ms, for she went into every one, lighting the gas as she
went; and so was the cellar when she reached it. For she had to go to
its extreme length for wood and wait about the kitchen till the water
boiled, during which time she searched every nook and cranny. Oh, she
was a brave woman, but she did have this thought as she went upstairs:
If the child died she would know that she had seen a spirit; if the
child got well, that she had been the victim of her own excitement.

And did the child die?

"No, it got well, but the family moved out as soon as it was safe to
leave the house. Her employees did not feel as easy about the matter as
she did."

CHAPTER V. THE STRANGE NEIGHBORS NEXT DOOR

When I joined Mrs. Packard I found her cheerful and in all respects
quite unlike the brooding woman she had seemed when I first met her.
From the toys scattered about her feet I judged that the child had been
with her, and certainly the light in her eyes had the beaming quality we
associate with the happy mother. She was beautiful thus and my hopes of
her restoration to happiness rose.

"I have had a good night," were her first words as she welcomed me to a
seat in her own little nook. "I'm feeling very well this morning. That
is why I have brought out this big piece of work." She held up a baby's
coat she was embroidering. "I can not do it when I am nervous. Are you
ever nervous?"

Delighted to enter into conversation with her, I answered in a way to
lead her to talk about herself, then, seeing she was in a favorable mood
for gossip, was on the point of venturing all in a leading question,
when she suddenly forestalled me by putting one to me.

"Were you ever the prey of an idea?" she asked; "one which you could not
shake off by any ordinary means, one which clung to you night and day
till nothing else seemed real or would rouse the slightest interest? I
mean a religious idea," she stammered with anxious attempt of to hide
her real thought. "One of those doubts which come to you in the full
swing of life to--to frighten and unsettle you."

"Yes," I answered, as naturally and quietly as I knew how; "I have had
such ideas--such doubts."

"And were you able to throw them off?--by your will, I mean."

She was leaning forward, her eyes fixed eagerly on mine. How unexpected
the privilege! I felt that in another moment her secret would be mine.

"In time, yes," I smiled back. "Everything yields to time and persistent
conscienti