night in the eerie light of the cloud-obscured moon, with the wind,
now howling and now sobbing and moaning, Mr. Middleton felt very
solemn indeed. But he pulled himself together and suggested a
low-priced and respectable hotel not far away, and toward this they
were faring when they passed a house which, unlike most of the others
of the vicinity, bore signs of habitation, and unlike any of the
others, had a light showing in a window. In fact, there was a light in
every window of the two upper stories and in the windows of the first
floor and even in the basement. Pausing to wonder at this unusual
illumination, Mr. Middleton felt his arm suddenly clutched, and a
voice which he would never have believed came from the lady, if there
had been any one else present, grated into his ear, "It's him."

Though startled by this enigmatical utterance, he followed when she
ascended two steps of the stoop for a better view in the uncurtained
window. There, with his face buried in his hands, seated on a roll of
carpeting with a tack hammer and saucer of tacks at his side, sat the
mulierose man!

"This house was empty at four this afternoon," said the lady.
"Heavens, that's my piano in the corner! That's my center table! I
believe that's my carpet! That's my watercolor painting I painted
myself! _He's_ robbed me!"

Her voice rose to a shriek, and at the sound a woman's head popped out
of the window above and the mulierose man came running to the door. He
was in his shirt sleeves but wore a hat.

"You've robbed me, you've robbed me!" cried the lady.

"I haven't," said the mulierose man with the utmost composure. "I can
explain it all satisfactorily. Come in. My Aunt Eliza is here and tea
is ready. Where were you when I went back to the restaurant? They said
you had gone. Where were you?"

To Mr. Middleton's surprise, the lady immediately quieted at the words
of the mulierose man and instead of berating him, coughed nervously
and hung her head sheepishly.

"Where were you?" repeated the man.

"At my house."

"All this time? With this young man?" There was a tinge of hardness
and jealousy in the man's voice and he looked unpleasantly at Mr.
Middleton. "What did you stay in that empty house all this time for?
What-were-you-doing-there?"

Mr. Middleton was at his wit's end to supply a hypothesis to answer
why the mulierose man, from being a criminal and object of the lady's
just wrath, should suddenly have become an inquisitor