and then,
grasping the huge knocker, I rapped out an additional summons, which
echoed drearily, as though through an empty house.

So near was I to the river, while I stood waiting on the door-stone to
be admitted, that I could hear the soft lapping of the water against the
shore. Darkness had fallen now, and an ugly recollection of my dream
suddenly sprang up in my brain. Just so, I remembered, had I heard the
water whispering, as in that hateful vision I had bent over to see the
dead man's beckoning hand.

It was long before my ring and knock were answered, so long that I had
my finger on the bell again. But at that moment I heard footsteps
walking somewhat uncertainly along an uncarpeted floor within. Still the
door remained closed; but at a long narrow window, which was the
duplicate of another on the opposite side of the door, I saw for an
instant that a face was pressed against the latticework of the glass.

"What ill-trained servants this man keeps," was my thought; and then,
somewhat impatiently, I rang again.

The door opened almost immediately into a dimly-lighted hall, when a
respectable, middle-aged man, out of livery, evidently a butler, stood
revealed. Yet I could have sworn that the face at the window, seen but a
second ago, had been that of a _woman, young, pallid, and darkly
bright of eye_!

CHAPTER V

Was It a Mystery?

"I should like to see Mr. Wildred and Mr. Farnham," I said, not feeling
it necessary to ask if they were at home. I knew that they had
definitely arranged to be so.

I glanced round me carelessly as I spoke. The hall was a huge one, dim
in the corners, with a fine stairway that ran down in the centre, and
was lighted by a great branching candelabrum held up by a bronze figure
on either side.

Doors, hung with _portieres_ of tapestry, opened here and there
along the hall, and in a fireplace at one side slow flames crept along a
freshly-heaped pile of logs.

"I am sorry, sir," said the servant, respectfully, "but both the
gentlemen have gone out for the day."

He did not look me in the face as he delivered this piece of
information, but allowed his narrow eyes to drop away shiftily.

"Oh, I am surprised at that," I returned, "for I have come by
invitation."

I hardly know by what impulse I mentioned this, and as a matter of fact
the invitation could hardly be supposed to stand, as I had last night
refused it. Still, it seemed to me extremely improbable that the t