‘And now, sir, if I may make so bold, what do you think of the story?’ demanded the landlord. ‘Can you put this and that together now?’ ‘It is marvellous!’ I replied. ‘Your wife has simply repeated the scene which we have heard enacted a dozen times in Rushmere. The footsteps were a nightly occurrence.’ ‘I heard the voice!’ exclaimed Janie, ‘and it whispered “_Emily._”’ ‘The handle of my servant’s door was turned. The report of the gun was as distinct as possible.’ ‘That is what everybody says as goes to Rushmere, sir. No one can abide the place since that awful murder was committed there,’ said Mrs Browser. ‘And can you account for it in any way, sir?’ demanded her husband, slyly. ‘Do you think, now that you’ve heard the story, that the noises are mortal, or that it’s the spirits of the dead that causes them?’ ‘I don’t know what to think, Browser. There is a theory that no uttered sound is ever lost, but drifts as an eddying circle into space, until in course of time it must be heard again. Thus our evil words, too often accompanied by evil deeds, live for ever, to testify against us in eternity. It may be that the Universal Father ordains that some of His guilty children shall expurgate their crimes by re-acting them until they become sensible of their enormity; but this can be but a matter for speculation. This story leaves us, as such stories usually do, as perplexed as we were before. We cannot tell—we probably never _shall_ tell—what irrefragable laws of the universe these mysterious circumstances fulfil; but we know that spirit and matter alike are in higher hands than ours; and, whilst nature cannot help trembling when brought in contact with the supernatural, we have no need to fear that it will ever be permitted to work us harm.’ This little analysis was evidently too much for Mr and Mrs Browser, who, with a look of complete mystification on their countenances, rose from their seats, and wished us respectfully good-night; leaving Janie and me to evolve what theories we chose from the true story of the Invisible Tenants of Rushmere. [Illustration] [Illustration] AMY’S LOVER.