o or three of the servants to assist
me."

She stopped here, as if at a loss how to proceed.

"Go on, Mrs. Richards; we want to know all. Surely there must be
something terrible to cause you all to arouse us in this way."

"I'll tell you as well as I can," said the housekeeper, "but I can
hardly bear to think about it. Twas about one o'clock, and we were all
very busy, when we heard a noise in the corridor outside the door.
Naturally we turned to look, when the door opened and something
entered."

"Well, what? Some servant walking in her sleep?"

"No, sir," said Mrs. Richards in awful tones. "It looked like a woman,
very tall, and she had a long white shroud around her, and on it were
spots of blood. In her hand she carried a long knife, which was also
covered with blood, while the hand which held it was red. She came
closer to us," she went on with a shudder, "and then stopped, lifting
the terrible knife in the air. I cannot remember any more, for I was so
terribly frightened. I gave an awful scream, and then I suppose I
fainted."

This story was told with many interruptions, many pauses, many cries,
and I saw that the faces of those around were blanched with fear.

"Do you know what it did, Simon," said Tom, turning to that worthy,
"after it lifted its knife in the air?"

"She went away with a wail like," said Simon, slowly; "she opened the
door and went out. An' then I tried to go to the door, and when I got
there, there was nothin'."

"That is, you looked into the passage?"

Simon nodded. "And what did you think she was like?"

"Like the hall ghost, as I've heard so much about," said Simon.

"The hall ghost!" cried the ladies, hysterically. "What does that mean,
Mr. Temple?"

I do not think Tom should have encouraged their superstition by telling
them, but he did. He was excited, and scarcely knew what was best to do.

"They say that, like other old houses, Temple Hall has its ghost," he
said; "that she usually appears on New Year's night. If the year is to
be good to those within at the time, she comes with flowers and dressed
in gay attire; if bad, she is clothed in black; if there's to be death
for any one, she wears a shroud. But it's all nonsense, you know," said
Tom, uneasily.

"And she's come in a shroud," said the servant who had been in
hysterics, "and there was spots of blood upon it, and that means that
the one who dies will be murdered; and there was a knife in her hand,
and that mean