ning of his
garden.

I doubted the garden being the result of the Baron's own taste, nor was
I mistaken, as I afterwards ascertained from the housekeeper. I strolled
back towards the house, which I examined carefully over for the second
time, then strolled out again into the garden, and so on till supper,
which I took about nine o'clock.

Feeling rather lonely, I invited Mrs. Wharton, the housekeeper, to keep
me company during my solitary meal. She sat down opposite to me as I
commenced devouring my cold fowl and tongue, and helped myself to a
glass of the Baron's ale. She was an agreeable old lady, and seemed to
have known better days.

"This is a curious old place," I began. "Have you any rats here?"

"No, sir, none now," answered the matron.

"Nor bugs?"

"No."

"Nor fleas?"

"No, sir,--that is to say, only one," and her face assumed a solemn
expression.

"Only _one_!" I exclaimed, laughing.

"Yes, sir," said she, gravely--"only the _Phantom_; only the _Baron_."

"_Phantom! Baron!_" I exclaimed, bewildered. "Ah, you have a ghost story
in the family, I see; but I don't think you quite understood my
question," I said. "I did not inquire about phantoms, or barons; my
question referred simply to fleas."

"Yes, yes; I perfectly understand, sir," replied the matron; "and I
repeat that the _phantom flea_ is the only flea that inhabits this
mansion."

"_The Phantom Flea!_" Here I exploded. "Well, of all the odd
superstitions I ever heard of, that beats them all. Really, my good
woman, you should _not_--you should not, indeed, believe in such trash."

"Ah, sir," replied the matron, "it is plain to see that you are a
stranger in these parts. Is it possible you have never heard of the
'Baron's flea?'"

"Never in all my life before, I assure you, my good woman," I replied;
"but, as it is a thing apparently well known, I should like to hear the
particulars of the case."

"Well, sir," began the housekeeper, "you must know that some two hundred
years or so back one of the Baron's ancestors, one Sir Ralph ----
inhabited this mansion. The room that you will sleep in to-night was his
room; the self same bed and furniture that you saw this morning were
there in his time. He was not a man generally liked by those around him;
in fact, it would not be too much to say that he was universally hated.
No one could remember any good act or kind word of the Baron's. He was
cruel, bloodthirsty, tyrannical, avaricious, ambi