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Page 35
Soon Mrs. Bellmore's maid was packing. In two hours the auto would come
to convey her to the station. As Terence was strolling upon the east
piazza, Mrs. Bellmore came up to him, with a confidential sparkle in her
eye.
"I didn't wish to tell the others all of it," she said, "but I will tell
you. In a way, I think you should be held responsible. Can you guess in
what manner that ghost awakened me last night?"
"Rattled chains," suggested Terence, after some thought, "or groaned?
They usually do one or the other."
"Do you happen to know," continued Mrs. Bellmore, with sudden irrelevancy,
"if I resemble any one of the female relatives of your restless ancestor,'
Captain Kinsolving?"
"Don't think so," said Terence, with an extremely puzzled air. "Never
heard of any of them being noted beauties."
"Then, why," said Mrs. Bellmore, looking the young man gravely in the eye,
"should that ghost have kissed me, as I'm sure it did?"
"Heavens!" exclaimed Terence, in wide-eyed amazement; "you don't mean
that, Mrs. Bellmore! Did he actually kiss you?"
"I said _it_," corrected Mrs. Bellmore. "I hope the impersonal pronoun is
correctly used."
"But why did you say I was responsible?"
"Because you are the only living male relative of the ghost."
"I see. 'Unto the third and fourth generation. 'But, seriously, did he
-- did it -- how do you --?"
"Know? How does any one know? I was asleep, and that is what awakened
me, I'm almost certain."
"Almost?"
"Well, I awoke just as -- oh, can't you understand what I mean? When
anything arouses you suddenly, you are not positive whether you dreamed,
or -- and yet you know that -- Dear me, Terence, must I dissect the most
elementary sensations in order to accommodate your extremely practical
intelligence?"
"But, about kissing ghosts, you know," said Terence, humbly, "I require
the most primary instruction. I never kissed a ghost. Is it -- is it?"
"The sensation," said Mrs. Bellmore, with deliberate, but slightly
smiling, emphasis, "since you are seeking instruction, is a mingling of
the material and the spiritual."
"Of course," said Terence, suddenly growing serious, "it was a dream or
some kind of an hallucination. Nobody believes in spirits, these days.
If you told the tale out of kindness of heart, Mrs. Bellmore, I can't
express how grateful I am to you. It has made my mother supremely happy.
That Revolutionary ancestor was a stunning idea."
Mrs. Bellmore sighed. "The usual fate of ghost-seers is mine," she said,
resignedly. "My privileged encounter with a spirit is attributed to
lobster salad or mendacity. Well, I have, at least, one memory left from
the wreck -- a kiss from the unseen world. Was Captain Kinsolving a very
brave man, do you know, Terence?"
"He was licked at Yorktown, I believe," said Terence, reflecting. "They
say he skedaddled with his company, after the first battle there."
"I thought he must have been timid," said Mrs. Bellmore, absently. "He
might have had another."
"Another battle?" asked Terence, dully.
"What else could I mean? I must go and get ready now; the auto will be
here in an hour. I've enjoyed Clifftop immensely. Such a lovely morning,
isn't it, Terence?"
On her way to the station, Mrs. Bellmore took from her bag a silk
handkerchief, and looked at it with a little peculiar smile. Then she
tied it in several very hard knots, and threw it, at a convenient moment,
over the edge of the cliff along which the road ran.
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