arried. He felt women a snare. Land, not much
snarin' with what farm women get to wear around here! I've kind of
thought of one of those blue foulard silks with white spots into it
since before I married Hill, but never came any nearer than pricin' it
an' bringin' home a sample. He was death on sweet odors an' soft
raiment. Only sweet odors I ever get are the ten-cent bottles Hill makes
the pedlar throw in when we trade. I do fancy _Jockey Club_ for special
times, an' I've got a reasonable hope of salvation, too. I notice your
cousin, Mrs. Vere, has scent on her handkerchief week days as well as
when she's goin' somewhere, so I guess you don't hold with the Rev'rund
Michell in New York?"

I laughed with her as I took up the bag of eggs.

"Did the runaway sister leave any children?" I queried.

"Not a Michell alive anywhere," she asserted positively. "Dead, all
dead! The Rev'rund was buried at his mission in some outlandish place.
An' if those heathen women dress like I've seen in the movin' picture
palace in the village, I don't know how he makes out to rest with them
flauntin' past his grave!"

I went thoughtfully out to the car. Indeed, I drove home in such
abstraction that Phillida reproved me.

"'The cat has stolen your tongue,'" she teased. "Or did Mrs. Hill vamp
you and make roast meat of your heart with her eyes?"

"Phil, do you put scent on your handkerchief week days as well as
Sundays?" I shook off thought to inquire.

"No; I keep sachet in my handkerchief box. Why?"

"Next time you are in town, will you buy a blue silk foulard dress with
white spots in it and the largest bottle of Jockey Club Extract on sale,
and give them to Mrs. Hill for a Christmas present? I'll give you a
blank check."

"Cousin Roger? Why?"

So I told her why. But I did not tell her the story of the second Desire
Michell; nor of the original house that stood in the hollow now filled
by our lake.

Why had a peculiar horror crept through me when Mrs. Hill told me what
ruins that water covered? Why had I remembered the inexplicable,
repugnant sound that on several occasions had preceded the coming of the
Monster; a sound like the smack of huge lips, or some body withdrawn
from thick slime? Was entrance into human air open to the alien Thing
only through the ruins of the house where It had first been called by
the sorceress of long ago?

We were walking across from the garage, after putting away the car, when
a recollection fl