get who you are speaking to,' she observed crushingly, which
was rather unduly severe, considering she had only just remembered it
herself."

"But," exclaimed the Journalist, "the Lofoden Island people! Who had
they got hold of?"

"A purely mythical prisoner. It was an attempt in the first place by
some one who knew something of the domestic situation, probably a
discharged valet, to bluff a lump sum out of Edward Umberleigh before the
missing woman turned up; the subsequent yearly instalments were an
unlooked-for increment to the original haul.

"Crispina found that the eight years' interregnum had materially weakened
her ascendancy over her now grown-up offspring. Her husband, however,
never accomplished anything great in the political world after her
return; the strain of trying to account satisfactorily for an unspecified
expenditure of sixteen thousand pounds spread over eight years
sufficiently occupied his mental energies. Here is Belgrad and another
custom house."

THE WOLVES OF CERNOGRATZ

"Are they any old legends attached to the castle?" asked Conrad of his
sister. Conrad was a prosperous Hamburg merchant, but he was the one
poetically-dispositioned member of an eminently practical family.

The Baroness Gruebel shrugged her plump shoulders.

"There are always legends hanging about these old places. They are not
difficult to invent and they cost nothing. In this case there is a story
that when any one dies in the castle all the dogs in the village and the
wild beasts in forest howl the night long. It would not be pleasant to
listen to, would it?"

"It would be weird and romantic," said the Hamburg merchant.

"Anyhow, it isn't true," said the Baroness complacently; "since we bought
the place we have had proof that nothing of the sort happens. When the
old mother-in-law died last springtime we all listened, but there was no
howling. It is just a story that lends dignity to the place without
costing anything."

"The story is not as you have told it," said Amalie, the grey old
governess. Every one turned and looked at her in astonishment. She was
wont to sit silent and prim and faded in her place at table, never
speaking unless some one spoke to her, and there were few who troubled
themselves to make conversation with her. To-day a sudden volubility had
descended on her; she continued to talk, rapidly and nervously, looking
straight in front of her and seeming to address no one in