The Canterville Ghost | Page 9

blood-stain, suddenly there leaped out on him from a dark
corner two figures, who waved their arms wildly above their heads, and
shrieked out "BOO!" in his ear.
[Illustration: "SUDDENLY THERE LEAPED OUT TWO
FIGURES."]
Seized with a panic, which, under the circumstances, was only natural,
he rushed for the staircase, but found Washington Otis waiting for him
there with the big garden-syringe, and being thus hemmed in by his
enemies on every side, and driven almost to bay, he vanished into the
great iron stove, which, fortunately for him, was not lit, and had to
make his way home through the flues and chimneys, arriving at his
own room in a terrible state of dirt, disorder, and despair.
After this he was not seen again on any nocturnal expedition. The twins
lay in wait for him on several occasions, and strewed the passages with
nutshells every night to the great annoyance of their parents and the
servants, but it was of no avail. It was quite evident that his feelings
were so wounded that he would not appear. Mr. Otis consequently
resumed his great work on the history of the Democratic Party, on
which he had been engaged for some years; Mrs. Otis organized a
wonderful clam-bake, which amazed the whole county; the boys took
to lacrosse euchre, poker, and other American national games, and
Virginia rode about the lanes on her pony, accompanied by the young
Duke of Cheshire, who had come to spend the last week of his holidays
at Canterville Chase. It was generally assumed that the ghost had gone
away, and, in fact, Mr. Otis wrote a letter to that effect to Lord
Canterville, who, in reply, expressed his great pleasure at the news, and
sent his best congratulations to the Minister's worthy wife.
The Otises, however, were deceived, for the ghost was still in the house,
and though now almost an invalid, was by no means ready to let
matters rest, particularly as he heard that among the guests was the
young Duke of Cheshire, whose grand-uncle, Lord Francis Stilton, had
once bet a hundred guineas with Colonel Carbury that he would play

dice with the Canterville ghost, and was found the next morning lying
on the floor of the card-room in such a helpless paralytic state that,
though he lived on to a great age, he was never able to say anything
again but "Double Sixes." The story was well known at the time,
though, of course, out of respect to the feelings of the two noble
families, every attempt was made to hush it up, and a full account of all
the circumstances connected with it will be found in the third volume
of Lord Tattle's Recollections of the Prince Regent and his Friends.
The ghost, then, was naturally very anxious to show that he had not lost
his influence over the Stiltons, with whom, indeed, he was distantly
connected, his own first cousin having been married en secondes noces
to the Sieur de Bulkeley, from whom, as every one knows, the Dukes
of Cheshire are lineally descended. Accordingly, he made arrangements
for appearing to Virginia's little lover in his celebrated impersonation of
"The Vampire Monk, or the Bloodless Benedictine," a performance so
horrible that when old Lady Startup saw it, which she did on one fatal
New Year's Eve, in the year 1764, she went off into the most piercing
shrieks, which culminated in violent apoplexy, and died in three days,
after disinheriting the Cantervilles, who were her nearest relations, and
leaving all her money to her London apothecary. At the last moment,
however, his terror of the twins prevented his leaving his room, and the
little Duke slept in peace under the great feathered canopy in the Royal
Bedchamber, and dreamed of Virginia.

V
A few days after this, Virginia and her curly-haired cavalier went out
riding on Brockley meadows, where she tore her habit so badly in
getting through a hedge that, on their return home, she made up her
mind to go up by the back staircase so as not to be seen. As she was
running past the Tapestry Chamber, the door of which happened to be
open, she fancied she saw some one inside, and thinking it was her
mother's maid, who sometimes used to bring her work there, looked in
to ask her to mend her habit. To her immense surprise, however, it was
the Canterville Ghost himself! He was sitting by the window, watching
the ruined gold of the yellowing trees fly through the air, and the red

leaves dancing madly down the long avenue. His head was leaning on
his hand, and his whole attitude was one of extreme depression. Indeed,
so forlorn, and so much out of repair did he look, that little