He squeezed a bank-note into her hand--and when she, with affected earnestness, desired him to take it back, assuring him that she needed no immediate pecuniary aid, he insisted that she should retain it; and shortly afterwards he arose and took his leave, having easily obtained permission to call upon her the next day. 'Egad, she would make me a charming wife--if she would only have me,' thought the old gentleman, as he left the house. 'Five hundred dollars!' exclaimed Julia, as she examined the bank-note which he had given her--'how liberal! I have fairly entrapped the silly old man; he is too honorable to propose that I should become his mistress, and he will probably offer me his hand in marriage. I will accept him at once--and to avoid detection, I shall remove with my venerable husband to Boston, which I have heard is a charming city, where a woman of fashion and intrigue can lead a glorious and brilliant career.' That night she retired early to rest, and her maid Susan shared her chamber--an arrangement highly satisfactory to the abigail, who was glad of company in a house where ghosts were in the habit of perambulating during the night. Neither mistress nor maid closed an eye in slumber--but midnight came, and they had not seen nor heard anything of a ghostly nature. Yet strange events were taking place in the house,--events which will throw light upon the fearful mysteries of the place. It was about an hour after midnight, when a large stone among those of which the foundation of the house was built, turned slowly upon pivots, revealing an aperture in the wall, and at the same instant the glare of a lantern shone into the cellar. From the aperture emerged two persons of frightful appearance, one of whom carried the lantern; they were both dressed in tight-fitting garments of black cloth, upon which was daubed in white paint the figure of a skeleton; and each of their faces had been blacked, and then drawn over with the representation of a skull. Seen by an imperfect light, they exactly resembled two skeletons. 'By Jesus!' exclaimed one of them, in a tone which was anything but hollow or sepulchral--'let's put for the pantry and see what there is to _ate_, for be the powers I'm starved wid hunger!' 'That's the talk, Bloody Mike--- so we will,' responded the other worthy, who was no other than our old friend Ragged Pete, though his nearest relatives would never have recognized him in the disguise he then wore. Mike and Pete ascended to the pantry, and began a diligent search after provisions. 'Glory to ould Ireland, here's grand illigant ham!' exclaimed the first mentioned individual, as he dragged from a shelf a large dish containing the article he had named. 'And blow me tight if here isn't a cold turkey and a pan of pudding,' rejoined Pete, whose researches had also been crowned with success.