.

THE CIPHER.
Hitherto I had mainly admired Mrs.Packard's person and the extreme charm of manner which never deserted her, no matter how she felt.

Now I found myself compelled to admire the force and quality of her mind, her readiness to meet emergencies and the tact with which she had availed herself of the superstition latent in the Irish temperament.

For I had no more faith in the explanation she had seen fit to give these ignorant girls than I had in the apparition itself.

Emotion such as she had shown called for a more matter-of-fact basis than the one she had ascribed to it.