was it not? If only that wretched man Haygarth had kept his mouth shut! Instead of intending to tell jemima Shore not only what he had seen but what he had worked out for himself, what he had come to understand. But Haygarth had been an old man; like his late master. No point in spilling too many tears over him. One had to be realistic about these things: the death of the old was all part of the cycle—the cycle of history.
Little Nell was a very different matter. She simply had to be punished, firmly but not unkindly punished, for all those newspaper headlines. Warned might even be a better word than punished. And her mouth had to be shut for the future. In a manner of speaking: only in a manner of speaking. She must simply be persuaded not to tell. That is, if she knew who the ghost was—beyond being Decimus.
"Who are you:" I won't tell." The clear, small voice from the bed was so uncannily accurate in echoing the ghost's own thoughts, that for a moment it was the ghost—the ghost on a mission to frighten—not the girl who was startled. Then a mild kind of bitterness followed.
"I won't tell!" That was all very well, reflected the Decimus Ghost. But did someone who had given a full sensational story to the Daily Cluek'ss—quickly copied and embellished by other hounds on the trail—really have a right to say: "I won't tell"?
The Clueless (as the Exclusive was generally known), which on this issue had shown itself not really so clueless after all and in any case respected the laws of libel if only because an alternative course in the past had proved expensive—had begun comparatively mildly. Rather unpleasant prominence was given to the fact that the butler had just been retired by the Meredith family after "years of faithful service": even if Haygarth's age might have been thought to make that inevitable, there was at least a whiff of reproach about his treatment. But Nell's "own story" as told to an Exclusive reporter, was first run under the headline MY PHANTOM CAVALIER. Here, far more prominence was given to Nell Meredith's alleged frequent sightings of a romantically handsome "phantom Cavalier" up and down and roundabout her stately home (and its equally stately battlements) than to the phantom's alleged threats. Although these threats were mentioned, they were carefully quoted in Nell's own words ("They say the phantom brings death especially to our family but I knew he would never harm me"); the threats were not coupled explicitly with the death of the old Lord Lackland following one fall nor with the recent death of his butler following another.
Other papers, subsequently, were less restrained. 'THE GHOST AND THE GIRL' screamed one headline, followed by 'LITTLE NELL'S PHANTOM BEAU', and most lurid of all: TEENAGER SEES HEADLESS GHOST "KILLER.' (For somewhere along the line in this story the ghost had lost his handsome head or at any rate tucked it under his arm. ) Most ominous all for the future, however, was the treatment of the story in the sober Jupiter, coming up fast on the rails as the paper of record. It was the Jupiter , for example, who first came up with the headline 'THE CAVALIER CASE'. And that after all was the headline which stuck.
The story that followed, although written in that quirkily authoritative style the Jupiter was making its own, contained in fact all the elements of a romantic Cavalier ghost appearing to a young girl, presaging death, which had so titilated readers of the Clueless . And there was a very fine photograph of Nell Meredith gazing upwards, her face half in the shadow of a battlement: for the Jupiter's quirkily brilliant photographs were also establishing their own authoritative style. Moreover it was the Jupiter which introduced the true historical dimension to it all, for to the conventional photographs of Handsome Dan Meredith, tousled and desirable at the height of his tennis career, used by the tabloids, the Jupiter added a large reproduction of the
Little Nell was a very different matter. She simply had to be punished, firmly but not unkindly punished, for all those newspaper headlines. Warned might even be a better word than punished. And her mouth had to be shut for the future. In a manner of speaking: only in a manner of speaking. She must simply be persuaded not to tell. That is, if she knew who the ghost was—beyond being Decimus.
"Who are you:" I won't tell." The clear, small voice from the bed was so uncannily accurate in echoing the ghost's own thoughts, that for a moment it was the ghost—the ghost on a mission to frighten—not the girl who was startled. Then a mild kind of bitterness followed.
"I won't tell!" That was all very well, reflected the Decimus Ghost. But did someone who had given a full sensational story to the Daily Cluek'ss—quickly copied and embellished by other hounds on the trail—really have a right to say: "I won't tell"?
The Clueless (as the Exclusive was generally known), which on this issue had shown itself not really so clueless after all and in any case respected the laws of libel if only because an alternative course in the past had proved expensive—had begun comparatively mildly. Rather unpleasant prominence was given to the fact that the butler had just been retired by the Meredith family after "years of faithful service": even if Haygarth's age might have been thought to make that inevitable, there was at least a whiff of reproach about his treatment. But Nell's "own story" as told to an Exclusive reporter, was first run under the headline MY PHANTOM CAVALIER. Here, far more prominence was given to Nell Meredith's alleged frequent sightings of a romantically handsome "phantom Cavalier" up and down and roundabout her stately home (and its equally stately battlements) than to the phantom's alleged threats. Although these threats were mentioned, they were carefully quoted in Nell's own words ("They say the phantom brings death especially to our family but I knew he would never harm me"); the threats were not coupled explicitly with the death of the old Lord Lackland following one fall nor with the recent death of his butler following another.
Other papers, subsequently, were less restrained. 'THE GHOST AND THE GIRL' screamed one headline, followed by 'LITTLE NELL'S PHANTOM BEAU', and most lurid of all: TEENAGER SEES HEADLESS GHOST "KILLER.' (For somewhere along the line in this story the ghost had lost his handsome head or at any rate tucked it under his arm. ) Most ominous all for the future, however, was the treatment of the story in the sober Jupiter, coming up fast on the rails as the paper of record. It was the Jupiter , for example, who first came up with the headline 'THE CAVALIER CASE'. And that after all was the headline which stuck.
The story that followed, although written in that quirkily authoritative style the Jupiter was making its own, contained in fact all the elements of a romantic Cavalier ghost appearing to a young girl, presaging death, which had so titilated readers of the Clueless . And there was a very fine photograph of Nell Meredith gazing upwards, her face half in the shadow of a battlement: for the Jupiter's quirkily brilliant photographs were also establishing their own authoritative style. Moreover it was the Jupiter which introduced the true historical dimension to it all, for to the conventional photographs of Handsome Dan Meredith, tousled and desirable at the height of his tennis career, used by the tabloids, the Jupiter added a large reproduction of the
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