"It is the housemaids. They never will leave things as I put them."

"And it was only dusted and tidied an hour ago. Mr. Lyndsay, did you
ever see anything like it?"

I said "Never."

"If Lindy has a fault in this world, it is that he is as pernickety, as
my old nurse used to say--as pernickety as an old maid. The stiff
formality of his room would give me the creeps, if anything could. The
first thing I always want to do when I see it is to make hay in it."

"It is what you always do do, before you have been an hour there," I
observed.

"Jane, in Heaven's name leave those things alone! Is this sort of thing
all you came in for?"

"No; I really came in to ask if you had read Lucinda Molyneux's letter."

"No, I have not; her writing is too bad for anything. Besides, I know
exactly what she has got to say. She has at last found the religion
which she has been looking for all her life, and she intends to be
whatever it is for evermore."

"That is not all. She wants to come and stay here for a few days."

"What! Here? Now? Why, what--oh, I forgot the ghost! By Jove! You see,
Jane, there are some advantages in having one on the premises when it