and seamed with toil. Then he
looked up at me from under his shaggy brows with haggard, wistful eyes,
and gasped: "It's hard work, sir; it's hard work." And I went out into
the sunshine, feeling that I had heard the epitome of his life.

That night Mrs. Mallet surpassed herself by her rendering of a menu,
especially composed by Atherley for the delectation of their guest.
Their pains were not wasted. The Canon's commendation of each
course--and we talked of little else, I remember, from soup to
dessert--was as discriminating as it was warm.

"I am glad you approve of our cook, Uncle," said Lady Atherley in the
drawing-room afterwards, "for she is only a stop-gap. Our own cook left
us quite suddenly the other day, and we had such difficulty in finding
this one to take her place. No one can imagine how inconvenient it is to
have a haunted house."

"My dear Jane, you don't mean to tell me you are afraid of ghosts?"

"Oh no, Uncle."

"And I am sure your husband is not?"

"No; but unfortunately cooks are."

"Eh! what?"

Then Lady Atherley willingly repeated the story of her troubles.

"Preposterous! perfectly preposterous!" cried the Canon. "The Education
Act in operation for all these years, and our lower orders still believe
in bogies and hobgoblins! And yet it is hardly to be wondered at; their
social superiors are not much wiser. The nonsense which is talked in
society at present is perfectly incredible. Persons who are supposed to
be in their right mind gravely relate to me such incidents that I could
imagine myself transported to the Middle Ages. I hear of miraculous
cures, of spirits summoned from the dead, of men and women floating in
the air; and as to diabolic possession, it seems to have become as
common as colds in the head."

He had risen, and now addressed us from the hearthrug.

"Then Mrs. Molyneux and others come and tell me about personal friends
of their own who can foretell everything that is going to happen; who
can read your inmost thoughts; who can compel others to do this and to
do that, whether they like it or no; who, being themselves in one
quarter of the globe, constantly appear to their acquaintances in
another. 'What!' I say. 'They can be in two places at once, then!
Certainly no conjurer can equal that!'"

"And what do they say to that?" asked Atherley.

"Oh, they assure me the extraordinary beings who perform these marvels
are not impostors, but very superior and religious char