CHAPTER XVII.
THE WITCH WITH THE YELLOW HAIR.
A corner is a very pretty addition to a room, and a cleft-stick has been known to present a more picturesque appearance than a straight one.

But to find oneself, metaphorically speaking, pushed into the corner or wedged into the cleft of the stick is neither picturesque nor pleasant.
This was Mrs.Bertram's present position.

She had suddenly, and at a moment when she least expected it, been confronted with the ghost of a long ago past.

The ghost of a past, so remote that she had almost forgotten it, had come back and stared her in the face.

This ghost had assumed terrible dimensions, and the poor woman was dreadfully afraid of it.
She had taken a hurried journey to London in the vain hope of laying it.
Alas! it would not be laid.