So when I doubted if the Fates regarded the visionary shroud as of necessity appertaining to me, she said, in a way that was, for her, almost sharp: "Take care, laddie.

'Tis ill jesting wi' the powers o' time Unknown." Perhaps it was that her talk put the subject in my mind.

The woman needed no such aid; she was always there; but when I locked myself into my room that night, I half expected to find her in the room.

I was not sleepy, so I took a book of Aunt Janet's and began to read.

The title was "On the Powers and Qualities of Disembodied Spirits." "Your grammar," said I to the author, "is hardly attractive, but I may learn something which might apply to her.