"Never mind that just now, Maria," I said. "Bob has something of the utmost importance to impart to you. Brace your nerves--prepare for a shock."
There was a note of triumph in my voice, and she turned her eyes upon me, with an idea, I think, that I was going out of my mind.
"Well, Mr. Millet," she said, with a shrewd glance at him, "what is this something of the highest importance that you have to impart to me?"
"I was reluctant to mention it," said Bob, "before I spoke of it to Ned, because I was doubtful how it would affect you. If you should happen to hear of it when it was too late to retract you might say with very good reason, 'But why did not Mr. Millet tell us before we went over the house? Why did he leave us to find it out for ourselves after we signed the lease?'"
"As a matter of fact," said Bob, and quickly withdrew the unfortunate phrase, "I mean that I have heard the house has a bad name."
"Bad, in a certain way, They say it is haunted."
"Oh," said my wife, smiling, "is that all? They say? Who say?"
"I can't give you names," replied Bob, conspicuously nonplused, "because I don't know them. I can only tell you what I have heard."
"I thought as much," she said, her eyes twinkling with amusement. "Merely hearsay. You might be more explicit, Mr. Millet. Haunted? By what?"
"How tantalizing! Don't you think, Edward, that the news Mr. Millet has given us makes the house all the more interesting?"
Thus effectually did she sweep away all my fond expectations. She made no more of a haunted house than she would have done of a loose handle to a door.
"If that is the view you take of it," I said, "perhaps it does. I am always ready to please you, Maria, but till this moment I had no idea that your taste lay in the direction of haunted houses. At all events, you will not be able to say that you were not warned."
"You will not hear me say it. There is a proverb about giving a dog a bad name and hanging him at once, and it seems to me to apply to the house in Lamb's Terrace. If Mr. Millet could give us something to lay hold of I might express myself differently."
"You can't lay hold of a ghost, Maria, unless those gentry have undergone a radical change. For my part, I am much obliged to Bob. It was out of consideration for you that he did not mention it at first."