t of sucking noise, and the hall was left in
hushed silence. Mary Louise gazed up at the ceiling, then at the
stairway reaching far back and into the depths of upstairs hall. Even
in the soft light the place looked like a barn. It seemed to be
watching her sullenly as a small child watches an intruder. Odd little
crackings sounded in far corners, and a whispering, starting somewhere
in that upstairs hall, came slinking down the wainscoting, across the
hall carpet, and out beneath the front door. She wondered what might
be going on back in those silent, unexplored depths.

Then the door opened again and Mrs. Mosby came swishing forth, like an
echo of the whisper that had preceded her. She was wearing the same
ruching, the same bangles, the same everything--minus the bonnet with
the veil--that she had worn that previous afternoon. There was an
opaque flatness in her eyes.

Mary Louise rose to her feet. She was embarrassed as she met the older
woman's quiet gaze, but she quickly threw off the feeling.

"I just heard some indefinite but disturbing news about an accident
last night," she said anxiously.

Mrs. Mosby smiled a ghostly little smile and inclined her head. "We
had quite a time," she admitted. "Won't you sit down? Or won't you
come in the parlour?"

"No. I've not long to stay. I--I felt so worried. I wanted to come
first thing and find out, see if there was anything I could do." They
sat down at opposite ends of the horsehair sofa, each reflectively
watching the other.

Mrs. Mosby shook her head. "He's getting on as nicely as could be
expected. Fortunately, Dr. Withers was got hold of right away, last
night." She was gazing dreamily at Mary Louise as though the latter
were a creature of another world come vaguely intruding.

There was a curious atmosphere of restraint. Mary Louise sat waiting
for the other woman to speak, her hands in her lap, her fingers slowly
weaving in and out. After a momentary silence she asked in a politely
casual tone, "What really did happen, Mrs. Mosby? Was he much hurt?"

Mrs. Mosby continued staring for an instant before she replied: "It
really was the strangest thing. You know I did not even know that
Joseph was in this part of the country. And at ten o'clock last night
they came carrying him in. Of course, I was terribly excited and
upset, and I did not find out the particulars exactly." She paused
and took a delicate little shuddering breath. "You see, Mr. Burrus'
warehouse