lties. The gas in the
reception-room had been turned low, and his door had been softly opened.
The rooms were quite dark, but the light from the street-lamps were
sufficient to show him the plump outlines of a form which he felt sure
that if it had had an orthodox amount of clothing upon it he could
recognize. It certainly seemed to be the form of a woman, and her long,
dishevelled black hair fell all about her shoulders and below her waist,
while her _robe de nuit_ trailed behind her with fear-inspiring,
tremulous rustlings. On came the robust ghost, and in the weird gloaming
which filled the apartment, he saw the mysterious thing moving towards
him, and in a sort of frenzy of excitement yelled:

"Who's that?"

No answer; but the slow, firm pace of the apparition came nearer to
Bristol's bedside, and he partially rose upon his knees as if to defend
himself.

"Say!--you!" shouted Bristol, "get--get out of here!"

But the ghostly figure came on as resistless as fate until it reached
his bedside. By this time he had risen to his feet and was edging along
the wall to escape, when to his horror he saw the spectre bound into the
bed he had so expeditiously vacated and reach for him with a very
business-like grasp which he nimbly eluded, and with a series of bounds
and scrambles reached the floor. He stood where he had struck for a
moment, addressing some very decided and italicized remarks to the
lively ghost in his bed, and then, in one grand burst of virtuous
indignation, made an impetuous dive at the figure, caught it by one of
its very plump arms, brought the ghost from the bed with a mighty
effort, and securing its left ear with his right hand, trotted the
animated shadow out of his room and into the reception-room right up to
the pier-glass, and then turning on one of the jets at its side, said to
the magnificent ghost, in a voice husky from excitement and rage:

"Woman! if you ever do that thing again, I'll--I'll--aren't you ashamed
of yourself, Mrs. Winslow?"

At the sound of her name, and after a few moments' apparently bewildered
reflection, Mrs. Winslow opened her eyes, which had previously remained
closed, and in an affectedly startled way gasped:

"Oh! where am I? what _have_ you been trying to do with me, Mr.
Bristol?"

To have seen the couple thus in the full gaslight before the
pier-glass, which both reflected and intensified the odd situation--the
woman, held to the mirror so that she might more st