ghosts all around him, not
only the ghost of his own peerless Lucy, and the other ghost of the
poor youth who early on his wedding morning was found, cold and dead,
floating on the waters of the mighty lake. Lennox spent much of the
time in the grounds of Ardshiel, and heard, to his delight, the
wrangling voices of the two women, hoping sincerely that the scheme of
having this house of almost royalty turned into a school would be
knocked on the head; for when were women, even the best of them, long
consistent in their ideas?

Finally, however, the ladies did leave Ardshiel, the whole scheme of
turning Ardshiel into a school for lads and lasses marked out in Miss
Delacour's active mind. The attics would do for the children's
cubicles. The next floor would be devoted to class-rooms of all sorts
and descriptions, the ground floor would form the pleasure part of the
establishment, and the servants would have a wing quite apart. The
school could certainly be opened not later than September. The place
was made for a school for the upper classes. It seemed to grow under
the eyes of the two women into a delightful resort of youth, learning,
and happiness; but Mr Lennox became more opposed to the scheme each
moment. His one hope was that Mrs Macintyre might turn out to be
_impossible_, in which case these castles in the air would topple to
the ground.

The three parted at the gates of Ardshiel, Miss Delacour and her
brother-in-law going one way, and Mrs Constable the other.

'You won't forget, dear,' said Mrs Constable, nodding affectionately to
her new friend, 'to be in time for dinner this evening?'

'Oh dear! I forgot that we were to dine with you, Cecilia,' said
George Lennox.

'Well, don't forget it, George; and bring all the sweet Flowers with
you.'

'Naturally, I should not come without them.' His tone was almost angry.

'What a charming--what a sweet woman Mrs Constable is!' remarked his
sister-in-law.

Lennox was silent.

'George,' said Agnes, 'you're sulky.'

'Doubtless I am. Most men would be who are cajoled as I have been into
paying the rent of that horrid house. Yes, you are a clever woman,
Agnes; but I can tell you once for all that not a single one of my
Flowers of the Garden shall enter that school if I do not approve of
the head-mistress.'

'I said you were sulky,' repeated Miss Delacour. 'A sulky man is
almost as unpleasant as a fidgety man.'

'To tell you frankly, Agnes, I keenly