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Show - k6 - CHAPTER VII Athena and Jim Standish were becoming concerned about the girls Penny in partcular. Even though they had not mentioned the ghost to their parents, they knew of her existence through Tom and 'Maddie. Claudine had never appealed to them so they were not too worried at first. They didn't believe in the supernatural. It was their feeling that they should wait until their daughters were ready to confide in them, but now their constant ing preoccupation with the intruder was begin- to disturb them. A strange realization was dawning on Penny that there were moments when she seemed to be transported back to the time when Claudine lived at Gaven House. At first, she thought she was dreaming, but these hallucinations were occuring when she was not asleep. Up in her bedroom, in the living room, on the landing at the top of the staircase and in the garden. It frightened her, but as time went on she became accustomed to it and allowed herself to become mesermized. She would sit staring into space and soon the other members of the family began to notice it. Her mother's concern deepened. One afternnon Penny was out in the garden. She was alone as Vicky had gone off to do her homework. There was an autumn chill in the air, and she pulled her skirt tightly around her knees when she sat on one of the little stone benches beside the fountain. Her gaze strayed towards the fence to the grove of Eucalyptus trees and the hills beyond. As always, lately, her thoughts were of Claudine and Dirk, and she wondered if the Oriental truck gardens had been there when they roamed the hills. All of a sudden she heard laughter and turned her head and looked toward the gazebo where she thought it had come from. It was the garden of Gaven House and yet it wasn't. The landscaping was more formal and the sun was shining brightly. The gazebo was painted a shining white instead |