lantern, on the curtain at the foot of the bed-for, through certain private reasons of her own, Miss Mullins had resolved not only to be alone, but to receive her visitor-as the French ladies do -in her chambre à coucher. Perhaps she did not care that any ear but her own should receive a disclosure which might involve matters of the most delicate nature; a secret that might perchance affect the reputation of her late parent, or her own social position. However, it

was in solitude and

from her pillow, that

with starting eyeballs, and outstretched arms, she gazed for the ninth time on the silent Phantom, which had assumed a listening expression, and an expectant attitude, as if it had been invisibly present at the recent debate, and had over

heard the composition

of the projected speech. But that speech was never to be spoken. In vain poor Mary tried to give it utterance; it seemed to stick, like an apothecary's powder, in her throat-to her fauces, her palate, her tongue, and her teeth, so that she could not get it out of her mouth.

The Ghost made a sign of impatience.

Poor Mary gasped.

The Spirit frowned and apparently stamped with its foot. Poor Mary made another violent effort to speak, but only gave a sort of tremulous croak.

The features of the Phantom again began to work - the muscles about the mouth quivered and twitched.

Poor Mary's did the same.

The whole face of the Apparition was drawn and puckered by a spasmodic paroxysm, and poor Mary felt that she was imitating the contortions, and even that hideous grin, the risus sardonicus, which had inspired her with such horror.

At last with infinite difficulty, she contrived by a desperate effort to utter a short ejaculation—but brief as it was it sufficed to break the spell.

The Ghost, as if it had only awaited the blessed sound of one single syllable from the human voice, to release its own vocal organs from their mysterious thraldom, instantly spoke.

But the words are worthy of a separate chapter.

CHAPTER XIII.

"Mary! it arn't booked-but there's tuppence for sandpaper at number nine!"

AN OLD ONE, BUT GOOD, WITH BOTH HANDS IN THE RING.

NOTE. "It is much to the Discredit of Ghosts,"-Says Johannes Lanternus, in his Treatise of Apparitions,"-" that they doe so commonly revisit the Earth on such trivial Errands as would hardly justify a journey from London to York, much less from one World to another. Grave and weighty ought to be the Matter that can awaken a Spirit from the deep Slumbers of the Tomb: solemn and potent must be the Spell, to induce the liborated Soul, divorced with such mortal Agony from its human Clothing, to put on merely such flimsy Atoms, as may render it visible to the Eye of Flesh. For neither willingly nor wantonly doth the Spirit of a Man forsake its subterrane Dwelling, as may be seen in the awful Question by the Ghost of Samuel to the Witch of Endor- Wherefore hast thou disquieted Me and called me up? And yet, forsooth, a walking Phantom shall break the Bonds of Death, and perchance the Bonds of Hell to boot, to go on a Mes age, which concerns but an Individual, and not a great one either, or at most a Family, nor yet one of note, for example, to disclose the lurking Place of a lost Will, or of a Pot of Money in Dame Perkins her back Yard, -Whereas such a Supernatural Intelligencer hath seldom been vouchsafed to reveal a State Plot-to prevent a Royal Murther, or avert the Shipwrack of an whole Empire. Wherefore I conclude that many or most Ghost Stories have had their rise in the Self-Conceit of vain ignorant People, or the Arrogance of great Families, who take Pride in the Belief that their mundane Affairs are of so important a Pitch, as to perturb departed Souls, even amidst the Pains of Purgatory, or the Pleasures of Paradise."

No dawn-no dusk-no proper time of day

No sky-no earthly view

No distance looking blue

No road-no street-no "t'other side the way "-
No end to any Row-

No indications where the Crescents go-
No top to any steeple-

No recognitions of familiar people

No courtesies for showing 'em-
No knowing 'em!-

No travelling at all-no locomotion,

No inkling of the way-no notion

66

No go"-by land or ocean

No mail-no post

No news from any foreign coast

No Park-no Ring-no afternoon gentility-
No company-no nobility-

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member-

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flow'rs, no leaves, no birds,
November!

ON A LATE CATTLE-SHOW IN SMITHFIELD.
OLD Farmer Bull is taken sick,

Yet not with any sudden trick
Of fever, or his old dyspepsy;
But having seen the foreign stock,
It gave his system such a shock
He's had a fit of Cattle-epsy!

A BLACK JOB.

"No doubt the pleasure is as great,

Of being cheated as to cheat."-HUDIBRAS.

THE history of human-kind to trace,

Since Eve-the first of dupes-our doom unriddled, A certain portion of the human race

Has certainly a taste for being diddled.

Witness the famous Mississippi dreams!
A rage that time seems only to redouble-