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+Project Gutenberg's The Siege of the Seven Suitors, by Meredith Nicholson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Siege of the Seven Suitors
+
+Author: Meredith Nicholson
+
+Illustrator: C. Coles Phillips
+             Reginald Birch
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2011 [EBook #35942]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Hezekiah"]
+
+
+
+
+
+The Siege of
+
+The Seven Suitors
+
+
+BY
+
+MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES," ETC.
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY C. COLES PHILLIPS
+
+AND REGINALD BIRCH
+
+
+
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+1910
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+_Published October 1910_
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+THE HONORABLE THOMAS R. MARSHALL
+
+MY DEAR GOVERNOR:--It was ordered by the franchises of destiny that you
+become the chief executive of a state in which the telling of tales
+brightened the hunter's camp-fire and cheered the lonely pioneer's
+cabin before our people learned the uses of ink; and the supreme
+fitness of this lies in the fact that you are yourself the best of
+story-tellers and entitled, for your excellence in this particular, as
+well as for weightier reasons, to sit at the head of the table in that
+commonwealth to which we are both bound by many and dear ties.
+
+The morning brings to your mail-box so many demands, necessitating the
+most varied and delicate balancings and adjustments, that I serve you
+ill in adding to your burdens the little packet that contains this
+tale.  Pray consider, however, that I have hidden it discreetly beneath
+a pile of documents touching nearly the state's business; or that I
+hastily serve it upon you in the highway, an unsanctioned writ from
+that high court of letters in which I am the least valiant among the
+bailiffs.
+
+Sincerely yours,
+  M. N.
+
+MACKINAC ISLAND,
+  _August_ 10, 1910.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     I. MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED
+    II. THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE
+   III. I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH
+    IV. WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM
+     V. THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY
+    VI. I DELIVER A MESSAGE
+   VII. NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE
+  VIII. CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+    IX. I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST
+     X. MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES
+    XI. I PLAY TRUANT
+   XII. THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES
+  XIII. I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS
+   XIV. LADY'S SLIPPER
+    XV. LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+   XVI. JACK O' LANTERN
+  XVII. SEVEN GOLD REEDS
+ XVIII. TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS
+   XIX. THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL
+    XX. HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM
+
+
+
+
+THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS
+
+
+
+I
+
+MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED
+
+I dined with Hartley Wiggins at the Hare and Tortoise on an evening in
+October, not very long ago.  It may be well to explain that the Hare
+and Tortoise is the smallest and most select of clubs, whose windows
+afford a pleasant view of Gramercy Park.  The club is comparatively
+young, and it is our joke that we are so far all tortoises, creeping
+through our several professions without aid from any hare.  I hasten to
+explain that I am a chimney doctor.  Wiggins is a lawyer; at least I
+have seen his name in a list of graduates of the Harvard Law School,
+and he has an office down-town where I have occasionally found him
+sedately playing solitaire while he waited for some one to take him out
+to luncheon.  He spends his summers on a South Dakota ranch, from which
+he derives a considerable income.  When tough steaks are served from
+the club grill, we always attribute them to the cattle on Wiggins's
+hills.  Or if the lamb is ancient, we declare it to be of Wiggins's
+shepherding.  It is the way of our humor to hold Wiggins responsible
+for things.  His good nature is usually equal to the worst we can do to
+him.  He is the kind of fellow that one instinctively indicts without
+hearing testimony.  We all know perfectly well that Wiggins's ranch is
+a wheat ranch.
+
+Wiggins is an athlete, and his summers in the West and persistent
+training during the winter in town keep him in fine condition.  As I
+faced him to-night in our favorite corner of the Hare and Tortoise
+dining-room, the physical man was fit enough; but I saw at once that he
+was glum and dispirited.  He had through many years honored me with his
+confidence, and I felt that to-night, after we got well started, I
+should hear what was on his mind.  I hoped to cheer him with the story
+of a visit I had by chance paid that afternoon to the Asolando
+Tea-Room; for though Wiggins is a most practical person, I imagined
+that he would be diverted by my description of a place which, I felt
+sure, nothing could tempt him to visit.  I shall never forget the look
+he gave me when I remarked, at about his third spoonful of soup:
+
+"By the way, I dropped into an odd place this afternoon.  Burne-Jones
+buns, maccaroons, and all that sort of thing.  They call it the
+Asolando."
