for him. 'Tain't his fault; he don't
even know it yet."

"I don't care. I know he'll be a conceited little snippet and I shall
hate the sight of him. There! there! Auntie, you mustn't mind me. I
told you I was a selfish pig. But don't you ask me to LIKE this precious
minister of yours, because I shan't do it. He has no business to come
and separate me from the best friend I've got. I'd tell him so if he was
here--What was that?"

Both women looked at each other with startled faces. They listened
intently.

"Why, wa'n't that funny!" whispered Keziah. "I thought I heard--"

"You DID hear. So did I. What do you suppose--"

"S-s-s-h-h! It sounded from the front room somewhere. And yet there
can't be anybody in there, because--My soul! there 'tis again. I'm goin'
to find out."

She grasped the stubby broom by the handle and moved determinedly toward
the front hall. Grace seized her by the arm.

"Don't you do it, auntie!" she whispered frantically. "Don't you DO it!
It may be a tramp."

"I don't care. Whoever or whatever it is, it has no business in this
house, and I'll make that plain in a hurry. Just like as not it's a cat
got in when Elkanah was here this forenoon. Don't be scared, Grace. Come
right along."

The girl came along, but not with enthusiasm. They tiptoed through the
dark, narrow hall and peered into the parlor. This apartment was dim and
still and gloomy, as all proper parlors should be, but there was no sign
of life.

"Humph!" sniffed Keziah. "It might have been upstairs, but it didn't
sound so. What did it sound like to you?"

"Like a footstep at first; and then like something falling--and
rustling. Oh, what is the matter?"

Mrs. Coffin was glancing back down the hall with a strange expression on
her face. Her grip upon the broom handle tightened.

"What IS it?" pleaded the girl in an agonized whisper.

"Grace," was the low reply, "I've just remembered somethin'. That study
door isn't stuck from the damp, because--well, because I remember now
that it was open this mornin'."

Before her companion could fully grasp the import of this paralyzing
fact, Keziah strode down the hall and seized the knob of the study door.

"Whoever you are in there," she commanded sternly, "open this door and
come out this minute. Do you hear? I'm orderin' you to come out."

There was an instant of silence; then a voice from within made answer, a
man's voice, and its tone indicated embarrassment.

"Madam," it