J. S. Le Fanus Ghostly Tales, Volume 3

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J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales,
Volume 3, by

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
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Title: J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3
Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Release Date: March 28, 2004 [eBook #11750]
Language: English
Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE
FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 3***
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J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 3
The Haunted Baronet (1871)
by
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

The Haunted Baronet

CHAPTER I
The George and Dragon
The pretty little town of Golden Friars--standing by the margin of the
lake, hemmed round by an amphitheatre of purple mountain, rich in tint
and furrowed by ravines, high in air, when the tall gables and narrow
windows of its ancient graystone houses, and the tower of the old
church, from which every evening the curfew still rings, show like
silver in the moonbeams, and the black elms that stand round throw
moveless shadows upon the short level grass--is one of the most
singular and beautiful sights I have ever seen.
There it rises, 'as from the stroke of the enchanter's wand,' looking so
light and filmy, that you could scarcely believe it more than a picture
reflected on the thin mist of night.
On such a still summer night the moon shone splendidly upon the front
of the George and Dragon, the comfortable graystone inn of Golden
Friars, with the grandest specimen of the old inn-sign, perhaps, left in
England. It looks right across the lake; the road that skirts its margin
running by the steps of the hall-door, opposite to which, at the other
side of the road, between two great posts, and framed in a fanciful
wrought-iron border splendid with gilding, swings the famous sign of
St. George and the Dragon, gorgeous with colour and gold.

In the great room of the George and Dragon, three or four of the old
_habitués_ of that cozy lounge were refreshing a little after the fatigues
of the day.
This is a comfortable chamber, with an oak wainscot; and whenever in
summer months the air is sharp enough, as on the present occasion, a
fire helped to light it up; which fire, being chiefly wood, made a
pleasant broad flicker on panel and ceiling, and yet did not make the
room too hot.
On one side sat Doctor Torvey, the doctor of Golden Friars, who knew
the weak point of every man in the town, and what medicine agreed
with each inhabitant--a fat gentleman, with a jolly laugh and an appetite
for all sorts of news, big and little, and who liked a pipe, and made a
tumbler of punch at about this hour, with a bit of lemon-peel in it.
Beside him sat William Peers, a thin old gentleman, who had lived for
more than thirty years in India, and was quiet and benevolent, and the
last man in Golden Friars who wore a pigtail. Old Jack Amerald, an
ex-captain of the navy, with his short stout leg on a chair, and its
wooden companion beside it, sipped his grog, and bawled in the
old-fashioned navy way, and called his friends his 'hearties.' In the
middle, opposite the hearth, sat deaf Tom Hollar, always placid, and
smoked his pipe, looking serenely at the fire. And the landlord of the
George and Dragon every now and then strutted in, and sat down in the
high-backed wooden arm-chair, according to the old-fashioned
republican ways of the place, and took his share in the talk gravely, and
was heartily welcome.
"And so Sir Bale is coming home at last," said the Doctor. "Tell us any
more you heard since."
"Nothing," answered Richard Turnbull, the host of the George.
"Nothing to speak of; only 'tis certain sure, and so best; the old house
won't look so dowly now."
"Twyne says the estate owes a good capful o' money by this time,
hey?" said the Doctor, lowering his voice and winking.

"Weel, they do say he's been nout at dow. I don't mind saying so to you,
mind, sir, where all's friends together; but he'll get that right in time."
"More like to save here than where he is," said the Doctor with another
grave nod.
"He does very wisely," said Mr. Peers, having blown out a thin stream
of smoke, "and creditably, to pull-up in time. He's coming here