'I know,' said the spectre, 'if angels are, as painters depict them, always sitting naked on cold clouds, I would rather live the life of a ghost, to the end of the chapter.'
'And pray,' cried I, 'where, and how do ghosts live?'
'Within this very globe,' said the spectre. 'For this globe is not, as most mortals imagine, a solid body, but a round crust about ten miles thick; and the concave inside is furnished just like the convex outside, with wood, water, vale and mountain. In the centre stands a nice little golden sun, about the size of a pippin, and lights our internal world; where, whatever enjoyments we loved as men, we retain as ghosts. We banquet on visionary turtle, or play at aërial marbles, or drive a phantasmagoric four in hand. The young renew their amours, and the more aged sit yawning for the day of judgment.—But I scent the rosy air of dawn. Speak, lady; what question art thou anxious that I should expound?'
'Whether,' said I, 'if I marry Lord Montmorenci, I shall be happy with him or not?'
'Blissful as Eden,' replied the spectre. 'Your lives will be congenial, and your deaths simultaneous.'
'And now,' said I, walking closer to it, 'will you do me the favour to take a pinch of snuff?'
'Avant!' it cried, motioning me from it with its hand.
But quick as thought, I flung the whole contents of the box full into its eyes.
'Blood and thunder!' exclaimed the astonished apparition.
I snatched the lamp, sprang through the frame of the picture, shut the concealed door, bolted it; while all the time I heard the phantom within, dancing in agony at its eyes, and sending mine to as many devils as could well be called together on so short a notice.