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 Anne Auger · Carlos M. Fonseca
Nuno Lourenço · Penousal Machado
Luís Paquete · Darrell Whitley (Eds.)
LNCS 11101

Parallel Problem Solving

from Nature – PPSN XV
15th International Conference
Coimbra, Portugal, September 8–12, 2018
Proceedings, Part I

123
Lecture Notes in Computer Science 11101
Commenced Publication in 1973
Founding and Former Series Editors:
Gerhard Goos, Juris Hartmanis, and Jan van Leeuwen

Editorial Board
David Hutchison
Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
Takeo Kanade
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Josef Kittler
University of Surrey, Guildford, UK
Jon M. Kleinberg
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
Friedemann Mattern
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
John C. Mitchell
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Moni Naor
Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
C. Pandu Rangan
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India
Bernhard Steffen
TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany
Demetri Terzopoulos
University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Doug Tygar
University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Gerhard Weikum
Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarbrücken, Germany
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7407
Anne Auger Carlos M. Fonseca
•

Nuno Lourenço Penousal Machado

•

Luís Paquete Darrell Whitley (Eds.)

•

Parallel Problem Solving

from Nature – PPSN XV
15th International Conference
Coimbra, Portugal, September 8–12, 2018
Proceedings, Part I

123
Editors
Anne Auger Penousal Machado
Inria Saclay University of Coimbra
Palaiseau Coimbra
France Portugal
Carlos M. Fonseca Luís Paquete
University of Coimbra University of Coimbra
Coimbra Coimbra
Portugal Portugal
Nuno Lourenço Darrell Whitley
University of Coimbra Colorado State University
Coimbra Fort Collins, CO
Portugal USA

ISSN 0302-9743 ISSN 1611-3349 (electronic)

Lecture Notes in Computer Science
ISBN 978-3-319-99252-5 ISBN 978-3-319-99253-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99253-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018951432

LNCS Sublibrary: SL1 – Theoretical Computer Science and General Issues

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018

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 Preface

During September 8–12, 2018, researchers from all over the world gathered in
Coimbra, Portugal, for the 15th International Conference on Parallel Problem Solving
from Nature (PPSN XV). Far more than a European event, this biennial meeting has
established itself among the most important and highly respected international con-
ferences in nature-inspired computation worldwide since its first edition in Dortmund
in 1990. These two LNCS volumes contain the proceedings of the conference.
We received 205 submissions from 44 countries. An extensive review process
involved over 200 reviewers, who evaluated and reported on the manuscripts. All
papers were assigned to at least three Program Committee members for review. A total
of 745 review reports were received, or over 3.6 reviews on average per manuscript.
All review reports were analyzed in detail by the Program Chairs. Where there was
disagreement among reviewers, the Program Chairs also evaluated the papers them-
selves. In some cases, discussion among reviewers with conflicting reviews was pro-
moted with the aim of making as accurate and fair a decision as possible. Overall, 79
manuscripts were selected for presentation and inclusion in the proceedings, which
represents an acceptance rate just below 38.6%. This makes PPSN 2018 the most
selective PPSN conference of the past 12 years, and reinforces its position as a major,
high-quality evolutionary computation scientific event.
The meeting began with an extensive program of 23 tutorials and six workshops
covering a wide range of topics in evolutionary computation and related areas,
including machine learning, statistics, and mathematical programming. Tutorials
offered participants the opportunity to learn more about well-established, as well as
more recent, research, while workshops provided a friendly environment where new
ideas could be presented and discussed by participants with similar interests.
In addition, three distinguished invited speakers delivered keynote addresses at the
conference. Ahmed Elgammal (Rutgers University, USA), Francis Heylighen (Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, Belgium), and Kurt Mehlhorn (Max Planck Institute for Infor-
matics, Saarbrücken, Germany) spoke on advances in the area of artificial intelligence
and art, foundational concepts and mechanisms that underlie parallel problem solving
in nature, and models of computation by living organisms, respectively.
We thank the authors of all submitted manuscripts, and express our appreciation to
all the members of the Program Committee and external reviewers who provided
thorough evaluations of those submissions. We thank the keynote speakers, tutorial
speakers, and workshop organizers for significantly enriching the scientific program
with their participation. To all members of the Organizing Committee and local
organizers, we extend our deep gratitude for their dedication in preparing and running
the conference. Special thanks are due to the University of Coimbra for hosting the
conference and, in particular, to INESC Coimbra, CISUC, the Department of Infor-
matics Engineering, the Department of Mathematics, and the International Relations
Unit, for their invaluable contribution to the organization of this event, and to the
VI Preface

sponsoring institutions for their generosity. Finally, we wish to personally thank Carlos
Henggeler Antunes for his unconditional support.

September 2018 Anne Auger

Carlos M. Fonseca
Nuno Lourenço
Penousal Machado
Luís Paquete
Darrell Whitley
 Organization

PPSN 2018 was organized by INESC Coimbra and CISUC, and was hosted by the
University of Coimbra, Portugal. Established in 1290, the University of Coimbra is the
oldest university in the country and among the oldest in the world. It is a UNESCO
World Heritage site since 2013.

Organizing Committee
General Chairs
Carlos M. Fonseca University of Coimbra, Portugal
Penousal Machado University of Coimbra, Portugal

Honorary Chair
Hans-Paul Schwefel TU Dortmund University, Germany

Program Chairs
Anne Auger Inria Saclay, France
Luís Paquete University of Coimbra, Portugal
Darrell Whitley Colorado State University, USA

Workshop Chairs
Robin C. Purshouse University of Sheffield, UK
Christine Zarges Aberystwyth University, UK

Tutorial Chairs
Michael T. M. Emmerich Leiden University, The Netherlands
Gisele L. Pappa Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Publications Chair
Nuno Lourenço University of Coimbra, Portugal

Local Organization Chair

Pedro Martins University of Coimbra, Portugal

Webmasters
Catarina Maçãs University of Coimbra, Portugal
Evgheni Polisciuc University of Coimbra, Portugal
VIII Organization

Steering Committee
David W. Corne Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, UK
Carlos Cotta Universidad de Malaga, Spain
Kenneth De Jong George Mason University, USA
Agoston E. Eiben Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Bogdan Filipič Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Emma Hart Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Juan Julián Merelo Guervós Universidad de Granada, Spain
Günter Rudolph TU Dortmund University, Germany
Thomas P. Runarsson University of Iceland, Iceland
Robert Schaefer University of Krakow, Poland
Marc Schoenauer Inria, France
Xin Yao University of Birmingham, UK

Keynote Speakers
Ahmed Elgammal Rutgers University, USA
Francis Heylighen Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Kurt Mehlhorn Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Germany

Program Committee
Youhei Akimoto Shinshu University, Japan
Richard Allmendinger University of Manchester, UK
Dirk Arnold Dalhousie University, Canada
Asma Atamna Inria, France
Anne Auger Inria, France
Dogan Aydin Dumlupinar University, Turkey
Jaume Bacardit Newcastle University, UK
Helio Barbosa Laboratório Nacional de Computação Científica, Brasil
Thomas Bartz-Beielstein Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Heder Bernardino Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brasil
Hans-Georg Beyer Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences, Austria
Mauro Birattari Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Christian Blum Spanish National Research Council, Spain
Peter Bosman Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, The Netherlands
Pascal Bouvry University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Juergen Branke University of Warwick, UK
Dimo Brockhoff Inria and Ecole Polytechnique, France
Will Browne Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
Alexander Brownlee University of Stirling, Scotland
Larry Bull University of the West of England, England
Arina Buzdalova ITMO University, Russia
Maxim Buzdalov ITMO University, Russia
Stefano Cagnoni University of Parma, Italy
David Cairns University of Stirling, Scotland
 Organization IX

Mauro Castelli Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal

Wenxiang Chen Colorado State University, USA
Ying-Ping Chen National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Marco Chiarandini University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Francisco Chicano University of Málaga, Spain
Miroslav Chlebik University of Sussex, UK
Sung-Bae Cho Yonsei University, South Korea
Alexandre Chotard Inria, France
Carlos Coello Coello CINVESTAV-IPN, Mexico
Dogan Corus University of Nottingham, UK
Ernesto Costa University of Coimbra, Portugal
Carlos Cotta University of Málaga, Spain
Kenneth De Jong George Mason University, USA
Antonio Della Cioppa University of Salerno, Italy
Bilel Derbel University of Lille, France
Benjamin Doerr École Polytechnique, France
Carola Doerr Sorbonne University, Paris, France
Marco Dorigo Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Johann Dréo Thales Research & Technology, France
Rafal Drezewski AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland
Michael Emmerich Leiden University, The Netherlands
Andries Engelbrecht University of Pretoria, South Africa
Anton Eremeev Omsk Branch of Sobolev Institute of Mathematics,
Russia
Katti Faceli Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brasil
João Paulo Fernandes University of Coimbra, Portugal
Pedro Ferreira University of Lisbon, Portugal
José Rui Figueira University of Lisbon, Portugal
Bogdan Filipic Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Steffen Finck Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences, Austria
Andreas Fischbach Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Peter Fleming University of Sheffield, UK
Carlos M. Fonseca University of Coimbra, Portugal
Martina Friese Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Marcus Gallagher University of Queensland, Australia
José García-Nieto University of Málaga, Spain
Antonio Gaspar-Cunha University of Minho, Portugal
Mario Giacobini University of Torino, Italy
Tobias Glasmachers Institut für Neuroinformatik, Germany
Roderich Gross University of Sheffield, UK
Andreia Guerreiro University of Coimbra, Portugal
Jussi Hakanen University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Hisashi Handa Kindai University, Japan
Julia Handl University of Manchester, UK
Jin-Kao Hao University of Angers, France
Emma Hart Napier University, UK
Nikolaus Hansen Inria, France
X Organization

Verena Heidrich-Meisner Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Germany

