“How queer it is!” exclaimed Una, who had been wandering about the room and now rejoined Harold and David before the fireplace. “I like it, even if it is dirty. Why have you broken your rule and brought us here, Uncle? And why do you talk as if you believed in the Stoneleigh ghosts? You know you don’t.”
“Ghosts!” he ejaculated. “I have been making some experiments recently. I thought you might be interested in them.”
“Experiments in ghosts,” ruminated David, who believed Leighton capable of anything.
“Yes,” said the old man, enjoying his bewilderment. “My ghosts may be different from those you have in mind. If you have followed the recent developments in psychology you probably know that there are ghosts attached to the living, whatever the case may be in regard to the dead.”
“No, I never heard that.”
“Not in those words. ‘Ghosts’ is not a term used by the scientist. It involves a medieval superstition. But I am interested in things more than in words, and I am not afraid to say that we have been rediscovering ghosts.”
“Uncle, don’t talk enigmas—or nonsense,” remonstrated Una.
“I confess, sir, I don’t follow you,” added David.
“Did you ever feel that you had lost yourself?” asked Leighton abruptly.
“I don’t understand.”