a reluc tant good-bye, and then followed me out of the room. At the garden-gate he stopped, looked at me in a hurried, confused manner, and exclaimed suddenly, " I say, Kitt)7, shall we ask Nita to come with us?" VOL. I. £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. 34 " Yes," I replied readily, pleased by the suggestion, for I had reason to object to being tete-a-tete with Jack. " Will you ask her, Kitty, or shall I ? " "You, certainly!" I replied, with a smile, seating myself on the top of the low gate-post as I spoke. Jack ran off; but returned a few minutes later to tell me that " Nita would not come ! " We walked on for several seconds in silence, and it struck me that Jack seemed, if anything, a little out of temper.

However, if this was so, he was very soon himself again, and was chattering and laughing in his usual pleasant, genial fashion. Jack. was an extremely agreeable com panion, and when he forgot that he wanted me to marry him — as he did upon the present occasion — there were few people I liked better. Not one word did he say, as we wrent along, about Glen Farlock or the ghosts, and by the time we arrived at Deane Royal, we were both in the best of humours. All my resentment against his inter ference, which he had roused pretty strongly that afternoon, was quite for gotten ; and I could not help feeling a touch of positive regret steal over me when I remembered that when we went to Glen Farlock we would leave Jack behind us. Aunt Jean was not there, so while Uncle Henry and Jack visited poor old Uncle Edward, and discussed his state, Aunt Maria and I sat in the drawing-room alone together.

Aunt Maria was a thoroughly charming woman, and she had plenty to say for her self. I can give }-ou the best idea of her by saying that she always called you " My dearest," wore well-made dresses, had her 3* £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. handkerchief saturated with eaude cologne and kissed 3-ou when 3tou met her ; — but in doing so I do her an injustice. Aunt Maria was a woman of the world to her finger tips, and a woman to whom it would have been unknown punishment had she been obliged to live the life ni3r mother led. The37 were half-sisters, but no two women could have been more differently constituted. My mother's mother was the daughter of an impoverished Irish peer ; Aunt Maria's mother the only child of a millionaire. My grandfather at two-and-twenty came into a large estate, and all those hundred and one expenses which fall upon the shoulders of an earl ; but alas ! that was all.

Of course he married a very beautiful Irish girl without a sou, and, equally of course, he ran into almost inconceivable debt. My grandmother, perhaps over-burdened b3r these very debts, died a few years after her marriage, leaving an only child — nry mother. M3T grandfather then married Miss Monti siore-Jones, who paid his debts, presented him with another daughter, and then followed her predecessor's example by dying a few years after her marriage. She left every penny of her money to her child, which was quite natural, but nevertheless a bore for my mother. Havin" a life interest in her fortune, of o 7 course my grandfather would have made things more comfortable for his eldest child, had he lived long enough to do so ; but he only survived his second wife by a few months, and left my mother absolutely penniless.

Mama, whether acting rightly or wrongly is is not for me to say, refused, at the time £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. 38 of her marriage, to allow7 Aunt Maria to make her an allowance, and during the many years which followed my father's death resolutely continued independent of her, miserably poor as we were. They were the best of friends, and I really believe Mama only refused to take any of her mone37 simpty because she was one of those very quiet, and apparently feeble women, who are sometimes so very determined, when once their minds are made up, that nothing in the world will move them a hair's breadth from their chosen course. Aunt Maria was a very careless woman about money matters, and having absolutely no conception how far a few hundred pounds a year could, or could not go, she let the matter quietly drop, when she found my mother was determined to refuse her assistance, and she probably forgot all about it and thought everything was as it should be.

