THE WHITE LADY OF ROWNAM AVENUE, NEAR STIRLING 237
XVI. THE GHOST OF THE HINDOO CHILD, OR THE HAUNTINGS OF
THE WHITE DOVE HOTEL, NEAR ST. SWITHIN'S STREET,
ABERDEEN 251
XVII. GLAMIS CASTLE 263
CASE I
THE DEATH BOGLE OF THE CROSS ROADS, AND THE
INEXTINGUISHABLE CANDLE OF THE OLD WHITE
HOUSE, PITLOCHRY
Several years ago, bent on revisiting Perthshire, a locality which had
great attractions for me as a boy, I answered an advertisement in a
popular ladies' weekly. As far as I can recollect, it was somewhat to
this effect: "Comfortable home offered to a gentleman (a bachelor) at
moderate terms in an elderly Highland lady's house at Pitlochry. Must
be a strict teetotaller and non-smoker. F.M., Box so-and-so."
The naivete and originality of the advertisement pleased me. The idea
of obtaining as a boarder a young man combining such virtues as
abstinence from alcohol and tobacco amused me vastly. And then a
bachelor, too! Did she mean to make love to him herself? The sly old
thing! She took care to insert the epithet "elderly," in order to
avoid suspicion; and there was no doubt about it--she thirsted for
matrimony. Being "tabooed" by all the men who had even as much as
caught a passing glimpse of her, this was her last resource--she would
entrap some unwary stranger, a man with money of course, and inveigle
him into marrying her.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25