y stormy night, and this Spanish woman whom I mentioned just now
told me the story, and was evidently full of sympathy for the English
maid. She enlivened the whole of her watch during the night by
lamentations over the danger of sea-voyages, interspersed with prayers
to the Virgin. I shall never forget how it blew! The house shook with
the violence of the gale, and this Spanish woman sat by my bed and told
me stories of shipwreck and of bodies washed up on the beach. Mrs.
Ogilvie, I understand, had but lately parted with friends. Ah, I see
now! I do not speak Spanish well, and I remember I had an idea at the
time that this parting which the woman spoke of had something to do
with friends who had left her. But, of course, what the Spanish woman
must really have meant was that Mrs. Ogilvie had lately suffered a
bereavement.'

'It is strange, then, is it not,' said the lawyer, 'that you should
connect this parting in your own mind with the storm that was raging on
the night of which you spoke?'

'That doesn't seem to me very strange,' said Lady Falconer, 'because,
as I have said, I know so little Spanish. And yet I have an idea that
this very emotional serving-woman seemed to predict some horrible
catastrophe to the travellers.'

'How little self-control some of these people have!' commented Mr.
Semple. 'I always wonder how it is that ladies choose foreign women to
be their personal attendants. I suppose you don't happen to know if
this maid remained long with Mrs. Ogilvie?'

'I do not indeed,' said Lady Falconer; 'but I am under the impression
that Mrs. Ogilvie changed her maids frequently. This will coincide
with your view that she was in a nervous, uncontrolled condition at the
time, although in other respects I cannot honestly say that I ever
noticed the least sign of an unhinged mind. One thought that she was
too much alone; but, of course, her loss was a very recent one, and
everybody knows that in grief there often comes a desire for solitude.'

'It was sad, therefore,' said Mr. Semple, 'that these friends of hers
should be leaving her just then. Mrs. Ogilvie would have been all the
better for having a few intimates about her. It would be useful if you
could remember their names.'

'I do not even know that they were friends,' protested Lady Falconer;
'and, as I told you, the Spanish maid may well have been alluding to a
recent death. But indeed the incident made very little impression on
my mi