"You think it was Sir Gerald's ghost?"
"Yes, ma'am, he has been recognised over and over again."
"Did anyone else hear him?"
"No, ma'am, only me. I told the master about it next day. No one had heard it but me. Then the message came to say Mr Reginald was dead."
I sat silent for a moment, listening to the wind as it sighed outside, then I said—
"Do you expect to hear the trumpeter again?"
"No, ma'am, not since you've come."
"How is that?"
The old fellow hung his head.
"Come now," I said; "tell me this. Don't you think you see the ghost in the flesh? I am exactly twenty-three, and it is twenty-three years since the trumpeter has been. Do you not think that my coming is the return of the trumpeter—without the trumpet?"