It was all I could get from him, sir, and at last I turned to
go back----"

"What was Robin doing?" interrupted Mr. Bourne.

"Sir, I suppose it's just some fancy or other that he has got into his
head, as he used to get after the poor child died. Mr. Verner has just
asked me whether he is sane, but there's nothing of that sort wrong
about him. You mind the clump of trees that stands out, sir, between
here and the brick-field, by the path that would lead to Verner's
Pride?" added old Matthew in an altered tone.

"Yes," said Mr. Bourne.

"I had just got past it, sir, when I saw a figure crossing that bare
corner from the other trees. A man's shape, it looked like. Tall and
shadowy it was, wearing what looked like a long garment, or a woman's
riding-habit, trailing nearly on the ground. The very moment my eyes
fell upon it, I felt that it was something strange, and when the figure
passed me, turning its face right upon me--I _saw_ the face, sir."

Old Matthew's manner was so peculiar, his pause so impressive, that Mr.
Bourne could only gaze at him, and wait in wonder for what was coming.

"Sir, it was the face of one who has been dead these two years past--Mr.
Frederick Massingbird."

If the rector had gazed at old Matthew before, he could only stare now.
That the calm, sensible old man should fall into so extraordinary a
delusion, was incomprehensible. He might have believed it of Deerham in
general, but not of Matthew Frost.

"Matthew, you must have been deceived," was his quiet answer.

"No, sir. There never was another face like Mr. Frederick Massingbird's.
Other features may have been made like his--it's not for me to say they
have not--but whose else would have the black mark upon it? The
moonlight was full upon it, and I could see even the little lines
shooting out from the cheek, so bright was the night. The face was
turned right upon me as it passed, and I am as clear about its being his
as I am that it was me looking at it."

"But you know it is a thing absolutely impossible," urged Mr. Bourne. "I
think you must have dreamt this, Matthew."

Old Matthew shook his head. "I wouldn't have told you a dream, sir. It
turned me all in a maze. I never felt the fatigue of a step all the way
home after it. When I got in, I couldn't eat my supper; I couldn't go to
bed. I sat up thinking, and the wife, she came in and asked what ailed
me that I didn't go to rest. I had got no sleep in my eyes, I told her,
which