ere the trivial matter of two or three inches from the
rug. Whereupon, with still another effort, he brought himself down until
his feet rested decently upon the floor. It was only when he walked
about to examine the bric-a-brac that a suspicious lightness was
discernible in his tread.

When he had composed himself by the survey, effecting it with an air of
great insouciance, which, however, failed to conceal the fact that his
heart was beating somewhat wildly, he approached the Lady.

"Well, here we are again, my love!" he cried, and devoured her hands
with ghostly kisses. "It seems an eternity that I've been struggling
back to you through the outer void and what-not. Sometimes, I confess I
all but despaired. Life is not, I assure you, all beer and skittles for
the disembodied."

He drew a long breath, and his gaze upon her and the entire chamber
seemed to envelop all and cherish it.

"Little room, little room! And so you are thus! Do you know," he
continued, with vivacity, "I have wondered about it in the grave, and I
could hardly sleep for this place unpenetrated. Heigho! What a lot of
things we leave undone! I dashed this off at the time, the literary
passion strong in me, thus:

"Now, when all is done, and I lie so low,
I cannot sleep for this, my only care;
For though of that dim place I could not know;
That where my heart was fain I did not go,
Nor saw you musing there!

"Well, well, these things irk a ghost so. Naturally, as soon as possible
I made my way back--to be satisfied--to be satisfied that you were still
mine." He bent a piercing look upon her.

"I observe by the calendar on your writing-table that some years have
elapsed since my----um----since I expired," he added, with a faint
blush. It appears that the matter of their dissolution is, in
conversation, rather kept in the background by well-bred ghosts.

"Heigho! How time does fly! You'll be joining me soon, my dear."

She drew herself splendidly up, and he was aware of her beauty in the
full of its tenacious excellence--of the delicate insolence of Life
looking upon Death--of the fact _that she had forgotten him_.

He rose, and confronted this, his trembling hands thrust into his
pockets, then turned away to hide the dismay of his countenance. He was,
however, a spook of considerable spirit, and in a jiffy he met the
occasion. To her blank, indignant gaze he drew a card from his case,
and, taking a pencil from