ed Mrs. Mallet in tones necessarily raised
to a high and piercing key by the sobs with which they were accompanied.
"Send for Mrs. de Noel; send for that dear lady, and she will tell you
whether a word has been said against my character till I come here,
which I never wish to do, being frightened pretty nigh to death with
what one told me and the other; and if you don't believe me, ask Mrs.
Stubbs as keeps the little sweet-shop near the church, if any one in the
village will so much as come up the avenue after dark; and says to me,
the very day I come here, 'You have a nerve,' she says; 'I wouldn't
sleep there if you was to pay me,' she says; and I says, not wishing to
speak against a family that was cousin to Mrs. de Noel, 'Noises is
neither here nor there,' I says, 'and ghostisses keeps mostly to the
gentry's wing,' I says. And then to say as I put about that they was all
over the house, and frighten the London lady's maid, which all I said
was--and Hann can tell you that I speak the truth, for she was
there--'some says one thing,' says I, 'and some says another, but I
takes no notice of nothink.' But put up with a deal, I have--more than
ever I told a soul since I come here, which I promised Mrs. de Noel when
she asked me to oblige her; which the blue lights I have seen a many
times, and tapping of coffin-nails on the wall, and never close my eyes
for nights sometimes, but am entirely wore away, and my nerve that
weak; and then to be so hurt in my feelings, and spoke to as I am not
accustomed, but always treated everywhere I goes with the greatest of
kindness and respect, which ask Mrs. de Noel she will tell you, since
ever I was a widow; but pack my things I will, and walk every step of
the way, if it was pouring cats and dogs, I would, rather than stay
another minute here to be so put upon; and send for Mrs. de Noel if you
don't believe me, and she will tell you the many high families she
recommended me, and always give satisfaction. Send for Mrs. de Noel--"

The swing door closed behind her, and the sounds of her grief and her
reiterated appeals to Mrs. de Noel died slowly away in the distance.

"What on earth have you been saying to her?" said Atherley to his wife,
who had come out into the hall.

"Only that she behaved very badly indeed in speaking about the ghost to
Mrs. Molyneux's maid, who, of course, repeated it all directly and made
Lucinda nervous. She is a most troublesome, mischievous old woman."

"Bu