CHAPTER XVI. THE MYSTERY DISCLOSED. INNIE'S romance of the cabinet pleased us all, but Adelaide was sure that Madame would not allow it to be read without certain changes, especially the reference to the robbery in the school, and the "lovering" parts. 66 'You need not imagine," said Milly, "that because you object to lovering, all the rest of the world does. Why, even Miss Noakes has a softer heart than Adelaide's. But really and truly, Winnie, how much of that is true? Was Raphael really engaged?" "Most certainly, my dear." "And did Leo X love her too? You made me ever so sorry for the poor old pope." "Well, no, that part is the only one for which I have no warrant in history. That is, I have no doubt that Leo X really did love some one before he took the irrevocable Vows. He was what Browning calls "Sworn fast and tonsured pate, plain heaven's celibate, And yet earth's clear accepted servitor, A courtly, spiritual Cupid, And fit companion for the like of you; Your gay Abati with the well turned leg, And rose i' the hat rim. Canon's cross at neck, "The cabinet is such an uncanny old thing," said Milly, "that I begin almost to believe that you have divined the truth, and that an uneasy spirit really haunts its vicinity." Perhaps the fact that we now only keep school books in the cabinet is the reason the ghost has been so very quiet of late," said Winnie. "Or, perhaps it has repented its evil deeds and my essay has given it the peace of conscience which only comes through confession. If it were an unrepenting spirit it would, as Milly suggests, be very unwilling. this essay. that I should publish its evil deeds by reading I believe that I will give it an opportunity of showing whether it approves of my reading its confessions. Here, Tib, take everything else off your shelf, and I will lay my essay there and call on the spirit to make away with it, if, indeed, he is able and wicked enough to do it." Adelaide, Milly, and I watched the incantation with much amusement. Guilty ghost," exclaimed Winnie, striking an attitude, "if you have repented of your crimes, and the reading of this essay will allow you henceforth to rest in peace, I hereby exorcise you, and command you to affix some seal of your approval to this papereither the print of a bloody hand or at least X your mark.” Hereupon Winnie, with a flourish, laid her essay on my shelf and closed the cabinet door. "If, guilty ghost," she continued, “you are still up to your tricks, and having taken the money which Tib confided to her shelf, are determined to go on in your evil ways, I hereby dare you to steal that essay within the next half hour, we keeping watch and ward in this room!" "I think it is no fair test," I said, "unless you leave it there overnight. Both of the other robberies were committed just at midnight. This ghost may be of a bashful disposition, or possibly not good-natured enough to walk at your call in broad daylight." "Well, if he doesn't appear within a half hour I'll give him another chance, in the dead vast and middle of the night,' 'when churchyards yawn,' et-cetera. Here, Milly, lend me your watch, that I may time our visitor." We all sat for a few moments silently watching the cabinet, but presently Adelaide tired of this mummery and exclaimed : Latin prose composition to write, and cannot spend any more time in such nonsense, Winnie." "Write your exercise in this room. We will all keep still, and I must have all the Amen Corner as witnesses of my little exper iment." Winnie pulled out the writing shelf, and Adelaide seated herself at the cabinet and wrote steadily until Winnie cried, "Time's up." Milly and I approached the cabinet, and Winnie made a few magical passes in the air and repeated an ancient hocus-pocus : "There was a frog lived in a well, Keemo kimo darrow wa, Munri, munro, munrum stump, Sing song, kitchee wunchee kimeo." Adelaide pushed in the writing shelf and stepped aside, and Winnie threw open the cabinet door. We could hardly believe our eyes—the eyes the essay had disappeared. Milly gave a shriek of dismay. "It must have been a ghost. How else could it have vanished with all of us on the watch?" 66 a trick on me, "Have you been playing Adelaide?" Winnie asked. Did you manage to slip it out while we were not looking?" Adelaide disclaimed any such action, and Milly and I confirmed her assertion, for we had been watching the door all the time. Winnie wheeled the cabinet away from the wall, almost expecting to find a concealed door opening into Cynthia's room. But the wall was perfectly solid, there was not even a mouse hole in the base-board, while the back |