'

'Saw!' echoed all three, bending forward.

'When I opened the church-door to come out,' said the little man, with
an expression of face which bore ample testimony to the sincerity of
his conviction, 'when I opened the church-door to come out, which I did
suddenly, for I wanted to get it shut again before another gust of wind
came up, there crossed me--so close, that by stretching out my finger
I could have touched it--something in the likeness of a man. It was
bare-headed to the storm. It turned its face without stopping, and fixed
its eyes on mine. It was a ghost--a spirit.'

'Whose?' they all three cried together.

In the excess of his emotion (for he fell back trembling in his chair,
and waved his hand as if entreating them to question him no further),
his answer was lost on all but old John Willet, who happened to be
seated close beside him.

'Who!' cried Parkes and Tom Cobb, looking eagerly by turns at Solomon
Daisy and at Mr Willet. 'Who was it?'

'Gentlemen,' said Mr Willet after a long pause, 'you needn't ask. The
likeness of a murdered man. This is the nineteenth of March.'

A profound silence ensued.

'If you'll take my advice,' said John, 'we had better, one and all, keep
this a secret. Such tales would not be liked at the Warren. Let us keep
it to ourselves for the present time at all events, or we may get into
trouble, and Solomon may lose his place. Whether it was really as he
says, or whether it wasn't, is no matter. Right or wrong, nobody would
believe him. As to the probabilities, I don't myself think,' said Mr
Willet, eyeing the corners of the room in a manner which showed that,
like some other philosophers, he was not quite easy in his theory,
'that a ghost as had been a man of sense in his lifetime, would be out
a-walking in such weather--I only know that I wouldn't, if I was one.'

But this heretical doctrine was strongly opposed by the other three,
who quoted a great many precedents to show that bad weather was the very
time for such appearances; and Mr Parkes (who had had a ghost in his
family, by the mother's side) argued the matter with so much ingenuity
and force of illustration, that John was only saved from having to
retract his opinion by the opportune appearance of supper, to which they
applied themselves with a dreadful relish. Even Solomon Daisy himself,
by dint of the elevating influences of fire, lights, brandy, and good
company, so far recovered as to handle his knife and