death itself.  He stalked into the room with unusual gravity, took the vacant place of ceremony, lifted the empty glass which stood before him, bowed around, and put it to his lips; then replaced it on the table, and stalked out of the room as silent as he had entered it.  The company remained deeply appalled; at length, after many observations on the strangeness of what they had seen, they resolved to dispatch two of their number as ambassadors, to see how it fared with the president, who had thus strangely appeared among them.  They went, and returned with the frightful intelligence that the friend after whom they had enquired was that evening deceased.

The astonished party then resolved that they would remain absolutely silent respecting the wonderful sight which they had seen.  Their habits were too philosophical to permit them to believe that they had actually seen the ghost of their deceased brother, and at the same time they were too wise men to wish to confirm the superstition of the vulgar by what might seem indubitable evidence of a ghost.  The affair was therefore kept a strict secret, although, as usual, some dubious rumours of the tale found their way to the public.  Several years afterwards, an old woman who had long filled the place of a sick-nurse, was taken very ill, and on her death-bed was attended by a medical member of the philosophical club.  To him, with many expressions of regret, she acknowledged that she had long before attended Mr.——­, naming the president whose appearance had surprised the club so strangely, and that she felt distress of conscience on account of the manner in which he died.  She said that as his malady was attended by light-headedness, she had been directed to keep a close watch upon him during his illness.  Unhappily she slept, and during her sleep the patient had awaked and left the apartment.  When, on her own awaking, she found the bed empty and the patient gone, she forthwith hurried out of the house to seek him, and met him in the act of returning.  She got him, she said, replaced in bed, but it was only to die there.  She added, to convince her hearer of the truth of what she said, that immediately after the poor gentleman expired, a deputation of two members from the club came to enquire after their president’s health, and received for answer that he was already dead.  This confession explained the whole matter.  The delirious patient had very naturally taken the road to the club, from some recollections of his duty of the night.  In approaching and retiring from the apartment he had used one of the pass-keys already mentioned, which made his way shorter.  On the other hand, the gentlemen sent to enquire after his health had reached his lodging by a more circuitous road; and thus there had been time for him to return to what proved his death-bed, long before they reached his chamber.  The philosophical witnesses of this strange scene were now as anxious to spread the story as they had formerly been to conceal it, since it showed in what a remarkable manner men’s eyes might turn traitors to them, and impress them with ideas far different from the truth.