Carlos Henggeler Antunes University of Coimbra, Portugal
Hisao Ishibuchi Southern University of Science and Technology, China
Christian Jacob University of Calgary, Canada
Domagoj Jakobovic University of Zagreb, Croatia
Thomas Jansen Aberystwyth University, Wales
Yaochu Jin University of Surrey, England
Laetitia Jourdan University of Lille, France
Bryant Julstrom St. Cloud State University, USA
George Karakostas McMaster University, Canada
Graham Kendall University of Nottingham, UK
Timo Kötzing Hasso-Plattner-Institut, Germany
Krzysztof Krawiec Poznan University of Technology, Poland
Martin Krejca Hasso-Plattner-Institut, Germany
Algirdas Lančinskas Vilnius University, Lithuania
William Langdon University College London, England
Frederic Lardeux University of Angers, France
Jörg Lässig University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz,
Germany
Per Kristian Lehre University of Birmingham, UK
Johannes Lengler ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Arnaud Liefooghe University of Lille, France
Andrei Lissovoi University of Sheffield, UK
Giosuè Lo Bosco Università di Palermo, Italy
Fernando Lobo University of Algarve, Portugal
Daniele Loiacono Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Manuel López-Ibáñez University of Manchester, UK
Nuno Lourenço University of Coimbra, Portugal
Jose A. Lozano University of the Basque Country, Spain
Gabriel Luque University of Málaga, Spain
Thibaut Lust Sorbonne University, France
Penousal Machado University of Coimbra, Portugal
Jacek Mańdziuk Warsaw University of Technology, Poland
Vittorio Maniezzo University of Bologna, Italy
Elena Marchiori Radboud University, The Netherlands
Giancarlo Mauri University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
James McDermott University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Alexander Melkozerov Tomsk State University of Control Systems and
Radioelectronics, Russia
J. J. Merelo University of Granada, Spain
Marjan Mernik University of Maribor, Slovenia
Silja Meyer-Nieberg Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany
Martin Middendorf University of Leipzig, Germany
Kaisa Miettinen University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Edmondo Minisci University of Strathclyde, Scotland
Gara Miranda University of La Laguna, Spain
Marco A. Montes De Oca “clypd, Inc.”, USA
 Organization XI

Sanaz Mostaghim Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany

Boris Naujoks Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Antonio J. Nebro University of Málaga, Spain
Ferrante Neri De Montfort University, England
Frank Neumann University of Adelaide, Australia
Phan Nguyen University of Birmingham, UK
Miguel Nicolau University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Kouhei Nishida Shinshu University, Japan
Michael O’ Neill University College Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Gabriela Ochoa University of Stirling, Scotland
Pietro S Oliveto University of Sheffield, UK
José Carlos Ortiz-Bayliss Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
Ben Paechter Napier University, UK
Gregor Papa Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Gisele Pappa Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brasil
Luis Paquete University of Coimbra, Portugal
Andrew J. Parkes University of Nottingham, UK
Margarida Pato Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Mario Pavone University of Catania, Italy
David Pelta University of Granada, Spain
Martin Pilat Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic
Petr Pošík Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic
Mike Preuss University of Münster, Germany
Robin Purshouse University of Sheffield, UK
Günther Raidl Vienna University of Technology, Austria
William Rand North Carolina State University, USA
Khaled Rasheed University of Georgia, USA
Tapabrata Ray University of New South Wales, Australia
Eduardo Rodriguez-Tello CINVESTAV-Tamaulipas, Mexico
Günter Rudolph TU Dortmund University, Germany
Andrea Roli University of Bologna, Italy
Agostinho Rosa University of Lisbon, Portugal
Jonathan Rowe University of Birmingham, UK
Thomas Runarsson University of Iceland, Iceland
Thomas A. Runkler Siemens Corporate Technology, Germany
Conor Ryan University of Limerick, Republic of Ireland
Frédéric Saubion University of Angers, France
Robert Schaefer AGH University of Science and Technology, Poland
Andrea Schaerf University of Udine, Italy
Manuel Schmitt ALYN Woldenberg Family Hospital, Israel
Marc Schoenauer Inria, France
Oliver Schuetze CINVESTAV-IPN, Mexico
Eduardo Segredo Napier University, UK
Martin Serpell University of the West of England, England
Roberto Serra University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
Marc Sevaux Université de Bretagne-Sud, France
Shinichi Shirakawa Yokohama National University, Japan
XII Organization

Kevin Sim Napier University, UK

Moshe Sipper Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Jim Smith University of the West of England, England
Christine Solnon Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon,
France
Sebastian Stich EPFL, Switzerland
Catalin Stoean University of Craiova, Romania
Jörg Stork Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Thomas Stützle Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Dirk Sudholt University of Sheffield, UK
Andrew Sutton University of Minnesota Duluth, USA
Jerry Swan University of York, UK
Ricardo H. C. Takahashi Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brasil
El-Ghazali Talbi University of Lille, France
Daniel Tauritz Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA
Jorge Tavares Microsoft, Germany
Hugo Terashima Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
German Terrazas Angulo University of Nottingham, UK
Andrea Tettamanzi University Nice Sophia Antipolis, France
Lothar Thiele ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Dirk Thierens Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Renato Tinós University of São Paulo, Brasil
Alberto Tonda Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, France
Heike Trautmann University of Münster, Germany
Leonardo Trujillo Instituto Tecnológico de TIjuana, Mexico
Tea Tusar Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Nadarajen Veerapen University of Stirling, UK
Sébastien Verel Université du Littoral Côte d’Opale, France
Markus Wagner University of Adelaide, Australia
Elizabeth Wanner Aston University, UK
Carsten Witt Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Man Leung Wong Lingnan University, Hong Kong
John Woodward Queen Mary University of London, UK
Ning Xiong Mälardalen University, Sweden
Shengxiang Yang De Montfort University, UK
Gary Yen Oklahoma State University, USA
Martin Zaefferer Cologne University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Ales Zamuda University of Maribor, Slovenia
Christine Zarges Aberystwyth University, UK

Additional Reviewers

Matthew Doyle
Yue Gu
Stefano Mauceri
Aníl Özdemir
Isaac Vandermuelen
Invited Talks
 The Shape of Art History in the Eyes
of the Machine

Ahmed Elgammal

Art and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Rutgers University

Advances in Artificial Intelligence are changing things around us. Is art and creativity
immune from the perceived AI takeover? In this talk I will highlight some of the
advances in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Art. I will argue about how inves-
tigating perceptual and cognitive tasks related to human creativity in visual art is
essential for advancing the fields of AI and multimedia systems. On the other hand,
how AI can change the way we look at art and art history.
The talk will present results of recent research activities at the Art and Artificial
Intelligence Laboratory at Rutgers University. We investigate perceptual and cognitive
tasks related to human creativity in visual art. In particular, we study problems related
to art styles, influence, and the quantification of creativity. We develop computational
models that aim at providing answers to questions about what characterizes the
sequence and evolution of changes in style over time. The talk will also cover advances
in automated prediction of style, how that relates to art history methodology, and what
that tells us about how the machine sees art history. The talk will also delve into our
recent research on quantifying creativity in art in regard to its novelty and influence, as
well as computational models that simulate the art-producing system.
 Self-organization, Emergence and Stigmergy:
Coordination from the Bottom-up

Francis Heylighen

Evolution, Complexity and Cognition Group,

Center Leo Apostel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

The purpose of this presentation is to review and clarify some of the foundational
concepts and mechanisms that underlie parallel problem solving in nature. A problem
can be conceived as a tension between the present, “unfit” state and some fit state in
which the tension would be relaxed [2]. Formulated in terms of dynamic systems, the
solution is then a fitness peak, a potential valley, or most generally an attractor in the
state space of the system under consideration. Solving the problem means finding a
path that leads from the present state to such an attractor state. This spontaneous
descent of a system into an attractor is equivalent to the self-organization of the
components or agents in the system, meaning that the agents mutually adapt so as to
achieve a stable interaction pattern. The interaction between agents can be conceived as
a propagation of challenges: a challenge is a state of tension that incites an agent to act
so as to reduce the tension. That action, however, typically creates a new challenge for
one or more neighboring agents, who act in turn, thus creating yet further challenges.
The different actions take place in parallel, producing a “wave” of activity that prop-
agates across the environment. Because of the general relaxation dynamics, this activity
eventually settles in an attractor. The stability of the resulting global configuration
means that the different agents have now “coordinated” their actions into a synergetic
pattern: a global “order” has emerged out of local interactions [1]. Such
self-organization and “natural problem solving” are therefore in essence equivalent.
Two mechanisms facilitate this process: (1) order from noise [4] notes that injecting
random variation accelerates the exploration of the state space, and thus the discovery
of deep attractors; (2) stigmergy means that agents leave traces of their action in a
shared medium. These traces challenge other agents to build further on the activity.
They function like a collective memory and communication medium that facilitates
coordination without requiring either top-down control or direct agent-to-agent com-
munication [3].

References
1. Heylighen, F.: The science of self-organization and adaptivity. Encycl. Life Support Syst.
5(3), 253–280 (2001)
2. Heylighen, F.: Challenge Propagation: towards a theory of distributed intelligence and the
global brain. Spanda J. V(2), 51–63 (2014)
 Self-organization, Emergence and Stigmergy: Coordination from the Bottom-up XVII

3. Heylighen, F.: Stigmergy as a universal coordination mechanism I: definition and compo-

nents. Cogn. Syst. Res. 38, 4–13 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2015.12.002
4. Von Foerster, H.: On self-organizing systems and their environments. In: Self-organizing
Systems, pp. 31–50 (1960)
 On Physarum Computations

Kurt Mehlhorn

Max Planck Institute for Informatics, Saarland Informatics Campus, Saarbrücken

Let c be a positive vector in Rm , let A 2 Rnm and b 2 Rn . Consider

minimize cT j f j subject to Af ¼ b: ð1Þ

The solution is a feasible f of minimum weighted 1-norm. The Physarum dynamics

operates on a state x 2 Rm[ 0 . The state evolves according to the system of differential
equations
x_ ¼ q  x;
where q is the minimum energy feasible solution, i.e.,
( )
X
q ¼ argminf re fe j Af ¼ b
2
and re ¼ ce =xe : ð2Þ
e

In [1] it is shown that the dynamics (2) converges to an optimal solution of (1).
Previously, this was known for the special case of the undirected shortest path problem
[2–4]; here A is the node-arc incidence matrix of a directed graph and b is the demand
vector. Further work can be found in [8–11].
The theoretical investigation of the Physarum dynamics was motivated by wet-lab
experiments [5]. The theoretical model was introduced by [6], and convergence for the
case of parallel links was shown in [7].

