He said a friend of his, the ghost of a man who had killed a water-rate collector, used to haunt a house in Long Acre, where they kept fowls in the cellar, and every time a policeman went by and flashed his bull's-eye down the grating, the old cock there would fancy it was the sun, and start crowing like mad; when, of course, the poor ghost had to dissolve, and it would, in consequence, get back home sometimes as early as one o'clock in the morning, swearing fearfully because it had only been out for an hour.
I agreed that it seemed very unfair.
"Oh, it's an absurd arrangement altogether," he continued, quite angrily. "I can't imagine what our old man could have been thinking of when he made it. As I have said to him, over and over again, 'Have a fixed time, and let everybody stick to it--say four o'clock in summer, and six in winter. Then one would know what one was about.'"
"How do you manage when there isn't any cock handy?" I inquired.
He was on the point of replying, when again he started and listened. This time I distinctly heard Mr. Bowles's cock, next door, crow twice.
"There you are," he said, rising and reaching for his hat; "that's the sort of thing we have to put up with. What IS the time?"
I looked at my watch, and found it was half-past three.
"I thought as much," he muttered. "I'll wring that blessed bird's neck if I get hold of it." And he prepared to go.
"If you can wait half a minute," I said, getting out of bed, "I'll go a bit of the way with you."
"It's very good of you," he rejoined, pausing, "but it seems unkind to drag you out."
"Not at all," I replied; "I shall like a walk." And I partially dressed myself, and took my umbrella; and he put his arm through mine, and we went out together.
Just by the gate we met Jones, one of the local constables.
"Good-night, Jones," I said (I always feel affable at Christmas-time).
"Good-night, sir," answered the man a little gruffly, I thought.
"May I ask what you're a-doing of?"
"Oh, it's all right," I responded, with a wave of my umbrella; "I'm just seeing my friend part of the way home."
He said, "What friend?"
"Oh, ah, of course," I laughed; "I forgot. He's invisible to you.
He is the ghost of the gentleman that killed the wait. I'm just going to the corner with him."
"Ah, I don't think I would, if I was you, sir," said Jones severely. "If you take my advice, you'll say good-bye to your friend here, and go back indoors. Perhaps you are not aware that you are walking about with nothing on but a night-shirt and a pair of boots and an opera-hat. Where's your trousers?"
I did not like the man's manner at all. I said, "Jones! I don't wish to have to report you, but it seems to me you've been drinking. My trousers are where a man's trousers ought to be--on his legs. I distinctly remember putting them on."
"Well, you haven't got them on now," he retorted.
"I beg your pardon," I replied. "I tell you I have; I think I ought to know."
"I think so, too," he answered, "but you evidently don't. Now you come along indoors with me, and don't let's have any more of it."
Uncle John came to the door at this point, having been awaked, I suppose, by the altercation; and, at the same moment, Aunt Maria appeared at the window in her nightcap.
I explained the constable's mistake to them, treating the matter as lightly as I could, so as not to get the man into trouble, and I turned for confirmation to the ghost.
He was gone! He had left me without a word--without even saying good-bye!
It struck me as so unkind, his having gone off in that way, that I burst into tears; and Uncle John came out, and led me back into the house.
On reaching my room, I discovered that Jones was right. I had not put on my trousers, after all. They were still hanging over the bed-rail. I suppose, in my anxiety not to keep the ghost waiting, I must have forgotten them.
Such are the plain facts of the case, out of which it must, doubtless, to the healthy, charitable mind appear impossible that calumny could spring.
But it has.
Persons--I say 'persons'--have professed themselves unable to understand the simple circumstances herein narrated, except in the light of explanations at once misleading and insulting. Slurs have been cast and aspersions made on me by those of my own flesh and blood.
But I bear no ill-feeling. I merely, as I have said, set forth this statement for the purpose of clearing my character from injurious suspicion.
