istant night when Mills and I trod the black-and-white
marble hall for the first time on the heels of Captain Blunt--who lived
by his sword. And in the dimness and solitude which kept no more trace
of the three strangers than if they had been the merest ghosts I seemed
to hear the ghostly murmur, "_Americain_, _Catholique et gentilhomne_.
_Amer. . . _" Unseen by human eye I ran up the flight of steps swiftly
and on the first floor stepped into my sitting-room of which the door was
open . . . "_et gentilhomme_." I tugged at the bell pull and somewhere
down below a bell rang as unexpected for Therese as a call from a ghost.

I had no notion whether Therese could hear me. I seemed to remember that
she slept in any bed that happened to be vacant. For all I knew she
might have been asleep in mine. As I had no matches on me I waited for a
while in the dark. The house was perfectly still. Suddenly without the
slightest preliminary sound light fell into the room and Therese stood in
the open door with a candlestick in her hand.

She had on her peasant brown skirt. The rest of her was concealed in a
black shawl which covered her head, her shoulders, arms, and elbows
completely, down to her waist. The hand holding the candle protruded
from that envelope which the other invisible hand clasped together under
her very chin. And her face looked like a face in a painting. She said
at once:

"You startled me, my young Monsieur."

She addressed me most frequently in that way as though she liked the very
word "young." Her manner was certainly peasant-like with a sort of
plaint in the voice, while the face was that of a serving Sister in some
small and rustic convent.

"I meant to do it," I said. "I am a very bad person."

"The young are always full of fun," she said as if she were gloating over
the idea. "It is very pleasant."

"But you are very brave," I chaffed her, "for you didn't expect a ring,
and after all it might have been the devil who pulled the bell."

"It might have been. But a poor girl like me is not afraid of the devil.
I have a pure heart. I have been to confession last evening. No. But
it might have been an assassin that pulled the bell ready to kill a poor
harmless woman. This is a very lonely street. What could prevent you to
kill me now and then walk out again free as air?"

While she was talking like this she had lighted the gas and with the last
words she glided through the bedroom door