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Chapter I, Part A · The Irtonwood Ghost

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  Section one of The Urtonwood Ghost. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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  recordings are in the public domain. For more information ought to volunteer, please
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  visit a LibriVox dot org. The Urtonwood Ghost by Eleanor Glynn, Chapter one,
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  Part A. Missus Charters arrived at Euston in plenty of time for the
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  train to Aleton. She was a woman who was well served, and her
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  footmen had already got her all that she required, and she retired with a
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  paper to the farther side of the compartment. You need not wait, Thomas,
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  she said. There will probably be no one else getting in, and
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  it is a corridor train. So Thomas touched his hat and left. Just
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  before the guard gave the signal to start. A man, evidently a gentleman,
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  opened the door of the carriage and entered. He had been walking leisurely
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  up and down the platform, and if she had known it, had observed
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  her maid and footman looked at her luggage and ascertained her destination. It was
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  the same as his own Burtonwood manner. That really charmingly romantic old place.
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  Ada Hardress and her obedient husband had just taken from the Walworths for a year.
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  It is too exquisitely ghostly pet, she had written to esther Charters creaking
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  paneling, underground passages, haunted library, and a big cedar wood bedroom where
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  the white lady appears. There is no electric light, and a person with
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  your sensibilities can be perfectly certain to receive a thrill. Come and spend Christmas
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  with us, and missus. Charters had accepted won by this alluring day description,
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  and was now the day before Christmas Eve, on her way thither.
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  She was a tall, slender woman of twenty eight or thirty. Perhaps she
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  was not beautiful, but every single thing she put on seemed to enhance her
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  grace. Rather plaintive and distinguished refinement appeared to be the note which first struck
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  strangers about her. That Bore Algernon Alexander Charters had joined friends in another world
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  some three years before this Christmas Eve, leaving his widow most comfortably provided for.
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  Only an unpleasant jar had happened not more than a week ago. The
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  family lawyer had written to inform Ester that there might be serious trouble ahead,
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  and it might even eventualize in her loss of most of Algernon Alexander's money if
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  a certain marriage certificate could not be found. The whole fortune was being claimed
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  by a descendant of the great great grandfather, who contended that Algernon Alexander himself
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  had enjoyed his ten or twelve thousand a year unlawfully. It appeared that somewhere
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  about seventeen ninety five, the rich Alderman Charter's son, delighting to move in
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  circles above him, had contracted a marriage secretly with the daughter of a decayed
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  noble who would have none of him, and the lady, regretting her mistake
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  too late, had denied all connection with him and willingly relinquishing her son,
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  whose existence she had concealed and of whom she was ashamed. She had retired
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  with her father to Italy, and there, a year or two later,
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  had died the wife of an Italian count. The abandoned rich city husband had
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  apparently taken the casual behavior of the noble lady in a philosophical spirit, doting
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  upon her son, to whom, although he married again and had a number
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  of other children, he left the bulk of his great fortune. This second
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  family seemed to have been complacent people, and had accepted their fate. But
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  now one of their descendants had come forward and claimed that the will of John
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  Charters, expressly stating two mile legitimate eldest son and his heirs, with no
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  name given, the property should come to him as the lineal representative of the
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  eldest son of the second family, there being no proof to be found anywhere
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  of the first marriage with the lady Marjorie wild Acre. Missus Charters thought of
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  all these things as she sat in the train. Her attention had scarcely wandered
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  from them, even as she glanced up at the intruder into her carriage.
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  But she did casually notice that he was a thin, dark man with something
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  rather attractive looking about him, and after a while she became conscious that his
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  eyes were fixed upon her, and she felt compelled to look up. They
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  were too close together, the orbs which met hers, she decided, though
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  their size and shape left nothing to be desired. She had a foolish shiver
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  of foreboding and dislike as she turned away and let her mind revert to the
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  ceaseless question of where on the face of the earth this certificate could be and
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  how were they to find it? Presently, the stranger leaned forward and said,
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  in a most cultivated voice, which yet had a foreign accent somewhere lurking
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  in the background, you are Missus Charters. I believe we are both going
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  to the same house. May I introduce myself? I am Ambrose Duval.
