a strange, lonesome look about this side of the house; so that my heart misgave me, somehow or other, and I felt as if there was nobody alive in it.

The front of the house looks a good deal cheerier; and Alice’s Posies are blooming there beautifully; and if I were a young man, Mr. Holgrave, my sweetheart should have one of those flowers in her bosom, though I risked my neck climbing for it! Well, and did the wind keep you awake last night?”

“It did, indeed!” answered the artist, smiling. “If I were a believer in ghosts, — and I don’t quite know whether I am or not, — I should have concluded that all the old Pyncheons were running riot in the lower rooms, especially in Miss Hepzibah’s part of the house. But it is very quiet now.”