The Project Gutenberg eBook, J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3, by
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

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Title: J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3

Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Release Date: March 28, 2004 [eBook #11750]

Language: English

Character set encoding: US-ASCII

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES,
VOLUME 3***

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J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 3

The Haunted Baronet (1871)

by

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

The Haunted Baronet

CHAPTER I

The George and Dragon

The pretty little town of Golden Friars--standing by the margin of the
lake, hemmed round by an amphitheatre of purple mountain, rich in tint
and furrowed by ravines, high in air, when the tall gables and narrow
windows of its ancient graystone houses, and the tower of the old
church, from which every evening the curfew still rings, show like
silver in the moonbeams, and the black elms that stand round throw
moveless shadows upon the short level grass--is one of the most singular
and beautiful sights I have ever seen.

There it rises, 'as from the stroke of the enchanter's wand,' looking so
light and filmy, that you could scarcely believe it more than a picture
reflected on the thin mist of night.

On such a still summer night the moon shone splendidly upon the front of
the George and Dragon, the comfortable graystone inn of Golden Friars,
with the grandest specimen of the old inn-sign, perhaps, left in
England. It looks right across the lake; the road that skirts its margin
running by the steps of the hall-door, opposite to which, at the other
side of the road, between two great posts, and framed in a fanciful
wrought-iron border splendid with gilding, swings the famous sign of St.
George and the Dragon, gorgeous with colour and gold.

In the great room of the George and Dragon, three or four of the old
_habitues_ of that cozy lounge were refreshing a little after the
fatigues of the day.

This is a comfortable chamber, with an oak wainscot; and whenever in
summer months the air is sharp enough, a