+
+I was ambling on, expecting to sharpen his curiosity gradually as I
+recited the joys of the tea-room; but at "Asolando" his spoon dropped,
+and he stared at me blankly.  It should be known that Wiggins is not a
+man whose composure is lightly shaken.  The waiter who served us
+glanced at him in surprise, a fact which I mention merely to confirm my
+assertion that the dropping of a spoon into his soup was an
+extraordinary occurrence in Wiggins's life.  Wiggins was a proper
+person.  On the ranch, twenty miles from a railroad, he always dressed
+for dinner.
+
+"The Asolando," I repeated, to break the spell of his blank stare.
+"Know the place?"
+
+He recovered in a moment, but he surveyed me quizzically before
+replying.
+
+"Of course I have heard of the Asolando, but I thought you did n't go
+in for that sort of thing.  It's a trifle girlish, you know."
+
+"That's hardly against it!  I found the girlishness altogether
+attractive."
+
+"You always were tolerably susceptible, but broiled butterflies and
+moth-wings soufflé seem to me rather pale food for a man in your
+vigorous health."
+
+"They must have discriminated in your favor; I saw no such things,
+though to be sure I was afraid to quibble over the waitress's
+suggestions.  May I ask when you were there?"
+
+"Oh, I dropped in quite accidentally one day last spring.  I saw the
+sign, and remembered that somebody had spoken of the place, and I was
+tired, and it was a long way to the club, and"--
+
+Dissimulation is not an art as Wiggins attempts to practice it at
+times.  He is by nature the most straightforward of mortals.  It was
+clear that he was withholding something, and I resolved to get to the
+bottom of it.
+
+"I don't think the Asolando is a place that would attract either of us,
+and yet the viands are good as such stuff goes, and the gentle
+hand-maidens are restful to the eye,--Pippa, Francesca, Gloria, and the
+rest of 'em."
+
+Wiggins pried open his artichoke with the care of a botanist.  He had
+regained his composure, but I saw that the subject interested him.
+
+"You were there this afternoon?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes, my first and only appearance."
+
+"And this is Monday."
+
+"The calendar has said it."
+
+"So you settled your bill with Pippa!  I believe this was her day."
+
+"Then you really do know the inner workings of the Asolando," I
+continued; "I thought you would show your hand presently.  Then it is
+perhaps Gloria, Beatrice or Francesca who minds the till on Tuesdays,
+Thursdays and Saturdays, alternating with Pippa, who took my coin
+to-day.  It's a pretty idea.  It has the delicacy of an arrangement by
+Whistler or the charm of a line in Rossetti.  So you have seen the
+blessed damozel at the cash-desk."
+
+"On the contrary I was never there on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday,
+and I therefore passed no coin to Francesca, Gloria or Beatrice.  My
+only visit was on a day last May, and my recollection of the system is
+doubtless imperfect."
+
+"Then beyond doubt I saw Pippa.  She makes the change on Monday,
+Wednesday and Friday.  Her eyelashes are a trifle too long for the
+world's peace."
+
+"I dare say.  I have n't your charming knack, Ames, of picking up
+acquaintances, so you must n't expect me to form life-long friendships
+with young women at cash-desks.  I suppose it did n't occur to you that
+those young women who tend till and serve the tables in there are
+persons of education and taste.  The Asolando is not a common hashery.
+I sometimes fear that so much crawling through chimneys is clouding
+your intellect.  It ought to have been clear even to your smoky
+chimney-pot that those girls in there are not the kind you can ask to
+meet you by the old mill at the fall of dewy eve, or who write notes to
+popular romantic actors.  There's not a girl in that place who has n't
+a social position as good as yours or mine.  The Asolando's a kind of
+fad, you know, Ames; it's not a tavern within the meaning of the
+inn-keepers' act, where common swine are fed for profit.  The servants
+serve for love of the cause; it's a sort of cult.  But I suppose you
+are incapable of grasping it.  There was always something sordid in
+you, and I'm pained to find that you're getting worse."
+
+Wiggins had, before now, occasionally taken this attitude toward me,
+and it was always with a view to obscuring some real issue between us.
+He requires patience; it is a mistake to attempt to crowd him; but give
+him rope and he will twist his own halter.
+
+We sparred further without result.  I had suggested a topic that had
+clearly some painful association for my friend.  He drank his coffee
+gloomily and lighted a cigar much blacker than the one I knew to be his
+favorite in the Hare and Tortoise humidor.  He excused himself shortly,
+and I had a glimpse of him later, in the writing-room, engaged upon
+letters, a fact in itself disquieting, for Wiggins never wrote letters,
+and it was he who had favored making the Hare and Tortoise writing-room
+into a den for pipe-smokers.  The epistolary habit, he maintained, was
+one that should be discouraged.
