he had made upon him, both by letter, and by word of
mouth. These he had borne with the utmost bravery and coolness, and
there were times when they even afforded him entertainment. But this
most astounding attack was something against which no man could have
been prepared; and Mr Brandon, suddenly pounced upon in the midst of
his comfortable bachelordom by a malevolent sorceress and hurled back
to the days of his youth, was shown himself kneeling, not at the feet
of a fair young girl, but before a horrible old woman.

This amazing and startling state of affairs was too much for him
immediately to comprehend. It stunned and bewildered him. Such,
indeed, was the effect upon him that the first act of his mind, when
he was left alone, and it began to act, was to ask of itself if there
were really any grounds upon which Mrs Keswick could, with any reason,
take up her position? The absolute absurdity of her position, however,
became more and more evident, as Mr Brandon's mind began to straighten
itself and stand up. And now he grew angry. Anger was a passion with
which he was not at all unfamiliar, and the exercise of it seemed to
do him good. When he had walked up and down his library for a quarter
of an hour, he felt almost like his natural self; and with many nods
of his head and shakes of his fist, he declared that the old woman was
crazy, and that he would bundle her home just as soon as he could.

By dinner-time he had cooled down a good deal, and he resolved to
treat her with the respect due to her age and former condition of
sanity; but to take care that she should not again be alone with him,
and to arrange that she should return to her home that day.

Mrs Keswick came to the table with a smiling face, and wearing a
close-fitting white cap, which looked like a portion of her night
gear, tied under her chin with broad, stiff strings. In this she
appeared to her host as far more hideous than when wearing her
sun-bonnet. Mr Brandon had arranged that two servants should wait upon
the table, so that one of them should always be in the room, but in
his supposition that the presence of a third person would have any
effect upon the expression of Mrs Keswick's fond regard, he was
mistaken. The meal had scarcely begun, when she looked around the room
with wide-open eyes, and exclaimed: "Robert, if we should conclude
to remain here, I think we will have this room re-papered with some
light-colored paper. I like a light dining