Wandering Ghosts

my life and made me unhappy. The gruesome forebodings of a Welsh nurse, which chanced to be realised by an odd coincidence

it was due to my having a reputation for bad luck. However, I will not try to analyse the causes of my state, for I should satisfy nobody, least of all myself. Still less will I attempt to explain why I felt a temporary revival of my spirits after my adventure in the garden. It is certain that I was in love with the face I had s

on, and I peered through the thick glass from my seat. Suddenly another train came gliding in from the opposite direction, and stopped alongside of ours. I looked at the carriage which chanced to be abreast of mine, and idly read the black letters painted on a white board swinging from the brass handrail: "Berlin-Cologne-Paris." Then I looked up at the window above. I started violently and the cold perspiration broke out upon my forehead. In the dim light, not six feet from where I sat, I saw the face of a woman, the face I loved, the straight, fine features, the strange eyes, the wonderful mouth, the pale skin.

hat I might shut my window, as the evening was cold. I did so, with an apology, and relapsed into silence. The train ran swiftly on for a long time, and it was already beginning to slacken speed before entering another station when

nd indelibly associated with the moonlight and the fountains in my own English home. I certainly would not have admitted that I had been mistaken in the dusk, attributing to what I had seen a resemblance to my former vision which did not really exist. There was not the slightest doubt in my mind, and I was positively sure that I had again see

fternoon. I went to mass at the Madeleine, and I attended the services at the English Church. I hung about the Louvre and Notre Dame. I went to Versailles. I spent hours in parading the Rue de Rivoli, in the n

erything they saw, with very little inclination to give much in return. But I did not notice the chaperon. I saw only the face that had haunted m

ficence glorified the whole woman. It was rich hair, fine and abundant, golden, with deep ruddy tints in it like red bronze spun fine. There was no ornament in it, not a rose, not a thread of gold, and I felt that it needed nothing to enhance its splendour;

e to look for my host. I found him at last. I begged him to prese

y, with a pleasant smile. He evidently had no i

Cairngorm,"

me hospitable smile. "Yes-uh-the fact is, I must try an

e, I will try and find out

of you-come alo

d in a few minutes we sto

ly to me, "Come and dine to-morrow, won't you?" He glided

ul girl, conscious that the e

meeting before," I remarked, by

with an air of enquiry. She evidently did

," she observed, in a low

ess, ten days ago. I was going the other way, and our carr

y, but I do not reme

mer-near the end of July-do you remember? You must have wandered in

seen a ghost; there had never been any Cairngorms in the place since the memory of man. We left the n

you stayin

ere I always stay. She is you

n-is your aunt Lady Bluebe

, the sixteenth or seventeenth Baron Bluebell-I forget exactly how many of them the

idea. I asked to be introduced because I recogni

been given to understand that I was christened Margaret. Being a floral family, they call me Daisy. A dreadful American man once told me that my aunt

s?" I asked, being very conscious o

s eyed me

swered. "Do you think you could communicate to my aunt the fact that y

, inflating my lungs for a ye

she remarked. "You can write it on a

d, "but I have no paper. Wou

Lammas, with alacrity

my arm before the old lady's nose. She seemed perfectly accustomed to the proceeding, put up her glasses,

id. Then she smiled and nodded to me again,

, and does not say much, like the parrot. You see, she knew your grandfat

t have been in the least surprised," I answered rather irrelevantly. "I really thought y

passed. I got separated from the rest, and came upon you by accident, just as I was admiring the extremely ghostly look of your house, and wonderi

a soul.

come. It is easy for her to go out; she doe

it a burden," said

n her beautiful eyes, and there was a sort of he

We may like each other, if you stay a little longer-an

all seemed natural enough. I had dreamed of her face too long not to be utterly happy when I met her at last, and could talk to her as much as I pleased. To me, the man of ill-luck in everything, the whole meeting seemed too good to be true. I felt again that strange sensation of lightness which I had experienced after I had seen her face in the garden. The great rooms seemed brighter, life seemed wor

I asked suddenly. "H

re gloomy," she answered thoughtfully. "Yes, I t

d. "If I could catch my life and talk to it,

, make hay, shoot, hunt, tumble into ditches, and come home muddy and hungry for dinner

I murmured apologetically, feeling

our wife," she laughed. "Anythi

r quarrel with anybody. You can try i

try?" she asked

it is to be only a prelimina

she enquired, turn

ing in the future. I cannot imagine how you are going to do

bject to hereditary insanity? Are you deaf, like Aunt Bluebell? Are you poor, like-lots of people? Have you been crossed in love? Have you lost the world for a woman, or any particular woman for t

except that I am dreadfully unlu

suggested Miss Lammas. "Try and get marrie

badly, it would

rals-it does not matter which, since they are always abusing each other. Make yourself felt by other people. You will like it, if they don't. It will make a man of you. Fill yo

think the list of innoce

rt of thing. Care for something, or hate something. Don't be idle. Life is

omething-I mean

marry her. Do

would marry me," I replie

himself to action. Ask her, by all means, and see what she says. If she does not accept you at once, she may take you the next tim

nto the bargain. Shall I take

u will," s

I will. Miss Lammas, will you

y as I had been all my life, I was certainly not timid, nor even shy. But to propose to marry a woman after half an hour's acquaintance was a piece of madness of which I never believed myself capable, and of which I should never be capable again, could I be placed in the same situation. It was as though my whole being had bee

I had really not the least idea what you were going to say. Wouldn't it be singularly awkward for you if I had said

ho had dreamed of you for seven

were, if I believed you. Very well; you have taken my advice, entered for a Stranger's Race and lost it. Try the All-aged Trial Stakes