The Shape of Fear [29]
and in the hearts of the well-behaved Misses Boggs. It came about most unexpectedly. The sis- ters had been sitting upstairs, looking out at the beautiful grounds of the old place, and marvelling at the violets, which lifted their heads from every possible cranny about the house, and talking over the cordiality which they had been receiving by those upon whom they had no claim, and they were filled with amiable satisfaction. Life looked attractive. They had often been grateful to Miss Lydia Carew for leaving their brother her fortune. Now they felt even more grateful to her. She had left them a Social Position -- one, which even after twenty years of desuetude, was fit for use. They descended the stairs together, with arms clasped about each other's waists, and as they did so presented a placid and pleasing sight. They entered their drawing-room with the intention of brewing a cup of tea, and drinking it in calm sociability in the twilight. But as they entered the room they became aware of the presence of a lady, who was already seated at their tea-table, regarding their old Wedgewood with the air of a con- noisseur. There were a number of peculiarities about this intruder. To begin with, she was hatless, quite as if she were a habitué of the house, and was costumed in a prim lilac-colored lawn of the style of two decades past. But a greater peculiarity was the resemblance this lady bore to a faded daguerrotype. If looked at one way, she was perfectly discern- ible; if looked at another, she went out in a sort of blur. Notwithstanding this compara- tive invisibility, she exhaled a delicate per- fume of sweet lavender, very pleasing to the nostrils of the Misses Boggs, who stood look- ing at her in gentle and unprotesting surprise. "I beg your pardon," began Miss Pru- dence, the younger of the Misses Boggs, "but --" But at this moment the Daguerrotype be- came a blur, and Miss Prudence found her- self addressing space. The Misses Boggs were irritated. They had never encountered any mysteries in Iowa. They began an im- patient search behind doors and portières, and even under sofas, though it was quite absurd to suppose that a lady recognizing the merits of the Carew Wedgewood would so far forget herself as to crawl under a sofa. When they had given up all hope of dis- covering the intruder, they saw her standing at the far end of the drawing-room critically examining a water-color marine. The elder Miss Boggs started toward her with stern decision, but the little Daguerrotype turned with a shadowy smile, became a blur and an imperceptibility. Miss Boggs looked at Miss Prudence Boggs. "If there were ghosts," she said, "this would be one." "If there were ghosts," said Miss Prudence Boggs, "this would be the ghost of Lydia Carew." The twilight was settling into blackness, and Miss Boggs nervously lit the gas while Miss Prudence ran for other tea-cups, preferring, for reasons superfluous to mention, not to drink out of the Carew china that evening. The next day, on taking up her embroidery frame, Miss Boggs found a number of old- fashioned cross-stitches added to her Ken- sington. Prudence, she knew, would never have degraded herself by taking a cross-stitch, and the parlor-maid was above taking such a liberty. Miss Boggs mentioned the incident that night at a dinner given by an ancient friend of the Carews. "Oh, that's the work of Lydia Carew, with- out a doubt!" cried the hostess. "She visits every new family that moves to the house, but she never remains more than a week or two with any one." "It must be that she disapproves of them," suggested Miss Boggs. "I think that's it," said the hostess. "She doesn't like their china, or their fiction." "I hope she'll disapprove of us," added Miss Prudence. The hostess belonged to a very old Philadel- phian family, and she shook her head. "I should say it was a compliment for even the ghost of Miss Lydia Carew to approve of one," she said severely. The next morning, when the sisters entered their drawing-room there were numerous evi- dences of an occupant during their