+
+I was moodily turning over the evening newspapers when Jewett turned
+up.  Jewett always knows everything.  I shall not call him a gossip,
+but he comes as near deserving the name as a man dares who lectures on
+the Renaissance before clubs and boarding-schools.  Jewett knows his
+Botticelli, but his knowledge of his contemporaries is equally exact.
+He dropped the ball into the green of my immediate interest with a neat
+approach-shot.
+
+"Too bad about old Wiggy," he remarked with his preluding sigh.
+
+"What's the matter with Wiggins?" I demanded.
+
+"Ah!  He has n't told you?  Thought he told you everything."
+
+This was meant for a stinger, and I felt the bite of it.
+
+"You do me too much honor.  Wiggins is not a man to throw around his
+confidences."
+
+"And I rather fancy that his love-affairs in particular are locked in
+his bosom."
+
+Jewett was a master of the art of suggestion; he took an unnecessarily
+long time to light a cigar so that his words might sink deep into my
+consciousness.
+
+"Saw her once last spring.  Got a sight draft from the Bank of Eros.
+Followed her across the multitudinous sea.  Bang!"
+
+"But Wiggy has n't been abroad.  Wiggy was on his Dakota ranch all
+summer.  He's all tanned from the sun, just as he is every fall," I
+persisted.
+
+"Wrote you from out there, did he?  Sent you picture-postals showing
+him herding his cattle, or whatever the beasts are?  Kept in touch with
+you all the time, did he?  I tell you his fine color is due to
+Switzerland, not Dakota."
+
+"Wiggins is n't a letter-writer, nor the sort of person who wants to
+paper your house with picture-postals.  His not writing does n't mean
+that he was n't on his ranch," I replied, annoyed by Jewett's manner.
+
+"Never dropped you before, though, I wager," he chirruped.  "I tell you
+he saw Miss Cecilia Hollister at the Asolando tea-shop: just a glimpse;
+but almost immediately he went abroad in pursuit of her.  The
+chevalier--that's her aunt Octavia--was along and another niece.  My
+sister saw the bunch of them in Geneva, where the chevalier was
+breaking records.  A whole troop of suitors followed them everywhere.
+My sister knows the girl--Cecilia--and she's known Wiggy all her life.
+She's just home and told me about it last night.  She thinks the
+chevalier has some absurd scheme for marrying off the girl.  It's all
+very queer, our Wiggy being mixed up in it."
+
+"Don't be absurd, Jewett.  There's nothing unusual in a man being in
+love; that's one fashion that does n't change much.  I venture to say
+that Wiggins will prove a formidable suitor.  Wiggins is a gentleman,
+and the girl would be lucky to get him."
+
+"Quite right, my dear Ames; but alas! there are others.  The
+competition is encouraged by the aunt, the veteran chevalier.  My
+sister says the chevalier seems to favor the suit of a Nebraska
+philosopher who rejoices in the melodious name of Dick."
+
+Jewett was playing me for all his story was worth, and enjoying himself
+immensely.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, go on!"
+
+"Nice girl, this Cecilia.  You know the Hollisters,--oodles of money in
+the family.  The chevalier's father scored big in
+baby-buggies--responsible for the modern sleep-inducing perambulators;
+sold out to a trust.  The father of Wiggins's inamorata had started in
+to be a marine painter.  A founder of this club, come to think of it,
+but dropped out long ago.  You have heard of him--Bassford Hollister.
+Funny thing his having to give up art.  Great gifts for the marine, but
+never could overcome tendency to seasickness.  Honest!  Every time he
+painted a wave it upset him horribly.  The doctors could n't help him.
+Next tried his hand at the big gulches down-town.  There was a chance
+there to hit off the metropolitan sky-line and become immortal by doing
+it first; but a new trouble developed.  Doing the high buildings made
+him dizzy!  Honest!  He was good, too, and would have made a place, but
+he had to cut it out.  He was so torn up over his two failures that he
+blew in his share of the perambulator money in riotous living.  Lost
+his wife into the bargain, and has settled down to a peaceful life up
+in Westchester County in one of these cute little bungalows the
+real-estate operators build for you if you pay a dollar down for a
+picture of an acre lot."
+
+"And the daughter?"
+
+"Well, Bassford Hollister has two daughters.  It's the older one that
+has stolen Wiggins's heart away.  She's Cecilia, you know.  Very
+literary and that sort of thing, and pushed tea and cookies at the
+Asolando when that idiocy was opened.  Wiggins saw her there last
+spring.  Miss Hollister, the aunt,--whom I 'm fond of calling the
+chevalier,--picked up her nieces about that time and hauled them off to
+Europe, and Wiggins scampered after them.  I don't know what they did
+to Wiggy, but you see how he acts.  I rather imagine that the chevalier
+did n't smile on his suit.  She's a holy terror, that woman, with an
+international reputation for doing weird and most unaccountable things.
