paper-knife. This gave me an idea.
Carrying it back with me into the recess, I got down on my knees, and
first taking the precaution to toss a little stick-pin of mine under
the cabinet to be reached after in case I was detected there by Nixon,
I insinuated the cutter between the base-board and the floor and found
that I could not only push it in an inch or more before striking the
brick, but run it quite freely around from one corner of the recess to
the other. This was surely surprising. The exterior of this vestibule
must be considerably larger than the interior would denote. What
occupied the space between? I went upstairs full of thought. Sometime,
and that before long, I would have that cabinet removed.

CHAPTER XIII. A DISCOVERY

Mrs. Packard came in very soon after this. She was accompanied by two
friends and I could hear them talking and laughing in her room upstairs
all the afternoon. It gave me leisure, but leisure was not what I stood
in need of, just now. I desired much more an opportunity to pursue my
inquiries, for I knew why she had brought these friends home with her
and lent herself to a merriment that was not natural to her. She wished
to forestall thought; to keep down dread; to fill the house so full of
cheer that no whisper should reach her from that spirit-world she had
come to fear. She had seen--or believed that she had seen--a specter,
and she had certainly heard a laugh that had come from no explicable
human source.

The brightness of the sunshiny day aided her unconsciously in this
endeavor. But I foresaw the moment when this brightness would disappear
and her friends say good-by. Then the shadows must fall again more
heavily than ever, because of their transient lifting. I almost wished
she had indeed gone with her husband, and found myself wondering why he
had not asked her to do so when he found what it was that depressed her.
Perhaps he had, and it was she who had held back. She may have made
up her mind to conquer this weakness, and to conquer it where it had
originated and necessarily held the strongest sway. At all events, he
was gone and she was here, and I had done nothing as yet to relieve that
insidious dread with which she must anticipate a night in this house
without his presence.

I wondered if it would be any relief to her to have Mr. Steele remain
upon the premises. I had heard him come in about three o'clock and go
into the study, and when the time came for her fr