"Then you're all wrong," said I, "surely."
"And do you mean to say," put in Lord Lathkill, "that you don't live with the present Mrs. Hale at all? Do you mean to say you never have lived with her?"
"I've got a higher claim on me," said the unhappy Colonel.
"My God!" said Lord Lathkill.
I looked in amazement: the sort of chap who picks up a woman and has a good time with her for a week, then goes home as nice as pie, and now look at him! It was obvious that he had a terror of his black-browed new wife, as well as of Lucy's spirit. A devil and a deep sea with a vengeance!
"A damned curious story!" mused Lord Lathkill. "I'm not so sure I like it. Something's wrong somewhere. We shall have to go upstairs."
"Wrong!" said I. "Why, Colonel, don't you turn round and quarrel with the spirit of your first wife, fatally and finally, and get rid of her?"
The Colonel looked at me, still diminished and afraid, but perking up a bit, as we rose from table.
"How would you go about it?" he said.
"I'd just face her, wherever she seemed to be, and say: 'Lucy, go to Blazes!'"