his listened carefully for a few moments - and heard the sound of footsteps. he immediately got out of bed, took a small bottle out of his case, and opened the bedroom door.
he saw a terrible old man facing him in the pale moonlight. the old man's eyes were as fire, and he had long grey hair which fell over his shoulders. his clothes were in the style of an earlier century, and they were dirty and full of holes. heavy, rusty chains hung from his arms and lags.
'my dear sir,' said Mr. otis, ' you really must put some oil on those rusty chains. for that purpose i'm giving you a small bottle of smith's rising sum oil. according to the makes, you only have to use it once. it's quite famous in america. everybody uses it, and you will see that there are letters from well-known americans printed on the bottle.'
Mr. otis put the bottle down on a small table. 'I'll it here for you,' he said. 'I'll be happy to give you more if you need it.' then the ambassador went back to his bed. for a moment, the Canterville ghost did not move. he was shocked and angry. then he knocked the bottle of oil violentlyon to the floor and hurried away down the passage. A strange green light shone out from his body, and he screamed - a deep and terrible cry - into the night.
when he reached the top of the great stairs, a door opened. two little figures in white appeared out of the darkness, and a large pillow flew past his head! the ghost quickly did the only thing that seemed safe. he disappeared into the wall.
when he reached his secret room in the western part of the house, the ghost sat down in the moonlight and tried to think. he could not believe what had just happened. he hed never been so insulted in all his 300 years of excellent and famous haunting!
to make himself feel better, he remembered some of his finest performances.
'there was lord canterville's aunt,' he said to himself. ' I put my skeleton hands on her shoulders and almost frightened her to death! that was wonderful! and before there were the four girl servants. they ran away screaming after they saw me smiling at them through the curtains of the small bedroom! and there was the man-servant.' he shot himself he saw a green hand knocking at the window. then there was the beautiful lady stutfield. she had had to wear a black cloth round her neck to hide the mark of five skeleton fingers burnt into her white skin.'
the canterville ghost smiled to himself, but his smile quickly disappeared.
'and now? now some terrible modern americans come and offer me rising sun oil, and throw pillows at my head! well, I'll make them sorry! oh, yes, i will!'
for the rest of that night, the ghost sat there, thinking deeply.
the next morning, when the otis family met at breakfast. they discussed the ghost for some time. the ambassador was a little annoyed that his present had not been accepted.
' i don't wish to harm the ghost in any way,' he looked at his young sons. ' and it is not polite to throws at someone who has been in this house for so long.'
thus was a very fair thing to say, but the twins shouted with laughter until Mr. otis looked coldly at them
the ambassador continued. 'but if the ghost refuses to use the rising sun oil, we'll have his chains away from him. It's quite impossible to sleep with that noise outside the bedrooms every night.'
but for the rest of the week, the house was quiet. the only worrying thing was the bloodstain on the library floor. each day washington cleaned the floor with pinkerton's wonder stain cleaner, and each night Mr. otis locked the doors and windows.