Boots" during the Christmas period.
An excellent worker, Sarah left nothing to be done at the end of the
day, and Gertie, arriving home after the stress of business at Great
Titchfield Street, was able to rest in the parlour, or give assistance
in the shop.

She was making out orders for Christmas cards at the newspaper counter
one night (the popular remark of customers at this period was "Ain't
the evenings drawing in something awful!") when a man rushed in and
looked around in a dazed, frightened manner. He muttered indistinctly
some explanation, and was going off, when Gertie called to him.

"Thought it was a bar," he said confusedly. "My mistake."

"Come here, Mr. Langham," she ordered, putting down her book. "Sit on
the high chair." He obeyed, blinking up at the light. "What's the
matter?"

Jim Langham was trembling. He leaned across, and whispered.

"You've seen a ghost?" she echoed. "Don't be so stupid. There are no
such things nowadays, especially in a neighbourhood like this. Where
did you come across it?"

"Near--near the station. I've only just come from Wallingford. I was
hurrying up the slope on the right-hand side, and about to turn into
the hotel, when across the way--"

He looked around apprehensively, and caught sight of Mrs. Mills peeping
over the half blind of the parlour door. Gertie sent her a reassuring
nod, and she disappeared.

"What have I done," he wailed appealingly, "that everybody should spy?
A police sergeant gazed at me in a most peculiar way about two minutes
ago. What does it mean, Miss Higham?"

"Doesn't matter what it means," she said sharply, "so long as you've
done nothing wrong. Pull yourself together, Mr. Langham. Why don't
you knock off the drink, and be a man?"

"I'll go and get some now."

"It will do you no good. You've been in the habit of taking it when
you didn't need it, and you've spoilt it as a remedy. Stay here for a
while, and calm yourself."

"Bad enough," he complained, "when living people begin to track you
about, but when the others start doing it--!" He shivered. Gertie
went to the parlour, and asked her aunt to make some coffee.

"Has Lady Douglass gone away yet?"

"Now why, apropos of nothing, should you mention her name?"

"You never did have much sense about you, and now you seem to have none
at all. Concentrate your mind. Think! What was the question I put to
you?" He admitted he could not recall it, and she repeated t