herself, and, if possible, to reinstate her in the eyes of her servants.

Bounding upward to where she still stood forgetful and self-absorbed, I
laid my hands softly but firmly on hers, which had fallen back upon the
rail, and quietly said:

"You have some very strong reason, I see, for looking upon Mr. Steele as
your husband's enemy rather than friend."

The appeal was timely. With a start she woke to the realization of her
position and of the suggestive words she had just uttered, and with a
glance behind her at Letty and another at Nixon and the maids, who by
this time had pushed their way to the foot of the stairs, she gathered
herself up with a determination born of the necessity of the moment and
emphatically replied:

"No; I do not know Mr. Steele well enough for that. My emotion at the
unexpected tidings of his possible death springs from another cause."
Here the help, the explanation for which she had been searching, came.
"Girls," she went on, addressing them with an emphasis which drew all
eyes, "I am ashamed to tell you what has so deeply disturbed me these
last few days. I should blame any one of you for being affected as I
was. The great love I bear my husband and child is my excuse--a poor
one, I know, but one you will understand. A week ago something happened
to me in the library which frightened me very much. I saw--or thought
I saw--what some would call an apparition, but what you would call a
ghost. Don't shriek!" (The two girls behind me had begun to scream and
make as if to run away.) "It was all imagination, of course--there can
not really be any such thing. Ghosts in these days? Pshaw! But I was
very, nervous that night and could not help feeling that the mere fact
of my thinking of anything so dreadful meant misfortune to some one in
this house. Wait!" Her voice was imperious; and the shivering, terrified
girls, superstitious to the backbone, stopped in spite of themselves.
"You must hear it all, and you, too, Miss Saunders, who have only heard
half. I was badly frightened then, especially as the ghost, spirit-man,
or whatever it was, wore a look, in the one short moment I stood face
to face with it, full of threat and warning. Next day Mr. Packard
introduced his new secretary. Girls, he had the face of the Something I
had seen, without the threatening look, which had so alarmed me."

"Bad 'cess to him!" rang in vigorous denunciation from the cook. "Why
didn't ye send him 'mejitly about hi