lights, and gay conversation, conjure up, exactly at the same moment, a spectral illusion, which, in face, figure, and dress, should be absolutely identical? More over, as will be shown a little later, the vision was not so entirely without purpose as at first sight they judged it to be.

To resume. The commotion gradually subsided, and the officers again took their seats, but their cheerfulness seemed to have vanished and the talk flagged; if a stray remark were passed, it led to nothing.

'I wonder if the apparition portends misfortune to either of you two?' said Beamish, derisively glancing towards Norris and Anderson.

Neither answered.

Presently Wilson addressed his

host.

You have to visit the guards to-night. When do you start?' 'After midnight,' answered Norris briefly.

'I'll go round with you.'

But the other wouldn't hear of it. However, nothing untoward happened, and early next morning the two friends left for Ireland.

A month later, his leave having expired, Norris rejoined his regi

ment.

On arriving, one of the first persons he encountered was the surgeon, with whom of course he entered into conversation.

After a little he said rather abruptly,

'Ah, Anderson, how about the apparition did you unravel the mystery of its appearance?'

'I thought you knew; surely you have heard all about it?' replied his companion, with an air of surprise.

'Not a word, not a syllable,' said the other. To tell the truth, the matter has troubled me but

little; still, I'm glad it admits of a rational explanation.'

echo

'A rational explanation ed the doctor, with a queer smile. He drew from his pocket a large gold locket, and having opened it he handed it to his friend. Just look at that,' he continued.

'Good Heavens! cried Norris, gazing at the miniature, it is the spectre! Why, it is the portrait of Mrs. Morgan, who died in India! I'm more puzzled than ever.'

'I suppose, then, I'd better begin at the beginning and explain,' said the surgeon. 'As you are aware, Morgan-who has been steadily going downhill since his wife's death-was induced, about two months ago, to leave Aldershot on sick-leave for change of air and scene. Well, after that extraordinary experience of ours at dinner, I passed a restless uncomfortable night, sleeping very badly; I therefore got up earlier than usual, intending to take a brisk walk before going to hospital. Soon after I left the barracks I met Burke, Morgan's servant, and casually asked him if he had any news of his master. To my astonishment he informed me that Morgan had returned to Aldershot four days ago, and at the present moment was lying in his quarters seriously unwell. Of course I went to him immediately, and then the true state of affairs at once became clear. Morgan, perhaps hardly responsible for his actions, had concealed his arrival that he might, unchecked, give free rein to his intense craving for stimulants, and now he was so ill that I had very little hope of his recovery. After doing all I could for him, I was turning to leave the room, when my eyes fell on the large coloured photograph of his wife, that stood on a side-table. Then, in an instant, like a flash came the con

viction that Mrs. Morgan and the apparition were identical, and that it was her features, seen distinctly as she walked past the window, that I had been trying in vain to recall ; in the likeness she was dressed as a bride in white. You know I was with the poor lady in her last illness, and I take it the meaning of the vision was to call my attention to the fact that her husband was dying uncared for and alone, within a few hundred yards of where we were dining so merrily.'

It is a strange occurrence, the very strangest in my experience,'

I re

said Norris thoughtfully. member the photo you mention quite well; this one in the locket is the same, only reduced in size. I believe I knew more of Morgan than most of the others, as our rooms opened into the same corridor, and I was, in a way, his next neighbour; perhaps that may be one reason why I also saw the apparition. How long is it since Morgan died?'

He expired a fortnight ago,' replied the surgeon-quietly, I am thankful to say, and with his faculties clear.'

CHAPTER LXXI. ‘VANITY, VANITY, ALL IS VANITY,'

ILLUSTRATED БҮ THE LATE
JEROME DAWE, ESQ.; DANIEL
RUDDOCK, ESQ.; MARTHA
SPRING, COOK-HOUSEKEEPER ;

AND OTHERS.

Ir was just two months later, and a small party were met together in the library of the late Jerome Dawe, Esq. For the late Jerome Dawe was now his legal appellation. He had faintly rallied from the first apoplectic stroke, and for a week he exhibited signs of consciousness, but he never spoke again. And now Jerome Dawe was lying at rest, and this serious company had assembled to hear the reading of his last will and testament.

There were three remote cousins with faint expectations, but as these have not hitherto been at any pains to take part in this history, they shall not now be suffered to emerge from obscurity. Old friends are here-Samuel and Sally Badger, Margaret and Sholto Alexander, Daniel and Eugene Ruddock, and on the outskirts of the party Martha Spring hovers like a hyena. This comparison is not, however, pointed at Martha as she appeared to the eye, for she was clad in black of widowish severity, and with short skirts and white stockings. She was a spectacle to which natural history could furnish no parallel. Still

Matty reminded one of a hyena. She kept, as it were, in the suburbs of the assembly. She maintained an inferior deportment. And Matty's expectation was that she would make her meal when the others had left the field.

Margaret Alexander looked serious and perfectly composed, and Sholto pale, spiritless, and unhappy. But in neither mother nor son was there any of the restlessness of the doubting legatee. The heroic Sally looked independent of fortune too, but in a different way. There was not the smallest trace of nervousness about her. She sat waiting for the coming of the lawyer, as if he were about to utter her decree, not to announce her fate. Samuel meanwhile was moist and pallid with anxiety, for he knew nothing of what Jerome Dawe had done, his wife having kept him in the dark as a punishment. Accordingly Samuel was swinging like a pendulum, from hope to despair. Hope whispered in his ear that, if Jerome Dawe had left them even five thousand pounds, their ruin would be repaired. Despair replied that the career of Samuel Badger had been unfortunate hitherto, and, by the law of continuity, would be unfortunate to the end.