References
1. Becker, R., Bonifaci, V., Karrenbauer, A., Kolev, P., Mehlhorn, K.: Two results on slime
mold computations (2017). CoRR abs/1707.06631. https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06631
2. Bonifaci, V., Mehlhorn, K., Varma, G.: Physarum can compute shortest paths. J. Theor.
Biol. 309, 121–133 (2012). http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.0423
3. Bonifaci, V.: Physarum can compute shortest paths: a short proof. Inf. Process. Lett. 113(1–2),
4–7 (2013)
4. Bonifaci, V.: A revised model of fluid transport optimization in physarum polycephalum.
CoRR abs/1606.04225 (2016)
5. Nakagaki, T., Yamada, H., Tóth, A.: Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism. Nature 407,
470 (2000)
6. Tero, A., Kobayashi, R., Nakagaki, T.: A mathematical model for adaptive transport network
in path finding by true slime mold. J. Theor. Biol., 553–564 (2007)
7. Miyaji, T., Ohnishi, I.: Physarum can solve the shortest path problem on riemannian surface
mathematically rigourously. Int. J. Pure Appl. Math. 47, 353–369 (2008)
 On Physarum Computations XIX

8. Ito, K., Johansson, A., Nakagaki, T., Tero, A.: Convergence properties for the Physarum
solver (2011). arXiv:1101.5249v1
9. Straszak, D., Vishnoi, N.K.: IRLS and slime mold: Equivalence and convergence (2016).
CoRR abs/1601.02712
10. Straszak, D., Vishnoi, N.K.: On a natural dynamics for linear programming. In: ITCS,
p. 291. ACM, New York (2016)
11. Straszak, D., Vishnoi, N.K.: Natural algorithms for flow problems. In: SODA, pp.
1868–1883 (2016)
 Contents – Part I

Numerical Optimization

A Comparative Study of Large-Scale Variants of CMA-ES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Konstantinos Varelas, Anne Auger, Dimo Brockhoff, Nikolaus Hansen,
Ouassim Ait ElHara, Yann Semet, Rami Kassab,
and Frédéric Barbaresco

Design of a Surrogate Model Assisted (1 + 1)-ES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Arash Kayhani and Dirk V. Arnold

Generalized Self-adapting Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm . . . . . . . . 29

Mateusz Uliński, Adam Żychowski, Michał Okulewicz,
Mateusz Zaborski, and Hubert Kordulewski

PSO-Based Search Rules for Aerial Swarms Against Unexplored Vector

Fields via Genetic Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Palina Bartashevich, Illya Bakurov, Sanaz Mostaghim,
and Leonardo Vanneschi

Towards an Adaptive CMA-ES Configurator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Sander van Rijn, Carola Doerr, and Thomas Bäck

Combinatorial Optimization

A Probabilistic Tree-Based Representation for Non-convex Minimum

Cost Flow Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Behrooz Ghasemishabankareh, Melih Ozlen, Frank Neumann,
and Xiaodong Li

Comparative Study of Different Memetic Algorithm Configurations

for the Cyclic Bandwidth Sum Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Eduardo Rodriguez-Tello, Valentina Narvaez-Teran,
and Fréderic Lardeux

Efficient Recombination in the Lin-Kernighan-Helsgaun Traveling

Salesman Heuristic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Renato Tinós, Keld Helsgaun, and Darrell Whitley

Escherization with a Distance Function Focusing on the Similarity

of Local Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Yuichi Nagata
XXII Contents – Part I

Evolutionary Search of Binary Orthogonal Arrays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Luca Mariot, Stjepan Picek, Domagoj Jakobovic, and Alberto Leporati

Heavy-Tailed Mutation Operators in Single-Objective

Combinatorial Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Tobias Friedrich, Andreas Göbel, Francesco Quinzan,
and Markus Wagner

Heuristics in Permutation GOMEA for Solving the Permutation Flowshop

Scheduling Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
G. H. Aalvanger, N. H. Luong, P. A. N. Bosman, and D. Thierens

On the Performance of Baseline Evolutionary Algorithms on the Dynamic

Knapsack Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Vahid Roostapour, Aneta Neumann, and Frank Neumann

On the Synthesis of Perturbative Heuristics for Multiple Combinatorial

Optimisation Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Christopher Stone, Emma Hart, and Ben Paechter

Genetic Programming

EDDA-V2 – An Improvement of the Evolutionary Demes

Despeciation Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Illya Bakurov, Leonardo Vanneschi, Mauro Castelli,
and Francesco Fontanella

Extending Program Synthesis Grammars for Grammar-Guided

Genetic Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Stefan Forstenlechner, David Fagan, Miguel Nicolau,
and Michael O’Neill

Filtering Outliers in One Step with Genetic Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Uriel López, Leonardo Trujillo, and Pierrick Legrand

GOMGE: Gene-Pool Optimal Mixing on Grammatical Evolution . . . . . . . . . 223

Eric Medvet, Alberto Bartoli, Andrea De Lorenzo, and Fabiano Tarlao

Self-adaptive Crossover in Genetic Programming:

The Case of the Tartarus Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Thomas D. Griffiths and Anikó Ekárt
 Contents – Part I XXIII

Multi-objective Optimization

A Decomposition-Based Evolutionary Algorithm for Multi-modal

Multi-objective Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Ryoji Tanabe and Hisao Ishibuchi

A Double-Niched Evolutionary Algorithm and Its Behavior

on Polygon-Based Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Yiping Liu, Hisao Ishibuchi, Yusuke Nojima, Naoki Masuyama,
and Ke Shang

Artificial Decision Maker Driven by PSO: An Approach for Testing

Reference Point Based Interactive Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Cristóbal Barba-González, Vesa Ojalehto, José García-Nieto,
Antonio J. Nebro, Kaisa Miettinen, and José F. Aldana-Montes

A Simple Indicator Based Evolutionary Algorithm for Set-Based

Minmax Robustness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Yue Zhou-Kangas and Kaisa Miettinen

Extending the Speed-Constrained Multi-objective PSO (SMPSO)

with Reference Point Based Preference Articulation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Antonio J. Nebro, Juan J. Durillo, José García-Nieto,
Cristóbal Barba-González, Javier Del Ser, Carlos A. Coello Coello,
Antonio Benítez-Hidalgo, and José F. Aldana-Montes

Improving 1by1EA to Handle Various Shapes of Pareto Fronts. . . . . . . . . . . 311

Yiping Liu, Hisao Ishibuchi, Yusuke Nojima, Naoki Masuyama,
and Ke Shang

New Initialisation Techniques for Multi-objective Local Search:

Application to the Bi-objective Permutation Flowshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Aymeric Blot, Manuel López-Ibáñez, Marie-Éléonore Kessaci,
and Laetitia Jourdan

Towards a More General Many-objective Evolutionary Optimizer . . . . . . . . . 335

Jesús Guillermo Falcón-Cardona and Carlos A. Coello Coello

Towards Large-Scale Multiobjective Optimisation with a Hybrid

Algorithm for Non-dominated Sorting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Margarita Markina and Maxim Buzdalov

Tree-Structured Decomposition and Adaptation in MOEA/D . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Hanwei Zhang and Aimin Zhou

Use of Reference Point Sets in a Decomposition-Based Multi-Objective

Evolutionary Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Edgar Manoatl Lopez and Carlos A. Coello Coello
XXIV Contents – Part I

Use of Two Reference Points in Hypervolume-Based Evolutionary

Multiobjective Optimization Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Hisao Ishibuchi, Ryo Imada, Naoki Masuyama, and Yusuke Nojima

Parallel and Distributed Frameworks

Introducing an Event-Based Architecture for Concurrent and Distributed

Evolutionary Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Juan J. Merelo Guervós and J. Mario García-Valdez

Analyzing Resilience to Computational Glitches in Island-Based

Evolutionary Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Rafael Nogueras and Carlos Cotta

Spark Clustering Computing Platform Based Parallel Particle Swarm

Optimizers for Computationally Expensive Global Optimization . . . . . . . . . . 424
Qiqi Duan, Lijun Sun, and Yuhui Shi

Weaving of Metaheuristics with Cooperative Parallelism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Jheisson López, Danny Múnera, Daniel Diaz, and Salvador Abreu

Applications

Conditional Preference Learning for Personalized and Context-Aware

Journey Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
Mohammad Haqqani, Homayoon Ashrafzadeh, Xiaodong Li,
and Xinghuo Yu

Critical Fractile Optimization Method Using Truncated Halton Sequence

with Application to SAW Filter Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Kiyoharu Tagawa

Directed Locomotion for Modular Robots with Evolvable Morphologies . . . . 476

Gongjin Lan, Milan Jelisavcic, Diederik M. Roijers, Evert Haasdijk,
and A. E. Eiben

Optimisation and Illumination of a Real-World Workforce Scheduling

and Routing Application (WSRP) via Map-Elites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488
Neil Urquhart and Emma Hart

Prototype Discovery Using Quality-Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Alexander Hagg, Alexander Asteroth, and Thomas Bäck

Sparse Incomplete LU-Decomposition for Wave Farm Designs Under

Realistic Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
Dídac Rodríguez Arbonès, Nataliia Y. Sergiienko, Boyin Ding,
Oswin Krause, Christian Igel, and Markus Wagner
 Contents – Part I XXV

