human
That's better, said I, encouragingly.
gpt
You don't look so much as though you'd seen a ghost, now. How is that Chancery case of yours getting on?
human
A ghost? You speak lightly enough, and I suppose your idea of a ghost is some conventional bogey such as children are scared with. We laugh at such things--heaven knows why! An evil, sin-breathing spirit, coming from hell to take vengeance, for some dead and buried wrong, upon living men and women--what is there laughable in that?
gpt
Really, Calbot, I said, with a smile--a rather uneasy smile, be it admitted--
human
I never laughed at a ghost, for the simple reason that I never saw one to laugh at.
gpt
You never saw one, and you mean to hint, I suppose, that there are none to see?
human
Well, returned I, still maintaining a precarious grimace,
gpt
I'm not a spiritualist, you know----
human
Nor I, interrupted Calbot, in a lower and quieter tone than he had yet used. He took a chair, and, sitting down close in front of me, bent forward and whispered in my ear:
gpt
But I saw the soul of a dead man yesterday; and this afternoon I saw it again, and chased it from the Burleighs' house in Mayfair, along the Strand, and through the heart of London, to its grave in St. G----'s churchyard. I copied the inscription on the stone: it is a very old one, as you will see by the date.
human
Archibald Armstrong. Died February 6th, 1698.
gpt
Archibald Armstrong, muttered I, repeating the name aloud;
human
Keep the paper, said Calbot, not noticing my observation,
gpt
he added, with a long involuntary sigh,
human
In Heaven's name, Calbot, cried I, starting up from my chair, and trembling all over, I believe, from nervous excitement,
gpt
I'm going to tell you, Drayton, though it will be the next worst thing to meeting that----Thing----itself, to tell about it. But the matter is too grim earnest to allow of trifling. You have a great deal of knowledge on queer and out-of-the-way subjects, Drayton, and I thought it not impossible that you might make some suggestions, for there must be some reason for this hideous visitation--some cause for it; and though all is over for me now, there would be a kind of satisfaction in knowing what that reason was. Besides, I must speak to someone, and you are a dear friend, and an old one.