Do not think I am blaming Aunt Maria, far from it ; I particularly like her, and 1 think I admire her more than any woman I know. She is a remarkably good-looking woman, with a pair of fine blue e37es. She has a quite wonderful way of finding out the subjects which most interest you, she is alwa3rs amusing, and amused, and she is undeniably a remarkably fascinating woman. I fear that even that afternoon, with Uncle Edward in the house so ill, we managed to enjoy ourselves together very fairly well ; and once she laughed at some thing I said until the tears were in her eyes. I hope it was not wrong ; I do not see what harm it did. I need not say we were not noisy laughers, and so -no one was any the £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. wiser, and it certainly did not affect the poor old man upstairs. Bye and-bye she touched upon the sub ject of Glen Farlock, and tried to persuade me that I was wrong in encouraging my mother to go there ; but I did not resent her interference as I resented Jack's. She had some right to interfere for one thing, and for another it would have been quite impossible to resent anything Aunt Maria either said or did.

" My dearest Kitty, I believe the ghosts in that house are simply diabolical. I would not go within a mile of the place for any consideration in the world," she exclaimed in vehement remonstrance, when I observed laughingly " that if the worst came to the worst, they could hardly kill and eat us." " They really might, Kitten ; there is no saying what they can or cannot do," she returned quite seriousty. " And it is such nonsense to think you can live there. Of course 3-011 are badl3r off; but that is your mother's own fault ; why she cannot allow me to dispose of some of my useless mone37, I cannot sa37. I think it would be far more sensible of her than this new idea," she continued, quite impatiently. " I have never been able to understand why she refuses assistance from me and 3-et accepts it from Tom."

" Tom is her son, Aunt M0II3-," — for so we called her — " and I think she thinks it is as well for him to have to do without it just now," I replied gravely. I did not mention that without his assistance we could hardly have existed. In some ways there was truth in what I had just said. It certainly did Tom no harm that he was obliged to exercise a little self-denial at that period of his existence ; but it was, after all, rather £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. 42 hard upon him, and I by no means under rated his goodness in doing so. " And so you really are not afraid of the ghosts ? " she said, after a slight pause, as if anxious to bear away from an un pleasant subject — that was Aunt Molly all over. " Not I ! At least, not very much ! And I console myself by thinking that they will make a dead set at me, and leave the others alone, since the place is mine."

" Yes, dearest ! very likely they will ! But think how7 truly appalling ! That thought makes it worse than ever ! " " No, no ! Not at all ! If they kill and eat me I wonder whether they will roast me or " "Oh! Kitty!" " Well ! when I am disposed of, then the others can take warning, and leave the place. It is quite right I am to be the sufferer, if aii37body; and I feel sure I shall be. Mama and Nita are far too nervous and delicate to be killed and eaten, and Mary — Aunt Molly! — I really do think Mary would be too tough ! " " Oh, Kitty, howfrivolous 3tou are this evening ! And my poor boy ? What is to become of my poor boy, when 37ou are so horribly disposed of ? " " Your poor boy must marr37 somebody else, my dear, that is all," I returned lightly. " You are not a bit in love with him, Kitty," she asserted, more as a fact, than as a grievance.

" I do not think I am, Aunt Molly.' " You will try to fall in love with him, won't you, dearest ? He is such a good, dear fellow, and he is so devoted to you." " He thinks he is, Aunt Molly," I returned quietly, " and it will do him no £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. harm to imagine so for a short time ; but he is no more in love with me than I am with him." I did not mind saying this to her, for he was only her step-son, and I knew she would treat the matter placidly whichever way it went. She was one of those people who live upon the cream of life, and never attempt to digest the skim milk — very pleasant those people are too ! always good-tempered, unruffled, looking at things through rose-coloured spectacles, and affecting 3-ou very much as the sun shine does. Aunt Maria was very fond of Jack — in her way.

She had married his father when he was quite a little bo37, and she had been the best and kindest mother to him that ever any boy had ; spoiling him, it is true, but not objectionably. No ! lovable and sweet as Aunt Molly was, she made every one about her make her their first con- ? 45 sideration — and this training had been by no means bad for her step-son. Living under the same roof with Aunt Molly, Jack had learnt to treat women in a most courteous manner, very refreshing in these days, and, as she said, he was really a good, dear fellow. " I wish it could be, Kitty ! " she mur mured, half regretfully. " I should have liked it. Perhaps, after all, you may find, by-and-bye, that you do care for him ; and say what you may, dearest, I am sure he is devoted to you.'' " My dear little aunt, you are quite wrong about that!

