elen had found a book in the library, and she lit the gas in her room
(there was no electricity on this upper floor) and forgot her troubles and
unhappiness in following the fortunes of the heroine of her story-book. It
was late when she heard the maids retire. They slept in rooms opening out
of a side hall.

By and by--after the clock in the Metropolitan tower had struck the hour
of eleven--Helen heard the rustle and step outside her door which she had
heard in the corridor downstairs. She crept to her door, after turning out
her light, and opening it a crack, listened.

Had somebody gone downstairs? Was that a rustling dress in the corridor
down there--the ghost walk? Did she hear again the "step--put; step--put"
that had puzzled her already?

She did not like to go out into the hall and, perhaps, meet one of the
servants. So, after a time, she went back to her book.

But the incident had given her a distaste for reading. She kept listening
for the return of the ghostly step. So she undressed and went to bed. Long
afterward (or so it seemed to her, for she had been asleep and slept
soundly) she was aroused again by the "step--put; step--put" past her
door.

Half asleep as she was, she jumped up and ran to the door. When she opened
it, it seemed as though the sound was far down the main corridor--and she
thought she could see the entire length of that passage. At least, there
was a great window at the far end, and the moonlight looked ghostily in.
No shadow crossed this band of light, and yet the rustle and step
continued after she reached her door and opened it.

Then----

Was that a door closed softly in the distance? She could not be sure.
After a minute or two one thing she _was_ sure of, however; she was
getting cold here in the draught, so she scurried back to bed, covered her
ears, and went to sleep again.

Helen got up the next morning with one well-defined determination. She
would put into practice her uncle's suggestion. She would buy one of the
cheap but showy dresses which shopgirls and minor clerks had to buy to
keep up appearances.

It was a very serious trouble to Helen that she was not to buy and disport
herself in pretty frocks and hats. The desire to dress prettily and
tastefully is born in most girls--just as surely as is the desire to
breathe. And Helen was no exception.

She was obstinate, however, and could keep to her purpose. Let the
Starkweathers think she was poor. Let them continu