race."

"You don't say so! I'll tell you one thing, I shan't allow anybody to
contradict me here, and your name's got to be Betsy while you're in this
house. Now take off your things and hang them up on that peg. I'm going
to set you right to work."

"Yes, ma'am," said Grace, alarmed.

"There's some dishes I want washed, Betsy, and I won't have you
loitering over your work, neither."

"Very well, ma'am."

Such was the new home for which poor Grace was expected to be grateful.

CHAPTER XIX

WHAT FRANK HEARD THROUGH THE CREVICE

Frank looked with some surprise at the woman who was looking through
the slide of his door. He had expected to see Nathan Graves. She also
regarded him with interest.

"I have brought you some supper," she said.

Frank reached out and drew in a small waiter, containing a cup of tea
and a plate of toast.

"Thank you," he said. "Where is the man who brought me here?"

"He has gone out."

"Do you know why he keeps me here in confinement?"

"No," said the woman, hastily. "I know nothing. I see much, but I know
nothing."

"Are many prisoners brought here as I have been?" asked our hero, in
spite of the woman's refusal to speak.

"No."

"I can't understand what object they can have in detaining me. If I were
rich, I might guess, but I am poor. I am compelled to work for my daily
bread, and have been out of a place for two weeks."

"I don't understand," she said, in a low voice, rather to herself than
to him. "But I cannot wait. I must not stand here. I will come up in
fifteen minutes, and if you wish another cup of tea, or some toast, I
will bring them."

His confinement did not affect his appetite, for he enjoyed his tea and
toast; and when, as she had promised, the woman came up, he told her he
would like another cup of tea, and some more toast.

"Will you answer one question?" asked our hero.

"I don't know," answered the woman in a flurried tone.

"You look like a good woman. Why do you stay in such a house as this?"

"I will tell you, though I should do better to be silent. But you won't
betray me?"

"On no account."

"I was poor, starving, when I had an application to come here. The man
who engaged me told me that it was to be a housekeeper, and I had no
suspicion of the character of the house--that it was a den of--"

She stopped short, but Frank understood what she would have said.

"When I discovered the character of the house, I would have left but for