You think that be cause Jack has not fallen over head and ears in love with anybody else, so far, and imagines himself to be very much in love with me, that he really is devoted to me. I assure you he is not." " Well, wait and see, Kitty. If I know £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. anything about it you will both find that you care more for each other than you have so far imagined, when you leave Illminster. Very soon afterwards I returned home ; but her words rang in my ears all the evening, and somehow I went to bed that night wondering if there could possibly be any truth in them. One thing was certain, I should miss Jack very much when we went away. I did not doubt that. "^@t#l)4'^#-

Chapter III

" GRUMP AND I . " A few weeks after the day on which Uncle Edward stated his intention of leaving Glen Farlock to me, he died, and on his will being read, we found that he had done as he had said he would, both as re garded Glen Farlock and the £100,000. Glen Farlock was mine ! Not so the wherewithal to keep it up ! Until a year had gone over our heads, not one sou of that money would pass into our hands. Whether we ever would possess it remained to be proved. My mother had been a widow for many years. Tom was in the army, Jim at school, and Mary,.Nita and I, at home, £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. doing nothing. As I have said before we ""J O were as poor as church mice. We lived in a tiny little cottage, and we had one old woman, one young girl, and one very garrulous old man, who amongst them kept that cottage in order for us.

Tom never would have been in the army at all, had he not happened to have a godfather, and had not that godfather acted towards him in a truly wonderful manner, quite exceptional in godfathers. His godfather had left him £500 a year, on condition that he went into the army. Tom had been only too glad to do so. He passed through his examinations in high form, and became a man of fortune! Poor Tom ! It seemed such a fortune to him that £500 a year ! To the boy who had rarely had five shillings in his pocket, that £500 seemed wealth untold. All he would do with it ! All he could do for us ! Tom might not be perfect, but he was a very good boy in some ways, and he was very devoted to his mother — a devo tion certainly by no means one-sided. £100 a year of that £500 always passed into her hands ; and she was obliged to take it — we only had £600 a jTear of our own, and out of that Jim's school expenses had to be paid !

What wonder then, that we all agreed to commence the year which was to be spent at Glen Farlock at once ? What wonder that my mother laid aside her dread of ghosts and consented to make them her daily companions ? What wonder that we girls were eager for the fray ? Jim thought it " a fine lark," and ex pressed this opinion openly every ten minutes of the day. It was the middle of the summer holidays, and he was quite 4 VOL. I. £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS. excited and delighted at the prospect of the change from our cottage to Glen Farlock. My mother was far from agreeing with Jim as to its being a lark ! Mama was a highly nervous woman ; she had a perfect terror of burglars, and was by no means attached to ghosts. She in variably fainted if anything alarmed or startled her in the very least degree, and taking one thing with another, she was about the last person one would have chosen to take with one on an expedition into unknown terrors and alarms, Nita too, was far from happy at the prospect of our sojourn at Glen Farlock, and I am perfectly certain that if either she or my mother had heard Uncle Edward's description of the "presence" there, not even £100,000 would have tempted them to go there.

Luckily, they had not heard his de scription. To Mary alone I confided it, and with Mary it was safe. Mary was my prop and stay, and to her I looked for support and help and courage. Mary must have taken after papa ! She certainly did not take after Mama, for of all the stolid, calm people I ever came across, my sister Mary was the calmest, and stolidest ! Tom treated the matter in a very jovial manner. He had no belief in ghosts, and swore that the house was only haunted by some tramps, who found it convenient to make it uninhabitable to any tenants save themselves. However, their reign was to come to an abrupt standstill, he would take a week's leave, accompany us to Glen Farlock, and see what effect a couple of pistols had upon the Glen Farlock lrystery. It was not every day that a young woman 4* £100,000 VERSUS GHOSTS.