y rebuked the
superstition in his parishioners; had been inclined to ridicule Matthew
Frost; had cherished a firm and unalterable belief that some foolish
wight was playing pranks with the public; but all these suppositions and
convictions faded in this moment; and the clergyman felt that that which
had rustled past was the veritable dead and-gone Frederick Massingbird,
in the spirit or in the flesh.

He shook the feeling off--or strove to shake it. That it was Frederick
Massingbird in the flesh he did not give a second supposition to; and
that it could be Frederick Massingbird in the spirit, was opposed to
every past belief of the clergyman's life. But he had never seen such a
likeness; and though the similarity in the features might be accidental,
what of the black star?

He strove to shake the feeling off; to say to himself that some one,
bearing a similar face, must be in the village; and he went on to his
destination. Mrs. Hook was better; but she was lying in the place
unattended, all of them out somewhere or other. The clergyman talked to
her and read to her; and then waited impatiently for the return of
Alice. He did not care to leave the woman alone.

"Where are they all?" he asked, not having inquired before.

They were gone to the wake at Broxley, a small place some two miles
distant. Of course! Had Mr. Bourne remembered the wake, he need not have
put the question.

An arrival at last. It was Jan. Jan, attentive to poor patients as he
was to rich ones, had come striding over, the last thing. They asked him
if he had seen anything of Alice in his walk. But Jan had come across
from Deerham Court, and that would not be the girl's road. Another
minute, and the husband came in. The two gentlemen left together.

"She is considerably better, to-night," remarked Jan. "She'll get about
now, if she does not fret too much over Alice."

"It is strange where Alice can have got to," remarked Mr. Bourne. Her
prolonged absence, coupled with the low spirits the girl appeared to be
in, rather weighed upon his mind. "I met her as I was coming here an
hour ago," he continued. "She ought to have been home long before this."

"Perhaps she has encountered the ghost," said Jan, in a joke.

"I saw it to-night, Jan."

"Saw what?" asked Jan, looking at Mr. Bourne.

"The--the party that appears to be personating Frederick Massingbird."

"Nonsense!" uttered Jan.

"I did. And I never saw such a likeness in my life."

"Eve