A STRANGE APPARITION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 78

A STRANGE APPARITION.

By Hex,exa Dektov\x.

(For the Witness.)

It was Chiistmas Eve, and a warm night, still and starry. On the verandah of a brge, roomy, comfortable house, standing we 1 back from the street, was grouped a merry paity. Tho green lawn, which was dotted with many shrubs and bordered by flo Aver beds decked with Christmas lilies, looked dim and shadowy in the hazy air. The girls of the party lay back in comfortable chairs fanning themselves in vain attempts to get cool. Very sweet they looked in their light muslins. Of the men some were lounging in chairs, one was sitting en the verandah steps, and another on the balcony rails. A short silence *hat had succeeded a burst of merry laughter at some funny story, was broken by one of the girls turning to the man sitting on the balcony rails and saying: "Come, it is your turn to do something. Do tell us a story {" "Yes, a ghost story, please. It is Christmas Eve, you know," broke in another girl "But," he replied, "Christmas Evt ghost stories are quite out of dale here." You want to be in England for that, sitting round a roaring fire with the wind howling down the chimney." "Oh, no; why, I am sure that garden down tboie looks as eerie as anything could. You could imagine all sorts of things from the shapes on the trees. It makes me shiver!" cried the girl who had spoken first, whereupon the rest wished that they could be made to shiver, as It might cool them down a bit, and begged for the ghost story. "Very well, then," said the man on th© balcony rails, "here goes. It is not much of a story, but it will serve to pass the time : — "

It had been a very warm, sunny morning, and as I came up to my office in town I "threw my gloves on the table and at once went to open the window. Turning away I ihappezied to glance into the street and saw at the door of the confectioner's opposite a handsome pair of horses wifch waggonette and coachman. After seeing a fresh-lcoking lady in a hollond' dress and summer hat come out of the shop, get into the waggonette, and drive away, I looked casually at the windows of the tea-rooms above the shop, idly wondering if they had any occupants. ■ The lace curtains were drawn right back, so that I see anybody seated at the tables near the windows. At first the rooms seemed to be unoccupied except for one or two maids in their black dresses, white aprons and caps, flitting about- in the background.

However, as I gazed, a figure, indistinct at -first, but gradually growing more definite in outline, showed itself seated at the left-hand table. Something peculiar about it struck me at once For one thing it seemed all one colour, a sort of clayey brown, and for another it was as rigidly still as if it were dead. After watching it for a few moments, it struck me that it might be a visual illusion, and accordingly I crossed to nay other window. Yes, it was still there, but I could see less of it from the fact that I was looking across at a greater angle.

"It can't be a ghost I am looking at," thought I. I am a very practical person, as you know, full of health and vigour, and 1 though I have a' dim belief in invisible spirits hovering around us, I hardly expected to see one. I had heard my father say that he had seen his mother the night before she died. She had come in the spirit to his bedside, though living some distance from him, but in the same town, and had called him by name. He had seen others as well, but I did not think that I had inherited this peculiarity. My mother, also, was a Scotchwoman and a seventh daughter, but, although she prided herself on her predictions, she had never had the second sight. I lsft the window for a few minutes and busied myself about the room. I had no fear of the ghostly visitant opposite, only an intense curiosity to fathom the mystery. I said to myself > "I will watch that figure, and if it gets up from the table" (knowing that the shap door was the only exit to the tea rooms), "I will watch the door till it comes out."'

So saying, I took a chair some distance from my ow~ window and sat down to watch. The figure was still there, N <n otionless and yellow ! I had always heard that ghosts were white ! This time I oouid distinctly make out the form and dress of a woman. The hat was of burnt straw, turned up at the back with a little bow of yellow ribbon, resembling the fashionable French sailor hat, in fact. The face was very sallow, the features were indistinct, the hair was a lightish brown and drawn rather tightly back from the face. The ho.id was nnely s?t on the shoulders, .jad the woman, if such it was, sat wonderfully erect. The blouse teemed to be made of tussore silk, with little tabs of brown velvet on the yoke, and a boAv of brown ribbon at the breast. I could see no further than the waist, but the arm sepmed to be hanging straight down by the side. The right side of 'her profile and figure was turned towaids me.

During all this time, strange to say, the woman had never moved. What was the matter with her? Surely if sh'-J had ordered tea it would hare been brought by this time : or supposing she had a companion opposite her, on the other side of the tea table and hidden from me by the stone buttress of the window, she would surely be talking, and in doing so move her hsad or some parfa of her body. If she had any tea or cakes on the table, why did she not drink her tea or eat her cakes?

no, she- never movea an eyebrow! No maid came near her to inquire for orders. Her arm was still hung by her si dp. What could she or it be? _ At tliis juncture one qi the girls scuamM

out, "Oh! What is that white thing moving about among the trees?" "Where?" chorussed the others.

"You arc making us all feel quite nervous ; some of you boy& go and see what it is !'" .-:aid the young cnaperone. They obediently went oft and searched round among the trees. At length, a hearty burst of laughter made all the girls hasten after them. "What is it?" they cried out breathlessly. "Haw-haw! It's only poor old Nansen He's been roaming about after cats, haven't you, old fellow?"' replied one of the men. Then all the girls laughed too, and one added, -'You shouldn't keep a white Siberian dog, if you! are going to think it is a "host. Now" do> let us hear the end of that mysterious story. Let, us have ib here."

All agreeing they sat down among the trees to listen.

Well, to coniinue iresumed the narrator), just about that time an electric car passed my window, the long rod at the top of the car going along the wires from right to left. The next moment, ii was reflected on the -window where the lady . sat, this time seeming to pass from, left to right. This brought a new idea into my head." Supposing the figure should be a reflection, on the -window with its dark backgiound of something on my side of the street! I reflected for moment. Yes, the next building was painted a brownish yellow, Then as I continued gazing, a more definite shape appeared. Above the figure's head arose a long straight flat yellow upright, o-nd^feom the back of the head stretched a similar horizontal, while behind the figure's back was a dark space. Ah! I had it now ! It was the corner of the building next- me, and the figure was simply a buttress, while the dark space behind vas the top corner of a window. I thought that I had fathomed the mystery, but the next day being very hot the window opposite me was pushed half-way up, and I was able to see right into the tearoom. It was only then that I found the true solution. On the 'eft-hand wall of the room was a wooden mantelpiece marbled' in yellow. The bat was the flat shelf, the face and figure were the- jutting out bracket imderneath, while the' dark space was the fireplace ! It- was now as plain as a pikestaff, and to clinch matters I myself went across to the lea-rooms in the afternoon to have a cup of tea and incidentally to examine- that curious mantelpiece. "So there is my little story and the tame way it ended," said the man who had b&en sitting on the balcony rail.

"I often look acx-oss and see that yellowbrown woman sitting at tea, but whenever any real person occupied her place at the table, she disappeared for a time. If any of yqu care to come down to my rooms any day, I'll show her to you."

"And will you take us to have tea at the same time?" asked the girls. "With pleasure," he replied. "Then we'll all come together next Wednesday afternoon."