dreadful mystery of this wild midnight ride?

At last, when she had settled down to dull despair, the car came to a
paved road and began to move more slowly. It even stopped once or twice,
as if the driver was not sure of his way. But they kept moving,
nevertheless, and before long entered a driveway. There was another stop
now, and a long wait.

Louise lay dismally back upon the cushions, sobbing hysterically into
her dripping handkerchief. The door of her prison at last opened and a
light shone in upon her.

"Here we are, miss," said the man in uniform, still in quiet, respectful
tones. "Shall I assist you to alight?"

She started up eagerly, her courage returning with a bound. Stepping
unassisted to the ground she looked around her in bewilderment.

The car stood before the entrance to a modest country house. There was a
light in the hall and another upon the broad porch. Around the house a
mass of trees and shrubbery loomed dark and forbidding.

"Where am I?" demanded Louise, drawing back haughtily as the man
extended a hand toward her.

"At your destination, miss," was the answer. "Will you please enter?"

"No! Not until I have an explanation of this--this--singular,
high-handed proceeding," she replied, firmly.

Then she glanced at the house. The hall door had opened and a woman
stood peering anxiously at the scene outside.

With sudden resolve Louise sprang up the steps and approached her. Any
woman, she felt, in this emergency, was a welcome refuge.

"Who are you?" she asked eagerly, "and why have I been brought here?"

"_Mademoiselle_ will come inside, please," said the woman, with a
foreign accent. "It is cold in the night air, _N'est-ce-pas_?"

She turned to lead the way inside. While Louise hesitated to follow the
limousine started with a roar from its cylinders and disappeared down
the driveway, the two men going with it. The absence of the lamps
rendered the darkness around the solitary house rather uncanny. An
intense stillness prevailed except for the diminishing rattle of the
receding motor car. In the hall was a light and a woman.

Louise went in.

CHAPTER XVI

MADAME CERISE, CUSTODIAN

The woman closed the hall door and locked it. Then she led the way to a
long, dim drawing-room in which a grate fire was smouldering. A stand
lamp of antique pattern but dimly illuminated the place, which seemed
well furnished in an old fashioned way.

"Will not you remove your wraps, Mees-