Why did he choose the _staircase_ ?" said Mrs.Boyce with light reflectiveness.
"It won't do," said Marcella, shaking her head.

"I know the Boyce they mean.

He was a ruffian, but he shot himself in London; and, any way, he was dead long before that staircase was built." "Dear me, how well up you are!" said her mother.

"Suppose you give a little lecture on the family in the servants' hall.

Though I never knew a ghost yet that was undone by dates." There was a satiric detachment in her tone which contrasted sharply with Marcella's amused but sympathetic interest.