still, save for the sound of conversation in the drawing-room. Yet I
found it hard to keep my eyes upon the page. Quite without my volition
they flew, first to one corner, then to another. The room was light,
there were no shadowy nooks in it, yet I felt an irresistible desire to
peer into every place not directly under my eye. I knew it to be folly,
and, after succumbing to the temptation of taking a sly look behind a
certain tall screen, I resolutely set myself to curb my restlessness
and to peruse in good earnest the article I had begun. To make sure of
myself, I articulated each word aloud, and to my exceeding satisfaction
had reached the second column when I found my voice trailing off into
silence, and every sense alarmingly alert. Yet there was nothing,
absolutely nothing in this well-lighted, cozy family-room to awaken
fear. I was sure of this the next minute, and felt correspondingly
irritated with myself and deeply humiliated. That my nerves should play
me such a trick at the very outset of my business in this house! That I
could not be left alone, with life in every part of the house, and the
sound of the piano and cheerful talking just across the hall, without
the sense of the morbid and unearthly entering my matter-of-fact brain!

Uttering an ejaculation of contempt, I reseated myself. The impulse came
again to look behind me, but I mastered it this time without too great
an effort. I already knew every feature of the room: its old-fashioned
mantel, large round center-table, its couches and chairs, and why should
I waste my attention again upon them?

"Is there anything you wish, Miss?" asked a voice directly over my
shoulder.

I wheeled about with a start. I had heard no one approach; it was not
sound which had disturbed me.

"The library bell rang," continued the voice. "Is it ice-water you
want?"

Then I saw that it was Nixon, the butler, and shook my head in mingled
anger and perplexity; for not only had he advanced quite noiselessly,
but he was looking at me with that curious concentrated gaze which I had
met twice before since coming into this house.

"I need nothing," said I, with all the mildness I could summon into my
voice; and did not know whether to like or not like the quiet manner in
which he sidled out of the room.

"Why do they all look at me so closely?" I queried, in genuine
confusion. "The man had no business here. I did not ring, and I don't
believe he thought I did. He merely wa