He talked to me a good deal about his brother’s bank and banking in general, and sounded my knowledge of the business with a great number of questions. “You quite justify Tom’s opinion of you,” he exclaimed. “I should never have thought you capable of acquiring so much information in so short a space of time. Banking is a very fine business, and if Tom takes you into partnership, which he talks of doing, I see no reason why you shouldn’t become a very rich man.” This was the nearest approach to his brother’s “scheme” which he made. I listened, expecting him to begin on the subject of my marriage with his daughter; but he immediately changed the conversation by inviting me to make myself thoroughly at home while I stayed with him, to call for anything I wanted, to use his horses--in short, to treat him as I treated my uncle Tom, “than which,” he added, “I shall expect no better compliment from you.” I wished, secretly, that he would not be so hospitable, for the kinder he was, the harder it would be to find an excuse to get away from the house. At eleven o’clock I began to yawn, and seeing this, he conducted me to my bed-room. “We have no fixed breakfast hour,” said he, “so you may choose your own time to leave your bed. I rarely close my eyes before half-past four, and am therefore seldom up before ten. But Teazer is usually down by half-past eight, so you may depend upon finding somebody to look after you.” I shook hands with him, and he went away. I felt more wearied than sleepy. The night was very sultry, and I threw my window wide open before getting into bed. A brilliant moon rode high, and whilst I watched it I thought of Conny, and wondered if her dear eyes were upon it, and if she were thinking of me. Sweet girl! I pictured her delicate features upturned to the benign light, and the chastity they would take in the radiance. What a contrast between the two cousins! What a pity Theresa was so unmannerly! Her face haunted me. I am afraid it sometimes eclipsed Conny’s. How came it so gross a mind should be so finely clothed? From what did her eyes take their fire? Surely not from her heart. After all, what was she but a handsome animal? She could shoot, she could ride; she was very fit for the backwoods. What a wretched voice she had! what a feeble touch! And her father declared she could play and sing well! How slangy her language was, how beautiful her complexion, how inelegant her movements, how perfect her figure, how----! Here I fell asleep. I could hardly have slept longer than half-an-hour, when I started up broad awake, and stared about me. The moon was still high; the room was filled with its light. What had awakened me? Here something knocked three times upon the door. I presumed that the knocks fell upon the door; but, for all I knew, the sounds might have come from the floor, the ceiling, or the walls. Here was an old house! Had it a ghost?