“And what could such a description refer to, pray, except to the Grey Brother? I suppose that in the servants’ hall such legends die hard, and that any story, or incident which savours of the supernatural, is handed down from one generation of domestics to another. If we could get to the bottom of the affair, I have no doubt we should find that this Sussex girl has had the legend recounted to her by somebody, and that it so impressed her imagination that the first time she finds herself alone in the grounds in the dusk of evening, she is prepared to distort every queer-looking shrub or bush into a semblance of the family apparition, and, indeed, would feel herself rather aggrieved than otherwise should it fail to appear to her. You may rely upon it, that girl Ogden will be the heroine of the servants’ hall for half a year to come.” “Still, it seems clear to me that she saw _something_. I never witnessed a more genuine case of fright. But of course the question is what that something was.” “Had there been a moon, I should have said that what frightened her was nothing more substantial than her own shadow. In all likelihood it was a poacher, or a tramp, or some other vagabond who was prowling about where he had no business to be. And that reminds me of something.” He rose and rang the bell, and then to Trant, who responded to the summons, he said: “Send for Bostock, and bid him and his man keep a sharp lookout to-night. I have reason to suppose that there are one or more bad characters lurking about the grounds.” Bostock was the keeper who, some years before, had succeeded Martin Rigg, the latter having been permanently disabled in a poaching affray. Martin Rigg, it may be remembered, was the last to bid God-speed to Alec Clare on that night when Sir Gilbert pronounced sentence of banishment on his eldest son. “I presume from what you said just now,” remarked Lady Pell when Trant had come and gone, “that of late years you have not been troubled by any of these visitations, or appearances, or whatever is the proper term for them?” “Not for twenty years, or more, so that I felt myself justified in hoping that the Grey Brother had died a natural death and been buried out of sight for ever. Now I come to think, it was a little while before Alec left home—um—um—for the last time that we were bothered and annoyed with quite a series of appearances, or what were said to be such.” “Ah, poor Alec—poor boy—what a fate was his!” exclaimed her ladyship with a sigh. “The apparition has never manifested itself to you, Cousin Gilbert?”