et, a bonnet
made of silk 'gathered' on to a large stiff frame; 'drawn' bonnets they
used to be called. I took in all these details of her dress in a moment,
and even in that moment I noticed too that the materials of her clothes
looked _good_, though so plain and old-fashioned. But somehow my first
impulse when I saw her was to call out, 'Fraser, is that you?' Fraser
was my mother's maid: she was a young woman, and not the least like the
person in front of me, but I think a vague idea rushed across my mind
that it might be Fraser dressed up to trick the other servants. But the
figure took no notice of my exclamation; it, or she, walked on quietly,
not even turning her head round in the least; she walked slowly down the
passage, seemingly quite unconscious of my presence, and, to my extreme
amazement, disappeared into the unused room. The key, as I think I told
you, was always turned in the lock--that is to say, the door was locked,
but the key was left in it; but the old woman did not seem to me to
unlock the door, or even to turn the handle. There seemed no obstacle in
her way: she just quietly, as it were, walked _through_ the door. Even
by this time I hardly think I felt _frightened_. What I had seen had
passed too quickly for me as yet to realise its strangeness. Still I
felt perplexed and vaguely uneasy, and I hurried on to my sister's room.
She was standing by the toilet-table, searching for the ribbon. I think
I must have looked startled, for before I could speak she called out,
'Maggie, whatever is the matter with you? You look as if you were going
to faint.' I asked her if she had heard anything, though it was an
inconsistent question, for to _my_ ears there had been no sound at all.
Helen answered, 'Yes:' a moment before I came into the room she had
heard the lock of the lumber-room (so we called it) door click, and had
wondered what I could be going in there for. Then I told her what I had
seen. She looked a little startled, but declared it must have been one
of the servants.

"'If it is a trick of the servants,' I answered, 'it should be exposed;'
and when Helen offered to search through the lumber-room with me at
once, I was very ready to agree to it. I was so satisfied of the reality
of what I had seen, that I declared to Helen that the old woman, whoever
she was, _must_ be in the room; it stood to reason that, having gone in,
she must still be there, as she could not possibly have come out again
without