FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   >>  
of all the circumstances connected with it will be found in the third volume of Lord Tattle's _Recollections of the Prince Regent and his Friends_. The ghost, then, was naturally very anxious to show that he had not lost his influence over the Stiltons, with whom, indeed, he was distantly connected, his own first cousin having been married _en secondes noces_ to the Sieur de Bulkeley, from whom, as every one knows, the Dukes of Cheshire are lineally descended. Accordingly, he made arrangements for appearing to Virginia's little lover in his celebrated impersonation of "The Vampire Monk, or the Bloodless Benedictine," a performance so horrible that when old Lady Startup saw it, which she did on one fatal New Year's Eve, in the year 1764, she went off into the most piercing shrieks, which culminated in violent apoplexy, and died in three days, after disinheriting the Cantervilles, who were her nearest relations, and leaving all her money to her London apothecary. At the last moment, however, his terror of the twins prevented his leaving his room, and the little Duke slept in peace under the great feathered canopy in the Royal Bedchamber, and dreamed of Virginia. V A few days after this, Virginia and her curly-haired cavalier went out riding on Brockley meadows, where she tore her habit so badly in getting through a hedge that, on their return home, she made up her mind to go up by the back staircase so as not to be seen. As she was running past the Tapestry Chamber, the door of which happened to be open, she fancied she saw some one inside, and thinking it was her mother's maid, who sometimes used to bring her work there, looked in to ask her to mend her habit. To her immense surprise, however, it was the Canterville Ghost himself! He was sitting by the window, watching the ruined gold of the yellowing trees fly through the air, and the red leaves dancing madly down the long avenue. His head was leaning on his hand, and his whole attitude was one of extreme depression. Indeed, so forlorn, and so much out of repair did he look, that little Virginia, whose first idea had been to run away and lock herself in her room, was filled with pity, and determined to try and comfort him. So light was her footfall, and so deep his melancholy, that he was not aware of her presence till she spoke to him. "I am so sorry for you," she said, "but my brothers are going back to Eton to-morrow, and then, if you behave yourself, n
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   >>  



Top keywords:

Virginia

 
leaving
 
connected
 

Canterville

 
surprise
 
immense
 
looked
 

window

 

leaves

 

yellowing


sitting
 

watching

 

ruined

 

staircase

 
running
 
return
 

Tapestry

 

thinking

 

inside

 
mother

dancing
 

fancied

 

Chamber

 

happened

 
presence
 

melancholy

 

circumstances

 
comfort
 

footfall

 
morrow

behave
 

brothers

 

determined

 

attitude

 

extreme

 
depression
 

leaning

 

avenue

 

Indeed

 
forlorn

filled

 

repair

 

horrible

 

Startup

 
performance
 

Vampire

 

Bloodless

 
Benedictine
 

anxious

 

naturally