For the
smell's what I go by.'
The landlord's analogical argument was not well received by the
farrier- a man intensely opposed to compromise.
'Tut, tut,' he said, setting down his glass with refreshed
irritation; 'what's the smell got to do with it? Did ever a ghost give
a man a black eye? That's what I should like to know. If ghos'es
want me to believe in 'em, let 'em leave off skulking i' the dark
and i' lone places- let 'em come where there's company and candles.'
'As if ghos'es 'ud want to be believed in by anybody so
ignirant!' said Mr Macey, in deep disgust at the farrier's crass
incompetence to apprehend the conditions of ghostly phenomena.
CHAPTER SEVEN
YET the next moment there seemed to be some evidence that ghosts had a
more condescending disposition than Mr Macey attributed to them; for
the pale thin figure of Silas Marner was suddenly seen standing in the
warm light, uttering no word, but looking round at the company with
his strange unearthly eyes. The long pipes gave a simultaneous
movement, like the antennae of startled insects, and every man
present, not excepting even the sceptical farrier, had an impression
that he saw, not Silas Marner in the flesh, but an apparition; for the
door by which Silas had entered was hidden by the high-screened seats,
and no one had noticed his approach. Mr Macey, sitting a long way
off the ghost, might be supposed to have felt an argumentative
triumph, which would tend to neutralize his share of the general
alarm.
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