could catch on so short a notice; but we all determined to make up in
friendliness for the paucity in numbers, and give young Frank a hearty
welcome to his native county.

We were all assembled in the drawing-room--that is to say, all but the
party from Bandvale--and Mr Smith was laying down the law, or rather
explaining it after his usual manner, when Sibylla, who had stood at the
window, all of a sudden gave a slight scream, and flushed up to the eyes
like a peony rose.

"Why, what's the matter, Sib?" said Old Smith; "has a bee stung you."

"No, no!" she said; "but I saw likeness--a something"--

"What was it you saw?" enquired my wife--"a ghost?"

Sibylla lifted up her eyes to the ceiling, and said nothing; for at that
moment the door opened, and Frank Edwards and Mr Percy Marvale were
announced.

"No, not a ghost," whispered Sibylla to my wife, "but an apparition I as
little expected to see--I knew Mr Marvale in town."

The introduction was soon over; and Mr Marvale, on being presented to
Miss Sibylla, exhibited as much surprise as that young lady had done at
the window. I watched him as closely as if I had been one of the
detective police; but, saving an enormous amount of puppyism and
affectation, I could trace nothing very unusual in his appearance.
Frank, on the other hand, was a fine open-mannered fellow, that one took
to at once; and it was a mystery to me how he could be so intimate with