it looked cheerful enough when I entered from the gloom and darkness
outside; and a dainty little dinner sent up by my kind friends below,
and eaten when snugly tucked in between the sheets and resting on soft
downy pillows, was enough to drive all thoughts of ghostly visitors from
my head.

I am thankful to say that I neither heard nor saw anything during my
short visit, and should not even have known that my room had had any
evil reputation but for the visit of an eccentric and clever old lady,
who had been specially asked to the castle to meet me.

After luncheon we adjourned to my bedroom, at her suggestion, and she
said casually:

"Ah, you have this room, I see. It was terribly haunted once, but I held
a sort of little service here some time ago, and cleared them all out."

I must explain that this good lady took a very optimistic view of her
own capacities and powers in general, and spoke--from the psychic point
of view--with the honest pride that a flesh and blood charwoman might
display on going over premises that she had thoroughly scrubbed and
"cleaned out"!

One morning after breakfast, my hostess, Mrs Kent, called to me to come
quickly and see a curious sight. It was a pouring wet day--one of those
days when the heavens open and the rain descends in buckets! I could see
nothing more remarkable than the damp, autumnal leaves, the bare trees
swaying in the wind-washed spaces, and the pouring, ceaseless rain.

"Don't you see that girl over there?"

I looked again, and did see a girl just emerging from a clump of
beeches, and carrying a small trunk upon her head.

"What an extraordinary day to choose for travelling," I said drily.

"Ah, that is Irish superstition!" rejoined my hostess. "That is my last
kitchen-maid you see--she is walking seven miles, with that trunk on
her head, sooner than wait a few hours, when I could have sent her to
the station."

"Is she mad?" was my natural comment.

"Oh no! only desperately frightened. She has not been here a week yet,
and she is much too terrified to be coherent. All I can make out is that
nothing on earth would induce her to spend another night at Rush. I
could have sent her over to Marley easily to-morrow morning at eight
o'clock, but she would not hear of it. And whether she has really seen
anything, or only been frightened by the stories of the other servants,
I don't know. Anyway, she has certainly the courage of her opinions, and
is prepared to suffe