The Abbots Ghost or Maurice Trehernes Temptation is a romance, mystery, ghost-story and novel of manners all rolled into one. Louisa May Alcott also subtitled it A Christmas Story and it certainly evokes memories of old-fashioned holiday seasons, before the advent of the Internet and TV, where one sat round a cozy fire and told eerie tales to while away the time.

In the short story, Maurice Treherne is falsely implicated in a case of forgery and fraud. He also loses the use of his legs while trying to save the life of his debonair man-about-town cousin, Jasper. Jaspers wealthy bachelor uncle had initially made Maurice and Jasper equal inheritors in his will but for some reason suddenly cut Maurice out of it, leaving Jasper the sole beneficiary. Both cousins are in love with the beautiful Octavia Snowden, another cousin, who is also named in the will. A femme fatale makes her appearance in the form of Edith Snowden, a woman unhappily married and looking for diversion. Maurice who has recently returned from a course of treatment in London to the family mansion is thrown into the midst of a mystery. An eerie abbot is frequently sighted wandering through the corridors of the ancient country house....

Book is in pdf format.
English language.
Pages:54.