"Beg pardon," said Hopkins, "I didn't mean that for you. Everything here seems to be bewitched this morning, that dull compilation of legal woe included."
"It's of no consequence, sir, I assure you," returned the agent uneasily.
"No, I don't think it amounts to a row of beans to a man who hates trouble," said Hopkins, referring more to the journal than to the untoward act of the paper ball. "But I say, Mr. Stubbs, I've been having a devil of a time in this room this morning, and when I say devil I mean devil."
Stubbs paled visibly. The moment he had feared had come.
"Wh—wh—what sus—seems to b—be the m—mum—matter, sir?" he stammered.
"Nothing seems, something is the matter," returned Hopkins. "I don't wonder you stammer. You'd stammer worse if you had been here with me three minutes ago. Stubbs, I believe this room is haunted!"
Mr. Stubbs's efforts at surprise at this point were painful to witness.
"Haunted, sir?" he said.
"Yes, haunted!" retorted Hopkins; "and by a confoundedly impertinent something or other that not only sighs and knocks on the door but whistles, Stubbs—actually whistles. Has this room a history?"
"Well, a sort of a one," returned Stubbs; "but I never heard any one complain about it on the score of whistling, sir."