But ghosts know how
To swim--I'm now--
(_Spectrally._) My ghost!--from Tartary Crim."

And then they saw that Tim
Had fins on every limb;
His feet went squish--
Cries Jim, "I wish
I was in Tartary Crim."
(_Excitedly._) "Away to Tartary Crim!"

He took a jump, did Jim,
Right on to a vessel's rim;
She made a tack,
And he never came back,
To her or Tartary Crim.
(_With certainty._) To her or Tartary Crim.

The ghost of Corporal Tim
Took Molly away with him,
And plunged in the sea,
And there they be,
Two ghosts in Tartary Crim.

MORAL (_sung by the ghost of MOLLY_).

"Oh, when you hear that Tim
Is drowned, don't marry Jim,
Or else, like me,
You'll have to be
A ghost in Tartary Crim."

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXV.

IN AND OUT.--BEFORE THE FIRE.--MEDITATIONS.--SURPRISES.--HAPPY
THOUGHTS.--AWAKENINGS.--SLUMBERS.--BELL-PULLS.--BOOTS.--VALET.
DIFFICULTIES.--MRS. REGNIATI.--WHAT'S ON THE TAPIS?--MATCH-MAKING.
--CUPID.

[Illustration]

Captain Byrton is out hunting. The Signor and Milburd are out shooting.
Mrs. Frimmely is out walking with Medford and Cazell. Miss Adelaide
Cherton and her sister are in the garden with Chilvern and Boodels. Miss
Medford is trying some new music. Madame is seated by the drawing-room
fire, engaged upon some mysterious wool-work, which may eventuate in a
cigar-case, slippers, a banner fire-screen, or a pair of fancy-pattern'd
braces for the Signor. Jenkyns Soames is supposed to be in his room
writing something on "Numbers," but whether in refutation of Dr.
Colenso's later Pentateuchical views, or in support of his earlier
Arithmetical treatises, nobody has inquired, and nobody, particularly,
cares.

I am engaged very busily in thinking. It occurs to me that I will join
Miss Medford in the morning-room. There are some days when one finds it
very difficult to immediately follow thoughts with action. On such
occasions time doesn