d affection into a
presentable personage; a masculine and severe old woman with the
"spook" look in her eyes; a fluttering, affected _precieuse_,
concealing her quackery by chatter. Gradually as he thought on her, the
second of these hypotheses came to govern--he saw her as the severe and
masculine type. This being so, what tack should she take?

The correct vision in the glass vouchsafed no answer to this. His mood
persisted as his taxicab whirled him into the region which borders the
western edge of Central Park. The thing assumed the proportions of a
great adventure. No old preparation for battle, no old packings to
break into the unknown dark, had ever given him quite such a sense of
the high, free airs where romance blows. He was going on a mere
conventional call; but he was going also to high and thrilling
possibilities.

The house was like a thousand other houses of the prosperous middle
class, distinguishable only by minor differences of doors and steps and
area rails, from twenty others on the same block. He found himself
making mystery even of this. Separate houses in New York require
incomes.

"Evidently it pays to deal in spooks," he said to himself.

His first glimpse of the interior, his subsequent study of the
drawing-room while the maid carried in his name, made more vivid this
impression. The taste of the whole thing was evident; but the apartment
had besides a special flavor. He searched for the elements which gave
that impression. It was not the old walnut furniture, ample, huge,
upholstered in a wine-colored velours which had faded just enough to
take off the curse; it was not the three or four passable old
paintings. The real cause came first to him upon the contemplation of a
wonderful Buddhist priest-robe which adorned the wall just where the
drawing-room met the curtains of the little rear alcove-library. The
difference lay in the ornaments--Oriental, mostly East Indian and, all
his experience told him, got by intimate association with the
Orientals. That robe, that hanging lantern, those chased swords, that
gem of a carved Buddha--they came not from the seaports nor from the
shops for tourists. Whoever collected them knew the East and its
peoples by intimate living. They appeared like presents, not
purchases--unless they were loot.

And now--his thumping heart flashed the signal--the delicate feminine
flutter that meant Annette, was sounding in the hall. And now at the
entrance stood Anne