Margaret McNairy rose from her prostrate body. She passed through the onlookers in the hallway. She floated down the hallway. She stopped next to a pale woman dressed in white.
"I'm dead, aren't I?" she said to the Lady in White.
"Yes, my dear. You are dead," said the Lady in White.
Margaret said, "So, I guess that you're the Lady in White."
"That I am," said the Lady in White.
"How odd," said Margaret. "Fancy meeting you in person. So, I guess that you speak English."
"Oh, everyone speaks every language in the afterlife," said the Lady in White.
Margaret chuckled. "Fancy dying in a hotel. Fancy dying in this hotel. Well, I lucked out, didn't I? Now I'm stuck someplace nice for eternity."
"You don't have to stay here, you know," said the Lady in White.
"Well, you obviously stay here," said Margaret.
"Well, I stay here because I enjoy myself so much. Charles Melville Hays checked into a suite today. He is president of the Grand Trunk Railway, you know. He's scouting out this place since he commissioned one of his own, in Ottawa. Plans to call that one Chateau Laurier. I thought that it would be fun to mess with him a little bit. Climb into the bath with him. Appear in a mirror. That sort of thing. Le Comte – you know, the Count – told me to leave Mr. Hays alone. Said that the poor man is going to drown in a year or two."
"The Comte?" said Margaret.
"Comte de Frontenac, of course," said the Lady in White. "The Comte has been dead long enough that he can see a little bit into the future. He told us that Mr. Hays is going to go down on the Titanic."
"Wait a minute," said Margaret. "Are you talking about that luxury ship? But they're still building it! It's going to be unsinkable!"
"That's what you think," said the Lady in White with a smirk.
"Do you speak with Comte de Frontenac often?" said Margaret.
"Sometimes," said the Lady in White. "He's been so anxious lately. One of the newer souls here suggested that he visit his birthplace in France. Le Comte shook his head. He said that the first of two wars will devastate France soon. It would just make him sad to be there, watching all of the people, walking around oblivious."
Margaret walked to a picture window overlooking the Plains of Abraham and La Citadelle. "Pardon, but I see several battlefields from several wars outside of this window."
The Lady in White said, "Well, Le Comte told us that these wars are going to be much worse than anything that his ghost ever saw here in Quebec City. They'll be so bad that even the people here in this city are never going to be the same. So, he just wants to watch over Quebec City for now."
Margaret heard a bagpipe. "What's with the music?" she asked.
The Lady in White said, "Oh, that's the Piper. He hangs around here sometimes."