THE STORY OF THE
INEXPERIENCED GHOST
The scene amidst which Clayton told his last story comes back very vividly to my mind. There he sat, for the greater part of the time, in the corner of the authentic settle by the spacious open fire, and Sanderson sat beside him smoking the Broseley clay that bore his name. There was Evans, and that marvel among actors, Wish, who is also a modest man. We had all come down to the Mermaid Club that Saturday morning, except Clayton, who had slept there overnight—which indeed gave him the opening of his story. We had golfed until golfing was invisible; we had dined, and we were in that mood of tranquil kindliness when men will suffer a story. When Clayton began to tell one, we naturally supposed he was lying. It may be that indeed he was lying—of that the reader will speedily be able to judge as well as I. He began, it is true, with an air of matter-of-fact anecdote, but that we thought was only the incurable artifice of the man.
'I say!' he remarked, after a long consideration of the upward rain of sparks from the log that Sanderson had thumped, ' you know I was alone here last night? '
'Except for the domestics,' said Wish.
'Who sleep in the other wing,' said Clayton. 'Yes. Well ' He pulled at his cigar for some little time as though he still hesitated about his confidence. Then he said, quite quietly, ' I caught a ghost! '
'Caught a ghost, did you?' said Sanderson. 'Where is it?'
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