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 blind man and the others, the handkerchief was smuggled away, and the game was at an end.

'And now for snap-dragon,' said Marian.

'Exactly as you predicted, Mr. Graham,' said Madeline: 'blindman's buff at a quarter past three, and snap-dragon at five.'

'I revoke every word that I uttered, for I was never more amused in my life.'

'And you will be prepared to endure the wine and sweet cake when they come.'

'Prepared to endure anything, and go through everything. We shall be allowed candles now, I suppose.'

'Oh, no, by no means. Snap-dragon by candlelight! who ever heard of such a thing? It would wash all the dragon out of it, and leave nothing but the snap. It is a necessity of the game that it should be played in the dark,—or rather by its own lurid light.'

'Oh, there is a lurid light; is there?'

'You shall see;' and then she turned away to make her preparations.

To the game of snap-dragon, as played at Noningsby, a ghost was always necessary, and aunt Madeline had played the ghost ever since she had been an aunt, and there had been any necessity for such a part. But in previous years the spectators had been fewer in number and more closely connected with the family. 'I think we must drop the ghost on this occasion,' she said, coming up to her brother.

'You'll disgust them all dreadfully if you do,' said he. 'The young Sebrights have come specially to see the ghost.'

'Well, you can do ghost for them.'

'I! no; I can't act a ghost. Miss Furnival, you'd make a lovely ghost.'

'I shall be most happy to be useful,' said Sophia.

'Oh, aunt Mad., you must be ghost,' said Marian, following her.

'You foolish little thing, you; we are going to have a beautiful ghost—a divine ghost,' said uncle Gus.

'But we want Madeline to be the ghost,' said a big Miss Sebright, ten or eleven years old.

'She's always ghost,' said Marian.

'To be sure; it will be much better,' said Miss Furnival. 'I only offered my poor services hoping to be useful. No Banquo that ever lived could leave a worse ghost behind him that I should prove.'

It ended in there being two ghosts. It had become quite impossible to rob Miss Furnival of her promised part, and Madeline could not refuse to solve the difficulty in this way without making more of the matter than it deserved. The idea of two ghosts was delightful to the children, more especially as it entailed two large