"I believe she is expecting the Queen to give her assent to her marrying the Prince of Wales," explained Taylor, "and she does not wish her to appear much in public until after the wedding." The court was crammed. Somehow it had got into the papers--probably through Colonel Morris' gossips at the club--that ours was likely to prove a very interesting case, and though the morning was damp and wretched, ladies and gentlemen had turned out into the fog and drizzle, as ladies and gentlemen will when there seems the least chance of a new sensation being provided for them. Further, there were lots of reporters. "It will be in every paper throughout the kingdom," groaned Taylor. "We had better by far have left the Colonel alone." That had always been my opinion, but I only said, "Well, it is of no use looking back now." I glanced at Mr. Craven, and saw he was ill at ease. We had considerable faith in ourselves, our case, and our counsel; but, then, we could not be blind to the fact that Colonel Morris' counsel were men very much better known than our men--that a cloud of witnesses, thirsting to avenge themselves for the rent we had compelled them to pay for an uninhabitable house, were hovering about the court--(had we not seen and recognized them in the Hall?)--that, in fact, there were two very distinct sides to the question, one represented by Colonel Morris and his party, and the other by Miss Blake and ourselves. Of course our case lay in a nutshell. We had let the place, and Colonel Morris had agreed to take it. Colonel Morris now wanted to be rid of his bargain, and we were determined to keep him to it. Colonel Morris said the house was haunted, and that no one could live in it. We said the house was not haunted, and that anybody could live in it; that River Hall was "in every respect suited for the residence of a family of position"--see advertisements in _Times_ and _Morning Post_. Now, if the reader will kindly consider the matter, it must be an extremely difficult thing to prove, in a court of law, that a house, by reason solely of being haunted, is unsuitable for the residence of a gentleman of position. Smells, bad drainage, impure water, unhealthiness of situation, dampness, the absence of advantages mentioned, the presence of small game--more odious to tenants of furnished houses than ground game to farmers--all these things had, we knew, been made pretexts for repudiation of contracts, and often successfully, but we could find no precedent for ghosts being held as just pleas upon which to relinquish a tenancy; and we made sure of a favourable verdict accordingly. To this day, I believe that our hopes would have been justified by the result, had some demon of mischief not put it into the head of Taylor--who had the management of the case--that it would be a good thing to get Miss Blake into the witness-box. "She will amuse the jury," he said, "and juries have always a kindly feeling for any person who can amuse them."