J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3

in Tom Mar

me so heart-broken, a fellow who liked a joke or a pleasant story, and could laugh heartily. Wher

nd the more he thought on the strange visit of Hugh Creswell tha

t all if it had not been for his kinsman's severity? Nay, was it not certain that if Sir Bale had done as Hugh Creswell had urged him, and sent for Feltram forthwith, and told him how all had been cleared up, and been a little friendly with him, h

h the storm. He could with tolerable certainty perceive, looking into the obscurity, tha

bout. He saw them pass round the corner of the building toward the fro

vation is sometimes heightened. It was such an apprehension as sometimes gives its peculiar horror to a dre

ey might return; but they did not. He w

trouble in finding me, nor any scruple,

n arrear which would not have troubled him had he not ceased, for two or three days, altogether t

him, and an uneasy suspense made him lift his eyes now and then to the door, fancying sounds and footsteps; and after a resultless w

ulaper's step trotting along the lob

ng; and before he had answered, in the midst of a long thunder-clap that suddenly broke, rattling over the

! here's poor dear Phili

at her sternly f

tinct," said Sir Bale

e old still-room. You never sa

by-and-by, and tell me

now? La, sir, they're all doin' what they can; he's drowned, sir, and

ing me to the place. Dead men don't usually want

l the servants in the house were now collected there, and three men also who lived by the margin of the lake; one of them thoroughly drenched, with rivulets of water still trickling from his sleeves, water alon

rown on his face. There was a silence as he stooped over Philip Feltram, who lay on a lo

for a moment, on h

hed clothes were removed, hot blankets enveloped him, warming-pans and hot bricks lent their aid; he was placed at the prescribed angle, so that the w

es of poor Philip Feltram; cold and dull to the touch; no breath through the blue lips; no sight in

and within the clothes, and laid it silently on Philip's shoulder and over his heart; a

ouse to-night: it was his own obstinate perversity, and perhaps-I forgive him for it-a wish in his unreasonable resentment to throw some blame upon this house, as having refused him shelter on such a night; than which i

om the centre of a pocket-handker

aronet. "We have done our best-done everything. I don't think the doctor, when he comes, will

s companion, a younger man, who was also in the still-room

es Hall. Some people said it was the stump of an old tower that had once belonged t

and keeping a couple of boats, he made money beside by ferrying passengers over now and then. This fellow, with

; and he asked me to tak the boat across the lake at once to the Clough o' Cloostedd at t'other side. The woman took the pet and wodn't hear o't; and, 'Dall me, if I go to-night,' quoth I. But he would not be put off so, not he; and dingdrive he went to it, cryin' and putrein' ye'd a-said, poor fellow, he was wrang i' his garrets a'most. So at long last I bethought me, there's nout o' a sea to the north o' Snakes Island, so I'll pull him by that side-for the storm is blowin' right up by Golden Friars, ye mind-and when we get near the point, thinks I, he'll see wi' his

I, thinkin' something

our shouthers, oo'er her bows, we didn't pull, so she lay still;

ass wi' himsel", p

sagged like, and so it drew him in, under the mere, before I cud du nout. There was nout to thraa tu him, and no time; down he went, and I followed; a

the peals of thunder that echoed awfully above, like the chorus of a melancholy ballad-the su