the churchyard,
and not walk in unorthodox places, to frighten folks."

They looked somewhat curiously at the seat near which Alice had fallen;
at the Willow Pond, farther on. There was no trace of a ghost about
then--at least, that they could see--and they continued their way. In
emerging upon the high road, whom should they meet but old Mr.
Bitterworth and Lionel, arm in arm. They had been to an evening meeting
of the magistrates at Deerham, and were walking home together.

To see the vicar and surgeon of a country village in company by night,
imparts the idea that some one of its inhabitants may be in extremity.
It did so now to Mr. Bitterworth--

"Where do you come from?" he asked.

"From Hook's," answered Jan. "The mother's better to-night; but I have
had another patient there. The girl, Alice, has seen the ghost, or
fancied that she saw it, and was terrified, literally, out of her
senses."

"How is she going on?" asked Mr. Bitterworth.

"Physically, do you mean, sir?"

"No, I meant morally, Jan. If all accounts are true, the girl has been
losing herself."

"Law!" said Jan. "Deerham has known that this many a month past. I'd try
and stop it, if I were Lionel."

"Stop what?" asked Lionel.

"I'd build 'em better dwellings," composedly went on Jan. "They might be
brought up to decency then."

"It's true that decency can't put its head into such dwellings as that
of the Hooks'," observed the vicar. "People have accused me of showing
leniency to Alice Hook, since the scandal has been known; but I cannot
show harshness to her when I think of the home the girl was reared in."

The words pricked Lionel. None could think worse of the homes than he
did. He spoke in a cross tone; we are all apt to do so, when vexed with
ourselves. "What possesses Deerham to show itself so absurd just now?
Ghosts! They only affect fear, it is my belief."

"Alice Hook did not affect it, for one," said Jan. "She may have been
frightened to some purpose. We found her lying on the ground,
insensible. They are stupid, though, all the lot of them."

"Stupid is not the name for it," remarked Lionel. "A little
superstition, following on Rachel's peculiar death, may have been
excusable, considering the ignorance of the people here, and the
tendency to superstition inherent in human nature. But why it should
have been revived now, I cannot imagine."

Mr. Bitterworth and Jan had walked on. The vicar touched Lionel on the
arm, not imme