'Stop!' cried Virginia stamping her foot, 'you are the one who is rude, and horrid, and vulgar. And if we are talking about dishonesty, you know you stole the paints out of my paintbox to try and colour that ridiculous blood-stain in the library.'

'First you took all my reds, including the vermilion, and I couldn't do any more sunsets. Then you took the emerald-green and the yellow, and finally I had nothing left but indigo and Chinese white.'

'I could only do moonlight scenes, and they are always depressing to look at, and not easy to paint. I never told on you, though I was very annoyed, and it was all so ridiculous, the whole thing. Who ever heard of emerald-green blood?'

'Well, really,' said the Ghost, rather meekly, 'what could I do?'

'It is very difficult to get real blood nowadays. Anyway, your brother began it all by cleaning away the stain with his Paragon Detergent, so I don't see why I should not have your paints.'

'As for colour, that depends what you like - for instance, the Cantervilles have blue blood, the bluest blood in England. But I know you Americans are not interested in that sort of thing.'