"I thought at first that it was thieves breaking in; but I know now that it flew open because Agnes had not locked the door fast enough to hold it." "No, I had not," said I. The arrival of the mailbag put an end to this discussion. The letters were distributed at the table. Among them was one from my brother to Mr. Legare, accepting his invitation for himself and his friend, whom he begged to name as the Hon. Francis Howard, of Massachusetts, and announcing the letter as a mere _avant courier_ of the party which would reach Frost Height that afternoon. Upon hearing the name of Frank Howard as the "friend" of John and their expected guest, Mathilde flushed and paled, and was quite unable to conceal from the interested scrutiny of her parents the emotion these tidings caused her. As for Mr. Legare, upon reading his name, he said: "Humph!" and "humph!" very emphatically several times before he could get any further. But he considered his hospitality implicated; nay, his honor pledged to receive and treat with politeness the guest that he had so unconsciously invited. He was a fine old gentleman, notwithstanding his prejudices--was Mr. Legare. So, in the afternoon, once more Uncle Judah was ordered to take the mules and go up to Frost Height to meet the stage-coach, and bring two visitors to the house; an order so little to the old man's satisfaction that he vented his disapprobation in the exclamation: "Ole masse better had set up 'Entertainment for Man and Beast' at once." As usual, when expecting a new arrival of visitors, Mrs. Legare put back her tea hour, and prepared a supper of extra luxuriousness. And Mr. Legare brewed the great ancestral punchbowl to the brim with rich, frothy eggnog, and set it away to "mellow," against the coming of the gentlemen. "My dear mother and father! they have noble hearts in spite of their social conservatism! And you shall see that they will treat my Frank with as much kindness and respect as if they did not consider him a sort of wolf, prowling about after their one ewe lamb," said Mathilde, with tears of affection brimming to her eyes. "And you see, my darling, it is as I foretold you it would be. He is seeking you now in your own home. And under what favorable circumstances--the invited guest of your father. How very providential the whole train of events! Trust still in Divine Providence; and if your love is a true love, it will end happily," I answered. And in my deep sympathy with Mathilde's joy, I almost forgot that I was a haunted maiden, with some, as yet unknown, supernatural mission to accomplish.