“Then, my dear, if you will make a hermit of yourself, would not your country house be a more attractive abode than a suit of apartments in a crowded flat?” “Ah! you are anxious to get rid of me, Mr. Merritt,” said Roma archly. “You know better than that; but the truth is, I am off for San Francisco, on sudden and imperative business, and must go by the early train to-morrow morning, and I hate to leave you here alone. If you will not go out I would much rather know that you were with your old neighbors at Goblin Hall.” Roma glanced at Madame Marguerite, whose chair had been wheeled to one of the back windows, through which she was looking out upon the little piece of woods left standing at some little distance from the house. She seemed absorbed in thought, and gazing rather on vacancy than on the limited landscape before her. “Ah! I see—I see,” sighed the lawyer. “You are making yourself a martyr to that poor little soul! Why not send her to the Providence Hospital?” he inquired, lowering his voice to a tone inaudible to any ears beyond Roma’s. “Because it would break her heart. Besides, when I ‘introspect’—to use your own words, Mr. Merritt—I find that it gives me so much happiness to make her comfortable that there is no merit at all in my serving her; and, of course, not the least suggestion of self-sacrifice,” replied Roma in the same low key. “Well, well, my dear, as you will. I am going to church at St. John’s for the Christmas service. You, I suppose, cannot leave your invalid. Good-morning. Shall see you again before I leave.” Roma’s dream for her protégée was to take her to Goblin Hall as soon as the spring should open, if the invalid should be well enough to bear the journey. The daily improvement warranted the hope. So did the words and manners of the attending physician. It is the religion of the medical doctor to inspire hope in his patient and his patient’s friends, whether there be any reasonable grounds for it or not. It is one of his methods of cure. Marguerite grew so much better that she could walk from room to room. This improvement continued for weeks, and the invalid, who never had lost her spirits, even in her worst days, grew buoyant with anticipation of her summer holiday in the country. “I shall like your Goblin Hall,” she said; “and I know it must be haunted. I dote on a haunted house, though I never was in one in my life. I do believe in ghosts, and I don’t believe one word about the name being rightly Goeberlin Hall. I believe it is really and truly Goblin Hall, so called on account of its ghost.” “Oh, it has a ghost and a haunted room,” said Roma very gravely. “There, I said so!” exclaimed Marguerite. “And you shall occupy it, if you wish to do so,” added Roma.