THE GHOST GIRL
| BY THE SAME AUTHOR | |
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| The Poems of François Villon Translated by H. DE VERE STACPOOLE | |
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THE GHOST GIRL
BY
H. DE VERE STACPOOLE
AUTHOR OF
“THE MAN WHO LOST HIMSELF,” “SEA
PLUNDER,” “THE PEARL FISHERS,”
“THE GOLD TRAIL,” ETC.
NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY
LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
TORONTO: S. B GUNDY ⁂ ⁂ ⁂ MCMXVIII
Copyright, 1918
By JOHN LANE COMPANY
PRESS OF
VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY
BINGHAMTON, N. Y.
U. S. A.
THE GHOST GIRL
PART I
It was a warm, grey, moist evening, typical Irishweather, and Miss Berknowles was curled up ina window-seat of the library reading a book. KilgobbinPark lay outside with the rooks cawing in thetrees, miles of park land across which the dusk wascoming, blotting out all things from Arranakilty tothe Slieve Bloom Mountains.
The turf fire burning on the great hearth threwout a rich steady glow that touched the black oakpanelling of the room, the book backs, and the long-nosedface of Sir Nicholas Berknowles “attributedto Lely” and looking down at his last descendantfrom a dusty canvas on the opposite wall.
The girl made a prettier picture. Red hair whenit is of the right colour is lovely, and Phylice Berknowles’hair was of the right red, worn in a tail—shewas only fifteen—so long that she could bite theend with ease and comfort when she was in a meditativemood, a habit of perdition that no schoolmistresscould break her of.
She was biting her tail now as she read, up to her8eyes in the marvellous story of the Gold Bug, andnow, unable to read any more by the light from thewindow, she came to the fire, curled herself on thehearthrug and continued the adventures of the treasure-seekersby the light of the burning turf.
What a pretty face it was, seen by the full warmglow of the turf, and what a perfectly shaped head!It was not the face and head of a Berknowles asyou could easily have perceived had you comparedit with the portraits in the picture gallery, but o