alking, she will have her
own way," and dismissing the subject of Miss Vrain, the pretty widow,
with an air of relief, talked on more frivolous subjects until Lucian
took his departure.

CHAPTER VIII

DIANA VRAIN

Although over three months had elapsed since the murder of Mark Vrain,
and the crime had been relegated to oblivion both by press and people,
curiosity concerning it was still active in Geneva Square. The gossips
in that talkative quarter had exhausted their tongues and imaginations
in surmising who had committed the deed, and how it had been
accomplished.

It was now known that the deceased had been of a good county family, who
had left his pretty young wife in a fit of groundless suspicion; that he
had no enemies; and had withdrawn to the Silent House to save himself
from the machinations of purely imaginary beings. The general opinion
was that Vrain had been insane; but even this did not explain the reason
of his tragic and unforeseen death.

Since the murder the Silent House had acquired a tenfold interest in the
eyes of all. The crime, added to its reputation for being haunted,
invested it with horror; and its commonplace looks assumed to fanciful
onlookers a grim and menacing aspect, in keeping with its blood-stained
floor and ghostly rooms.

Disheartened by the late catastrophe, which had so greatly enhanced the
already evil reputation of the house, the landlord did not attempt to
relet it, as he knew very well that no tenant would be bold enough to
take it, even at a nominal rent. Mrs. Vrain had sold off the furniture
of the two apartments which her unfortunate husband had inhabited, and
now these were as bare and lonely as the rest of the rooms.

The landlord made no effort to furbish up or renovate the mansion,
deeming that such expense would be useless; so No. 13, deserted by man,
and cursed by God, remained vacant and avoided. People came from far and
near to look at it, but no one entered its doors lest some evil fate
should befall them. Yet, in strange contradiction to the horror it
created in every breast, the houses on either side continued to be
occupied.

Miss Greeb frequently took a peep across the way at the empty house,
with its curtainless, dusty windows and smokeless chimneys. She had
theorised often on the murder of Vrain, and being unable to come to any
reasonable conclusion, finally decided that a ghost--the ghost which
haunted the mansion--had committed the crime.