Jenny Telfer Chaplin by Hopes, Sorrow Page B

answer. “Mass hysteria, nothing more or less. Anyway, the rest of you can do as you please, but for me I’m off to bed. First thing tomorrow I’m getting out of this mad house and I want my money back. Dead folk appearing on Miss Patten’s face! Rubbish.”
    Elenora’s voice stopped his departure. “Before you go, Mr West, allow me to make one thing clear. I am not selling anything. It does not matter to me whether or not you believe and, of course, you are free to come and go as and when you choose.”
    “Fine, that’s all very well, but I’ve paid good money for all this mumbo-jumbo and I want my money back.”
    “Mr West, you have paid me nothing for this supernatural experience. I do not charge for what I regard as a gift. What you have paid for is your bed and board, that is all. If you wish to leave earlier than planned, that is your prerogative and you will get a refund.”
    As West dithered between his seat and the door Elenora said: “The same applies to the remainder of my guests. I am selling nothing. I have no axe to grind. The choice is yours – stay or go, believe or refuse to believe, it’s up to you. Now if you’ll excuse me, trancing has tired me out so I’ll bid you good night.”
    Next morning when the guests assembled for breakfast there was one empty place at the table.
    Another guest with a laugh remarked: “So Mr West has decided to part company with us.”
    However, Mary said: “Yes, that’s the way it looks, but actually Mr West had an early breakfast and has gone for a walk along the shore. He said something about clearing his head after ghostly sightings in the night. Anyway he’s going to sit out the rest of the weekend with us.”
    In the evening, Mr West was very tight-lipped about his ‘ghostly sightings’ He did admit to having witnessed a variety of strange lights dancing about on the lawn but dismissed the event as the result of having imbibed perhaps too heartily in his nightcap of Napoleon brandy.
    The mystery of Mr West’s ‘sightings’ in the night added to rather than detracted from the ambience of the balance of the weekend. By the time the guests were assembling in time for the first ferry on the Monday morning they were all agreed that not only had it been a different sort of break, but it was one they would remember the rest of their lives.
    Just as the guests were saying their final goodbyes Mr West, game to the last, turned to the company and said: “All right, I did see strange lights in the darkness outside, but now I come to think about them, those could only have come from the lighthouse. So the fact remains, not one single spirit manifestation did I see. Not one!”
    Miss Patten smiled. “I seem to recall your mentioning the polite old servant in the hallway who greeted you on your arrival.”
    Mr West nodded. “Yes, a pleasant old boy. Of course I saw him. So what?”
    There was a general murmur of agreement as to how welcoming the elderly gentleman had been.
    Miss Patten glanced round her guests to make sure she had their full attention.
    “Did it not surprise any of you that you never met him anywhere else in the house? You have all seen spirit. Angus was a footman in my parents’ house long before I was born. He departed this earthly plane more than fifty years ago.”
     

 
     
    Chapter Nin eteen
     
    With the fame of Elenora’s mediumship having spread far beyond the confines of Dunoon and Argyll there was scarcely a day or a weekend when there was not some seeker after spiritual enlightenment knocking on Ivylea’s front door in the hope of gaining an interview with Elenora.
    Much as she was pleased that she was doing good work with her spirit friends, at the same time she could not help but notice one aspect of the situation which gradually dawned on her.
    “Mary, you must have noticed that very few local people come here on spiritual matters,” she said one day.
    Was this the time to tell Elenora about one recent visit, Mary wondered.