r some time, but that
wasn't for publication, so I kept my other room, and had my mail go
there as usual. Silvia desired it."

"She hasn't left any stone unturned," he said musingly. "I wonder what
was in that letter!"

"Oh, she has told you, then?" Carroll asked.

"About Mrs. Bell's letter to her? Oh, yes, she told me to-night, just
before you joined us; I thought you knew about it. Anyhow, it seems to
be gone beyond recall. Don't you intend to invite me in? Well, of all
the inhospitable persons! I'll see you in the morning," and lifting his
hat he went on up the Avenue.

Carroll climbed the two flights slowly and unlocked her door. The suite
across the hall had been vacated by a superstitious tenant the week
after the murder, and the family immediately below had moved away that
morning. As Carroll closed the door behind her she was conscious of a
sense of oppression. It was not fear, which is a simple, concrete
emotion, easily understood; it was not even so subtle as dread of any
abstract thing, ghost or goblin damned. She gave her shoulders a little
shake, as if the sensation were some tangible thing to be thrown off,
and laying aside her hat and gloves she went through to the buffet
kitchen and put the kettle on. She returned to the sitting-room and
looked about her uneasily, and then put on a house gown and slippers,
and arranged her tea-tray. There were but four rooms in the apartment,
in addition to the kitchenette, and but one of them offered much in the
way of light or ventilation, so Carroll lived in the front room, as Emma
Bell had lived there; she worked there, as Emma Bell had worked; she
looked upon the same nondescript blue wall paper, and the few pictures
that relieved its monotony. With some misty idea, similar to that of the
French "_confrontation_," she had brought none of her own books or
belongings to disturb the suggestion of the room as it had been. There
were three large windows, through which the city lights were beginning
to shine; under one of these and across that end of the room was a
divan, covered with a bright rug; opposite and against the other wall
was a desk, with a chair before it, and bookshelves, and a corner
cupboard which held a plentiful supply of tea-things. Between the two
windows nearest it was a tea-table, which evidently served a double
purpose, for underneath was a basketful of neatly folded sewing. By the
table was the high-armed mission rocking-chair in which the dead