feminine timbre. It
spoke hurriedly, gaspingly for a few sentences, and then was silent--a
piteous, breathless, imploring sort of voice. Miss Witherton and I
stood for an instant staring at each other. Then we walked quickly in
the direction of the hall-door.

"It came through the window," I said.

"We must not play the part of eavesdroppers," she answered. "We must
forget that we have ever heard it."

There was an absence of surprise in her manner which suggested a new
idea to me.

"You have heard it before," I cried.

"I could not help it. My own room is higher up on the same turret. It
has happened frequently."

"Who can the woman be?"

"I have no idea. I had rather not discuss it."

Her voice was enough to show me what she thought. But granting that
our employer led a double and dubious life, who could she be, this
mysterious woman who kept him company in the old tower? I knew from my
own inspection how bleak and bare a room it was. She certainly did not
live there. But in that case where did she come from? It could not be
anyone of the household. They were all under the vigilant eyes of Mrs.
Stevens. The visitor must come from without. But how?

And then suddenly I remembered how ancient this building was, and how
probable that some mediaeval passage existed in it. There is hardly an
old castle without one. The mysterious room was the basement of the
turret, so that if there were anything of the sort it would open
through the floor. There were numerous cottages in the immediate
vicinity. The other end of the secret passage might lie among some
tangle of bramble in the neighbouring copse. I said nothing to anyone,
but I felt that the secret of my employer lay within my power.

And the more convinced I was of this the more I marvelled at the manner
in which he concealed his true nature. Often as I watched his austere
figure, I asked myself if it were indeed possible that such a man
should be living this double life, and I tried to persuade myself that
my suspicions might after all prove to be ill-founded. But there was
the female voice, there was the secret nightly rendezvous in the
turret-chamber--how could such facts admit of an innocent
interpretation. I conceived a horror of the man. I was filled with
loathing at his deep, consistent hypocrisy.

Only once during all those months did I ever see him without that sad
but impassive mask which he usually presented towards his fellow-