living-room. He seemed irresistibly drawn toward the
place where he had talked with Peter Grimm and had "almost seen him."

So the sofa had been drawn up to the fire and a bed made for him there.
Now, however, he was at last sleeping peacefully in his little upstairs
room, and the whole house was quiet, though no one else had gone to bed,
and there was everywhere a subdued feeling of excitement.

The doctor had drawn a little table close to the vacant side of the
fireplace (for the coals still smouldered, and the night was damp and
chill). He had placed Willem's medicines there; and a lamp, the only
bright spot in the big room.

Outside, the world was bathed in moonlight, and through the window the
arms of the windmill could be seen, waving solemnly round and round like
some strange, black mysterious creature beckoning silently from another
world.

McPherson was preparing a formal statement of the "seance" while it was
still fresh in his mind. And as Willem might need him, he was filling in
a waiting hour by writing.

Mrs. Batholommey's anxious face, encased in a scarf, broke in upon his
concentration.

"Oh--I'm _so_ nervous!" exclaimed the rector's wife, shudderingly, as
she came into the room and going to the piano, turned up the second
lamp.

"How can you sit here in such a dim light, after all that has happened
in this room--just a few hours ago, too?"

Dr. McPherson, intent upon his work, was determined not to be
interrupted. His only reply to Mrs. Batholommey was the scratching of
his pen and the rattle of paper as he turned over a page.

"I thought perhaps Frederik had come back," she went on.

"So Willem's feeling better again?" she asked, advancing on the doctor.

"Yes," he answered abstractedly. "I took him upstairs a few minutes
ago."

"Strange how the boy wants to remain in this room!" said Mrs.
Batholommey.

"M'm----" grunted Dr. McPherson shortly, without looking up at all.

Mrs. Batholommey came nearer and sat down.

"Oh, Doctor! Doctor!" she cried. "The scene that took place here
to-night has completely upset me."

The doctor's only reply was to turn his back on Mrs. Batholommey and
begin reading his manuscript aloud in an undertone, scratching out a
word here, adding something there.

Mrs. Batholommey, quite unconscious that she was a nuisance, leaned back
in her chair and let her words flow on.

"Well, Doctor, the breaking off of the engagement is--er--sudden, isn't
it? We've b