IT, was a month of September on T was a lovely moonlight night

which he arrived. I remember it well; all the household had retired to rest, and I was just closing the shutters in my room when the fly drew up before the door. I was German governess in Mr. Wylde's family, a solicitor in a pretty northern village, and we lived in a terrace house, with buildings rising on either side. It was at our next door neighbour's, No. 16, that the vehicle in question had stopped. We had known for some time previously that a vacant house here was about to receive an occupant, and some curiosity had been excited respecting the new-comer, especially in the minds of Lucinda and Emily, the two young ladies of our establishment. We could only glean, however, as the result of divers inquiries, that Mr. Marston was a single gentleman in rather delicate health, who had chosen the seclusion of our neighbourhood for the recruiting of his strength in preference to the more fashionable locality of S-an adjacent watering-place. He had sent a man-servant on before to take possession of the house and arrange matters for his reception, and it was through this medium we had gathered the above intelligence.

Softly throwing up the sash of my window, I leant out now and looked curiously towards the carriage. A feeble old man, with white hair, tottered out of the vehicle at the moment, and was assisted by his servant up the steps of No. 16.

'So, my young ladies, this is the end of all your romantic expectations,' I murmured to myself. This will be rather a disappointment to your hopes; but I won't undeceive you. You may indulge in your glowing fancies a little longer, till

you see the sober reality for yourselves.'

Acting upon this resolve, I merely intimated at breakfast the following day that I concluded our neighbour must have arrived, as I had heard a cab stopping before the door late on the preceding evening.

Emily instantly jumped up with an impetuous exclamation

'Why didn't you say so before, Fraulein? There, I've been strumming the whole morning on the old piano next his wall at those horrid exercises! He'll be certain to shun us at once as the most hateful nuisances.'

Don't be silly, Emily,' interposed Lucinda, in her rather sharp tones; 'you can't stop your practising entirely out of consideration to your neighbour, and he may as well know the worst he has to expect at once.'

Miss Lucinda was several years older than her sister. She had never come under my supervision, and her disposition was one which perplexed me somewhat. She was exceedingly taciturn and reserved, and from a hint which had been let drop I inferred that some early disappointment had clouded her life, and had infused a gravity, mingled with a certain bitterness, into her nature.

Milly, as we generally called her, was the very opposite of this temperament. Frank, light-hearted, and vivacious, she availed herself of a recent emancipation from mental culture to allow her flow of animal spirits unchecked license.

That morning I had just settled to a music-lesson with one of the younger children when I was roused by a call from Milly Wylde, who had stationed herself at the schoolroom window.

'Oh, Fraulein, do look here! The

door of 16 has opened-some one is coming down the steps.'

I stole quietly behind her, eager to watch her change of expression. Joseph Wright, Mr. Marston's servant, was standing in front, brushing up some withered leaves which had fallen from the chestnut-trees which overshadowed the portico. I was surprised that he did not start forward to offer his assistance, and still more at the rather quick footfall which sounded on the stone steps.

The next instant a gentleman passed beneath the window.

Milly gave a little bound of delight. It was I who uttered the astonished exclamation

'That's not Mr. Marston! Who can he be? It was an entirely different person arrived last night, and alone too. Where did this gentleman drop from?'

He was quite a young man, handsome, with well-defined features, and a dark moustache and whiskers. Something, however, seemed to identify him with the Mr. Marston we had heard spoken of. His face was deadly pale, and he looked wan and emaciated to an almost painful degree.

'Oh, what an interesting creature! Isn't he handsome, Fraulein? but so delicate. I wonder what can have happened to him.'

I was mute from a kind of bewildered feeling.

'Didn't that man, Joseph Wright, say that Mr. Marston was coming alone?' I murmured.

'Well, and what has clouded your vision? Pray, do you see double this morning? Surely the poor fellow is as solitary as you could wish him.'

'But that's not Mr. Marstonthat's not the person who arrived last night,' I continued, in the same confused tone. He was quite an old man, with white hair: I couldn't be mistaken. The moon was shining brightly on him at the very time he alighted.'

