his memory!  Rumor told it in a whisper, many years ago.  Perhaps it was believed by a few of the oldest inhabitants of the city; but the highly respectable quarter never heard of it, and, if it had, would not have been bribed to believe it, by any sum.  Some one had said that some very old person had seen a phantom there.  Nobody knew who some one was.  Nobody knew who the very old person was.  Nobody knew who had seen it, nor when, nor how.  The very rumor was spectral.

All this was many years ago.  Since then it has been reported that a ghost was seen there one bitter Christmas eve, two or three years back.  The twilight was already in the street; but the evening lamps were not yet lighted in the windows, and the roofs and chimney-tops were still distinct in the last clear light of the dropping day.  It was light enough, however, for one to read easily, from the opposite sidewalk, “Dr. C. Renton,” in black letters, on the silver plate of a door, not far from the Gothic portal of the Swedenborgian church.  Near this door stood a misty figure, whose sad, spectral eyes floated on vacancy, and whose long, shadowy white hair lifted like an airy weft in the streaming wind.  That was the ghost!  It stood near the door a long time, without any other than a shuddering motion, as though it felt the searching blast, which swept furiously from the north up the declivity of the street, rattling the shutters in its headlong passage.  Once or twice, when a passer-by, muffled warmly from the bitter air, hurried past, the phantom shrank closer to the wall, till he was gone.  Its vague, mournful face seemed to watch for some one.  The twilight darkened gradually, but it did not flit away.  Patiently it kept its piteous look fixed in one direction,—­watching,—­watching; and, while the howling wind swept frantically through the chill air, it still seemed to shudder in the piercing cold.

A light suddenly kindled in an opposite window.  As if touched by a gleam from the lamp, or as if by some subtle interior illumination, the spectre became faintly luminous, and a thin smile seemed to quiver over its features.  At the same moment, a strong, energetic figure—­Dr. Renton himself—­came in sight, striding down the slope of the pavement to his own door, his overcoat thrown back, as if the icy air were a tropical warmth to him, his hat set on the back of his head, and the loose ends of a ’kerchief about his throat, streaming in the nor’wester.  The wind set up a howl the moment he came in sight, and swept upon him; and a curious agitation began on the part of the phantom.  It glided rapidly to and fro, and moved in circles, and then, with the same swift, silent motion, sailed toward him, as if blown thither by the gale.  Its long, thin arms, with something like a pale flame spiring from the tips of the slender fingers, were stretched out, as in greeting, while the wan smile played over its face; and when he rushed by, unheedingly, it made a futile effort