like a child, of pleasing countenance enough, but who can no more lift
me--"

"Pardon me!" Little Miss Strange had advanced. "I think, if you will
allow me the privilege, madam, that I can shift you into a much more
comfortable position." And with a deftness and ease certainly not to
be expected from one of her slight physique, Violet raised the helpless
invalid a trifle more upon her pillow.

The act, its manner, and the smile accompanying it, could not fail to
please, and undoubtedly did, though no word rewarded her from lips not
much given to speech save when the occasion was imperative. But Mrs.
Postlethwaite made no further objection to her presence, and, seeing
this, the doctor's countenance relaxed and he left the room with a much
lighter step than that with which he had entered it.

And thus it was that Violet Strange--an adept in more ways than
one--became installed at the bedside of this mysterious woman, whose
days, if numbered, still held possibilities of action which those
interested in young Helena Postlethwaite's fate would do well to
recognize.

Miss Strange had been at her post for two days, and had gathered up the
following:

That Mrs. Postlethwaite must be obeyed.

That her step-daughter (who did not wish to die) would die if she knew
it to be the wish of this domineering but apparently idolized woman.

That the old man of the clocks, while senile in some regards, was very
alert and quite youthful in others. If a century old--which she began
greatly to doubt--he had the language and manner of one in his prime,
when unaffected by the neighbourhood of the clocks, which seemed in
some non-understandable way to exercise an occult influence over him. At
table he was an entertaining host; but neither there nor elsewhere would
he discuss the family, or dilate in any way upon the peculiarities of a
household of which he manifestly regarded himself as the least important
member. Yet no one knew them better, and when Violet became quite
assured of this, as well as of the futility of looking for explanation
of any kind from either of her two patients, she resolved upon an effort
to surprise one from him.

She went about it in this way. Noting his custom of making a complete
round of the clocks each night after dinner, she took advantage of Mrs.
Postlethwaite's inclination to sleep at this hour, to follow him from
clock to clock in the hope of overhearing some portion of the monologue
with which he ben