Understanding Climate-Vegetation Interactions in Global Rainforests

Through a GP-Tree Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Anuradha Kodali, Marcin Szubert, Kamalika Das, Sangram Ganguly,
and Joshua Bongard

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

 Contents – Part II

Runtime Analysis and Approximation Results

A General Dichotomy of Evolutionary Algorithms on Monotone Functions . . . 3

Johannes Lengler

Artificial Immune Systems Can Find Arbitrarily Good Approximations

for the NP-Hard Partition Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Dogan Corus, Pietro S. Oliveto, and Donya Yazdani

A Simple Proof for the Usefulness of Crossover in Black-Box Optimization. . . 29

Eduardo Carvalho Pinto and Carola Doerr

Destructiveness of Lexicographic Parsimony Pressure and Alleviation

by a Concatenation Crossover in Genetic Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Timo Kötzing, J. A. Gregor Lagodzinski, Johannes Lengler,
and Anna Melnichenko

Exploration and Exploitation Without Mutation: Solving the Jump

Function in HðnÞ Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Darrell Whitley, Swetha Varadarajan, Rachel Hirsch,
and Anirban Mukhopadhyay

Fast Artificial Immune Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Dogan Corus, Pietro S. Oliveto, and Donya Yazdani

First-Hitting Times for Finite State Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Timo Kötzing and Martin S. Krejca

First-Hitting Times Under Additive Drift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Timo Kötzing and Martin S. Krejca

Level-Based Analysis of the Population-Based Incremental

Learning Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Per Kristian Lehre and Phan Trung Hai Nguyen

Precise Runtime Analysis for Plateaus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Denis Antipov and Benjamin Doerr

Ring Migration Topology Helps Bypassing Local Optima . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Clemens Frahnow and Timo Kötzing
XXVIII Contents – Part II

Runtime Analysis of Evolutionary Algorithms for the Knapsack Problem

with Favorably Correlated Weights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Frank Neumann and Andrew M. Sutton

Theoretical Analysis of Lexicase Selection in Multi-objective Optimization. . . . 153

Thomas Jansen and Christine Zarges

Towards a Running Time Analysis of the (1+1)-EA for OneMax and

LeadingOnes Under General Bit-Wise Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Chao Bian, Chao Qian, and Ke Tang

Fitness Landscape Modeling and Analysis

A Surrogate Model Based on Walsh Decomposition

for Pseudo-Boolean Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Sébastien Verel, Bilel Derbel, Arnaud Liefooghe, Hernán Aguirre,
and Kiyoshi Tanaka

Bridging Elementary Landscapes and a Geometric Theory

of Evolutionary Algorithms: First Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Marcos Diez García and Alberto Moraglio

Empirical Analysis of Diversity-Preserving Mechanisms on Example

Landscapes for Multimodal Optimisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Edgar Covantes Osuna and Dirk Sudholt

Linear Combination of Distance Measures for Surrogate Models

in Genetic Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Martin Zaefferer, Jörg Stork, Oliver Flasch,
and Thomas Bartz-Beielstein

On Pareto Local Optimal Solutions Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Arnaud Liefooghe, Bilel Derbel, Sébastien Verel, Manuel López-Ibáñez,
Hernán Aguirre, and Kiyoshi Tanaka

Perturbation Strength and the Global Structure of QAP Fitness Landscapes . . . 245
Gabriela Ochoa and Sebastian Herrmann

Sampling Local Optima Networks of Large Combinatorial Search Spaces:

The QAP Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Sébastien Verel, Fabio Daolio, Gabriela Ochoa, and Marco Tomassini

Algorithm Configuration, Selection, and Benchmarking

Algorithm Configuration Landscapes: More Benign Than Expected? . . . . . . . 271

Yasha Pushak and Holger Hoos
 Contents – Part II XXIX

A Model-Based Framework for Black-Box Problem Comparison

Using Gaussian Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Sobia Saleem, Marcus Gallagher, and Ian Wood

A Suite of Computationally Expensive Shape Optimisation Problems

Using Computational Fluid Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Steven J. Daniels, Alma A. M. Rahat, Richard M. Everson,
Gavin R. Tabor, and Jonathan E. Fieldsend

Automated Selection and Configuration of Multi-Label Classification

Algorithms with Grammar-Based Genetic Programming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Alex G. C. de Sá, Alex A. Freitas, and Gisele L. Pappa

Performance Assessment of Recursive Probability Matching

for Adaptive Operator Selection in Differential Evolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Mudita Sharma, Manuel López-Ibáñez, and Dimitar Kazakov

Program Trace Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Alberto Moraglio and James McDermott

Sampling Heuristics for Multi-objective Dynamic Job Shop Scheduling

Using Island Based Parallel Genetic Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Deepak Karunakaran, Yi Mei, Gang Chen, and Mengjie Zhang

Sensitivity of Parameter Control Mechanisms with Respect

to Their Initialization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Carola Doerr and Markus Wagner

Tailoring Instances of the 1D Bin Packing Problem for Assessing

Strengths and Weaknesses of Its Solvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Ivan Amaya, José Carlos Ortiz-Bayliss,
Santiago Enrique Conant-Pablos, Hugo Terashima-Marín,
and Carlos A. Coello Coello

Machine Learning and Evolutionary Algorithms

Adaptive Advantage of Learning Strategies: A Study Through

Dynamic Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Nam Le, Michael O’Neill, and Anthony Brabazon

A First Analysis of Kernels for Kriging-Based Optimization

in Hierarchical Search Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Martin Zaefferer and Daniel Horn

Challenges in High-Dimensional Reinforcement Learning

with Evolution Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Nils Müller and Tobias Glasmachers
XXX Contents – Part II

Lamarckian Evolution of Convolutional Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Jonas Prellberg and Oliver Kramer

Learning Bayesian Networks with Algebraic Differential Evolution . . . . . . . . 436

Marco Baioletti, Alfredo Milani, and Valentino Santucci

Optimal Neuron Selection and Generalization: NK Ensemble

Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Darrell Whitley, Renato Tinós, and Francisco Chicano

What Are the Limits of Evolutionary Induction of Decision Trees? . . . . . . . . 461

Krzysztof Jurczuk, Daniel Reska, and Marek Kretowski

Tutorials and Workshops at PPSN 2018

Tutorials at PPSN 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Gisele Lobo Pappa, Michael T. M. Emmerich, Ana Bazzan,
Will Browne, Kalyanmoy Deb, Carola Doerr, Marko Ðurasević,
Michael G. Epitropakis, Saemundur O. Haraldsson,
Domagoj Jakobovic, Pascal Kerschke, Krzysztof Krawiec,
Per Kristian Lehre, Xiaodong Li, Andrei Lissovoi, Pekka Malo,
Luis Martí, Yi Mei, Juan J. Merelo, Julian F. Miller, Alberto Moraglio,
Antonio J. Nebro, Su Nguyen, Gabriela Ochoa, Pietro Oliveto,
Stjepan Picek, Nelishia Pillay, Mike Preuss, Marc Schoenauer,
Roman Senkerik, Ankur Sinha, Ofer Shir, Dirk Sudholt, Darrell Whitley,
Mark Wineberg, John Woodward, and Mengjie Zhang

Workshops at PPSN 2018 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Robin Purshouse, Christine Zarges, Sylvain Cussat-Blanc,
Michael G. Epitropakis, Marcus Gallagher, Thomas Jansen,
Pascal Kerschke, Xiaodong Li, Fernando G. Lobo, Julian Miller,
Pietro S. Oliveto, Mike Preuss, Giovanni Squillero, Alberto Tonda,
Markus Wagner, Thomas Weise, Dennis Wilson, Borys Wróbel,
and Aleš Zamuda

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Numerical Optimization
Another random document with
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she puts me out of all patience, but every thing she does is
right in Deborah's eyes. I have not spoken to my Sister
Deborah in more than twenty years!"

Mrs. Philippa made this announcement as if she thought it

something to be proud of. We looked steadfastly at the floor
and said not a word.

"Not in twenty years!" repeated Mrs. Philippa. "And I never

will if I live twenty years more. She did me such an injury
with my father as I shall never forgive if I live to be a
hundred."

I cannot describe the expression of rancor with which Mrs.

Philippa said these words. They made me shudder.

"But suppose you do not live to be a hundred, Aunt

Philippa," said Amabel, raising her clear eyes to her aunt.
"Suppose you should die to-night!"

"What do you mean by that, miss?" asked Mrs. Philippa. "Of

course I must forgive her when I am dying or I cannot take
the sacrament, but I am resolved I never will do so before."

"But you may die without having time for the sacraments,"
persisted Amabel; "or perhaps you may have lost the power
of forgiving by that time. What would happen then?"

"Niece Leighton, I desire you will not preach to me!" said

Mrs. Philippa, though she looked startled. "It is very
unbecoming in you to lecture your elders and betters.
There, I am not angry with you, but mind you don't do it
again. Tupper, where are the presents I bade you look out
for the young ladies?"

Tupper produced two parcels, and Mrs. Philippa gave

Amabel a glass smelling-bottle in a gilt filigree case, and me
a pretty tortoise-shell box full of caraway comfits. She then
called upon us to admire her work and her cat, which we
could do with a good conscience. Then, saying that she
would send for us again some day, she bade Tupper show
us the way to the still-room.

"Well, I declare, Mrs. Leighton—plague on this new-

fashioned way of saying Miss, I never shall learn it—you
have bewitched my mistress out and out," said Tupper, in a
tone of admiration, as we went down stairs. "I never knew
her bear such plain speaking from any one. If Mrs. Chloe
had said one quarter as much, Mrs. Philippa would have
flown at her."

"I ought not to have spoken so, perhaps, but it seemed to

me so dreadful," said Amabel, "to think of her not speaking
to her own sister for twenty years!"

