"The cook and the housemaid at Myst Court say that for certain they've heard odd noises, a sighing, and a rattling, and a howling o' nights," said the footman, looking as mysterious as his plump, well-fed face would allow him to do. "On windy nights, I suppose," said the sensible Susan. "I've heard a sighing, and a rattling, and a howling even here in Summer Villa." "Let him tell us more!" cried Ann impatiently, for John's countenance showed that he had a great deal more to impart. The footman prefaced his tale by deliberately laying down his knife and fork, though cold beef lay still on his plate; this was a token that honest John was indeed in solemn earnest. He began in a lowered tone, while every head was bent forward to listen:-- "Mrs. Jael Jessel, the old lady's attendant, told me that she had twice passed a ghost in the corridor, and once on the stairs. It was a tall figure in white,--at least seven feet high,--and it had great round eyes like carriage-lamps staring upon her." Ann and the cook uttered exclamations, and exchanged glances of horror; but Susan quietly remarked, "If Mrs. Jessel really saw such a sight once, she was a stout-hearted woman to stay to see it a second time, and a third. Did this brave lady's-maid look much the worse for meeting her ghost?" "No," replied John, a little taken aback by the question. "Mrs. Jessel is a stout, comfortable-looking person. I suppose that she got used to seeing odd sights." Susan burst into a merry laugh. "John, John," she cried, "this Mrs. Jessel has been taking a rise out of you. She saw that you were soft, and wanted to make an impression." Susan was helping herself to butter, which, perhaps, supplied her with the simile of which she made use. "Mrs. Jessel did not stay at Myst Court for nothing," said John, who, possibly, wished to give a turn to the conversation; "she had not waited on Mrs. Myers for more than three years, yet the old lady left her five hundred pounds, a nice little furnished house just outside the Myst woods, and all the cats and kittens, which she could not trust to the care of strangers." "It was made worth her while to live in a haunted house," observed Ann. "I thought at first," continued John, who had taken up his knife and fork, and was using them to good purpose,--"I thought at first that I might as well put my best foot forward, for that it would be no bad thing to have a wife with five hundred pounds and a house to start with; and," he added slyly, "with such a live-stock to boot, one might have done a little business in the furrier's line. But--" "But, but,--speak out!" cried Ann with impatience; "what comes after the 'but'?" "Somehow I didn't take to Mrs. Jessel," said John, "and shouldn't have cared to have married her, had the five hundred pounds been five thousand instead." "What's against her?" inquired the cook. "Nothing that I know of," said John; "but when you see her, you'll understand what I mean."