."

"That last symptom, dear aunt, of shunning the mirror seems likely to be
a rare occurrence amongst the fair sex."

"You are a novice in toilet fashions, my dear cousin. All women consult
the looking-glass with anxiety before they go into company; but when
they return home, the mirror has not the same charm. The die has been
cast--the party has been successful or unsuccessful in the impression
which she desired to make. But, without going deeper into the mysteries
of the dressing-table, I will tell you that I myself, like many other
honest folks, do not like to see the blank, black front of a large
mirror in a room dimly lighted, and where the reflection of the candle
seems rather to lose itself in the deep obscurity of the glass than to
be reflected back again into the apartment, That space of inky darkness
seems to be a field for Fancy to play her revels in. She may call up
other features to meet us, instead of the reflection of our own; or, as
in the spells of Hallowe'en, which we learned in childhood, some unknown
form may be seen peeping over our shoulder. In short, when I am in a
ghost-seeing humour, I make my handmaiden draw the green curtains over
the mirror before I go into the room, so that she may have the first
shock of the apparition, if there be any to be seen, But, to tell you
the truth, this dislike to look into a mirror in particular times and
places has, I believe, its original foundation in a story which came to
me by tradition from my grandmother, who was a party concerned in the
scene of which I will now tell you."

THE MIRROR.

CHAPTER I.

You are fond (said my aunt) of sketches of the society which has passed
away. I wish I could describe to you Sir Philip Forester, the "chartered
libertine" of Scottish good company, about the end of the last century.
I never saw him indeed; but my mother's traditions were full of his wit,
gallantry, and dissipation. This gay knight flourished about the end of
the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. He was the Sir
Charles Easy and the Lovelace of his day and country--renowned for the
number of duels he had fought, and the successful intrigues which he had
carried on. The supremacy which he had attained in the fashionable world
was absolute; and when we combine it with one or two anecdotes, for
which, "if laws were made for every degree," he ought certainly to have
been hanged, the popularity of such a person really serves to show