e. Not for a pension would he have dared approach the
house alone. Williams, in the seediest and most dilapidated rusty black,
had a face of deepest melancholy.

"But why that confound--Why do they ring that bell?" Walker asked,
irritably.

"Madam ordered it, sir," Williams replied. "She's queerer than ever, is
mistress. She don't say much, but Miss Christiana's death is a great
shock to her. She ordered the bell to be tolled, and she carried on awful
when Miss Enid tried to stop it."

Walker murmured vaguely something doubtless representing sympathy.

"And my other patient, Williams?" he asked. "How is he getting along?
Really, you ought to keep those dogs under better control. It's a
dreadful business altogether. Fancy a man of Mr. Henson's high character
and gentle disposition being attacked by a savage dog in the very house!
I hope the hound is securely kennelled."

"Well, he isn't, sir," Williams said, with just the glint of a grin on
his dry features. "And it wasn't altogether Rollo's fault. That dog was
so devoted to Miss Christiana as you never see. And he got to know as
the poor young lady was dying. So he creeps into the house and lies
before her bedroom door, and when Mr. Henson comes along the dog takes
it in his 'ead as he wants to go in there. And now Rollo's got inside,
and nobody except Miss Enid dare go near. I pity that there undertaker
when he comes."

Walker shuddered slightly. Longdean Grange was a fearful place for the
nerves. Nothing of the routine or the decorous ever happened there. The
fees were high and the remuneration prompt, or Walker would have handed
over his patient cheerfully to somebody else. Not for a moment did he
imagine that Williams was laughing at him. Well, he need not see the
body, which was a comfort. With a perfectly easy conscience he could give
a certificate of death. And if only somebody would stop that hideous
bell! Someone was singing quietly in the drawing-room, and the music
seemed to be strangely bizarre and out of place.

Inside it seemed like a veritable house of the dead--the shadow of
tragedy loomed everywhere. The dust rose in clouds from the floor as the
servants passed to and fro. They were all clad in black, and shuffled
uneasily, as if conscious that their clothes did not belong to them. Enid
came out into the hall to meet the doctor. Her face seemed terribly white
and drawn; there was something in her eyes that suggested anxiety more
than grief.

"