this world
has fallen to my share, I mean to set to work to thoroughly enjoy; and
the fact is that the old bridely aunt has such a ghostly, haunting
effect upon me, that I can't help associating all sorts of eery,
uncanny, shuddery feelings with the very word "bride."'

"I'm sorry for you,' said Marzell; 'for my part, the moment I think of
a girl dressed for her wedding, I feel sweet, secret thrills going all
through me; and if I see such a creature, I feel impelled to clasp her
to me, mentally, with a lofty, pure affection which has nothing in
common with mundane passion.'

"'Oh!' said Alexander, 'I know you always fall in love with every bride
you come across; and often even other people's sweethearts are to be
found set up in that inner sanctuary which you have established in your
imagination.'

"'He loves with them that love,' said Severin; 'that's why I like him
so much.'

"I shall set my aunt at him,' said Alexander, laughing, 'and see if
that will rid me of a species of haunting which is becoming rather a
nuisance to me. You are looking at me with questioning glances, are
you?--very well then; I'll make a clean breast of it. The old-maid
nature is traceable in me in this further respect, that I feel a
perfectly unendurable terror of ghosts, and go on like some little
child whom its nurse has frightened with a bogy. What happens is no
less than this: that often in broad daylight, and particularly about
mid-day, when I'm looking into the chests and boxes, I suddenly seem to
catch a glimpse of my aunt's peaky nose close beside me, and of her
long, lean fingers poking in among the clothes and linen, and rummaging
among them. If I take down a teacup, or a saucepan off the wall, to
look at them with a feeling of satisfaction, all the rest rattle, and I
expect to see a ghostly hand offering me another; then I throw the
things down, and run to the front-room without looking over my
shoulder. There I sing or whistle out of the open window into the
street, at which Mistress Anne is greatly scandalized: and that the
aunt "walks" every night at twelve o'clock is a positive and undoubted
fact.'

"Marzell laughed heartily at this. Severin remained grave, and said,
'Let us hear all about that; it'll probably turn out to be some trick
or other. Fancy a fellow with your enlightened, advanced views, turning
spirit-seer!'

"'Well, Severin,' said Alexander, 'you know quite well, and so does
Marzell, that nobody could be le