hat thick you couldn't see your hand before
your face!"

"Are you quite sure, ladies," asked the Commandant, still gravely,
"that you are not exaggerating the thickness of the fog, somewhat?"

"What?" Miss Gabriel took him up, like an echo. "When we started for
home and found we were half-way up Garrison Hill, and all the time
convinced we were at Old Town, in the churchyard!"

The Commandant shook his head; and it must be conceded that he had some
excuse.

"But why in the churchyard?" he asked, gently.

"Because of the bell. If it comes to that"--Miss Gabriel threw herself
desperately on the offensive--"how do you account for the woman we saw
here, just now?"

"I beg your pardon? A--a woman, did you say?" (Oh, Major Vigoureux!)

"Yes, sir--a woman; a bedizened woman."

"My dear Elizabeth," pleaded Mrs. Pope feebly, "are we quite sure that
we saw her?--that it wasn't a--a sort of mistake? It certainly
seemed--for a moment---- But really, you know, there is no one in the
Islands----"

"My dear Charlotte, didn't we see her with our own eyes?"

Mrs. Pope sighed. "It seems to me I have seen such a number of
things--of incredible things--to-night."

"You are sure it wasn't Mrs. Treacher?" suggested the Commandant,
wickedly.

"Mrs. Treacher! Mrs. Trea---- Does Mrs. Treacher go about in silks and
furs and low bodices with a thousand pounds' worth of diamonds on her
abandoned neck?"

"Certainly not to my knowledge. But," said the Commandant, turning, as
the door opened, "you had better ask her for yourself."

Now, it may be that Mrs. Treacher had also allowed Vashti to bewitch
her. At any rate, she cordially hated Miss Gabriel, and she took, then
and there, what she herself called afterwards, a strong line.

"What are they wanting to know now?" she demanded, addressing the
Commandant.

"Miss Gabriel wants to know"--he answered, in a husky voice, while he
pretended to trim the lamp--"if you go about in silks and furs."

"No, I don't," replied Mrs. Treacher, setting down the bottle of gin.
"And what's more, I don't go a-sheevoing it around Garrison Hill in the
small hours, and a-holding on to railings, and a-clammering for strong
drink."

"That will do, Mrs. Treacher," interposed her master, suddenly reduced
to contrition at the sight of Miss Gabriel, who stood speechless,
opening and shutting her mouth like a fish. "The ladies have lost their
way in the fog, and were, on the whole, extremely fortunate to