to be haunted sometimes by the ghost of the great Cardinal Wolsey, who, for some unexplained reason, chooses to appear in the form of a gigantic black spider. I have never seen him myself, but Lady Glengriskin, your predecessor, who, like most Scotch women, had a great knack for seeing apparitions, professed that she was favoured with his company on several occasions. But come, you are cold and tired, and we can discuss the matter over a cup of tea by my fireside; come at once, I beg, and bring your beautiful dog with you." So saying, the kindly lady led the way to her own sitting-room, which seemed a very paradise of light and warmth and comfort, and, drawing an easy chair to the fireside, she placed her guest in it, and begged her to make herself at home.

A cup of hot tea having been thankfully consumed, Miss Strong, after a short interval, conducted her new acquaintance into the dining-room, which in warmth and snugness vied with the room she had left, and, seating Miss Manwaring at table, ordered dinner to be brought in at once. A tidy maid-servant obeyed her mistress's order with almost miraculous alacrity, and an excellent little dinner was speedily placed on the table. Hot clear ox-tail soup, a juicy fowl stuffed and roasted to a turn, with

hot potatoes, bread sauce, and a scientifically constructed winter salad, followed by Albany puddings, served up with their proper sauce, made up the simple but capital meal, which brought a tinge of colour back to the cheeks of the traveller in whose especial behoof it had been prepared; and when the cloth was removed, and Miss Strong had insisted on her guest's partaking of a brimming glass of old port which had belonged to her late brother, Colonel Strong, R.A., Miss Manwaring felt more at home and more refreshed and rested than an hour ago she could have imagined to be possible.

Miss Strong was unwilling to detain her guest long after they had returned to the drawing-room, and urged her early retirement to rest, advice which Miss Manwaring was by no means loath to follow.

"Now good night, my dear," said her kind friend, as she prepared to leave Miss Manwaring's apartments, to which she had accompanied her; "and please expect me to-morrow at half after four, when I shall call and take you to see the Duchess."

"Oh dear!" cried Evelyn, weariedly, "what Duchess?"

"Why, the Duchess of Ribblesdale, to be sure, our Duchess, the best and dearest lady in the world; the Vice-Reine of Hampton Court, I call her. She

would have come to call upon you herself, but she has a cold, and cannot go out; so she desired me to bring you to see her, and to say she used to know your mother when they were both girls."

"Ah!" said Miss Manwaring, in a strange, dreamy tone of voice. "Ah! how strange! Yes, that name ought to be dear to me. I shall be glad to see

her Grace to-morrow."

Miss Strong now committed her young companion to the care of Bessie Hudson, her Lancashire maid, and retired to her own apartments; and Miss Manwaring was soon in bed, and sleeping the peaceful sleep of youth and innocence.

The good Samaritan who acted this neighbourly part towards the newly-arrived stranger was the only sister of a certain Colonel Strong, who had been an excellent and much respected officer of the Royal Artillery. Colonel Strong was the most humane and tender-hearted of men, and had been frequently known to remove a snail from a garden walk, lest it should get trodden under foot. He had made it the great object of his life to discover and perfect the most deadly of missiles for the destruction of his fellow-creatures, and had written a book on "Explosive Bombs," which was known to all 'gunners" as a work of extraordinary science and

the highest authority, and it was the text-book on the subject in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, But Colonel Strong had done more than theorise and write. He had himself invented. a marvellous shot, which he was prepared to warrant would go farther into an iron plate and oak backing than any other projectile known to military science. And this shot had the additional and paramount advantage over all others, that when it had got to the extreme end of its beneficent course, and had remained quiescent for five minutes, it would explode, and blow the ship or fort in which it was embedded into a hundred thousand atoms. When the French and the Russian and the United States Governments, and the Emperor of China, and the Prince of Monaco, heard of this wonderful product of modern civilisation, they severally offered the inventor vast sums for the secret of the invention; but Colonel Strong was a good and patriotic Englishman, and, rejecting all foreign offers with contempt and strong language, offered it to the English War Office. The War Office authorities had the offer under consideration for ten years, and seemed no nearer coming to any decision upon it at the end of that period than they had been at first. It happened, however, that Colonel Strong had a

C

friend in the House of Commons who belonged to the Opposition Party, and this honourable gentleman asked the Secretary for War a vast number of very disagreeable questions on the subject of the Strong Projectile, and moved for the entire Correspondence. This could not be refused, and then it was discovered that it filled three entire Blue Books of the largest volume, the production of which made the Controller of H.M. Stationery Office and the Queen's Printer very much regret that they had ever been born. The Secretary for War (who several times contemplated resigning his post) was next badgered into permitting a trial to be made (at the inventor's expense), and a day was at length appointed for that purpose. Colonel Strong was in raptures, and, although a heavy man, could hardly help jumping for joy when the great day arrived. His Royal Highness the Field-Marshal Commanding in Chief, the Secretary for War, the successful M.P. (in volunteer uniform), Colonel Strong, several General officers and other military experts, made quite a grand procession as they pranced and caracoled out of Woolwich on their way to Plumstead Marshes, where the trial was to take place. When they arrived at the appointed spot, Colonel Strong was in such a state of excitement and fidget that