'That's no reason for existing, and you know you have been very wicked. Mrs Umney told us, the first day we arrived here, that you had killed your wife.'

'Well, of course I did,' said the Ghost, 'but that was completely a family affair. No one else was involved.'

'It is very wrong to kill anyone,' said Virginia, who sometimes had a sweet Puritan seriousness, which she must have got from some old New England ancestor.

Oh, it's very easy to criticize things that don't involve you personally! My wife was not very pretty, never had my ruffs done properly, and knew nothing about cookery. Do you know, I shot a buck in Hogley Woods, a magnificent beast, and do you know what a mess she made of preparing it for the table?'

'However, it is no matter now, for it is all over. But I don't think it was very nice of her brothers to starve me to death, though I did kill her.'

'Starve you to death? Oh, Mr. Ghost, I mean Sir Simon, are you hungry? I have a sandwich in my bag. Would you like it?'

'No, thank you, I never eat anything now; but it is very kind of you, all the same. You are much nicer than the rest of your horrible, rude, vulgar, dishonest family.'