abits.

I remarked about the age of the house, and my host became interested,
and told me one or two stories of the old inhabitants of the Grange. He
said that to-morrow he would have much pleasure in taking me over
the building.

[Illustration: "'HAVE YOU A GHOST HERE?' I ASKED, WITH A LAUGH."]

"Have you a ghost here?" I asked, with a laugh.

I don't know what prompted me to ask the question. The moment I did so,
Sir Henry turned white to his lips, and Lady Studley held up a warning
finger to me to intimate that I was on dangerous ground. I felt that I
was, and hastened to divert the conversation into safer channels.
Inadvertently I had touched on a sore spot. I scarcely regretted having
done so, as the flash in the baronet's troubled eyes, and the extreme
agitation of his face, showed me plainly that Lady Studley was right
when she spoke of his nerves being in a very irritable condition. Of
course, I did not believe in ghosts, and wondered that a man of Sir
Henry's calibre could be at all under the influence of this
old-world fear.

"I am sorry that we have no one to meet you," he said, after a few
remarks of a commonplace character had divided us from the ghost
question. "But to-morrow several friends are coming, and we hope you
will have a pleasant time. Are you fond of hunting?"

I answered that I used to be in the old days, before medicine and
patients occupied all my thoughts.

"If this open weather continues, I can probably give you some of your
favourite pastime," rejoined Sir Henry; "and now perhaps you would like
to be shown to your room."

My bedroom was in a modern wing of the house, and looked as cheerful and
as unghostlike as it was possible for a room to be. I did not rejoin my
host and hostess until dinner-time. We had a sociable little meal, at
which nothing of any importance occurred, and shortly after the servants
withdrew, Lady Studley left Sir Henry and me to ourselves. She gave me
another warning glance as she left the room. I had already quite made up
my mind, however, to tell Sir Henry the motive of my visit.

The moment the door closed behind his wife, he started up and asked me
if I would mind coming with him into his library.

"The fact is." he said, "I am particularly glad you have come down. I
want to have a talk with you about my wife. She is extremely unwell."

I signified my willingness to listen to anything Sir Henry might say,
and in a few minutes we found ourselves comfo