"Yes, it is dreadful, and when you think it was all because

Mrs. Deborah saved her from life-long distress and misery.
Well there, it is not for me to gossip of the family affairs. I
dare say you will hear it all, only, I will just hint to you that
you will gain nothing by being afraid of her. Well, here is the
still-room. If you can give Mrs. Deborah any new receipts,
you will make her happy."

"Eh! What do you say?" asked Mrs. Deborah, whose sharp

ears had caught the words. "What is that, Tupper?"

Tupper repeated her words without any symptoms of alarm,

as I noticed.

"Yes, that is true enough, I am very fond of my still. Tupper,

you may as well carry a bottle of this lavender water to your
mistress. Tupper is a very valuable and faithful servant and
knows how to deal with Sister Philippa, poor thing!" she
added as Tupper shut the door. She always spoke of Mrs.
Philippa in this tone of compassion behind her back, though
she was occasionally sharp with her when they were
together.

I was happy in being able to give Mrs. Deborah a recipe for

distilling Milk water * which was new to her, and to promise
her some others when our luggage came. For I had
carefully compiled a receipt book under the instruction of
Mother Perpetua and Sister Lazarus, which contained some
very occult and precious secrets.

* See Mrs. Raffald's "Complete Cooke", or any old edition

of Mrs. Glaesse—Mrs. Raffald is worth republishing. L. E.
G.

From the still-room, we went to dinner. Afterward, we

visited the dairy and poultry yard, admired the beautiful
cows and the fine broods of ducks and fowls and made
friends with two or three great bloodhounds and an
immense mastiff, which were Mrs. Deborah's special pets. I
was at once adopted and taken possession of by a queer
little long-bodied short-legged rough terrier, of a color
between grey and blue.

"Those are Scottish dogs and come from one of the Western
Isles," said Mrs. Deborah. "There, take him for your own if
you like dogs, Lucy Corbet, only you must teach him to let
Sister Philippa's cats alone."

"If you please, Mum, the young lady can teach him with one
word!" said the old Scotch woman who had the principal
charge of the poultry. "Thae dogs are gey gleg at the
uptak."
"I fear my niece does not understand Scotch!" remarked
Mrs. Deborah.

"Oh yes! She means that such dogs are quick to learn!" said
I, guessing the old woman's meaning. I always could
understand dialects of all sorts and confess to being fond of
them.

"I'm thinking the leddy is gleg at the uptak her-sell!" said

Elsie with a smile. "She's no like the folk about her. I'm
thinking I'll just gang hame and tak up my ain hoose in the
spring, Mrs. Deborah. I coma thoh to bide wi' folk that
canna speak plain."

This was past me, gleg as I might be, and as we walked

away, I asked Mrs. Deborah what she meant.

"She means that she will go home and set up housekeeping

in the spring, because she cannot endure to stay with
people who cannot understand," answered Mrs. Deborah.
"But I am not alarmed. She has said the same thing for fifty
years at least. She is a good creature and very faithful, but
I have to stand between her and the other servants who
hate her for being Scotch, and dread her because they say
she knows more than she ought, and never goes to church."

"Why does she not go to church?" I asked.

"Because she is a Presbyterian, child."

I was not much the wiser because I did not know what a
Presbyterian was at that time. Afterward I found out that
Elsie was a member of the National Church or Kirk as they
call it of Scotland, who have a great dislike to Episcopacy—
no great wonder either. I am not fond of plum pudding, but
if any one were to try to drive it down my throat with a
bayonet, I think I should like it still less.
In the afternoon the wagon arrived with our luggage and all
Mrs. Deborah's purchases, including the harpsichord, which
was set up in the little red parlor, and proved to have borne
the journey very well. A part of the next day was spent in
unpacking our various possessions and setting them in
order.

We found that Mrs. Thorpe had prepared a pleasant surprise

for us by adding to our small library a number of volumes,
among which were "Sir Charles Grandison," and Clarissa
Harlowe and Mr. Law's "Serious Call." There was a glass-
cupboard in the room, which already contained a number of
volumes, mostly books of devotion of the age and style of
"The Whole Duty of Man" and "The Practice of Piety." There
were also a Shakespeare, a copy of Spenser, and one of the
"Arcadia" of Sir Philip Sidney. I should have mentioned the
library in my survey of the house. It was rather a gloomy
room containing some hundred or two of volumes in
presses, mostly old chronicles, books of Roman Catholic and
High Church divinity, and treatises on heraldry and hawking.

By Sunday we had begun to feel quite at home in our new

quarters. We went to Church in the morning with Mrs.
Deborah in the carriage all in state, with footmen behind.

The church had been a handsome one but it was partly in

ruins, and only the lady chapel, or what had been such, was
habitable. Small as it was, it was large enough for the
congregation, which seemed quite lost among the high
backed benches. There were no pews but our own and the
rector's which was quite empty, he being a widower without
children. Dr. Brown read Prayers. I never like much to
criticise a minister but I must say that so far as our service
can be spoiled, he spoiled it, mumbling and hurrying so that
it was difficult to tell where he was. The lesson was the
noble one for the first Sunday in Advent, but I do not
believe one person in ten knew what he was reading about.
There was no sermon, and nothing to take the place of it. A
more lifeless, spiritless performance in the shape of divine
service could not possibly be. Certainly it was a great
change from St. Anne's, where even before Mr. Cheriton
came over to Mr. Wesley's ways, he always gave full effect
to the service and the lessons. I heard Amabel sigh more
than once, and no wonder.

When we came out of church, Mrs. Deborah invited Doctor

Brown to dine with us. He excused himself on the ground of
having to hold afternoon service at his other church, five
miles off, but said he would do himself the honor to call in
the course of the week, as he had a great piece of news to
communicate.

There was a great bobbing of curtsies and pulling of

forelocks as we came out of church, and Mrs. Deborah
spoke to several of the older people particularly, inquiring
about their health and that of their families, and promising
to come and see several sick people.

"Parson be going away, I hears!" said Richard, as he helped

his mistress into the coach. "John Footman told me he has
got great preferment about Durham, some gate. They say
as the gentleman which was to be curate is to have the
living when Doctor Brown goes."

"Indeed! I suppose that was his great news!" said Mrs.

Deborah. "Well, I shall be sorry to have him go. He has
been here a long time—twenty years I should say."

"Well, I hope, mistress, we shan't get a worse in his place!"

answered Richard. "Folk do say the new gentleman has
many new-fangled ways."
We had an early dinner, after which Mrs. Chloe betook
herself to her own room, and Mrs. Deborah called upon us
to read to her in a great folio volume of sermons by Bishop
Kerr and some others of his school. Some of these
discourses were on practical religion, and these were
admirable for the most part, but a great many were
political,—all about the divine right of kings, the duty of
passive obedience to the sovereign, let him be ever so bad,
and other kindred topics. Oh, what a weariness they were
to the flesh and spirit—enough to make an out and out whig
of any lively young person from sheer contradiction. I am
afraid I was not one bit sorry for the Theban Legion, and
only regretted their massacre, because I had to hear so
much about it.

After two hours of this exercise, we were dismissed, and

refreshed ourselves by a long walk in the high park as it
was called, that which stretched up the hill behind the
house. We had supper earlier than usual, and then the card
table was set out, and we were invited to take a hand at
whist with Mrs. Chloe and Mrs. Deborah. We excused
ourselves on the ground that we knew nothing of whist.

"But you can learn!" said Mrs. Deborah. "It will be a

pleasure to have some one to go partners with."

We looked at each other and hesitated what to say. We had

talked over this matter of Sunday card playing with Mr.
Cheriton and with each other, and had decided that it was
not a right way of spending Sunday evening, though it was
a very common one at that day. Even clergymen thought it
no harm to take a hand at piquet.

"Well, what is the matter?" said Mrs. Deborah, impatiently.

"Why do you not sit down?"
"Will you please excuse me, aunt!" said Amabel, "I will learn
on some other evening, if you will be so good as to teach
me, but not on Sunday."

"Heyday! What does this mean!" exclaimed Mrs. Deborah,

the thunder-cloud on her brow looming blacker than usual.
"What sort of a Puritan have I brought home with me? Pray
miss, do you set yourself up for a saint?"

"Sister Deborah!" said Mrs. Chloe, warningly.

"I don't know what a Puritan is, and I am sure I am not a

saint?" said Amabel, gently. "I wish I were. But you know,
aunt, if I think a thing wrong, I cannot do it, even to please
you."

"And what right have you to think a thing wrong when it is

done by your elders and betters, miss?"

"Sister Deborah!"

"I have seen my elders and betters on their knees for hours
at a time before a piece of bread which they worshiped as
God!" said Amabel with some spirit. "But you would not like
to see me do that, aunt. Indeed you must please excuse
us."

But Mrs. Deborah was not to be pacified. She scolded us in

no measured terms, and finally bade us begone to our room
since she was not good company enough for two such
young saints. We betook ourselves to our little study, and
girl like, had a good cry over our disgrace.

Then having relieved our spirits, I opened the harpsichord,

and we began to sing out of Ravenscroft's Psalms, of which
we found a book in our book-case. We had not been singing
long, before Mrs. Chloe came in and seated herself, followed
presently by Mrs. Deborah. We sung several psalms and two
or three sacred pieces of Mr. Handel's for the ladies, and
Mrs. Chloe professed herself much delighted with the music.

Mrs. Deborah did not say a great deal, but she bade us a
kind good-night, and her regular—"I hope I see you well,
nieces," was spoken in the morning with the same cordiality
as ever.

We were not again asked to play cards on Sunday evening,

and after a while it became a regular thing for us to
entertain our aunts with sacred music at that time. Mrs.
Deborah had a hasty temper naturally, which was not
improved by a long course of absolute rule, but she had not
one atom of malice or rancor in her disposition. She liked
the music at first, because it gave pleasure to poor Mrs.
Chloe, and afterward for its own sake, and she was never
the stuff whereof persecutors are made.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WINTER.
WE soon began to feel quite at home at Highbeck Hall, and
knew all the nooks and corners about the old place, which
were accessible to us. We were not a little curious about the
shut up rooms, but of course we asked no questions,
though I for one associated them with the beautiful lady in
the saloon, and determined to get the story out of old Elsie
some day.

