Miss S---- nodded. "We have one ourselves," she remarked, "but pray go on. I am intensely interested." "Well, unlike most of the Banshees," Miss Georgina continued, "ours is appallingly ugly and malevolent; so frightful, indeed, that to see it, even, is sometimes fatal. One of our great-great-uncles, for instance, to whom it once appeared, is reported to have died from shock; a similar fate overtaking another of our ancestors, who also saw it. Fortunately, it seems to have a strong attraction in the shape of an old gold ring which has been in the possession of the family from time immemorial. Both ancestors I have referred to are alleged to have been wearing this ring at the time the Banshee appeared to them, and it is said to strictly confine its manifestations to the immediate vicinity of that article. That is why our parents always kept the ring strictly isolated, in a locked room, the key of which was never, for a moment, allowed to be out of their possession. And we have strenuously followed their example. That is the explanation of the mystery you have doubtless heard about, for I believe--thanks to the servants--it has become the gossip of half Dublin." "And the noise Bridget referred to," Miss S---- ventured to remark, somewhat timidly, "was that the Banshee?" Miss Georgina nodded. "I fear it was," she observed solemnly, "and that we shall shortly hear of a relative's death or grave catastrophe to some member of the family; probably, a cousin of ours in County Galway, who has been ill for some weeks, is dying." She was partly right, although the latter surmise was not correct. Within a few days of the Banshee's visit a member of the family died, but it was not the sick cousin, it was Miss Georgina's own sister, Harriet! CHAPTER IV THE BANSHEE ABROAD As I have remarked in a previous chapter, the Banshee to-day is heard more often abroad than in Ireland. It follows the fortunes of the true old Milesian Irishman--the real O and Mc, none of your adulterated O'Walters or O'Cassons--everywhere, even to the Poles. Lady Wilde, in her "Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland," quotes the case of a Banshee haunting that was experienced by a branch of the Clan O'Grady that had settled in Canada. The spot chosen by this family for their residence was singularly wild and isolated, and one night at two o'clock, when they were all in bed, they were aroused by a loud cry, coming, apparently, from just outside the house. Nothing intelligible was uttered, only a sound indicative of the greatest bitterness and sorrow, such as one might imagine a woman would give vent to, but only when in an agony of mind, almost beyond human understanding.