always of the children she had once attended. She spoke of them as though
they were still in her care, and told how she had walked the hall with
one, or the other, of her dead and gone treasures the very night before!

For it was found necessary to allow Mary Boyle to have the freedom of that
short corridor on the chamber floor late at night. Otherwise she would not
remain secluded in her own rooms at the top of the house during the
daytime.

As the lower servants came and went, finally only Mrs. Olstrom and Mr.
Lawdor knew about the old lady, save the family. And Mr. Starkweather
impressed it upon the minds of both these employes that he did not wish
the old lady discussed below stairs.

So the story had risen that the house was haunted. The legend of the
"ghost walk" was established. And Mary Boyle lived out her lonely life,
with nobody to speak to save the housekeeper, who saw her daily; Mr.
Lawdor, who climbed to her rooms perhaps once each week, and Mr.
Starkweather himself, who saw and reported upon her case to his fellow
trustees each month.

It was, to Helen, an unpleasant story. It threw a light on the characters
of her uncle and cousins which did not enhance her admiration of them, to
say the least. She had found them unkind, purse-proud heretofore; but to
her generous soul their treatment of the little old woman, who must be but
a small charge upon the estate, seemed far more blameworthy than their
treatment of herself.

The story of the old butler made Helen quiver with indignation. It was
like keeping the old lady in jail--this shutting her away into the attic
of the great house. The Western girl went back to Madison Avenue (she
walked, but the old butler rode) with a thought in her mind that she was
not quite sure was a wise one. Yet she had nobody to discuss her idea
with--nobody whom she wished to take into her confidence.

There were two lonely and neglected people in that fine mansion. She,
herself, was one. The old nurse, Mary Boyle, was the other. And Helen felt
a strong desire to see and talk with her fellow-sufferer.

CHAPTER XVII

A DISTINCT SHOCK

That evening when Mr. Starkweather came home, he handed Helen a sealed
letter.

"I have ascertained," the gentleman said, in his most pompous way, "that
Mr. Fenwick Grimes is in town. He has recently returned from a tour of the
West, where he has several mining interests. You will find his address on
that envelope. Give the letter t