Two beautiful ladies approached him -- one richly dressed with the most dazzling jewelry. The other was clad in plain attire. At first, the dreaming Mr. Crandall thought the richly dressed one was the prettier. She was certainly very attractive -- but, as she came closer, he saw how much of her beauty was artificial. About the other there was no question. A beauty . . . "Mr. Crandall," she said, in the sweetest of voices, "we have come here together that you may choose between us." "Bless me," said Crandall, so much surprised at the unblushing proposal that he nearly awoke himself, "bless me, don't you know I am married?" "Oh, that doesn't matter," answered the fair young lady, with the divinest of smiles. "We are not mortals. We are spirits!"

Author Biography

Robert Barr (1849 - 1912) was a Scottish-Canadian short story writer and novelist, born in Glasgow, Scotland. In 1881 Barr decided to "vamoose the ranch," as he stated, and relocated to London, to establish there the weekly English edition of the Detroit Free Press. In 1892 he founded the magazine The Idler, choosing Jerome K. Jerome as his collaborator (wanting, as Jerome said, "a popular name"). He retired from its co-editorship in 1895. In London of the 1890s Barr became a more prolific author-publishing a book a year-and was familiar with many of the best-selling authors of his day, including Bret Harte and Stephen Crane. Most of his literary output was of the crime genre, then quite in vogue.