"It may be fancy," Lady Adela said to herself, "merely fancy! And,
after all, if I encounter nothing worse than a weekly menu of aromatic
smells and easily digested shadows, I shall not suffer any harm"; but
it was early summer then--the psychic season had yet to come. As the
weeks went by, the shadows and the smell grew more and more
pronounced, and by the arrival of August had become so emphatic that
Lady Adela could not help thinking that they were both hostile and
aggressive.
About eight o'clock on the evening of the second Friday in the month,
Lady Adela was purposely alone in the basement of the house. The
servants especially irritated her; like the majority of present-day
domestics, products of the County Council schools, they were so
intensely supercilious and silly, and Lady Adela felt that their
presence in the house minimised her chances of seeing the ghost. No
apparition with the smallest amount of self-respect could risk coming
in contact with such inane creatures, so she sent them all out for a
motor drive, and, for once, rejoiced in the house to herself. A
curious proceeding for a lady! True! but then, Lady Adela was a lady,
and, being a lady, was not afraid of being thought anything else; and
so acted just as unconventionally as she chose. But stay a moment; she
was not alone in the house, for she had three of her dogs with
her--three beautiful boarhounds, trophies of her last trip to the
Baltic. With such colossal and perfectly trained companions Lady Adela
felt absolutely safe, and ready--as she acknowledged afterwards--to
face a whole army of spooks.
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