land! The shock
I got when--at that moment of all others, my eyes dazzled with a
dream--I saw the real Princess! Somehow I blundered through the meeting
with her, and didn't utterly disgrace myself. But I made an excuse about
taking a friend to a train, and bolted as soon as I could. I didn't come
straight here. I went back to the window where I'd seen the face--the
vision--the ghost--whatever it was. No one was there. A curtain was
pulled across. And I remembered then that I'd always seen it covered.
Say, Princess, do you think I'm going mad--just when I hoped I was
cured? Was it the spirit of Margaret Revell's lost youth I saw,
or--or----"

"At which window was the--er--Being?" I cut in sharply.

"It was close under the twisted chimney."

"Ah! In the wing where the Scarletts are: the suite of the garden
court!"

"Yes. I forgot when I thought it must be Margaret, that the window was
in the Scarletts' wing. Of course, Margaret couldn't have gone there.
Princess, you're afraid to tell me, but you _do_ think I'm off my head!"

"I don't," I assured him. "Just what I think I hardly know myself. But I
shouldn't wonder if you'd stumbled on to the key of the mystery."

"What mystery?"

"The mystery of Dun Moat; the mystery of the Scarletts; why they
wouldn't let or sell the place until I happened to think of bribing them
with the suggestion that they should stay on. Captain Burns, it wasn't a
ghost you saw, never fear! It was a real live person--the incarnate
reason why at all costs the Scarletts must stay at Dun Moat."

Terry blushed with excitement. "Oh, if I could believe you, I should be
almost happy! If that girl--that heavenly girl!--exists at Dun Moat, and
I'm the tenant, I shall meet her. I----"

He went on rhapsodizing until the look in my eyes pulled him up short!
"What is it?" he asked. "Don't you approve of my wanting to meet her?
Don't you----"

"I approve with all my heart," I said. "But I'm wondering--_wondering_!
Why are the Scarletts hiding a girl? Has she done something that makes
it wise to keep her out of sight? Or is it _they_ who don't wish her to
be seen, for reasons of their own?"

"Madam, the porter is asking if your luggage is ready to go down,"
announced a maid.

"Luggage!" Terry and I stared at each other. I had forgotten that I was
going to London.

"But you can't leave me now!" he implored.

"I've changed my mind," I explained to the maid. "I shall take another
train!"