great noise on the marble steps. At
the head of the stairs I came upon a door which had once been of red
baize, although now the baize was in tatters. Beyond it was a long
corridor, shuttered like the rest of the house.

I left the baize door open behind me while I peeped fearfully into one
room after another whose doors led off from the corridor. These were
bedrooms, and it was worse than downstairs. I could see the great
four-posters glimmering in the darkness. The smell of mildew was
everywhere.

Suddenly my courage gave out. I had an idea. Supposing that Bridget
Kelly was lying dead in one of these rooms or the great stone kitchens
below!

I turned about hastily, dreading what lay behind me. I would come
another time with my godmother. How could one tell who was skulking in
the house? The door had been open when I came to it.

And then--I heard the hall door shut with a great bang. There was no
wind to shut it. It was the last straw. I fled precipitately through the
baize door and on to the staircase, which was lit by a skylight
overhead. Even though I met the person who had shut the door I must make
towards the sunlight and the world outside.

CHAPTER XVI

THE PORTRAIT

As I came out on to the great landing which had a recess supported by
pillars, I saw that a baize door on the other side, corresponding to the
one by which I had come was slowly opening. To my excited fancy it
opened stealthily, and I stood staring at it, not knowing what might
issue from it.

Imagine, then, my joy and surprise when I saw for the second time
Anthony Cardew's face. At first I could hardly believe it; and he, on
his part, looked equally amazed, and very pleasurably so, I must say.

"Why, where have you dropped from, Miss Bawn?" he asked. "A minute ago I
could have sworn I was alone in the house, unless, perhaps, the good old
creature who looks after it had come back from her marketing."

"And where have you dropped from?" I asked, suddenly light-hearted. "I
thought you were on your way to the South Seas."

"Why so I should have been," he answered, "only for sudden happenings.
And how do you come here? To be sure, it is your own house, and I am a
trespasser. I little thought when I came who I should find."

"I am in town for a short visit," I said, "with Miss Champion. She was
not well to-day so I came to see the house alone."

"And, as luck would have it, I had a fancy on the same day to see a
portrait in the