s usual, and I knew by Mr. Wace's manner at
supper that things must be going badly. He quoted the prophets
something terrible, and worked on the kitchen-maid so that she declared
she wouldn't go down alone to put the cold meat in the ice-box. I felt
nervous myself, and after I had put my mistress to bed I was
half-tempted to go down again and persuade Mrs. Blinder to sit up
awhile over a game of cards. But I heard her door closing for the
night, and so I went on to my own room. The rain had begun again, and
the drip, drip, drip seemed to be dropping into my brain. I lay awake
listening to it, and turning over what my friend in town had said. What
puzzled me was that it was always the maids who left...

After a while I slept; but suddenly a loud noise wakened me. My bell
had rung. I sat up, terrified by the unusual sound, which seemed to go
on jangling through the darkness. My hands shook so that I couldn't
find the matches. At length I struck a light and jumped out of bed. I
began to think I must have been dreaming; but I looked at the bell
against the wall, and there was the little hammer still quivering.

I was just beginning to huddle on my clothes when I heard another
sound. This time it was the door of the locked room opposite mine
softly opening and closing. I heard the sound distinctly, and it
frightened me so that I stood stock still. Then I heard a footstep
hurrying down the passage toward the main house. The floor being
carpeted, the sound was very faint, but I was quite sure it was a
woman's step. I turned cold with the thought of it, and for a minute or
two I dursn't breathe or move. Then I came to my senses.

"Alice Hartley," says I to myself, "someone left that room just now and
ran down the passage ahead of you. The idea isn't pleasant, but you may
as well face it. Your mistress has rung for you, and to answer her bell
you've got to go the way that other woman has gone."

Well--I did it. I never walked faster in my life, yet I thought I
should never get to the end of the passage or reach Mrs. Brympton's
room. On the way I heard nothing and saw nothing: all was dark and
quiet as the grave. When I reached my mistress's door the silence was
so deep that I began to think I must be dreaming, and was half-minded
to turn back. Then a panic seized me, and I knocked.

There was no answer, and I knocked again, loudly. To my astonishment
the door was opened by Mr. Brympton. He started back when he saw me,
and i