"Will you join us?" he said. In another moment I was being introduced to the party. I was at first surprised to find Gray and his dupe smoking and chatting as gayly as any of the party. I am a good wonderer, but always reason my surprises away. I soon did so now, reflecting that all men use their faces as masks, by which they lie without speaking falsehood. And, though I detest hypocrisy myself, I remembered that I often smiled when I could grind my teeth with rage--that is, if they were not false ones. Le Brun had been summoned to rejoin the circle because a curious topic had been started. M. Raymond was proprietor of an estate near St. Sauveur, the house of which was reported to be haunted, and Esther had dared Gray to spend a night there. "But I don't believe in ghosts," he recommenced, after the introduction. "It would only be to waste a night." "Oh, there _is_ a goblin though," replied the beautiful girl--"a male Amina; always walking into an occupied chamber, so that you're sure to see him. He does not, however, stop to be caught napping in the morning, like La Sonnambula." "I'll tell you what I'll do," answered Gray. "You've called M. le Brun"--and he looked somewhat fiercely at my friend--"if he'll spend a night there, I will. I'm engaged to-night, and to-morrow night, so that he can go first. But I can't believe in your ghost, mademoiselle." "Not if I acknowledge to have seen him myself?" she asked. There was a general movement among the listeners. "Well, I will accept for M. le Brun; he shall go to-night or to-morrow, and you the night after--eh, M. Frederic?" Le Brun murmured something about obedience to her wishes; what, I did not hear. He evidently, however, did not like the scheme, and Gray saw it; but, in the general interest for Esther's tale, no one else did. I do not give it here, for divers reasons. When she had done, it was found to be time to return. I would have left the party, but Raymond having seperated Le Brun from Esther, he joined himself to me, and I was unable to do so. "What will Grace say?" thought I. "I hope she won't wait tea for me." I should have been somewhat crusty if, on an ordinary occasion, I had returned from a stroll and found that she and the rest had _not_ waited. Le Brun asked me--as M. Raymond had already done--to stay all the evening with the party. That, however, I felt to be impossible, and said so. "Well, for the present, then," he said. "What can you tell me of M. Gray?" he added. "I expect my brother here to-morrow," I said, "when I will compare notes with him. Till then I should be cautious, as I may injure an innocent man. But do you be cautious too. How about this challenge? Shall you sleep in the haunted house? It is romantic nonsense--this of a spirit, you know. Mademoiselle has seen a clothes-horse, or a--a part of her dress in moonlight. I don't believe in ghosts myself at all." "Don't you?" said he, somewhat sadly. "I--the truth is, mon cher, I am afraid I do."