'Well, sir,' said Griff, 'it is only that we have been sitting up to
investigate the ghost.'
'Ghost! Arrant stuff and nonsense! What induced you to be dragging
Edward about in this dangerous way?'
'I wished it,' said I.
'You are all mad together, I think. I won't have the house
disturbed for this ridiculous folly. I shall look into it to-
morrow!'
CHAPTER XV--RATIONAL THEORIES
'These are the reasons, they are natural.'
Julius Caesar.
If anything could have made our adventure more unpleasant to Mr. and
Mrs. Winslow, it would have been the presence of guests. However,
inquiry was suppressed at breakfast, in deference to the signs my
mother made to enjoin silence before the children, all unaware that
Emily was nearly frantic with suppressed curiosity, and Martyn knew
more about the popular version of the legend than any of us.
Clarence looked wan and heavy-eyed. His head was aching from a bump
against the edge of a step, and his cold was much worse; no wonder,
said my mother; but she was always softened by any ailment, and
feared that the phantoms were the effect of coming illness. I have
always thought that if Clarence could have come home from his court-
martial with a brain fever he would have earned immediate
forgiveness; but unluckily for him, he was a very healthy person.
All three of us were summoned to the tribunal in the study, where my
father and my mother sat in judgment on what they termed 'this
preposterous business.
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