"The Ghosts." Lord Dunsany.

One-minute review: An isolated old house filled with the reminders of its past noble inhabitants. The narrator argues with his brother about the existence of ghosts and goes to bed without dinner to experience the ghosts. They come in animal shapes. They are not the ghosts of the former inhabitants, but the ghosts of their sins. They claw to get at the narrator and suddenly he wants to kill his brother. The ghosts of sin are delighted. Thinking of algebraic formulas, he is restored to normal logic and the ghosts of sin disappear. He is again of normal intelligence and perspective.

75 Short Masterpieces: Stories from the World’s Literature. Ed. Roger B. Goodman. New York: Bantam Books. 1961.