His was not a sceptical or scientific mind . He was ignorant and poetical and credulous . He had always accepted unquestioningly the tale that Isabel Temple had been seen on earth long after the red clay was heaped over her murdered body . Her bridegroom had seen her , when he went to visit her on the eve of his second and unhappy marriage ; his grandfather had seen her . His grandmother , who had told him Isabel 's story , had told him this too , and believed it . She had added , with a bitterness foreign to his idea of her , that her husband had never been the same to her afterwards ; his uncle had seen her -- and had lived and died a haunted man . It was only to men the lovely , restless ghost appeared , and her appearance boded no good to him who saw . Roger knew this , but he had a curious longing to see her . He had never avoided her grave as others of his tribe did . He loved the spot , and he believed that some time he would see Isabel Temple there . She came , so the story went , to one in each generation of the family . He gazed down at her sunken grave ; a little wind , that came stealing along the floor of the grove , raised and swayed the long , hair-like grass on it , giving the curious suggestion of something prisoned under it trying to draw a long breath and float upward . Then , when he lifted his eyes again , he saw her ! She was standing behind the gravestone , under the cherry tree , whose long white branches touched her head ; standing there , with her head drooping a little , but looking steadily at him . It was just between dusk and dark now , but he saw her very plainly . She was dressed in white , with some filmy scarf over her head , and her hair hung in a dark heavy braid over her shoulder . Her face was small and ivory-white , and her eyes were very large and dark . Roger looked straight into them and they did something to him -- drew something out of him that was never to be his again -- his heart ? his soul ? He did not know .
He only knew that lovely Isabel XXXXX had now come to him and that he was hers forever .
Isabel Roger Temple braid eve family hair murdered second stealing