side, honor, justice, and generosity prompted her to make them happy,
and while she wavered there came to her a sweet enchantress who, with a
word, banished the tormenting ghosts forever, and gave the haunted woman
a talisman to keep her free henceforth."

There the earnest voice faltered, and with a sudden impulse Mrs. Snowdon
bent her head and kissed the fair forehead which had bent lower and
lower as she went on. Each listener understood the truth, lightly veiled
in that hasty fable, and each found in it a different meaning. Sir
Jasper frowned and bit his lips, Annon glanced anxiously from face to
face, Octavia hid hers, and Treherne's flashed with sudden intelligence,
while Rose laughed low to herself, enjoying the scene. Blanche, who was
getting sleepy, said, with a stifled gape, "That is a very nice, moral
little story, but I wish there had been some real ghosts in it."

"There was. Will you come and see them?"

As she put the question, Mrs. Snowdon rose abruptly, wishing to end the
seance, and beckoning them to follow glided up the great stairway. All
obeyed, wondering what whim possessed her, and quite ready for any jest
in store for them.




Chapter VIII


JASPER