sh butter. One by one the guests made their
appearance. They seemed to have slept well, for they looked none the
worse for their last night's carousal.

The last to enter the breakfast room was our fresh arrival, Mr. Vandyke
McGuilp. He presented a very different appearance to any of the rest. He
was pale and haggard, and his hair hung disordered over his eyes.

"I'm afraid you have not slept well, Mr. McGuilp," said Mr. Oldstone.
"What is the matter? It surely can't be the punch, for you drank less
than any of us last night. Why, I don't believe you drank more than a
couple of glasses the whole time; but perhaps you are not accustomed to
these orgies, and a little upsets you. Look at us--seasoned old casks
all of us--we are as jolly as ever. As for myself, I never felt better
in all my life."

"Oh, it is not that," replied our artist; "but I feel somehow I passed
an indifferent night."

Dr. Bleedem felt the pulse and looked at the tongue of the new guest,
and pronounced him a little feverish, but said that it would soon pass
over.

"My blessed eyes!" cried the captain, "if the gentleman doesn't look as
scared as I felt when the shark was at my heels last night. What say you
mine host?"

"Well, Captain," said the landlord, "if I might venture a remark, the
gentleman looks as if he had had a visit from the _headless lady_."

McGuilp started.

"Why do you start, sir?" inquired Mr. Blackdeed, who alone had noticed
the action, his eye being ever open to anything of a dramatic effect.

"A little nervousness, that is all," replied the artist. "I feel far
from well this morning."

"I assure you, your action was quite dramatic," said the tragedian.
"Oblige me by repeating it. Thank you; I'll practise it before the glass
this morning. It will just do for my tragedy, when the wicked baron, who
is in the act of carrying off a lady by force, is suddenly checked in
his career by the appearance of the spirit of her brother, whom he has
murdered."

"Ha! What's that all about?" cried Oldstone, who had pricked up his ears
at something resembling a story, while the rest were gossiping on
indifferent matters. "You must act us a scene out of that tragedy,
Blackdeed; remember, we had no story from you last night."

"Breakfast is ready, gentlemen," said the landlord.

The guests flocked round the table and commenced their repast.

"By the by, landlord," said McGuilp, as that worthy was about to quit
the room, "you give your