uch more than three years old. So that's the
explanation of the two babies in the other room. I suppose Mrs.
Collingwood didn't tell all,--in fact I said she didn't tell any details
about what happened that night. Probably she turned the portrait around
and tore out the miniature when she was alone. But I haven't finished my
story yet!"

"Oh, do go on then!" implored Cynthia.

"Mrs. Collingwood stayed at her friend's house two days," continued
Joyce, "and then left for her old home in a little town in South
Carolina and never came North again. Mrs. Durand never saw her again,
either, but used to hear from her at very long intervals. But here's
where the awful thing comes in. After the battle of Shiloh, a year
later, when the papers published the list of killed--Fairfax
Collingwood's name was among the first! So he did not live very long,
you see. But what a terrible thing for the poor mother to think that she
and her son had parted in anger, and now were never, never to meet
again, and make it all up! Oh, I can hardly bear to think of it!"
Joyce's eyes were full of tears, as she gazed up at the proud, beautiful
face above them.

"Well, that's the end of the story, and that's the tragedy and mystery
about this Boarded-up House. Oh!--there's one other thing,--Great-aunt
Lucia says she thinks Mrs. Collingwood is still alive,--a very old lady,
living down in the little old South Carolina town of Chesterton. She
will never allow this old house to be touched nor let any one enter it.
But she has made a will, leaving it to the Southern Society when she
dies. That's positively all, and you see everything is explained."

"No, it isn't!" retorted Cynthia. "You haven't explained _one_ thing, at
all!"

"What's that?" asked Joyce.

"The mystery of the locked-up room!" replied Cynthia.

CHAPTER X

AN EXCITING DISCOVERY

The autumn of that year ended, the winter months came and went with all
their holiday festivities, and spring entered in her appointed time. The
passing winter had been filled with such varied outside activities for
the two girls, that there was little time to think of the Boarded-up
House, and still less to do any further investigating within it. Added
to that, the cold had been so constant and intense that it would have
been unsafe to venture into the unlighted, unheated, and unventilated
old mansion.

But, in spite of these things, its haunting story was never out of their
minds for long, and