ice, "I don't follow
you at all."

She felt acutely, unreasonably disappointed. There was no one in the
world who had first loved and then hated her, or who _could_ hate her.
She cast her mind back to some of her schoolfellows; but no, as far as
she knew they were all still alive, and there was not one of them to
whom these exaggerated terms of love and hatred could be applied.

Bubbles dragged her chair on till she was just opposite Sir Lyon
Dilsford.

He put up his hand: "Will you kindly pass me by, Laughing Water?" he
said, in his full, pleasant voice. "I'm an adept, and I don't care for
open Circles. If you don't mind, will you pass on?"

And Bubbles dragged on her chair again over the Aubusson carpet.

She was now opposite Miss Burnaby, and the old lady was looking at her
with an air of fear and curiosity which strangely altered her round,
usually placid face.

"I see a tall young man standing behind you," began Bubbles in a
monotonous voice. "He has such a funny-looking long coat on; a
queer-shaped cap, too. Why, he's dripping with water!"

And then, almost as if in spite of herself, Miss Burnaby muttered: "Our
brother John, who was drowned."

"He wants me to tell you that he's very happy, and that he sends you
your father's and mother's love."

Bubbles waited for what seemed quite a long time, then she went on
again: "I see another man. He is a very good-looking man. He has a high
forehead, blue eyes, and a golden mustache. He is in uniform. Is it an
English uniform?"

Miss Burnaby shook her head.

"I think it's an Austrian uniform," said Bubbles hesitatingly; then she
continued, in that voice which was hers and yet not hers, for it seemed
instinct with another mind: "He says, 'My love! My love, why did you
lack courage?'"

The old lady covered her face with her hands. "Stop! Please stop," she
said pitifully.

Bubbles dragged her chair across the front of the fire till she was
exactly opposite Mr. Burnaby.

For a few moments nothing happened. The fire had died down. There was
only a flicker of light in the room. Then all at once the girl gave a
convulsive shudder. "I can't help it," she muttered in a frightened
tone. "Someone's coming through!"

All the colour went out of the healthy old man's face. "Eh, what?" he
exclaimed uneasily.

Like Mr. Tapster, he had thought all this tomfoolery, but while Bubbles
had been speaking to, or at, his sister, he had felt amazed, as well as
acutely uncomf