ust see the doctor. I must tell him to keep Clement alive
by any means till--"

She did not wait to say what; but Violet understood and felt her heart
grow heavy. Could it be that her employer considered this the gay and
easy task she had asked for?

The next minute she was putting her first question:

"Hetty, what did you see in Mrs. Quintard's action last night, to make
you infer that she left the missing document in this room?"

The woman's eyes, which had been respectfully studying her face,
brightened with a relief which made her communicative. With the
self-possession of a perfectly candid nature, she inquiringly remarked:

"My mistress has spoken of her infirmity?"

"Yes, and very frankly."

"She walks in her sleep."

"So she said."

"And sometimes when others are asleep, and she is not."

"She did not tell me that."

"She is a very nervous woman and cannot always keep still when she
rouses up at night. When I hear her rise, I get up too; but, never being
quite sure whether she is sleeping or not, I am careful to follow her at
a certain distance. Last night I was so far behind her that she had been
to her brother's room and left it before I saw her face."

"Where is his room and where is hers?"

"Hers is in front on this same floor. Mr. Brooks's is in the rear, and
can be reached either by the hall or by passing through this room into a
small one beyond, which we called his den.."

"Describe your encounter. Where were you standing when you saw her
first?"

"In the den I have just mentioned. There was a bright light in the hall
behind me and I could see her figure quite plainly. She was holding
a folded paper clenched against her breast, and her movement was so
mechanical that I was sure she was asleep. She was coming this way, and
in another moment she entered this room. The door, which had been open,
remained so, and in my anxiety I crept to it and looked in after her.
There was no light burning here at that hour, but the moon was shining
in in long rays of variously coloured light. If I had followed her--but
I did not. I just stood and watched her long enough to see her pass
through a blue ray, then through a green one, and then into, if not
through, a red one. Expecting her to walk straight on, and having some
fears of the staircase once she got into the hall, I hurried around to
the door behind you there to head her off. But she had not yet left
this room. I waited and waited and still she