The story had held us, round the fire, sufficiently breathless, but except the obvious remark that it
was gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be, I
remember no comment uttered till somebody happened to say that it was the only case he had met
in which such a visitation had fallen on a child. The case, I may mention, was that of an apparition
in just such an old house as had gathered us for the occasion—an appearance, of a dreadful ...