Eugene treated the whole Ruddock party with superciliousness. He displayed in his manner that sort of contempt, thinly disguised

by civility, which is most irritating to sensitive people. Sally did not regard his airs at all, for, knowing that she held a handful of trumps, she waited until the game should avenge her smarts. But Samuel winced fearfully under Eugene's scorn. The little dandy's sneers were to poor Samuel like the taunts with which some despised criminal is tortured on his way to execution. They foretold, and at the same time embittered, the inevitable doom.

Meanwhile Daniel Ruddock was particularly polite and smooth and gracious to everybody, especially to Sally Badger and Martha Spring. Daniel, at times, had been almost tearful.

'It has been an old friendship, has Jerome's and mine,' he remarked. 'That man has been a friend to me, a cousin, a brother, a father. He was one of the salt of the earth. We loved each other, and I have told him more than once that, if ever I should be the survivor, my desire should be to have his large Bible and his snuff box. I should value them for friendship's sake. Good old Jerome Dawe! I daresay he has thought of that. We shall find he has remembered his old chum's request.'

Matty was in the room, and, alarmed at this statement of disinterestedness, and resolved not to be outdone, she broke out :

'You was like me, sir. I asted him to leave me his portrait-the only one he ever had done, cut in black paper, you know. "I ast no more," says I. "Matty," he says, "it is not enough, after your years and years. Besides," says he," it is not like." "It is your living image, sir," I says, "except the tip of the nose, which wants rounding with the scissors." "But it is not enough, Matty," he says.

VOL. XLIV. NO. CCLXIV.

"Excuse me contradicting you,'

I says; "it is enough.' "Not after your years and years, Matty," says he."

While Daniel and Matty were thus preparing for their own impending good fortune, Sally Badger, who heard this dialogue, slipped out of the room, and unobserved. Meanwhile Eugene, with a killing air of superiority, lounged up to Hector.

'Heard of an usher's place yet, Hector?'

Not yet,' Hector replied quietly.

'Hope you will get a good salary!' And Eugene lounged off again and looked out of the window.

Presently Sally Badger returned with the lawyer, who bore some papers in his hand. He was a tall dark man, with sallow face, sunken eyes, and great white teeth, which became prominent when he smiled. But he knew all the financial secrets of Middleborough, and he disliked Daniel Ruddock heartily.

'You here, Mr. Ruddock!' he said, showing all his teeth, and speaking in an accent of surprise, for Daniel was only remotely related by marriage with Jerome Dawe. 'Come as a friend, I suppose?'

Now Daniel read in this sarcastic question the lawyer's secret knowledge that he was to inherit all the estate, and he framed his answer accordingly.

'As a friend, of course! I have no expectations. Here is Mrs. Badger, and Mrs. Alexander, and -and these gentlemen '-Daniel acknowledged the anonymous cousins in this way-they have expectations. Jerome Dawe was nothing to me, except the dearest, best, and most devoted friend any man ever had.'

The lawyer sat down at the

UU

'Are we all here?' the man of law asked, looking over his glasses and putting his question with a sweet air, which signified that it was a kind of polite formality, and which needed no answer.

'Are we all here? Sally Badger repeated, with irritation. Her temper had been ruffled by the scene with Martha. There are a dozen of us. Who may "we all " be?'

She glanced angrily at Daniel and Eugene.

All whom it may concern,' Daniel retorted, rubbing his wicked hands, and making his joke with a horrid face. He could not, for all his prudence, resist the impulse which bade him give Sally scowl for scowl. But, in spite of his impending triumph, Daniel felt apprehension at the proximity of Silly Badger after this indiscretion. He thought of her rage when the will would be read, and marked the silver candlesticks that were near her right hand, and computed his own distance from the door, and the time it would take to bolt, if Sally should show fight.

Then the lawyer began:

This is the last will and testament of Jerome Dawe of Heathfield House, Middleborough.'

What language he had!' Matty remarked, in a loud whisper, to Daniel Ruddock. The words flowed from him.'

'Hush! Daniel said religiously. Indeed, in Daniel's religion the present was a very solemn ceremony, not to be disturbed by any foreign thoughts. 'Listen, Matty.'

Listen for the crash of a falling house. Listen, plotting pair; for the will is brief enough:

'I bequeath to my faithful servant Martha Spring an annuity of fifty pounds a year; and all the rest of my estate, real and personal, and all my personal estate and effects, and all property of or to which I may die seised or possessed, whether in possession, reversion, remainder, or expectancy, to-'

Just at this moment the lawyer paused for an instant, and glanced up at Daniel Ruddock. The act was involuntary, and he withdrew his eyes in a second. But the look gave Daniel a fright; for there was in it something of scorn and satisfaction.

The next sentence told all. Everything was bequeathed in equal shares to testator's nieces, Sarah Badger and Margaret Alexander.

'What Eugene called out, with an amazed emphasis. What did you say?'

The estate is left in equal portions to Mrs. Alexander and Mrs. Badger,' the lawyer answered calmly.

O, it's impossible!' Eugene exclaimed. It's perfectly impossible. There must be trickery here!'

'These ladies are the testator's next of kin,' the lawyer replied. 'Nieces, too. There was never any quarrel that I heard of; and they were constant in their affectionate attention to Mr. Dawe.'

'But, you know,' Eugene cried, for his experience of the world was not enough to guard him in his excitement, 'in this case next of kin, and quarrel, and all that go for nothing. There must be another will.'

'Did you say fifty? Matty whispered hoarsely, seizing the lawyer by the shoulder, and