We prescribed to ourselves a regular routine of study,

practise, and work, beginning of course with about twice as
much as we could do, and coming by degrees down to a
more reasonable plan, to which we adhered as well as
people generally do in such circumstances.

We read in our history which we had begun with Mrs.

Cropsey, but at last abandoned it, for my Lord Clarendon's
history of the Rebellion, at the request of Mrs. Deborah;
who was determined to make us into as thorough Jacobites
as she was herself. Even as Lord Clarendon tells the story, I
must say, I did not acquire as greet an admiration for poor
King Charles as I could have wished. He seemed to me to
be tyrannical and timid both at once, and I could not forgive
his abandonment of Lord Strafford, and the way in which he
deceived his friends. But it may easily be guessed, that I no
more hinted anything of this kind to Aunt Deborah, than I
should have dared to suggest to Mother Prudentia a doubt
of St. Agnes' prudence, in running away to St. Francis in the
middle of the night. *

* Which she did at the age of fourteen, and afterward

persuaded her Sister Clare, aged twelve, to do the same.
—L. E. G.
We practised our music for two hours daily, during which
time Aunt Chloe usually sat with us. We learned to ride on
horseback, and to take long walks when the weather
permitted, attended usually by one or other of the
bloodhounds to keep off stray cattle or intrusive gypsies.
We visited the poor people, and carried broth and medicines
to the sick, and spent a good deal of time in gossiping with
the old men and women in the alm-houses, and in reading
to them. Only one or two of them could read, but all liked to
be read to, and took pleasure also in telling their stories like
other old people. We also made great friends with old Elsie,
and heard many stories from her of the past glories of the
Grahames, and their exploits on the border. In short, we
were as much at home in Highbeck Hall in two weeks, as
though we had lived there all our lives.

We had visitors from time to time, from among the gentry

in the neighborhood. These visits usually lasted from two to
four days, and were desperately dull, to my thinking.
However, Aunt Chloe enjoyed them, and they brightened
her up amazingly. We used to be called upon to play and
sing for the edification of the visitors, and always received
great commendation.

When there were young people of our own age, they were
of course turned over to us for entertainment, and very
much puzzled we were at first to know what to do with
them, not being used to the company of girls of our own
age. But we usually found we could amuse them by tales of
our convent life, especially with the story of the robbery,
which was always received with breathless interest. Then it
was a time when fancy-work of all sorts was greatly in
vogue. Ladies used to do cut-work, and lace-work, chenille-
embroidery, and satin-stitch, and cross-stitch, and dozens
of other stitches, and various kinds of knotting. *
 * What is now called tatting. See Mrs. Delaney's
memoirs.

Thanks to Mother Prudentia, we were proficient in all these

pursuits, and what we did not know, our visitors did. Miss
Jenny Thicknesse, I remember, was very enthusiastic over
the shell-work, and cardboard work in imitation of stucco,
with which she and her sister were adorning the gothic
arches of an old chapel in her father's house. They were
nice homely ladylike girls, and we were great friends with
them.

Doctor Brown was to go to his deanery in Durham after the

holidays, and Mr. Lethbridge from Berwick, was to come in
his place.

What any one should have seen in Doctor Brown to merit

such promotion I cannot guess; but he had grand
connections, and was a cousin of the Bishop's lady, which
might account for it. We young ones were not displeased at
the prospect of a change, though we liked the doctor
personally, well enough. He was a fat good-natured sort of
man, ready enough to do a kindness when it came in his
way, but not likely to seek such occasions, if they cost him
any trouble. He used to read prayers every other Sunday,
and administer the sacrament once a quarter; but he hardly
ever preached, and as to any personal instruction, his
people might as well have lived in Grand Tartary. He gave
liberally in charity, and I suppose satisfied his conscience in
that way. He was very fond of cards, and considered a
wonderful whist-player. Whenever he came to the Hall, on a
Sunday night, the card table was always set out. Doctor
Brown almost always won, and as regularly gave his
winnings to Mrs. Deborah for the poor people at the alm-
houses. Sometimes Mrs. Philippa would send for him to play
piquet with her, and at last it became a regular thing for
him to do so. I don't think the other ladies were very sorry
to be released.

By degrees, I learned from Mrs. Chloe, who was not

disinclined to a little gossip, a good deal of the family
history. I learned that each of the ladies had small
independent fortunes of their own, derived from their
mother's settlements—that she and Mrs. Deborah, used a
good deal of their incomes in keeping up the house, while
Mrs. Philippa saved hers, or laid it out for her own
convenience; that Sir Julius had never been near the estate
since his second marriage, though he derived a considerable
revenue from it, and was very particular to have the rents
paid up to the day, and sometimes drew for more money
than it was convenient to spare—that his second wife had
been very rich, and—

"A good sort of woman so far as I know, my dear—but of no

family at all—not an ancestor to bless herself with. Of
course I was sorry for the poor lady's death—very sorry!"
said Mrs. Chloe. "And for the poor little lad, though I had
never seen him; but still it would be much better for the
estate to come to Amabel. Her mother was not a
Northumbrian woman to be sure, but she was of a very old
Devonshire or Cornish family."

"Perhaps Sir Julius may marry again," said I. "He is quite a

young man yet."

"Oh, my dear, I hope not," answered Mrs. Chloe, looking

startled. "It would be sad for poor Amabel to have a step-
mother, though to be sure her last one never did her any
harm. But if he does take a third wife I hope she may be a
lady of quality."
Mrs. Chloe also had endless stories to tell of the families in
the neighborhood. She had been a belle and a beauty in her
day, and received many offers, none of which her brother
had seen fit to let her accept. Either there was not money
enough, or family enough, or something. So poor Chloe had
gone on to thirty-five without being married, and now the
smallpox had spoiled her beauty, and she was not like to
marry at all. She was a good, gentle, little creature, not at
all strong in any way, and had been kept in such a state of
tutelage and dependence that she had no mind of her own
about any subject save one which she could not keep to
herself. Poor Aunt Chloe was desperately anxious to be
married. She used to tell us, as she sat over her embroidery
frame, about the offers she had had, something in this
wise:

"There was Mr. Favor, my dears—such a fine young man—

six feet high, at least, and a perfect gentleman in manners,
I am sure, and a splendid horseman, but his grandfather
had been in trade, it seems, and Julius thought it would not
do. Then there was the Reverend James P. Thirlwall. He had
no great fortune, to be sure, but a good living, and would
have settled all my fortune on myself and my children; but
then the Thirlwalls are all Whigs, and they say one of the
family was connected with the regicides," and so on and so
on. I know these stories left me with the strong impression
that Sir Julius Leighton's aim had all along been to keep
Mrs. Chloe from marrying at all, that her fortune might
remain in the family. They did not make me augur well for
the success of Mr. Cheriton's suit. I think Amabel felt the
same, though she did not say a word.

It was from Mrs. Chloe that we heard Mrs. Philippa's story.

It seems she had been betrothed to a young man of good
family, and the wedding was near at hand, when Mrs.
Deborah discovered that the bridegroom was playing a
double game—that he was also betrothed to a citizen's
daughter in Newcastle, and was only waiting till he could
find out which lady was like to have the better fortune of
the two. She acquainted her father with her discovery. Sir
Thomas being a man of spirit, looked into the matter,
discovered the gentleman's double game, and invited him to
one of two courses—to marry Mrs. Philippa out of hand, or
to meet him with the sword, as the custom was in those
days.

Mr. Philip Falconer did neither, but preferred to elope with

his city lady-love who, though neither young, handsome,
nor well born like Mrs. Philippa, had a much larger fortune
all in her own power. One would think Mrs. Philippa might
have been glad to be free from such a poltroon. Instead of
that, she went into fits, took to her bed, and had never
spoken to Aunt Deborah since. There appeared no reason
why she should not be as active as any one, only that she
did not choose, for when she did take a fancy to come down
stairs she walked as nimbly as Aunt Deborah herself.

It seemed for a time, however, that my auguries were likely

to prove false, and that Amabel's course of true love was
like to run smooth. Just about Christmas time Mr. Cheriton
paid us a visit, bringing letters from Sir Julius to Mrs.
Deborah and to Amabel herself. Sir Julius wrote very kindly
to his daughter. He said she was rather young to marry, and
must wait at least a year, but as Mr. Cheriton was a man of
good family, and had a competent fortune beside his living,
and a likelihood of church preferment, he should make no
objection to his paying his addresses to his daughter.

What he wrote to Mrs. Deborah I don't know, but she

received Mr. Cheriton very politely, even though he and his
family were known for steadfast adherents to the reigning
dynasty, and hoped she should have the pleasure of seeing
his father and mother at Highbeck Hall during the Christmas
season.

They came accordingly—he, a venerable, kind old man, very

sincerely religious in his fashion, and though a little
perplexed as to his son's new-fangled ways, as he called
them, yet quite willing to accept them, and believe they
must be good because Walter said so; she, the very model
of a Lady Bountiful, a perfect housekeeper, a famous
concoctor of syrups, draughts, and emulsions, of broth and
brewis, the kind if somewhat arbitrary friend of the poor.
She had not been in the house two hours, before she had
propounded at least a dozen different remedies for Aunt
Chloe's cough, from bread jelly with lemon-peel and raisins,
to a couple of snails boiled in her tea-water. This last was
confided in a whisper to Aunt Deborah, as it was essential
to the cure that the patient should know nothing about it.

Both these good people took very kindly to Amabel, and

invited us both to visit them. Mrs. Cheriton presented
Amabel with a pair of pearl ear-rings which had been given
herself on her wedding day, and promised her some silver
which had been in the family three hundred years at least.
(Did any one ever hear of an heirloom which had been in a
family for less than three hundred years?) The subject of
politics was kept out of sight by mutual consent, so we all
parted excellent friends.

