had supposed the place to be familiar
to her. "Have you never been to Kerfol?" I asked.

"Oh, yes: often. But never on that day."

"What day?"

"I'd quite forgotten--and so had Herve, I'm sure. If we'd remembered, we
never should have sent you to-day--but then, after all, one doesn't half
believe that sort of thing, does one?"

"What sort of thing?" I asked, involuntarily sinking my voice to
the level of hers. Inwardly I was thinking: "I _knew_ there was
something...."

Madame de Lanrivain cleared her throat and produced a reassuring smile.
"Didn't Herve tell you the story of Kerfol? An ancestor of his was mixed
up in it. You know every Breton house has its ghost-story; and some of
them are rather unpleasant."

"Yes--but those dogs?"

"Well, those dogs are the ghosts of Kerfol. At least, the peasants say
there's one day in the year when a lot of dogs appear there; and that
day the keeper and his daughter go off to Morlaix and get drunk. The
women in Brittany drink dreadfully." She stooped to match a silk; then
she lifted her charming inquisitive Parisian face. "Did you _really_ see
a lot of dogs? There isn't one at Kerfol." she said.

II

Lanrivain, the next day, hunted out a shabby calf volume from the back
of an upper shelf of his library.

"Yes--here it is. What does it call itself? _A History of the Assizes
of the Duchy of Brittany. Quimper, 1702_. The book was written about a
hundred years later than the Kerfol affair; but I believe the account
is transcribed pretty literally from the judicial records. Anyhow, it's
queer reading. And there's a Herve de Lanrivain mixed up in it--not
exactly _my_ style, as you'll see. But then he's only a collateral.
Here, take the book up to bed with you. I don't exactly remember the
details; but after you've read it I'll bet anything you'll leave your
light burning all night!"

I left my light burning all night, as he had predicted; but it was
chiefly because, till near dawn, I was absorbed in my reading. The
account of the trial of Anne de Cornault, wife of the lord of Kerfol,
was long and closely printed. It was, as my friend had said, probably an
almost literal transcription of what took place in the court-room; and
the trial lasted nearly a month. Besides, the type of the book was very
bad....

At first I thought of translating the old record. But it is full of
wearisome repetitions, and the main lines of the story are forever
straying off into side issu