louis vuitton handbags She seats herself in a large chair by the fast-darkening window andtells them: "In the wicked days, my dears, of King Charles theFirst--I mean, of course, in the wicked days of the rebels wholeagued themselves against that excellent king--Sir Morbury Dedlockwas the owner of Chesney Wold. Whether there was any account of aghost in the family before those days, I can't say. I should thinkit very likely indeed."Mrs. Rouncewell holds this opinion because she considers that afamily of such antiquity and importance has a right to a ghost.She regards a ghost as one of the privileges of the upper classes,a genteel distinction to which the common people have no claim."Sir Morbury Dedlock," says Mrs. Rouncewell, "was, I have nooccasion to say, on the side of the blessed martyr. But it ISsupposed that his Lady, who had none of the family blood in herveins, favoured the bad cause. It is said that she had relationsamong King Charles's enemies, that she was in correspondence withthem, and that she gave them information. burberry shirts When any of the countrygentlemen who followed his Majesty's cause met here, it is saidthat my Lady was always nearer to the door of their council-roomthan they supposed. Do you hear a sound like a footstep passingalong the terrace, Watt?"Rosa draws nearer to the housekeeper."I hear the rain-drip on the stones," replies the young man, "and Ihear a curious echo--I suppose an echo--which is very like ahalting step."The housekeeper gravely nods and continues: "Partly on account ofthis division between them, and partly on other accounts, SirMorbury and his Lady led a troubled life. She was a lady of ahaughty temper. They were not well suited to each other in age orcharacter, and they had no children to moderate between them.After her favourite brother, a young gentleman, was killed in thecivil wars (by Sir Morbury's near kinsman), her feeling was soviolent that she hated the race into which she had married. Whenthe Dedlocks were about to ride out from Chesney Wold in the king'scause, she is supposed to have more than once stolen down into thestables in the dead of night and lamed their horses; burberry bags and the storyis that once at such an hour, her husband saw her gliding down thestairs and followed her into the stall where his own favouritehorse stood. There he seized her by the wrist, and in a struggleor in a fall or through the horse being and lashing out,she was lamed in the hip and from that hour began to pine away."The housekeeper has dropped her voice to a little more than awhisper."She had been a lady of a handsome figure and a noble carriage.She never complained of the change; she never spoke to any one ofbeing crippled or of being in pain, but day by day she tried towalk upon the terrace, and with the help of the stone balustrade,went up and down, up and down, up and down, in sun and shadow, withgreater difficulty every day. At last, one afternoon her husband(to whom she had never, on any persuasion, opened her lips sincethat night), standing at the great south window, saw her drop uponthe pavement. He hastened down to raise her, but she repulsed himas he bent over her, and looking at him fixedly and coldly, said,'I will die here where I have walked. And I will walk here, thoughI am in my grave. I will walk here until the pride of this houseis humbled. And when calamity or when disgrace is coming to it,let the Dedlocks listen for my step!' beats by dre pro Watt looks at Rosa. Rosa in the deepening gloom looks down uponthe ground, half frightened and half shy."There and then she died. And from those days," says Mrs.Rouncewell, "the name has come down--the Ghost's Walk. If thetread is an echo, it is an echo that is only heard after dark, andis often unheard for a long while together. But it comes back fromtime to time; and so sure as there is sickness or death in thefamily, it will be heard then.""And disgrace, grandmother--" says Watt."Disgrace never comes to Chesney Wold," returns the housekeeper.Her grandson apologizes with "True. True.""That is the story. Whatever the sound is, it is a worryingsound," says Mrs. Rouncewell, getting up from her chair; "and whatis to be noticed in it is that it MUST BE HEARD. My Lady, who isafraid of nothing, admits that when it is there, it must be heard.You cannot shut it out. Watt, there is a tall French clock behindyou (placed there, 'a purpose) that has a loud beat when it is inmotion and can play music. You understand how those things aremanaged?""Pretty well, grandmother, I think.""Set it a-going."Watt sets it a-going--music and all.
