ted. When she
awoke the next morning there had set in a steady drizzle--cold and
raw--and the panes of her windows were so murky that she could not see
even the chimneys and roofs, or down into the barren little yards.

This--nor a much heavier--rain would not have ordinarily balked Helen. She
was used to being out in all winds and weathers. But she actually had
nothing fit to wear in the rain.

If she had worn the new cheap dress out of doors she knew what would
happen. It would shrink all out of shape. And she had no raincoat, nor
would she ask her cousins--so she told herself--for the loan of an
umbrella.

So, as long as it rained steadily, it looked as though the girl from
Sunset Ranch was a sure-enough "shut-in." Nor did she contemplate this
possibility with any pleasure.

There was nothing for her to do but read. And one cannot read all the
time. She had no "fancy-work" with which to keep her hands and mind busy.
She wondered what her cousins did on such days. She found out by keeping
her ears and eyes open. After breakfast Belle went shopping in the
limousine. There was an early luncheon and all three of the Starkweather
girls went to a matinee. In neither case was Helen invited to go--no,
indeed! She was treated as though she were not even in the house. Seldom
did either of the older girls speak to her.

"I might as well be a ghost," thought Helen.

And this reminded her of the little old lady who paced the ghost-walk
every night--the ex-nurse, Mary Boyle. She had thought of going to see her
on the top floor before; but she had not been able to pluck up the
courage.

Now that her cousins were gone from the house, however, and Mrs. Olstrom
was taking a nap in her room, and Mr. Lawdor was out of the way, and all
the under-servants mildly celebrating the free afternoon below stairs,
Helen determined to venture out of her own room, along the main passage of
the top floor, to the door which she believed must give upon the front
suite of rooms which the little old lady occupied.

She knocked, but there was no response. Nor could she hear any sound from
within. It struck Helen that the principal cruelty of the Starkweathers'
treatment of this old soul was her being shut away alone up here at the
top of the house--too far away from the rest of its occupants for a cry to
be heard if the old lady should be in trouble.

"If they shut up a dog like this, he would howl and thus attract attention
to his state," mut