y brother for having agitated me unnecessarily by telling me at all of
so idle a tale; and was pleased to write a few lines to me at Worth
Maltravers, felicitating me on my shrewdness of perception, but speaking
banteringly of the whole matter.

On the evening of the 14th of November my brother and his friend were
sitting talking in the former's room. The position of the bookcase had
been changed on the morning of that day, and Mr. Gaskell had come round
to see how the books looked when placed at the end instead of at the
side of the room. He had applauded the new arrangement, and the young
men sat long over the fire, with a bottle of college port and a dish of
medlars which I had sent my brother from our famous tree in the Upper
Croft at Worth Maltravers. Later on they fell to music, and played a
variety of pieces, performing also the "Areopagita" suite. Mr. Gaskell
before he left complimented John on the improvement which the alteration
in the place of the bookcase had made in his room, saying, "Not only
do the books in their present place very much enhance the general
appearance of the room, but the change seems to me to have affected also
a marked acoustical improvement. The oak panelling now exposed on the
side of the room has given a resonant property to the wall which is
peculiarly responsive to the tones of your violin. While you were
playing the _Gagliarda_ to-night, I could almost have imagined that
someone in an adjacent room was playing the same air with a _sordino_,
so distinct was the echo."

Shortly after this he left.

My brother partly undressed himself in his bedroom, which adjoined, and
then returning to his sitting-room, pulled the large wicker chair in
front of the fire, and sat there looking at the glowing coals, and
thinking perhaps of Miss Constance Temple. The night promised to be very
cold, and the wind whistled down the chimney, increasing the comfortable
sensation of the clear fire. He sat watching the ruddy reflection of the
firelight dancing on the panelled wall, when he noticed that a picture
placed where the end of the bookcase formerly stood was not truly hung,
and needed adjustment. A picture hung askew was particularly offensive
to his eyes, and he got up at once to alter it. He remembered as he went
up to it that at this precise spot four months ago he had lost sight
of the man's figure which he saw rise from the wicker chair, and at
the memory felt an involuntary shudder. This remi