+She draws a sort of royalty on all the baby-buggies in creation; it
+amounts to a birth-tax, in contravention of the free guarantees of the
+Constitution.  The people will rise against it some day.
+
+"She's plausible enough, but she's the past mistress of ulterior
+motive.  She got Fortner, the mural painter, up to a place she used to
+have at Newport a few years ago, ostensibly to do a frieze or
+something, and she made him teach her to fire a gun.  You know Fortner,
+with his artistic ideals!  And he did n't know any more about guns than
+a flea.  It was droll, decidedly droll.  But she kept him there a
+month,--wouldn't let him off the reservation; but she paid him his fee
+just the same, though he never painted a stroke.  When he got back to
+town, he was a wreck.  It was just like being in jail.  I warn you to
+let her alone.  If you should undertake to fix her flues she's likely
+to put you to work digging potatoes.  She's no end of a case."
+
+"Well, Wiggins is a good fellow, one of the very best," I remarked, as
+I absorbed these revelations, "and it is n't the girl's aunt he wants
+to marry."
+
+"He's a capital fellow," affirmed Jewett, "and that's why it's a sin
+this had to happen to him.  There's no telling where this affair may
+lead him.  There's something queer in the wind, all right.  The
+chevalier has brother Bassford where he can't whimper; I rather fancy
+he feeds from her hand.  His girls have n't any prospects except
+through the chevalier.  Nice girls, so I'm told; but between the father
+with his vertiginous tendencies and a lunatic aunt who holds the family
+money-bags, I don't see much ahead of them.  Miss Cecilia Hollister is
+living with her aunt; it's a sort of compulsory sequestration; she has
+to do it whether she wants to or not.  I rather fancy it's to keep her
+away from Wiggins."
+
+"And the other sister; where does she come in?"
+
+"Not important, I fancy.  Rumor is silent touching her.  In fact I 've
+never heard anything of her.  But this Cecilia is no end handsome and
+proud.  Poor old Wiggy!"
+
+I was already ashamed of myself for having encouraged Jewett to discuss
+Wiggins's affairs, and was about to leave him, when he snorted, in a
+disagreeable way he had, at some joke that had occurred to him, and he
+continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention.  My frown did
+not dismay him.
+
+[Illustration: He continued chuckling to himself to attract my
+attention.]
+
+"I knew there was something," he was saying, "about Miss Cecilia's
+younger sister, and I've just recalled it.  The girl has a most
+extraordinary name, quite the most remarkable you ever heard."
+
+He laughed until he was purple in the face.  I did not imagine that any
+name known to feminine nomenclature could be so humorous.
+
+"Hezekiah!  Bang!  That's the little sister's name.  Bassford Hollister
+had been saving that name for a son, who never appeared, to do honor to
+old Hezekiah, the perambulator-chap.  So they named the girl for her
+grand-dad.  Bang!  One of the apostles, Hezekiah!"
+
+I waited for his mirth to wear itself out, and then rose, to terminate
+the interview with an adequate dramatic dismissal.
+
+"You poor pagan," I remarked, with such irony as I could command; "it's
+too bad you insist on revealing the abysmal depths of your ignorance:
+Hezekiah was not an apostle, but a mighty king before the day of
+apostles."
+
+I left him blinking, and unconvinced as to Hezekiah's proper place in
+history.
+
+Wiggins, I learned at the office, had, within half an hour, left the
+club hurriedly in a cab, taking a trunk with him.  He had mentioned no
+mail-address to the clerk.
+
+And this was very unlike Wiggins.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE
+
+Wiggins's strange conduct and Jewett's dark hints so disturbed me that
+the very next afternoon I again sought the Asolando Tea-Room, feeling
+that in its atmosphere I might best weigh the few facts I possessed
+touching my friend's love-affairs.
+
+Those who care for details in these matters may be interested to know
+that the Asolando is tucked away among print-shops and exclusive
+haberdashers, a stone's throw from Fifth Avenue.  The Asolando Tea-Room
+has a history of its own, but it is not the office of this chronicler
+to record it.  Weightier matters are ahead of us; and it must suffice
+that the Asolando is sacred to wooers of the flute of Pan, secession
+photographers, and confident believers in an early revival of the
+poetic drama.  One of my friends, who has probably done more to
+popularize Nietzsche than any other American, had frequently urged me
+to visit the Asolando, where, he declared, the daintiest imaginable
+luncheons could be obtained at nominal prices; but I should not have
+paid this second visit had it not been for Jewett's history.
