“It’s a strange affair,” sighed the vicar, “a very strange affair indeed. If I were to tell you the whole tale you would realize how strange it is.”
“I’ve come here to urge you to tell me the whole tale, sir.”
“Well, you’re going away and I don’t see why you should concern yourself with it,” returned the vicar obstinately. “You won’t be able to help Miss Sarelle any better if I tell you the story of her ancestress. And it isn’t really her ancestress either; that other Laura Sarelle ended the first branch of the house. They are distant connections from Yorkshire, as I suppose you know.”
“Yes, I know all that,” replied Lucius Delaunay impatiently. “But I want to know what’s at the bottom of the business. Why the whole house, the mill, the home farm, even the fields, seem hateful, haunted.
