A STRANGE APPARITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9775, 23 March 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

A STRANGE APPARITION.

The following story comes from England. Twenty-four men residing in a small town were accustomed to meet once a week iu a large room to drink, smoke tobacco, and talk politics. Each member bad bis own chair. As one of the members, whom we will call Lee, had been ill for some time, bis chair remained vacant. When the.mon met as usual, one night, inquiries were made for their associate, and ib was announced that he could live but a few hour?. This threw a gloom on the company, and all efforts to turn the conversation from the tad subject before them wore ineffectual. About midnight the door opened, and the form, in white, of Mr. Lee walked into the room and took bis seat in his accustomed chair. There he remained in silence, and in silence was he gazed at. At length he rose and stalked towards the door, which lie opened as if living, wont oub, and closod it after him. Terrified by what had happened, and believing they bad seen a ghost, the club men stood not upon the order of their going, but went home in haste. In the morning inquiry revealed the fact that the sick man had died at about tho time of his appearance in the olubrooin, and nothing could now be more certain than the reality of the apparition. The story spread over the country and created considerable excitement, bub was finally forgotten. Years passed. One night a member of the club, a physician, was called to an old nurse who had attended Mr. Lee in his last illness, and to him she made a strange confession. " On the night of Mr. Lee's death," she said, "I left his room for somothing I wanted. On my return, I found the bed without my patient! He was delirious, and I feared had thrown himself out of the window. I was so frightened that I had no power to stir but, after some time, to my great astonishment, he entered the room, shiver ing, and his teeth chattering, laid himself down on the bed and died. Considering my negligence as the cause of his death, I kept this a secret. Although 1 could have contradicted tho story of the ghost, I dared not do it. But I knew by whab had happened that it was he, and not his ghost, who had visited tbe clubroom."