“One fine spring morning,” pursued Uncle Larry, “Eliphalet Duncan received great news.  I told you that there was a title in the family in Scotland, and that Eliphalet’s father was the younger son of a younger son.  Well, it happened that all Eliphalet’s father’s brothers and uncles had died off without male issue except the eldest son of the eldest, and he, of course, bore the title, and was Baron Duncan of Duncan.  Now the great news that Eliphalet Duncan received in New York one fine spring morning was that Baron Duncan and his only son had been yachting in the Hebrides, and they had been caught in a black squall, and they were both dead.  So my friend Eliphalet Duncan inherited the title and the estates.”

“How romantic!” said the Duchess.  “So he was a baron!”

“Well,” answered Uncle Larry, “he was a baron if he chose.  But he didn’t choose.”

“More fool he,” said Dear Jones sententiously.

“Well,” answered Uncle Larry, “I’m not so sure of that.  You see, Eliphalet Duncan was half Scotch and half Yankee, and he had two eyes to the main chance.  He held his tongue about his windfall of luck until he could find out whether the Scotch estates were enough to keep up the Scotch title.  He soon discovered that they were not, and that the late Lord Duncan, having married money, kept up such state as he could out of the revenues of the dowry of Lady Duncan.  And Eliphalet, he decided that he would rather be a well-fed lawyer in New York, living comfortably on his practice, than a starving lord in Scotland, living scantily on his title.”

“But he kept his title?” asked the Duchess.

“Well,” answered Uncle Larry, “he kept it quiet.  I knew it, and a friend or two more.  But Eliphalet was a sight too smart to put Baron Duncan of Duncan, Attorney and Counselor at Law, on his shingle.”

“What has all this got to do with your ghost?” asked Dear Jones pertinently.

“Nothing with that ghost, but a good deal with another ghost.  Eliphalet was very learned in spirit lore—­perhaps because he owned the haunted house at Salem, perhaps because he was a Scotchman by descent.  At all events, he had made a special study of the wraiths and white ladies and banshees and bogies of all kinds whose sayings and doings and warnings are recorded in the annals of the Scottish nobility.  In fact, he was acquainted with the habits of every reputable spook in the Scotch peerage.  And he knew that there was a Duncan ghost attached to the person of the holder of the title of Baron Duncan of Duncan.”

“So, besides being the owner of a haunted house in Salem, he was also a haunted man in Scotland?” asked Baby Van Rensselaer.