derations.

Down the long passage behind our rooms we came to the garden of the
hotel. It was after dinner and pale twilight reigned. In the centre of
the garden a splendid spreading palm outlined itself against the evening
sky, in which shone a large, liquid, solitary star. The garden was
surrounded by a white wall, and the scene was quite eastern. Far down
was the wonderful coast-line and crescent harbour. Of late we had had
only rivers, and this broad expanse of sea brought new life to the
spirit.

Returning indoors, we found the inn haunted, but not by spirits of the
dead.

The ghost was unmistakably flesh and blood. The first time we caught
sight of him--it was a masculine ghost, therefore doubly
uninteresting--he was cautiously putting his head into our rooms and
taking a look round. The said rooms were raised above the rest on that
floor by steps that led to our own quarters only. Thus the ghost was
clearly trespassing. He neither looked confused nor apologised as he
took his slow departure. All his time seemed spent in prowling about the
passages in a spirit of curiosity or unrest. Often we found him on our
premises on suddenly coming in, and once or twice, when quietly writing,
on looking up were startled by an evil-looking countenance intruding
itself at the open door, and as quickly withdrawing on finding the room
occupied.

We never discovered the mystery. Whether the ghost was a little out of
its mind, whether it was its peculiar way of taking exercise, or whether
it suffered from kleptomania and had a passion for collecting sticks and
umbrellas, nothing of this was ever learned. We only knew that the ghost
looked like a broken-down dissenting parson, that it dressed in sable
garments, and went about with a pale face and large black eyes that
seemed to glow with hidden fire suggestive of madness, and long,
straight, black hair plastered down each side of its face; a curiously
unpleasant object to encounter at every trick and turn of the gloomy
corridors.

Tarragona possesses two distinct elements, both in an eminent degree.
The town, especially the lower town, is mean and common-place. Ascending
beyond a certain point, you come upon everything refined and beautiful.
It stands on a hill which gradually rises to some seven or eight hundred
feet above the sea-level. At the highest point of all is its mediaeval
cathedral, surpassing most of the cathedrals of Spain or elsewhere--one
of those wonders of ar