ce to your mother is quite marked, however."

And so, during the ride, she kept up a flow of desultory conversation,
intended to distract Alora's attention from the section of the city
through which they were passing. She spoke of Dr. Anstruther, mostly,
and answered such questions as Alora put to her in a calm, unemotional
manner well calculated to allay suspicion. The woman kept her eyes
veiled by her lashes, as of yore, but her face seemed to have aged and
grown harder in its lines. There was no hint now of her former gay life
in New York; she had resumed the humble tones and manners peculiar to
her profession, such as Alora remembered were characteristic of her at
the time she nursed her mother.

"This is the place," said Janet, as the cab came to a stop. "Let us
move softly, as noise disturbs my patient."

Alora had paid no attention to the direction they had driven but on
leaving the car she found herself facing a three-storied brick flat
building of not very prepossessing appearance. Then were several vacant
lots on either side of this building, giving it a lonely appearance,
and in the lower windows were pasted placards: "To Let."

"Oh; does Doctor Anstruther live _here?"_ asked Alora, somewhat
astonished.

Without seeming to have heard the question Janet mounted the steps and
opened the front door with a latch-key. Alora followed her inside and
up two dingy flights to the third floor. Once she started to protest,
for the deadly silence of the place impressed her with a vague
foreboding that something was amiss, but Janet silenced her with a
warning finger on her lips and on reaching the upper landing herself
avoided making a noise as she cautiously unlocked the door. She stood
listening a moment and then entered and nodded to the girl to follow.

They were in a short, dark passage which separated the landing from the
rooms of the flat. Janet closed the outer door, startling her companion
with the sharp "click" it made, and quickly opened another door which
led into a shabby living room at the front of the building. Standing
just within this room, Alora glanced around with the first real
sensation of suspicion she had yet experienced. Janet raised her lids
for a sweeping view of the girl's face and then with a light laugh
began to remove her own cloak and cap, which she hung in a closet.

"Come, child, make yourself at home," she said in a mocking, triumphant
voice, as she seated herself in a chair facing