sees."

Nixon grumbled something and moved off. The girls, full of talk, ran
up-stairs to have it out in the nursery with Letty, and I went toward
the front. How long I should have to stay there before Mrs. Packard's
return I did not know. She might stay away an hour and she might stay
away all day. I could simply wait. But it was a happy waiting. I should
see a renewal of joy in her and a bounding hope for the future when once
I told any tale. It was enough to keep me quiet for the three long hours
I sat there with my face to the window, watching for the first sight of
her figure on the crossing leading into our street.

When it came, it was already lunch-time, but there was no evidence of
hurry in her manner; there was, rather, an almost painful hesitation. As
she drew nearer, she raised her eyes to the house-front and I saw with
what dread she approached it, and what courage it took for her to enter
it at all.

The sight of my face at the window altered her expression, however, and
she came quite cheerfully up the steps. Careful to forestall Nixon in
his duty, I opened the front door, and, drawing her into the room where
I had been waiting, I blurted out my whole story before she could remove
her hat.

"O Mrs. Packard," I cried, "I have such good news for you. The thing
you feared hasn't any meaning. The house was never haunted; the shadows
which have been seen here were the shadows of real beings. There is a
secret entrance to this house, and through it the old ladies next door,
have come from time to time in search of their missing bonds, or else to
frighten off all other people from the chance of finding them. Shall I
show you where the place is?"

Her face, when I began, had shown such changes I was startled; but by
the time I had finished a sort of apathy had fallen across it and her
voice sounded hollow as she cried: "What are you telling me? A secret
entrance we knew nothing about and the Misses Quinlan using it to hunt
about these halls at night! Romantic, to be sure. Yes, let me see the
place. It is very interesting and very inconvenient. Will you tell
Nixon, please, to have this passage closed?"

I felt a chill. If it was interest she felt it was a very forced one.
She even paused to take off her hat. But when I had drawn her through
the library into the side hall, and shown her the great gap where the
cabinet had stood, I thought she brightened a little and showed some of
the curiosity I expected. B