t Davis,
who might have ruined her, was now dead.

The next day the newly-married pair left New York for the city of
Boston, according to previous arrangement. Arrived in that great
metropolis, they took up their quarters at the most fashionable hotel,
there to remain until Mr. Hedge should purchase a suitable house in
which to take up their permanent residence.

Julia had not neglected to bring her maid Susan with her, as that
discreet abigail might be of service to her in any little matter of
intrigue she might engage in. Nero, the black, she had discharged from
her service.

Her greatest happiness now arose from the belief that she had now
escaped from the persecutions of the Dead Man.

CHAPTER XXV

_Servants' Frolics--a Footman in Luck--a Spectre--a Footman out of
Luck--the Torture--the Murder, and Destruction of Franklin House._

We left Franklin House in charge of Simon, the favorite footman of Mrs.
Franklin, who was to take care of the house until it should be sold, and
then join his mistress in Boston.

Now, although Simon was an honorable, faithful fellow enough, he soon
grew intolerably lonesome, and heartily tired of being all alone in that
great mansion. To beguile his time, he often invited other servants of
his acquaintance to come and sup with him; and regardless of the orders
of his mistress, several of his visitors were females. These guests he
would entertain in the most sumptuous manner; and Franklin House became
the scene of reckless dissipation and noisy revels, such as it had
seldom witnessed before.

One evening Simon invited a goodly number of his friends to a 'grand
banquet,' as he pompously termed it; and there assembled in the spacious
parlor about twenty male and female domestics from various houses in the
neighborhood. The males included fat butlers, gouty coachman, lean
footmen and sturdy grooms; and among the females were buxom cooks,
portly laundresses and pretty ladies' maids. Simon had well nigh
emptied the cellar of its choice contents, in order to supply wine to
his guests; and towards midnight the party became uproarious in the
extreme.

We shall not attempt to sketch the toasts that were offered, nor the
speeches that were made; neither shall we enter too minutely into the
particulars of the game of 'hide-and-seek,' in which they indulged--or
tell how our handsome footman chased some black-eyed damsel into a dark
and distant chamber, and there tussled her upon th