Then Bessie, half crying and still trembling from the shock she had undergone, contrived to tell her tale. It had been her “afternoon out,” and in coming back she had taken a short cut across the terrace (which she had no business to do), and when opposite the drawing-room windows had been confronted by a tall, dark, hooded figure, which had appeared suddenly from behind a clump of evergreens, and, a few seconds later, had vanished as mysteriously as it had come. By this time Trant and Mrs. Burton, followed by the rest of the servants, had appeared on the scene, drawn thither by Bessie’s shrieks. Sir Gilbert gave vent to an impatient snort. “Here, Mrs. Burton,” he said in a tone of grave displeasure, “take this idiot away and give her a good talking to. If I hear any more of this nonsense she shall be sent about her business at a moment’s notice.” Lady Pell, Ethel, and Luigi were standing together just outside the window. “It is the Grey Brother whom the girl believes she has seen.” “And who is the Grey Brother, Lady Pell, if I may take the liberty of asking?” queried Luigi. Lady Pell bit her lip. She had spoken aloud without intending to do so. “The Grey Brother, Mr. Clare, is the family spectre,” she said behind her fan. “But not a word of this before your grandfather, unless you wish to have your head snapped off.” CHAPTER XXX. AN UNEXPECTED MEETING It was evident that Sir Gilbert Clare was very much put out by the scene just enacted on the terrace. As soon as the last of the servants had gone back indoors he re-entered the drawing-room, where Trant now proceeded to light the centre lamp and the candles in the girandoles, and resumed his seat by Lady Pell. Luigi and Ethel, at the opposite end of the long room, were engaged in turning over a book of foreign photographs. He was always glad to put as wide a space as possible between his “grandfather” and himself, and she had tact enough to be aware that after so untoward an interruption, the baronet might not be in the humour for any more music. “Now, who,” said Sir Gilbert, “can have put the notion into that silly girl’s head about the so-called Grey Brother? (Of course _you_ know the family legend, Louisa.) She has only been about half-a-year in my service, and, if I remember aright, she came to us all the way from Sussex.” “But she did not mention the Grey Brother by name, did she?” queried her ladyship. “As I understood her, what she said was, that when opposite the drawing-room windows she was confronted by a tall, dark, hooded figure—nothing more specific than that.”