"Oh, ah, of course," I laughed; "I forgot. He's invisible to you.
He is the ghost of the gentleman that killed the wait. I'm just
going to the corner with him."
"Ah, I don't think I would, if I was you, sir," said Jones
severely. "If you take my advice, you'll say good-bye to your
friend here, and go back indoors. Perhaps you are not aware that
you are walking about with nothing on but a night-shirt and a pair
of boots and an opera-hat. Where's your trousers?"
I did not like the man's manner at all. I said, "Jones! I don't
wish to have to report you, but it seems to me you've been
drinking. My trousers are where a man's trousers ought to be--on
his legs. I distinctly remember putting them on."
"Well, you haven't got them on now," he retorted.
"I beg your pardon," I replied. "I tell you I have; I think I
ought to know."
"I think so, too," he answered, "but you evidently don't. Now you
come along indoors with me, and don't let's have any more of it."
Uncle John came to the door at this point, having been awaked, I
suppose, by the altercation; and, at the same moment, Aunt Maria
appeared at the window in her nightcap.
I explained the constable's mistake to them, treating the matter as
lightly as I could, so as not to get the man into trouble, and I
turned for confirmation to the ghost.
He was gone! He had left me without a word--without even saying
good-bye!
It struck me as so unkind, his having gone off in that way, that I
burst into tears; and Uncle John came out, and led me back into the
house.
On reaching my room, I discovered that Jones was right. I had not
put on my trousers, after all. They were still hanging over the
bed-rail. I suppose, in my anxiety not to keep the ghost waiting,
I must have forgotten them.
Such are the plain facts of the case, out of which it must,
doubtless, to the healthy, charitable mind appear impossible that
calumny could spring.
But it has.
Persons--I say 'persons'--have professed themselves unable to
understand the simple circumstances herein narrated, except in the
light of explanations at once misleading and insulting. Slurs have
been cast and aspersions made on me by those of my own flesh and
blood.
But I bear no ill-feeling. I merely, as I have said, set forth
this statement for the purpose of clearing my character from
injurious suspicion.