Mr. Cheriton returned to his parish in Newcastle, where, he

told us, matters were going very much to his satisfaction.
He had succeeded in establishing the weekly lecture on
which he had set his heart; and it was well attended. He
had also set up classes for the young women and elder
girls, where they read good books and perfected themselves
in various useful works, and in these Mrs. Thorpe was giving
him very efficient help. He was on the best of terms with
the rector of St. Nicholas, an old gentleman who was nearly
or quite blind, but an excellent man and a good clergyman.
This gentleman had been away during the whole of our stay
in Newcastle, and we had more than once heard it said that
on his return he would put a spoke in Mr. Cheriton's wheel;
so that it was a great pleasure to hear that though he did
not exactly approve of all Mr. Cheriton's doings, and thought
him rather over-zealous, he made no active opposition to
him.

Mr. Cheriton also told us another thing which we found it

hard to believe—namely, that he was quite sure he had
seen Father Brousseau at one of Mr. Wesley's out-of-door
preachings he had attended not long before. He said he had
not known how to believe his own eyes at first, but he had
watched him and was quite sure it was the same person he
had seen at Mrs. Thorpe's shop.

"How very strange!" said Amabel. "How did he look?"

"He seemed very much affected, I thought!" replied Mr.

Cheriton. "At first, he pulled his hat down and kept his cloak
up as if he were afraid of being seen, but toward the last he
seemed too much interested in the discourse to think about
concealment. But I can tell you news of another friend,
which will surprise you yet more!" he added smiling. "Mrs.
Cropsey is married!"

"Married!" we both exclaimed not very civilly! "Not married

already! Why, her husband has not been dead a year, and
she could never speak of him without crying."

"Exactly!" replied Mr. Cheriton drily. "She did up all her grief
at once. She was married very privately by license more
than two months ago to old Mr. Arnott the great ship owner,
but it is owned now, and she presides over his fine house
with great dignity."

"I hope she will not talk as much of poor dear Mr. Cropsey
as she used to do to us!" I remarked. "I have wished
sometimes the good man had either not died at all, or else
had died before she ever saw him!"

"I have only heard her mention him once!" said Mr.
Cheriton. "I had some business with Mr. Arnott, and was
asked to dine, and Mrs. Arnott remarked as she dispensed
the hare soup, how much poor dear Mr. Cropsey would have
enjoyed it. He was so fond of hare soup!"

We had no very grand doings at Christmas, as Mrs. Chloe

continued very unwell and there was no master at home.
However, every cottager received a good piece of beef and
a pudding or materials for one; all the old women in the
alms houses had doles of tea and snuff, and those who
needed them had new gowns or red cloaks.

Amabel and I had a guinea apiece for a Christmas box from

each of our aunts, and Mrs. Philippa formally made over to
Amabel her cat, which had attached itself to her very much
of late. I did not understand this proceeding at the time, but
I did afterward.

We had another present which made us feel sadly. Mrs.

Chloe had for a year and more, been embroidering a set of
chairs, and a couch in chenilles and silks. They were
designed with a great deal of taste and beautifully worked
so far, but on Christmas morning, Aunt Chloe gave them to
Amabel and myself to finish, saying that it hurt her chest to
bend over the frame, and besides she was rather tired of
them. We could finish these against Amabel should have a
room to furnish, and she would begin a set for me in the
spring, when her cough should be better. Meantime, she
would work at her knitted counterpane, which really ought
to be finished.

Mrs. Deborah approved of this motion of her sister's saying

that she was sure such close application was bad for Chloe,
but she went out of the room directly afterward, and we did
not see her till church time.

Christmas was a very serious day to us in another way. It

was the first day that Amabel and I partook of the
sacrament after the forms of the Church of England. Mrs.
Deborah had been anxious to have us do so: we had talked
the matter over with Mr. Cheriton, and had read the books
he had suggested to us. This is not the place to enlarge
upon such matters. I may just say, however, that we both
found great comfort in the ordinance and never afterward
missed it willingly. Mr. Lethbridge officiated for the first
time, and his manner was very serious and proper. Dr.
Brown was present, and preached a short sermon, which
was as old Elsie used to say like chips in porridge, neither
good nor bad.

Aunt Chloe went to church with us. It was the last time she
ever went, and she seemed to feel very deeply the
solemnity of the occasion. There was a fair congregation, a
good many of whom I fear got very drunk at the ale house
afterward,—but nobody in those parts thought that a matter
of any consequence, or indeed expected anything else. It
was one of the serious charges brought against the
Methodist preachers as showing that they were not what
they ought to be, that they drank neither ale nor spirits,
and discouraged the use of them among their converts.

On twelfth day the whole family were invited to a dinner

and ball at Brayton, the house of the Thicknesse family. We
had never been at a ball, and Molly and Jenny Thicknesse
were great friends of ours. We promised ourselves much
pleasure in the visit, and were specially desirous of seeing
the shell-work with which the girls had been adorning their
chapel and their own room. But fate was against us. The
very day we were to go, Amabel was taken with a violent
rheum and defluxion,* and it was clearly impossible for her
to venture out.

* What we should call a cold in the head, then considered

a matter of more consequence than now.

Mrs. Deborah would have sent an excuse for the whole

party, but Mrs. Chloe looked so greatly disappointed, that
we begged Mrs. Deborah to go and leave me to nurse
Amabel, with the help of old Elsie and Tupper to depend
upon in case of an emergency.

Amabel felt very uncomfortable all the morning, but she

was better at night, and able to sit up to tea in our own
room. The housekeeper sent us up all sorts of nice things,
including a plate of short bread, and we would have Elsie sit
down and take tea with us. After we had finished, we drew
up to the fire, and coaxed Elsie to tell us tales of the two
families—and when we had drawn her into the full tide of
narration, I put into execution a scheme I had long had in
mind.

"Elsie, do you know the story of the beautiful lady whose

picture hangs next the saloon door—the one who has a veil
hanging over her picture?"

"Aye, do I, my lammie!" answered Elsie. "And a gruesome

story it is; they dinna like to speak o't in the family, but it's
true for all that."
"Oh, tell it to us!" we both exclaimed; and Amabel added,
—"I love to hear ghost stories."

"It's no just a ghost story as you call't," said Elsie.

"However, I do not ken any harm the telling it will do,
unless it makes you afraid to go to bed. But you must not
tell Mrs. Deborah, for I'm jealous she would not wish it
talked about."

"She told us we might ask you!" said I, as indeed she had.

"Aweel, then it is all right!" And as Elsie took up her distaff

which was as much a part of herself as Aunt Chloe's
knitting, we settled ourselves for the enjoyment of a story.

"Aweel, young ladies!" Elsie began, dismissing her spindle

to twirl upon the hearth-stone, and looking into the fire with
her bright deep blue eyes.

"You maun ken that there was once a Lord of Leighton, who
was the last heir in the direct line. It behooved him to
marry, for the estate had gone on from father to son, ever
since before the Danes came into the country. He would
have had no fash at all in finding a mate, forby the great
estate which was far greater then as they say, and the fine
house and a'; he was a weal favored lad, and knew how to
make the leddies pleased wi' him."

"His mother was at him night and day to take a wife, but he
would not listen to her, and they say there used to be awful
scenes betwixt them, for she was a Percy and proud as
Lucifer, and he was as dour and obstinate as all the rest of
the Leighton men—craving your pardon, mem." This to
Amabel.

"I don't think I am very dour—am I, Lucy?" said Amabel

smiling.
"You are never obstinate about little matters!" I answered.
"But I think if you once made up your mind that a thing was
right or wrong, you would be torn with wild horses before
you would give up."

"And so much the better for her!" said Elsie. "And so my

dawties—I beg your pardon—young leddies I should say—
things got worse and worse between the young lord and his
mother. At last the auld leddy began to have her suspicions,
and she watched; and by and by she found sure enough,
that her son was secretly married to a young lass, the only
child of a poor old man who lived on the estate."

"Aweel it's a sad story, and hardly fit for young ears, only to
show what pride may lead weak and sinful mortals to do.
The leddy went to see the poor thing, who was no' weel at
the time, and persuaded her to take a medicine she brought
her, which should make her well and strong. She took it, fell
into fits and in an hour was dead. Her father was like one
wild, and when the lord came that very evening to visit his
wife, the auld man up and tauld him the whole story, and
showed him the draught that was left—for she had na taken
it all. The young lord gave it to a dog that followed him, and
the poor creature died directly."

"You may guess that the young lord and his mother did not
meet on friendly terms. He charged her with murder to her
face, and she owned it and gloried in it, and dared him to
revenge it on her—the wicked creature—and he swore an
awful oath, that now he would never marry at all, unless he
married a she wolf—for that alone would be fit to mate with
his mother. And then he flung away, and rode like one
possessed through the mirk winter's night, and it was
weeks before he returned. They say, that as he spoke his
rash words, the long mournful howl of a wolf was heard in
the woods so near the house that they both started—for
though there were wolves in plenty in the Cheviot hills in
those days, they did not often come near any dwelling."

"I hope there are none about here now?" said I, for I had
heard stories enough about these creatures in France, to
make me dreadfully afraid of them.

"Na, na! there's no wolf been seen in these parts for more
than fifty years—not since I was a young maid like you. I
heard tell that auld Lochiel killed one in Scotland not so long
ago, but the Cameron's country is far away from here in the
Highlands.

"Aweel, to go on with the tale. It was toward spring when

my lord came home, and he was not alone; he had brought
a wife with him, whom he had married in Scotland. He gave
out that she belonged to one of the clans of the West
Highlands, and that he had saved her from great danger,
but what he did not say. She was a beautiful creature as
you may see by her picture, and kind enough to her
servants; but that was about her, which made her more
feared than loved. She had bright eyes of the kind called
hazel in these parts, but when she was angered or excited,
they glowed like balls of green fire, and the servants
declared they even shone in the dark. She was very civil to
her mother-in-law, but soon let her know that she meant to
be mistress in her own house, and after one trial the old
lady never attempted to take the high hand again.

