Horace Bickley is worried when his soon-to-be-married daughter begins to experience horribly vivid dreams of a grey-bearded man. The young woman is tormented by nightmares that threaten her health, her sanity, and her life. Her father calls on the advice of his friend, Sir Perseus Farrar.
(From the dust jacket of the First Edition):
Mr. Wakefield's first book of Ghost Stories, published under the happy title of THEY RETURN AT EVENING, was so successful that the author has been persuaded to draw further upon the resources of his horrific imagination.
For the encouragement of the reader, Mr. Wakefield writes: "Personally I have not seen or felt anything supernatural for some years. (Probably since I began to write about them, Ghosts have left me in disgust). I am convinced, however, that any percipient person might enjoy any of these experiences on any dark night - or bright day. Such strollers are never farther away than just round the corner from what is called "Reality."
OLD MAN'S BEARD, H. R. Wakefield's second collection of ghost stories, was first published in 1929, and built on the success of the earlier THEY RETURN AT EVENING. The fifteen disturbing tales collected here are: 'Old Man's Beard', 'The Last to Leave', 'The Cairn', 'Present at the End', '"Look Up There!"', '"Written in Our Flesh"', 'Blind Man's Buff', 'A Coincidence at Hunton', 'Nurse's Tale', 'The Dune', 'Unrehearsed', 'A Jolly Surprise for Henri', 'The Red Hand', 'Surprise Item', 'A Case of Mistaken Identity'.
