up to comply. "I suppose it
was the fire," apologized Eline. "We are especially nervous to-night."

"Yes, do go," begged the woman, "and when I have finished, I will show
my gratitude by telling you all a very strange story. One forgets fear,
sometimes, when a matter of deeper interest is brought up."

"Very well," assented Cora. "I will be back in a few minutes, and then
we will all be primed for the wonderful story."

"What is it?" whispered Jack in the passage-way, as the girls entered the
library.

"Hush!" Cora cautioned. "I found her--in the barn."

"The barn! Before the fire?" he gasped. "Did she----?"

"After it was--going," Cora managed to say. Then she put her finger to
her lips.

The young folks, at least the girls, insisted upon huddling in the very
darkest corner of the room.

"Don't go near the phonograph," cautioned Eline. "Musical sounds are very
dangerous during a storm, I've heard."

Then the absurdity of "musical sounds" from a silent phonograph occurred
to her, and she laughed as quickly as did the others.

"Well it's metal at any rate," she amended, "and that is just as bad."
"Who's your friend, Cora?" Ed asked, in an off-hand way.

"Oh, she is going to tell us a wonderful story," put in Bess before Cora
could reply. "Wait until she has finished her tea."

"She looks like a deserted wife," Belle ventured softly, in her usual
strain of romance.

"What's the indication?" asked Walter somewhat facetiously. "Now, do I
look anything like a deserted lover?"

Cora got up and went out into the pantry again. She found the woman
standing, waiting for her.

"I do not know if I was wise or foolish to have made that promise," she
said. "But as I have made it I will stand by it. I feel also that to talk
will do me good. And, after all, what have I to fear more than I have
already suffered?"

"We have no idea of insisting on your confidence," Cora assured her. "But,
of course, I would like to know why you went in _our_ garage."

"And I fully intend to tell you," replied the woman. "Are you all young
folks?"

"Just now, we are alone," answered Cora. "We are going away to-morrow,
and were finishing our arrangements when the barn caught fire."

"I scarcely look fit to enter your--other room," the woman demurred, with
a glance at her worn clothing. "But I assure you I have been no place
where there has been illness, or anything of that sort."

"You are all right," insisted Cora. "Come along. I