"Why what?" said Lord Lathkill. "Why did we offer you this room?"
"Yes! No! Why is it your equivalent for a royal apartment?"
"Oh, because our ghost is as rare as sovereignty in her visits, and twice as welcome. Her gifts are infinitely more worth having."
"What sort of gifts?"
"The family fortune. She invariably restores the family fortune. That's why we put you here, to tempt her."
"What temptation should I be?—especially to restoring your family fortunes. I didn't think they needed it, anyhow."
"Well!" he hesitated. "Not exactly in money: we can manage modestly that way; but in everything else but money——"
There was a pause. I was thinking of Carlotta's "luck for two." Poor Carlotta! She looked worn now. Especially her chin looked worn, showing the edge of the jaw. She had sat herself down in a chair by the fire, and put her feet on the stone fender, and was leaning forward, screening her face with her hand, still careful of her complexion. I could see her broad, white shoulders, showing the shoulder-blades, as she leaned forward, beneath her dress. But it was as if some bitterness had soaked all the life out of her, and she was only weary, or inert, drained of her feelings. It grieved me, and the thought passed through my mind that a man should take her in his arms and cherish her body, and start her flame again. If she would let him, which was doubtful.
Her courage was fallen, in her body; only her spirit fought on. She would have to restore the body of her life, and only a living body could do it.
"What about your ghost?" I said to him. "Is she really ghastly?"