Ay, and silvered his locks rather prematurely,' exclaimed Milly, with a burst of merriment. Well done, Fraulein! Your German mind plays you sad pranks.'

'It has done no such thing, Miss Milly,' I retorted; I am as keensighted and as clear-brained as any of you. I saw him quite distinctly, and the moon couldn't have given him a tottering step, a wrinkled face, and a bowed figure.'

'No, but your imagination might; and as it was at such an unearthly hour he appeared upon the scene, who knows how misty your faculties may have been then? Daylight and wakefulness against night and drowsiness any day for me.'

I was silent, for there was no use in entering on a discussion with so little prospect of being able to convince. The present observer had the evidence of her own senses against my assertion, and was scarcely likely to be moved by it. I determined at the same time to probe the mystery for myself, and with this view I took advantage of a means for so doing which a chance circumstance afforded me. I had already exchanged a few words with Joseph, Mr. Marston's servant, when he was at work in the garden, which was only separated by a low hedge from ours. Taking pity on the desolate state of this ground, which had been neglected for years, I had given him some cuttings of roses and other plants from the little plot which I was allowed to cultivate on my own account.

Wandering in this direction the same afternoon, I found the man busy on the other side of the hedge.

'So your master has arrived, Joseph?' I began; 'I hope he is not fatigued by his journey.'

"Thank you, ma'am, he's pretty tolerable. He's been out all the morning rambling about the place.'

'I thought he was quite an invalid?' I interposed.

'So he has been, but he's better now. He'll get strong soon again, I hope.'

Careful that he should not suspect me of sounding him, I made some remarks at this point on gardening operations, &c. By-and-by I ventured to add

'I fancied somehow that your master was an old man, Joseph; but the ladies caught a glimpse of him going out to-day, and he seemed

tolerably youthful in his appearance.'

"Tolerably! why, he's quite young. He's had a long bout of sicknessa kind of brain fever-which has pulled him down terrible; but he has no feebleness of years about him; ill-health is all that's ailing him.'

And has he no friend here-no one to take care of him or keep him company?'

'None at present: but to pluck up strength is all he wants now. He came here on purpose for the quiet.'

Mystified still, I was determined to arrive at a clearer understanding of things.

'But, Joseph,' I pursued, 'I was sitting up late last night, and I chanced to obtain a glimpse of the gentleman when he arrived. Surely, unless I am greatly deceived, he was an elderly person-an old man, indeed, with every mark of age about him.'

A rapid change, indicative of alarm, passed over Joseph's counnance. He started and looked keenly

at me.

'You must have made some mistake, ma'am,' he muttered; 'you could not have seen distinctly. No one came but my master; and he was delayed on the road, and did not reach this till past one o'clock. It was dark then.'

'Ay, but there was moonlight,' I interposed.

Joseph had regained his composure now. He smiled as he met my eager look of inquiry.

'Perhaps, ma'am, you mistook his travelling cap for grey hairs. He wears a light-coloured one, and he had it pulled down over his ears, as the night was chilly. I can't account for the appearance in no way else.'

Unsatisfactory as was this explanation, I was obliged to appear content with it. My interrogations could not be pushed farther without betraying an intrusive curiosity, and my inquiries were consequently arrested for the present. Instead of dissipating my perplexity, however, this attempt at arriving at a comprehension of the enigma left me

more than ever confused. I knew not what to think. It was impossible, I reflected, that it was a disguise Mr. Marston was employing, for the aged appearance was evidently the natural one; and however young a person might assume the garb of an old one, the reverse of this transformation was scarcely practicable.

A week flew by, and I was no more enlightened on the subject of my mystification. The stranger was seen often in the village; remarks were daily passed on him by the various members of our household; and on every occasion he appeared under the same aspect-young, handsome, fascinating, but ashy pale. Still my first impression remained undispelled. A feeling of awe, almost of terror, came over me at times when I tried to reconcile the strange contradiction. I never mentioned it again to any of the party; I should only have been laughed at for my superstitious folly had I done so; but I resolved, come what might, to continue my observations in secret.

