E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team (http://www.pgdpcanada.net) FOUR GHOST STORIES by MRS. MOLESWORTH Author of 'Carrots,' 'Hathercourt Rectory,' Etc. Etc. London Macmillan and Co. and New York 1888 TO MY NIECES, LILIAN AND GEORGINA MOLESWORTH. 5th DECEMBER 1887. CONTENTS PAGE I. LADY FARQUHAR'S OLD LADY 1 II. WITNESSED BY TWO 43 III. UNEXPLAINED 87 IV. THE STORY OF THE RIPPLING TRAIN 227 I LADY FARQUHAR'S OLD LADY A TRUE GHOST STORY "One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she's dead." I myself have never seen a ghost (I am by no means sure that I wish ever to do so), but I have a friend whose experience in this respect has been less limited than mine. Till lately, however, I had never heard the details of Lady Farquhar's adventure, though the fact of there being a ghost story which she could, if she chose, relate with the authority of an eye-witness, had been more than once alluded to before me. Living at extreme ends of the country, it is but seldom my friend and I are able to meet; but a few months ago I had the good fortune to spend some days in her house, and one evening our conversation happening to fall on the subject of the possibility of so-called "supernatural" visitations or communications, suddenly what I had heard returned to my memory. "By the bye," I exclaimed, "we need not go far for an authority on the question. You have seen a ghost yourself, Margaret. I remember once hearing it alluded to before you, and you did not contradict it. I have so often meant to ask you for the whole story. Do tell it to us now." Lady Farquhar hesitated for a moment, and her usually bright expression grew somewhat graver. When she spoke, it seemed to be with a slight effort. "You mean what they all call the story of 'my old lady,' I suppose," she said at last. "Oh yes, if you care to hear it, I will tell it you. But there is not much to tell, remember." "There seldom is in _true_ stories of the kind," I replied. "Genuine ghost stories are generally abrupt and inconsequent in the extreme, but on this very account all the more impressive. Don't you think so?" "I don't know that I am a fair judge," she answered. "Indeed," she went on rather gravely, "my own opinion is that what you call _true_ ghost stories are very seldom told at all." "How do you mean? I don't quite understand you," I said, a little perplexed by her words and tone. "I mean," she replied, "that people who really believe they have come in contact with--with anything of that kind, seldom care to speak about it."