have been no inducement," said Miss CAROWTHERS, sharply; "or, if being
made, and then withdrawn, have given our sex opportunities to prove, in
courts of law, that damages can still be got. I'm afraid of no Man, my
good woman, as a person named BLODGETT once learned from a jury; but
boots and razors are not what I would have familiar to the mind of one
who never had a husband to die in raging torments, nor yet has sued for
breach."

"Miss POTTS is but a chicken, I'll admit," retorted Mrs. SKAMMERHORN;
"but you're not such, CAROWTHERS, by many a good year. On the contrary,
quite a hen. Then, you being with her, if the boots and razor make her
think she sees that poor, weak SKAMMERHORN a-ranging round the room,
when in his grave it is his place to be, you've only got to say: 'A fool
you are, and always were,'--as often I, myself, called at him in his
lifetime,--and off he'll go into his tomb again for fear of
broomsticks."

"FLORA, my dear," said Miss CAROWTHERS, turning with dignity to her
pupil, "if I know anything of human nature, the man who has once got
away from here, will stay away. Only single ghosts have attachments for
the houses in which they once lived. So, never mind the boots and razor,
darling; which, after all, if seen by peddlers, or men who come to fix
the gas, might keep us safe from robbers."

"As safe as any man himself, young woman, with pistols under his head
that he would never dare to fire if robbers were no more than cats
rampaging," added Mrs. SKAMMERHORN, enthusiastically. "With nothing but
an old black hat of SKAMMERHORN'S, and walking-cane, kept hanging in the
hall, I haven't lost a spoon by tramps or census takers for six mortal
years. So, make yourselves at home, I beg you both, while I go down and