Miss Blake declared upon oath she had never seen anything worse than herself at River Hall, and did not believe anybody else ever had.
She had never been there during Colonel Morris' tenancy, or she must certainly have seen something worse than a ghost, a man ready and anxious to "rob the orphan," and she was going to add the "widow" when peals of laughter stopped her utterance. Miss Blake had no faith in ghosts resident at River Hall, and if anybody was playing tricks about the house, she should have thought a "fighting gentleman by profession" capable of getting rid of them.
"Unless he was afraid," added Miss Blake, with withering irony.
Then up rose the opposition counsel, who approached her in an easy, conversational manner.
"And so you do not believe in ghosts, Miss Blake?" he began.
"Indeed and I don't," she answered.
"But if we have not ghosts, what is to become of the literature of your country?" he inquired.
"I don't know what you mean, by talking about my country," said Miss Blake, who was always proclaiming her nationality, and quarrelling with those who discovered it without such proclamation.
"I mean," he explained, "that all the fanciful legends and beautiful stories for which Ireland is celebrated have their origin in the supernatural. There are, for instance, several old families who have their traditional banshee."
"For that matter, we have one ourselves," agreed Miss Blake, with conscious pride.