Mr. Rook's arm to go out, and stopped as she passed me.
'Come to my room, if you please, sir, to-morrow at two o'clock,' she
said. Sir Jervis explained again: 'She's all to pieces in the morning'
(he invariably called his sister 'She'); 'and gets patched up toward the
middle of the day. Death has forgotten her, that's about the truth of
it.' He lighted his pipe and pondered over the hieroglyphics found among
the ruined cities of Yucatan; I lighted my pipe, and read the only book
I could find in the dining-room--a dreadful record of shipwrecks and
disasters at sea. When the room was full of tobacco-smoke we fell asleep
in our chairs--and when we awoke again we got up and went to bed. There
is the true story of my first evening at Redwood Hall."

Emily begged him to go on. "You have interested me in Miss Redwood," she
said. "You kept your appointment, of course?"

"I kept my appointment in no very pleasant humor. Encouraged by my
favorable report of the illustrations which he had submitted to
my judgment, Sir Jervis proposed to make me useful to him in a new
capacity. 'You have nothing particular to do,' he said, 'suppose you
clean my pictures?' I gave him one of my black looks, and made no other
reply. My interview with his sister tried my powers of self-command in
another way. Miss Redwood declared her purpose in sending for me the
moment I entered the room. Without any preliminary remarks--speaking
slowly and emphatically, in a wonderfully strong voice for a woman of
her age--she said, 'I have a favor to ask of you, sir. I want you to
tell me what Mrs. Rook has done.' I was so staggered that I stared at
her like a fool. She went on: 'I suspected Mrs. Rook, sir, of having
guilty remembrances on her conscience before she had been a week in
our service.' Can you imagine my astonishment when I heard that Miss
Redwood's view of Mrs. Rook was my view? Finding that I still said
nothing, the old lady entered into details: 'We arranged, sir,' (she
persisted in calling me 'sir,' with the formal politeness of the old
school)--'we arranged, sir, that Mrs. Rook and her husband should occupy
the bedroom next to mine, so that I might have her near me in case of
my being taken ill in the night. She looked at the door between the two
rooms--suspicious! She asked if there was any objection to her changing
to another room--suspicious! suspicious! Pray take a seat, sir, and tell
me which Mrs. Rook is guilty of--theft or murder?'"

"Wha