'A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS' 205 



instance, putting their heads under their arms and 

 smelUng mouldy and clanking chains. No reason- 

 able ghost would act like that if it were not very- 

 necessary for them to attract attention. 



I am afraid that I am rather like a kitten or a 

 puppy-dog, chasing my own tail ; I might almost 

 say, ' chasing my own tale,' but I am never quite 

 sure whether it is right to make jokes in a serious 

 story, such as I wish this to be. I never seem to 

 be able to come to the point ; but then, you see, 

 my tail has not got a point, so how can I be ex- 

 pected to come to it ? 



My troubles, as usual, came upon me owing to 

 my own foolishness, and if the result was only a 

 letter to my name — well, all I can say is that things 

 might have turned out very differently. I might 

 very easily have been * a mute, inglorious Milton, 

 born to blush unseen,' as I think I read in one of 

 the many books which I have devoured. However, 

 1 escaped that fate, and the result suited me to a T, 

 if 1 may venture to hint at another joke, which shall 

 be the veynj last. 



It was not so long after my departure from the 

 river — during the latter part of the autumn, to 

 be quite accurate — that I married another wife, 

 quite a nice one this time, or she would never have 



