house, round which
were many outbuildings, he came upon a group of snickering servants, all
enjoying the story of the master's freak.

The group broke up guiltily on the appearance of Max, the laundry-maids
taking flight in one direction, while the stablemen became suddenly busy
with yard-broom and leather.

Max put a question or two to the groom who saddled his horse for him.

"There was no great harm done last night, was there, except in the
garden? You have not heard of anything being stolen, eh?"

"Well, no, sir. But it brought a lot of people up as had no business
here. There was a person come up as we couldn't get rid of, asking
questions about the family, sir; and about Mr. Horne, too, sir. She
wouldn't believe as he wasn't here, an' she frightened some of the
women, I believe, sir. They didn't know where she'd got to, an' nobody
saw her go out of the place, so they've got an idea she's hiding about.
A fortune-telling tramp, most likely, sir," added the man, who wished he
had held his tongue about the intruder when he saw how strongly the
young master was affected by this story.

The fact was that Max instantly connected this apparition of a woman
"who asked questions about Mr. Horne" with the ugly story told him at
the house by the wharf, and he was glad that Dudley was not spending
Christmas at The Beeches.

He was oppressed during the whole of his ride by this suggestion that
the questionable characters of the wharfside were pursuing Dudley; it
gave color to Carrie's statement that it was Dudley who killed the man
whom Max believed to have been Edward Jacobs; and it looked as if the
object of the woman's visit was to levy blackmail.

Or was it--could it be that the woman was Carrie, and that her object
was to warn Dudley? To associate Carrie herself with the levying of
blackmail was not possible to the susceptible Max in the present state
of his feelings toward her.

And, just as he was meditating upon this mystery, all unprepared for a
meeting with his sister, Doreen waylaid him. He was entering the house
by the back way, muddy from his ride, when she sprang upon him from an
ambush on the stairs.

"I've been waiting all the morning to catch you alone," said she, as she
ran out from behind the tall clock and seized his arm. "You've been
trying to avoid me. Don't deny it. I say you have. As if it was any use!
No, you shall not go upstairs and take off your boots first. You will
just come into the st