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  I am afraid not quite an Englishman. His smile was so pleasant it made
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  you forget the sinister impression left by his eyes. Missus Charters was of the
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  world and not easily disconcerted. She bowed politely, and a conversation began,
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  in the course of which it became apparent that mister Ambrose Duval such a name,
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  it reminds one of Claude. She thought, had met the Haddresses abroad,
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  and had renewed his acquaintance lately, and was coming down now to this
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  Christmas party. Nothing could be more polished and smooth than his manner. It
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  had that easy gliding from one subject to another, which makes so agreeable a
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  conversationalist. He skimmed all sorts of interesting topics, and at last arrived at
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  English architecture. Milton Wood is a very romantic old place, Missus Hardress tells
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  me. He said, a fine specimen of Tudor style, with additions of
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  Jacobiane. I am longing to study it. Do you know its history?
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  Not in the least esther replied My friend Ada Hardress merely wrote, I should
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  be certain to see goosts. I love the thought of them, although I
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  have never been fortunate enough to encounter one, have you? And she smiled
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  her fascinating, elusive smile that was half melancholy and half gay. Sir George
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  Seafield, who had already arrived at Urtonwood earlier in the day, thought Esther
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  Charter's smile the most divine thing in the world. But then he was in
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  love, resentfully so at first, then resignedly, and now abjectly. Ambrose
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  Duval, on the contrary, mused, she is no fool. For all
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  her gentleness, it is her capable mouth. Perhaps her innocence about Urtonwood is
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  all bluff, and she is bent upon the same errand as myself. I
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  must lose no time. By four o'clock, when they had reached Aleton,
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  they had each taken stock of the other. He makes me creep down my
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  back, was missus Charter's comment. Although I do feel he is attractive.
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  Some more guests got out of another carriage, and there were greetings and chaff,
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  and the whole party entered motors and were whirled to their destination. Here
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  all was holly and mistletoe and everything to make a real English Christmas, huge
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  log fires in every grate, and quantities of wax candles tried to make up
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  for the want of electric light. Nothing could have looked more like a storybook
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  description of things as they were once in the good old days. Ada Hardress
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  gave her friend a most gushing welcome, and contrived that Sir George Seafield secured
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  a chance for a word with her in a suitable window seat as they drank
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  tea. You are cruel to me, he said, looking devotedly at the
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  lady of his heart, with his keen blue eyes, promising to be at
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  the junction and never turning up by that train. I came down from Scotland
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  on purpose and thought I should have been allowed to take care of you from
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  Crewe. Here. I can take care of myself, she protested softly,
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  And I found I wanted to shop this morning before I left. You think
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  you are capable of looking after yourself always under any circumstances. I suppose he
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  hazarded. But of course, and when I feel I cannot, then I
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  shall tell you, and she smiled. I pray fate to let the chance
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  come sooner than we think, he announced fervently. But at this pious hope,
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  missus Charters only looked sweetly disdainful, and changed the conversation to less personal
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  things. You want to be a goose, darling and snub Sir George to
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  death, will you, Ada, hard Res begged, as she took her
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  friend up the stairs. You are so provoking with your aloof air, and
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  now wanting to rest until dinner, when he is dying to talk to you.
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  But missus Charters was unimpressed. I am really tired, Ada, And
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  it does englishmen good to be made to wait. I learned that in America,
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  she said. Algernon took me there when I wanted to go to Rome,
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  but I never regretted it. I acquired so many hints from those clever
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  Oh what a heavenly place, she added. When they got to the cedar
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  chamber, which had been allotted to her. Fancy it's not having been spoilt
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  in these modern days, for it was all paneled and hung with faded orange
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  silk in its three tall windows and capacious four post bed end of Section one