peals of laughter stopped her utterance. Miss Blake had no faith in
ghosts resident at River Hall, and if anybody was playing tricks about
the house, she should have thought a "fighting gentleman by profession"
capable of getting rid of them.

"Unless he was afraid," added Miss Blake, with withering irony.

Then up rose the opposition counsel, who approached her in an easy,
conversational manner.

"And so you do not believe in ghosts, Miss Blake?" he began.

"Indeed and I don't," she answered.

"But if we have not ghosts, what is to become of the literature of your
country?" he inquired.

"I don't know what you mean, by talking about my country," said Miss
Blake, who was always proclaiming her nationality, and quarrelling with
those who discovered it without such proclamation.

"I mean," he explained, "that all the fanciful legends and beautiful
stories for which Ireland is celebrated have their origin in the
supernatural. There are, for instance, several old families who have
their traditional banshee."

"For that matter, we have one ourselves," agreed Miss Blake, with
conscious pride.

At this junction our counsel interposed with a suggestion that there was