`` Prompt and perfect '' was her motto . The long hot summer days were very trying , and sometimes she got very tired of it all . But when on the anniversary of her first venture she made up her accounts she was well pleased . To be sure , she had not made a fortune ; but she had paid all their expenses , had a hundred dollars clear , and had laid the solid foundations of a profitable business . `` Mother , '' she said jubilantly , as she wiped a dab of flour from her nose and proceeded to concoct the icing for Blanche Remington 's wedding cake , `` do n't you think my business venture has been a decided success ? '' Mrs. Mitchell surveyed her busy daughter with a motherly smile . `` Yes , I think it has , '' she said . Miriam 's Lover I had been reading a ghost story to Mrs. Sefton , and I laid it down at the end with a little shrug of contempt . `` What utter nonsense ! '' I said . Mrs. Sefton nodded abstractedly above her fancywork . `` That is . It is a very commonplace story indeed . I do n't believe the spirits of the departed trouble themselves to revisit the glimpses of the moon for the purpose of frightening honest mortals -- or even for the sake of hanging around the favourite haunts of their existence in the flesh . If they ever appear , it must be for a better reason than that . '' `` You do n't surely think that they ever do appear ? '' I said incredulously . `` We have no proof that they do not , my dear . '' `` Surely , Mary , '' I exclaimed , `` you do n't mean to say that you believe people ever do or can see spirits -- ghosts , as the word goes ? '' `` I did n't say I believed it .
I never saw anything XXXXX the sort .
If above as at for of on than that to