An opportunity was soon afforded me for this. Mr. Wylde had called on our neighbour, and having failed to find him within, he wrote to ask him to dine with him on the following day. This invitation, contrary to our expectation, was accepted with cordiality; for, judging from his previous habits, we had scarcely hoped to entice the recluse from his retirement. There was great excitement in the household consequent on this event, and various preparations were carried on in a suppressed, stealthy manner, Milly keeping full in her view the close proximity of the expected guest.

Exactly as the clock struck six that evening, we heard the clap of one hall-door, and the next instant there was a quick, double rap at ours. The servant announced, 'Mr. Marston,' and his host rose to receive him. The same expressive face, the same pallid hue as had attracted our more remote glances, met our gaze now. I could not but watch the gentleman furtively; and I was struck ever and again by a strange, rapid gleam in his deeply-set eyes,

and a peculiar thrilling tone in his voice.

Happily for myself, I had now arrived at that age when I could no longer be regarded in the light of a rival by the young lady members of the families with whom I was located. I was spared, in consequence, the mortification which such a state of things entails on one in my position, and was left free to receive the confidences of my charges without any admixture of jealousy or re

serve.

That evening, when Mr. Marston had taken his departure and I had retired to my room, a tap at the door announced the arrival of the Misses Wylde for a friendly talk. Lucinda, as usual, said little; but as she seated herself in a careless attitude on the side of my couch, and commenced unplaiting the long braids of her hair, her eyes were raised, ever and again, through its veil with a quick, furtive glance of scrutiny towards me, as Milly probed me on my opinion and impressions respecting their late guest. The

former young lady had some reason truly to feel a conscious interest in the subject: Mr. Marston had paid her marked attention all that evening. I had settled in my own mind that Milly would have been the favourite; but, whether through politeness or some more spontaneous motive, the gentleman's notice and conversation were entirely devoted to the elder sister. Lucinda undoubtedly was the more striking in appearance, but her beauty was of a faded character; and, to my mind, with that sickly, dissatisfied air, Milly's bright, good-humoured countenance threw her sister's completely in the shade. Despite much close questioning and eager remarks on the part of Milly, my criticisms were limited to as few words as possible on the present occasion. Something too deep down in my heart to find utterance interfered with the free expression of my thoughts. Yet I had nothing to say to the stranger's disadvantage-nothing, at least, that was derived from recent observation. He appeared agreeable and well-informed, and was decidedly rather winning in his manner. Neverthe

VOL. XVIII.-NO. CVIII.

less, an instinctive shrinking crept over me when I recalled my first vision of this person; and a prejudice, which was none the less firmly rooted that I could not trace it to any definite cause, laid strong hold of my imagination.

Do not condemn me as mystic and superstitious. It was no idle presentiment which had forced itself upon my thoughts. A darker enigma was about to heighten these misgivings a strange and bewildering scene was at hand.

I was in the habit of sitting up late, to secure some of the quiet time for thought and reading which was denied to me in the day; and more than an hour after the girls quitted me that night saw me still seated at my table, with a light burning, and books and work scattered around.

At length I arose, and having completed my preparations for retiring to rest, I extinguished the lamp and approached-the last thing, as usual-to close the windows and shut out those pale lights from without.

The moon was rather on the wane now, but the sky was very clear and thickly studded with stars, and I could discover distinctly the prospect of the Terrace, with its plantation in front, and the tints of limes, copper-beeches, and the feathery larch mingling in varied shades of foliage. There was no one visible at that lonely hour; the glistening line of the gravel road was unbroken in its white track, except where the branches of some overspreading tree threw a mysterious gloom on its surface. I turned then to the back lattice, which opened upon the garden. The September air was sweet and balmy here, and I paused for a moment, with my arms resting upon the sill, to drink in the breath of mingled fragrance and quietude which arose from the flower-beds beneath.

Suddenly a sound broke the stillness it was the click of a latch. Our house was so closely connected with that of No. 16, that the backdoors were within a few feet of one another, the wall of separation alone intervening. That of the latter

2 N