"Aweel, the time went on, and all through the summer
there were merry-makings of all sorts; but when cold
weather came, the lady was na weel, and kept her room,
and nothing could make her stir out of doors, though doctor
and nurse thought it would be much better for her. The
wolves were very bold that winter, and came nearer the Hall
than they had ever done before. The lady was dreadfully
afraid of them, and when their long howls used to be heard,
she would cling to her husband and hide her face in his
neck. Neither would she thole his joining any of the hunting
parties set out against the wolves, and it was a great vex to
him no doubt, for he was a keen hunter, but it behooved
him to pleasure his wife whatever it cost.

"Aweel, in the spring the leddy gave her husband a fine lad
bairn, and there were great rejoicings on the estate. The
leddy seemed to get over her fears, and went about with
her husband and entertained company; but there were
those who said she was na quite herself. She had a watchful
look always about her, and any sudden noise in the night
would make her start and clasp her bairn to her breast. She
seemed to worship the child, and would not bear it out of
her sight; but yet she would not nurse it, and had a young
woman from the village to suckle it. After the babe was
christened she seemed easier about it, but yet her face
never lost the apprehensive look.

"The summer went by and the cold weather came on, and
again the wolves began to come down from the hills. The
lady showed the same terror of them, and begged her
husband not to hunt them. But one day when he was away,
some of his friends persuaded him, laughing at him, and
telling, he should be too much of a man to be afraid of his
wife, and be tied to her apron-string, handsome as she was.
So away he went on the hunt, and had the fortune to slay a
great dog wolf, and ye shall not hinder him from bringing
the creature home to show to his wife.

"The poor leddy had been shut in her room all day, very low
in her spirits, as though she mistrusted where her lord had
gone. The rooms had all been new fitted for her with many
beautiful ornaments and pictures, but she found no comfort
in any thing. She sat by the fire with her babe hugged to
her bosom till she heard her lord's horses in the court. Then
she gave the babe to its nurse and ran down to meet him.
He kissed her as she threw her arms round his neck, and
bade his man show the leddy what he had brought her. The
man threw down on the floor the carcass of a great gray
wolf. The lady gave one scream—they said it echoed
through the house—and fled to her bedroom, bolting herself
in. She would na open to any one—not to her husband or
her child—but they heard her wailing and crying fit to break
her heart.

"It was just midnight when those within the hall heard, as
though close at hand, the long-drawn, piercing howl of a
wolf. It was answered so near that the cry seemed within
the very hall itself, and so dreadful was the sound that it
made every one's blood run cold. My lord, who had come
down stairs, ran up to his lady's room, thinking she would
be terrified to death. He found the nurse, who watched by
the sleeping babe, in the outer room stretched on the floor
in a faint, but there was no sound from within. Reckless in
his dread, he ordered the door to be broken in. The room
was empty. The leddy's clothes that she had worn all day
lay in a heap on the floor. The door to a little turnpike stair
that led down to the garden was open, but, alive or dead,
the poor leddy was never seen mair.

"The babe seemed to pine for his mither, though she had
never nursed him, and in a week, he too died, and was
buried. The lord had the rooms which had been his wife's
closed and locked just as she left them, and he went to the
Holy Wars, as they called them, against the Turks, and
never came home. The estate went to a cousin after all; but
they say that when some great misfortune is about to
happen to the family, the long howl of a wolf is heard at
night in Highbeck Woods."
Elsie ended her story and we sat a few moments in silence.
Then Amabel remarked quietly—

"I suppose those are the shut up rooms between this

chamber and the king's room."

"Aye, they have never been opened since, or sae they say,
and a veil hangs always over the poor leddy's picture,
though Mrs. Deborah's mother used think it was only a
fancy piece, since nobody knew how to paint such pictures
in those days. She was a very well-educated young leddy,
was my young mistress, and had been at school at a
convent in France."

And here Elsie diverged into an account of her young

mistress, who had been Amabel's grandmother. I was not
sorry, for the tale had "garred me grew," as Elsie said, and I
was glad that the poor wolf-lady, if such she was, could
claim no kin with me. I have since learned that there are
plenty of ghost stories in my own family. Indeed, the Corbet
ghosts have made themselves so cheap that they are very
little regarded. I cannot say that either Amabel or myself
slept any the worse for Elsie's story, though I must confess
to starting sometimes when the bloodhounds would give
vent to their long melancholy bay, worshipping the moon
after the fashion of their race.

Mrs. Deborah and Mrs. Chloe came home the next day but
one, Mrs. Chloe seeming much revived by her visit. The ball
had been a great success, and Mrs. Chloe had danced one
dance with a very fine gentleman indeed—some officer or
other—who had given her a fine copy of verses next
morning, as the fashion was then. *

* Those who are curious may find plenty of such copies of

verses in old collections. They might mostly be made on a
 machine.

Molly and Jenny had greatly regretted our absence, and had
sent us a box of shells, and a needle-book and work-bag of
their own manufacture. Mine was made of flowers cut out in
satin and paper, and placed between two thicknesses of
transparent catgut, † and was really very pretty and
ingenious.

† A thin, transparent, but rather stiff material, much used

for ornamental works. I have seen an old work-bag made
of it.

Aunt Chloe had learned several new stitches, and the

teaching of these and describing the dresses at the ball
afforded her amusement, till something happened which
drove General B., his sword-knot, and copies of verses,
effectually out of her head. This event, however, must be
reserved for another chapter.

CHAPTER XIX.
 SURPRISES.

WE went on in our usual course for some weeks.

Mr. Lethbridge, the new rector, proved quite a contrast to

Doctor Brown. He was a thin, serious faced young man,
very much in earnest, and not always (or so I thought) very
discreet in his zeal. He was one of those men who seem, if I
may so express myself, to have no perspective in their
minds. To eat meat on a Friday in Lent, or to go to a dance
on the green were in his eyes as great crimes as to get
drunk at the alehouse or to beat one's wife.

He sorely puzzled and distressed old Gaffer Bell at the

almshouse, by telling him that for a man so near the grave
as he was, to spend hours in playing the fiddle was a
frivolous if not a sinful waste of time. And when Gaffer Bell,
one of the two or three old people who could read and a
pretty good Bible scholar too, told him that he "didn't find
nowt agen the fiddle in Bible—" he reproved him for
speaking lightly of sacred things. Mr. Lethbridge approved
highly of some of Mr. Wesley's doings, such as his prayer
and conference meetings, and set one of the latter up in his
own parish.

"And pray what sort of conferences do you have?" asked

Mrs. Deborah. "Do not the people get into undesirable
disputes."

"Oh no!" answered Mr. Lethbridge complacently. "I take care

to prevent that by allowing no one to speak but myself."

"Rather an odd sort of conference meeting that, Brother

Lethbridge, where the conference is all on one side, like the
Irish gentleman's reciprocity," said Doctor Brown, with one
of his jolly laughs. "Your pattern Mr. Wesley manages quite
differently, as I understand. He allows the old folk to have
their say, and I dare say it might be quite interesting to
hear what they could find to talk about!" added the Doctor,
as if struck by a sudden idea. "I am not sure but I should
like to try it sometime. At any rate, it would give them
pleasure, for old folk like to be listened to."

Mr. Lethbridge drew into his shell as his custom was when
he thought himself assailed, and Doctor Brown began to
talk about something else. It was one of Mr. Lethbridge's
troubles that whenever any one criticised any of his
methods, he always thought the cause of Christ was
attacked. Nevertheless he was a good young man and a
good preacher, visited the sick and the feeble faithfully,
catechised the children and revived the school, which had
fallen quite into disuse of late years.

Mrs. Deborah took a great interest in the matter,

recommended a very capable and efficient school-mistress,
and made liberal presents of working materials. Amabel and
I visited this institution of learning twice or three times a
week, helped to teach the children in sewing, reading,
knitting, and the Catechism. And when the three girls who
made the first class, got through their duty toward their
neighbour without a stumble, we felt as proud as though we
had made them ourselves.

People began to come to church on other occasions than to

get themselves married or buried, and to join a little in the
responses, and almost all agreed that Parson was a kind
gentleman, and a good preacher and good to the poor,
though he would look into matters for himself and refused
the Shrove Tuesday dole to Betty Hackett, because he found
out that she changed off her Christmas blankets at the
alehouse.
Lent fell rather late that year, and about a fortnight before
Shrove Tuesday, Mrs. Philippa surprised us all by coming
down stairs to dinner, and still more astonished us by not
finding fault with any thing on the table. She really made
herself very agreeable, as she well knew how when she
chose. But when she again appeared at supper, our surprise
knew no bounds.

"These are very nice cheese-cakes!" said she in the course

of the meal. "Pray, Sister Deborah, is this your usual receipt
or have you a new one?"

The remark was not a startling one certainly, but when one
considers that it was the first direct word Mrs. Philippa had
addressed to Mrs. Deborah for more than twenty years, it is
perhaps no wonder that Mrs. Chloe dropped her tea-cup,
and that Amabel and I both tried so hard to look
unconcerned, that it was well no strangers were present.

Mrs. Deborah however answered as quietly as though she

had been chatting with her sister all day.

"The cheese-cakes are much as usual, Sister Philippa. It is

perhaps that exercise has given you a better appetite."

"Possibly!" replied Mrs. Philippa with a smile. "You were

always famous for your cheese-cakes, Sister Deborah."

From the cheese-cakes, Mrs. Philippa diverged to other

subjects. She told several anecdotes of her youth, asked
Mrs. Deborah if she did not remember this and that
circumstance, told Mrs. Chloe that she was nervous and
needed the doctor, and in short made herself so agreeable
that I did not know her. After supper, she delayed a moment
and said, as it seemed with a little hesitation: