A THIN GHOST AND OTHERS by MONTAGUE RHODES JAMES, LITT.D. Provost Of Eton College Author of "Ghost Stories of an Antiquary," "More Ghost Stories," etc. Third Impression New York Longmans, Green & Co. London: Edward Arnold 1920 (All rights reserved) PREFACE Two of these stories, the third and fourth, have appeared in print in the _Cambridge Review_, and I wish to thank the proprietor for permitting me to republish them here. I have had my doubts about the wisdom of publishing a third set of tales; sequels are, not only proverbially but actually, very hazardous things. However, the tales make no pretence but to amuse, and my friends have not seldom asked for the publication. So not a great deal is risked, perhaps, and perhaps also some one's Christmas may be the cheerfuller for a storybook which, I think, only once mentions the war. CONTENTS PAGE THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER 1 THE DIARY OF MR. POYNTER 49 AN EPISODE OF CATHEDRAL HISTORY 73 THE STORY OF A DISAPPEARANCE AND AN APPEARANCE 107 TWO DOCTORS 135 THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER A Thin Ghost and Others THE RESIDENCE AT WHITMINSTER Dr. Ashton--Thomas Ashton, Doctor of Divinity--sat in his study, habited in a dressing-gown, and with a silk cap on his shaven head--his wig being for the time taken off and placed on its block on a side table. He was a man of some fifty-five years, strongly made, of a sanguine complexion, an angry eye, and a long upper lip. Face and eye were lighted up at the moment when I picture him by the level ray of an afternoon sun that shone in upon him through a tall sash window, giving on the west. The room into which it shone was also tall, lined with book-cases, and, where the wall showed between them, panelled. On the table near the doctor's elbow was a green cloth, and upon it what he would have called a silver standish--a tray with inkstands--quill pens, a calf-bound book or two, some papers, a churchwarden pipe and brass tobacco-box, a flask cased in plaited straw, and a liqueur glass. The year was 1730, the month December, the hour somewhat past three in the afternoon.