In the course of the preceding month the apparition of the Grey Monk had been seen on three different occasions after its first appearance to Bessie Ogden, each time by one or another of the domestics at the Chase. Bessie had been scouted and scolded both by Trant and Mrs. Burton, the housekeeper, till at length she was almost ready to believe that she must have been the victim of an optical delusion; and yet, strange to say, it was to no less a person than Trant himself that the Grey Monk next appeared. It was late at night--close upon midnight, in fact--when Trant, who had been some time in bed, but was not yet asleep, suddenly called to mind that he had inadvertently left his bunch of keys downstairs in the servants\' hall. On no account was it advisable that he should leave it there till morning; the other servants rose before he did, and there was no telling, with his keys at their command, in what way they might choose to take advantage of his oversight. It would never do to leave such a temptation in their way. Accordingly, he scrambled into a few clothes, thrust his feet into a pair of slippers, and started to go downstairs.

He got as far as the gallery, and then stopped, suddenly frozen to the spot. There, pacing slowly to and fro by the light of a half-moon, which streamed in slantwise through the east window, with bowed head and hands clasped in front of him, was the Grey Monk! Trant\'s jaw fell, and his eyes seemed to start from their orbits. A moment or two he stared; then he turned and, without a word or a sound, made his way back to his room, shaking in every limb like a huge jelly, and in mortal dread lest a ghostly hand should clutch him from behind.

Next morning he sought an opportunity of unburdening his mind to Sir Gilbert, only to be snapped at and told that he was an old fool for his pains.

"Let me hear of your having whispered a word about this idiotic rubbish, either in the servants\' hall or outside the house, and it will be worse for you," said the Baronet, in his most minatory tone. "I\'m ashamed of you, Trant, at your time of life."

For all that, Sir Gilbert did not rest till he had told Lady Pell, who in return confided to him his grandson\'s adventure in the spinny, as related to her by the latter.

"It is most annoying--most disturbing and annoying," said the Baronet, "and I don\'t at all know what to do in the matter. Perhaps the best thing will be to do nothing, but to keep on ignoring the whole business as I have done from the first. How is it the apparition never troubles me? I only wish it would! It would not escape me, I warrant you, till I had found out something definite about it. Let us hope, however, that we have heard the last of it for a long time to come."

But it was a hope not destined to be fulfilled.

In the course of the following fortnight two more appearances were reported to the Baronet, both coming from members of his own household. In these cases the figure was avouched to have been encountered outside the house and in two widely separated parts of the grounds.

When, on the morning to which we have now come, Mr. Lewis Clare failed to make his appearance at the breakfast table, Sir Gilbert, in something of a huff, sent a servant to his room with an ironical inquiry whether they might expect to see him downstairs by luncheon time. Presently the man came back with the news that Mr. Clare was not in his room and that his bed did not appear to have been slept in. Thereupon the Baronet\'s eyes met those of Lady Pell. "What fresh folly has he been guilty of? What further disgrace is he going to bring upon himself and me?" were the questions they mutely asked. But to the servant he merely nodded and said, "That will do."

A little later, when her ladyship and Miss Thursby got up from table, he remarked to the former, "I will see you in the course of the morning"; which meant, "As soon as I have any news you shall be told it." Then to himself he added, "I suppose I must employ Lisle to hunt him up again."

He lingered over his breakfast this morning in a way very unusual with him, as if hoping against hope that, from minute to minute, his grandson might make his appearance.

He was leaning back in his chair, a prey to a host of bitter thoughts, when Trant, looking at once mysterious and important, entered the room, carrying in one hand a letter, and in the other a large key.

"If you please, Sir Gilbert," he said, in deprecatory tones, for he knew how ill his master brooked being disturbed when in a brown study, "this letter, addressed to you, with the key of the strong room, has just been found on your study table by the housemaid whose duty it is to dust the room. As the letter is marked \'Immediate,\' I thought that perhaps----"

"The key of the strong room lying on my study table, do you say?" broke in Sir Gilbert. "How could it possibly have got there?"

While speaking he had taken both the key and the letter. Having put on his glasses he looked at the address on the letter and shook his head. The writing was wholly strange to him. Wondering greatly, he laid the key on the table in front of him and broke open the envelope. Trant stole out of the room on tiptoe; he seemed to scent a mystery.

"Should Sir Gilbert Clare," began the letter, "feel anxious as to the whereabouts of his self-styled grandson he will find him locked up in the strong room, the key of which accompanies this missive. It will be for the young man to explain to Sir Gilbert\'s satisfaction the nature of the business which took him there between twelve and one o\'clock this morning.

"Further, it may be as well to open Sir Gilbert Clare\'s eyes to a fact in respect of which he seems to have been deliberately hoodwinked. Luigi Rispani is not his grandson, but merely a nephew of the woman who married John Alexander Clare. The said John Alexander Clare had but one child--a daughter--who died when a few months old. In accepting Luigi Rispani as his grandson Sir Gilbert Clare has allowed himself to be made the victim of a fraud.

"One Who Knows."

For full ten minutes after he had finished reading the note Sir Gilbert sat without moving, his eyes closed and his chin sunk on his breast. So old and worn and white did he look that he might have been taken for one already dead. Many times in his life had he drunk deep of the waters of bitterness, but perhaps never before had they tasted so utterly bitter. For the moment his soul cried out, "I can bear no more! Give me death--give me anything rather than this!" But presently the strong man within him, which was not yet wholly overcome, began to reassert itself, and a voice seemed to say to him, "If what you have just heard be the truth, then is it better that the truth should be known, at whatever cost to yourself and others. Anything is better than that you should remain the unwitting participant in a living lie." He opened his eyes, sighed and sat up. What a change had come over his life in a few short minutes!

Presently he touched the handbell on the table, to which Trant, who had been listening for it, at once responded.

"Present my compliments to Lady Pell, and tell her that I am very desirous of having a word with her here, and as soon as Mr. Lisle arrives request him to come to me." He felt that he must share his burden with someone; it was too weighty to be borne alone.

Lady Pell was quickly on the scene.

"Sit down, Louisa, and oblige me by reading this, which was brought me a few minutes ago," said Sir Gilbert as he handed her the letter.

She took it without a word. When she had read to the end, she turned a scared face on her kinsman.

"This is indeed terrible, if it be true," she said as she gave him back the letter.

"Here is the key of the strong room to confirm it."

At this juncture Everard Lisle entered the room. At sight of Lady Pell he was about to retire, but Sir Gilbert motioned to him to come forward. "Read this, which was found on my study table about half-an-hour ago," he said.

Lisle, standing within a yard of his elbow, did as he was told. He, too, was utterly dumbfoundered and for a few moments knew not what to say. Then a thought struck him. "According to this, sir, Mr. Lewis is still loc............