had reason to think that all was not as it should be in
this house, and I was right. Look in the parlor, sirs."

They were already as far as the threshold of that room and needed no
further encouragement to enter. The heavier man went first and the other
followed, and you may be sure I was not far behind. The sight meeting
our eyes was ghastly enough, as you know; but these men were evidently
accustomed to ghastly sights, for they showed but little emotion.

"I thought this house was empty," observed the second gentleman, who was
evidently a doctor.

"So it was till last night," I put in; and was about to tell my story,
when I felt my skirts jerked.

Turning, I found that this warning had come from the cleaner who stood
close beside me.

"What do you want?" I asked, not understanding her and having nothing to
conceal.

"I?" she faltered, with a frightened air. "Nothing, ma'am, nothing."

"Then don't interrupt me," I harshly admonished her, annoyed at an
interference that tended to throw suspicion upon my candor. "This woman
came here to scrub and clean," I now explained; "it was by means of the
key she carried that we were enabled to get into the house. I never
spoke to her till a half hour ago."

At which, with a display of subtlety I was far from expecting in one of
her appearance, she let her emotions take a fresh direction, and
pointing towards the dead woman, she impetuously cried:

"But the poor child there! Aint you going to take those things off of
her? It's wicked to leave her under all that stuff. Suppose there was
life in her!"

"Oh! there's no hope of that," muttered the doctor, lifting one of the
hands, and letting it fall again.

"Still--" he cast a side look at his companion, who gave him a meaning
nod--"it might be well enough to lift this cabinet sufficiently for me
to lay my hand on her heart."

They accordingly did this; and the doctor, leaning down, placed his hand
over the poor bruised breast.

"No life," he murmured. "She has been dead some hours. Do you think we
had better release the head?" he went on, glancing up at the portly man
at his side.

But the latter, who was rapidly growing serious, made a slight protest
with his finger, and turning to me, inquired, with sudden authority:

"What did you mean when you said that the house had been empty till last
night?"

"Just what I said, sir. It was empty till about midnight, when two
persons----" Again I felt my dress twitched,