She sat upon his knee, because the window seat was dusty and because in
this place of fled lovers she wanted to be held closely to his heart.
The wind boomed and moaned, and the sun breaking through the clouds lit
up the walls with a wild yellow light.
Suddenly Pauline drew away from his arms.
"Shadows went by the window," she cried. "Guy, I feel afraid. I feel
afraid. There's a footstep."
She was lily-white, whose cheeks had but now been burning so fiercely.
"Nonsense," he replied half-roughly. "It was that burst of sunshine."
"Guy, there were shadows. Hark!"
She nearly screamed, because footsteps were going down the stairs of the
empty house.
"It must have been the caretaker," said Guy.
"I saw a white person. Guy, never never let us come here again."
"You don't seriously think you saw a ghost?" he asked.
"Guy, how do I know? Come away, into the air. We should never have come
here. Oh, this room! I feel as if I should faint."
"I'll see who it was," said Guy springing up.
"No, don't leave me. Wait for me. I'll come with you."
They hurried down the stairs and when they reached the pallid lawn they
saw Margaret and Monica in their white coats disappearing among the yew
trees by the entrance.
"There are your ghosts," said Guy laughing.
Yet, though Guy scoffed at her fears, Pauline was not sure that she
would not have preferred a ghost to that disquieting passage of her
sisters without hail or comment. Yet perhaps after all they had not
seen her and Guy in that sinister small parlour.
"Shall we catch them up?" he asked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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