in the coolest manner, simultaneously dropped
out of their respective bedroom windows, hand
over hand by their counterpanes, to "overhaul"
something mysterious in the garden.

The engagement among us was faithfully
kept, and nobody revealed anything. All we
knew, was, if any one's room were haunted, no
one looked the worse for it. Christmas came,
and we had noble Christmas fare ("all hands"
had been pressed for the pudding), and Twelfth
Night came, and our store of mincemeat was
ample to hold out to the last day of our
time, and our cake was quite a glorious sight.
It was then, as we all sat round the table and
the fire, that I recited the terms of our compact,
and called, first, for

                    THE GHOST IN THE CLOCK ROOM

My cousin, John Herschel, turned rather red, and turned rather white, and said he could not
deny that his room had been haunted. The Spirit of a woman had pervaded it. On being asked
by several voices whether the Spirit had taken any terrible or ugly shape, my cousin drew his
wife's arm through his own, and said decidedly, "No." To the question, had his wife been aware
of the Spirit? he answered, "Yes." Had it spoken? "Oh clear, yes!" As to the question,
"What did it say?" he replied apologetically, that he could have wished his wife would have
undertaken the answer, for she would have executed it much better than he. However, she had
made him promise to be the mouthpiece of the Spirit, and was very anxious that he should withhold
nothing; so, he would do his best, subject to her correction. "Suppose the Spirit," added
my cousin, as he finally prepared himself for beginning, "to be my wife here, sitting among us:"

I was an orphan from my infancy, with six
elder half-sisters. A long and persistent course
of training imposed upon me the yoke of a
second and diverse nature, and I grew up as
much the child of my eldest sister, Barbara, as
I was the daughter of my deceased parents.

Barbara, in all her private plans, as in all
her domestic decrees, inexorably decided that
her sisters must be married; and, so powerful
had been her single but inflexible will, that
each of them had been advantageously settled,
excepting myself, upon whom she built her highest
hopes.

Most people know a character such as I had
grown — a mindless, flirting girl, whose
acknowledged vocation was the hunting and catching
of an eligible match ; rather pretty, lively,
and just sentimental enough to make me a very
pleasant companion for an idle hour or two, as I
exacted and enjoyed the slight attentions an
unemployed man is pleased to offer. There was
scarcely a young man in the neighbourhood with
whom I had not coquetted. I had served my
seven years' apprenticeship to my profession,
and had passed my twenty-fifth birthday without
having achieved my purpose, when Barbara's
patience was wearied, and she spoke to me with
a decision and explicitness we had always
avoided; for, on some subjects, it is better to
have a silent understanding than an expressed
opinion.

"Stella," she said, solemnly, "you are now
five-and-twenty, and every one of your sisters
were in homes of their own before they were
your age; yet none of them had your
advantages or your talents. But I must tell you
frankly your chances are on the wane, and, unless
you exert yourself, our plans must fail. I have
observed an error into which you have fallen,
and which I have not mentioned before.
Besides your very open and indiscriminate flirtations
which young men regard only as an amusing
pastime you have a way with you of rallying
and laughing at any one who begins to look
really serious. Now your opportunity rests upon
the moment when they begin to be earnest in
their manner. Then you should seem confused
and silenced ; you ought to lose your vivacity,
and half avoid them ; seeming almost frightened
and quite bewildered by the change. A little
melancholy goes a deal further than the utmost
cheerfulness; for, if a man believes you can live
without him, he will not, give you a second
thought. I could name half a dozen most
eligible settlements you have lost by laughing
at the wrong minute. Mortify a man's self-
love, Stella, and you can never heal the
wound."

I paused for a minute or two before I
answered; for the original suppressed nature that I
had inherited from my unknown mother, was
stirring unwonted feeling in my heart.

"Barbara," I answered, with timidity,
"among all the people I have known, I never
saw one whom I could reverence, and look up
to; nor, I am half ashamed to use the word,
whom I could love."

"I do not wonder you are ashamed," said
Barbara, severely. "At your age, you cannot
expect to fall in love like a girl of seventeen.
But I tell you, definitely and distinctly, it is
necessary that you should marry; and we had
better work in concert now. So, if you will
decide upon any one, I will give you every
assistance in my power, and, if you will only
concentrate your wishes and abilities, you
cannot fail. Propinquity is all you require, if you
once make up your mind."

"I do not like any one I know," I replied,
moodily; "and I have no chance with those
who have known me; so I decide upon besieging
Martin Fraser."

Barbara received this announcement with a
snort of derisive anger.

The neighbourhood in which we lived was a
populous iron district, where, though there were