'My Lord, it will certainly take,' returning shrugging his shoulders and laughing. 'The butler hates squire Valmont, and enjoys the thought of playing him such a trick. The lads will have to strip and turn out to-morrow, I doubt not, for this day's frolic.' 'Then, I must provide for them! 'Tis our frolic, and not theirs, Griffiths. 'Should our plain fail----' 'It cannot fail, my lord,' 'Well, well--go--mind you give me more water than wine at dinner.' And now, I steal from a back door, make a circuit round the house, and crossing the lawn join the dear good kind _informing_ souls in the drawing room.----You shall hear from me again presently, Walter. * * * * * I am gone, in reputation I mean, to seek the earl, the baronet, and the simple squire, but, in propria persona, returned to my chamber to tell you a story--a story of stories. The ladies were in the very heart of it when I entered. Luckily, I had waited a sentence or two outside the door, or I should have had no clue to bespeak a continuance of the subject. Mrs. Valmont was suspicious of me, but having persuaded her than I am a sober sort of youth, not at all given to hard-heartedness and infidelity, she proceeded, and I had the good fortune to listen with wondering eyes and gaping mouth to the particular account of how, where, and when, Miss Valmont (my wife that is to be) saw a--ghost.--Stay, let me recollect--a ghost, is I believe a terrific animal, dressed in chains, howling, shrieking, and always withdrawing in a flash of fire; yes, that's a ghost. This was something more gentle and complacent. Mrs. Valmont makes nice distinctions. I remember she called it an apparition, of a spirit--first appearing in the shape of an old hermit--then in that of a young handsome beau--first walking, manlike, into a wood--next bouncing up, fiend-like, on a sudden in an armoury.--Ay, it was a spirit Sibella saw.--She, poor little barbarian, is no better acquainted with the qualities of an apparition than of a man; for, simply enough, she complained to Mrs. Valmont of the disturbance given by this said shifting phantom to her meditations.