+
+It was common gossip in studios where I loafed between my professional
+engagements, that the monthly deficit at the Asolando was cared for by
+a retired banker whose weakness is sonnet-sequences.  As to the truth
+of this I have no opinion.  It will suffice if I convey in the fewest
+possible lines a suggestion of the tranquillity, the charming cloistral
+peace of the little room, with its Arts and Crafts chairs and tables,
+its racks of books, its portraits of Browning, Rossetti, Burne-Jones
+and kindred spirits; nor should I fail to mention the delightful
+inadvertence with which neatly framed excerpts from the bright page of
+British song are scattered along the walls.  Nowhere else, many had
+averred, was one so likely to learn of the latest Celtic poet, or of a
+newly-discovered Keats letter; and lest injustice be done in these
+suggestions to the substantial scholarly attainments of the habitués, I
+must record that it was over a cup of tea in the Asolando that Bennett
+made the first notes for his revolutionary essay on the Sapphic
+fragments in a dog-eared text still treasured among the Room's
+memorabilia.
+
+I chose a table, sat down, and suggested (one does not order at the
+Asolando) a few articles from the card an attendant handed me.
+
+"We 're out of the Paracelsus ginger-cookies," she replied, "but I
+recommend a Ruskin sandwich with our own special chocolate.  The
+whipped cream is unusually fine to-day."
+
+She eyed me with a severity to which I was not accustomed, and I
+acquiesced without parley in her suggestion.  Before leaving me she
+placed on my table the latest minor poet, in green and gold.
+
+It was nearly three o'clock, and there were few customers in the
+Asolando.  At the next table two women were engaged in conversation in
+the subdued tones the place compelled.  I surmised from the amount and
+variety of their impedimenta and their abstracted air, peculiar to
+those who partake of lobster salad with an eye on the 4.18, that they
+were suburbanites.  One of them drew from her net shopping-bag several
+sheets of robin's-egg blue note-paper and began to read.  By the jingle
+of the rhymes and the flow of the rhythm it was clear even to my
+ignorant lay mind that her offering was a _chant-royale_.  When she had
+concluded her reading her friend silently pressed her hand, and after a
+subdued debate for possession of the check, they took their departure,
+bound, I surmised, for some muse-haunted Lesbos among the hills of New
+Jersey.
+
+I was now alone in the Asolando.  The attending deities in their snowy
+gowns had vanished behind the screen at the rear of the room; the food
+and drink with which I had been promptly served proved excellent; even
+the minor poet in green and gold had held my attention, though
+imitations of Coventry Patmore's odes bore me as a rule.  Near the
+street, half-concealed behind a mosque-like grill, sat the cashier,
+reading.  A bundle of joss-sticks in a green jar beside this young
+woman sent a thin smoke into the air.  Her head was bent above her book
+in quiet attention; the light from an electric lamp made a glow of her
+golden hair.  She was an incident of the general picture, a part of a
+scene that contained no jarring note.  A man who could devise, in the
+heart of the great city, a place so instinct with repose, so lulling to
+all the senses, was not less than a public benefactor, and I resolved
+on the spot to purchase and read, at any sacrifice, the
+sonnet-sequences of the reputed angel of the Asolando.
+
+It was at this moment that the adventure--for it shall have no meaner
+name--actually began.  My eyes were still enjoying the Rossetti-like
+vision in the cashier's tiny booth, when a figure suddenly darkened the
+street door just beyond her.  The girl lifted her head.  On the instant
+the lamp-key clicked as she extinguished her light, and the aureoled
+head ceased to be.  And coming toward me down the shop I beheld a lady,
+a lady of years, who passed the cashier's desk with her eyes intent
+upon the room's inner recesses.  Her gown, of a new fashionable gray,
+was of the severest tailor cut.  Her hat was a modified fedora, gray
+like the gown, and adorned with a single gray feather.  She was short,
+slight, erect, and moved with a quick bird-like motion, pausing and
+glancing at the vacant tables that lay between me and the door.  Her
+air of abstraction became her, and she merged pleasantly into the
+color-scheme of the room.  As her glance ranged the wall I thought that
+she searched for some favorite flower of song among the framed
+quotations, but I saw now that her gaze was bent too low for this.  She
+appeared to be engaged in a calculation of some sort, and she raised a
+lorgnette to assist her in counting the tables.  The cashier passed
+behind her unseen and vanished.  I heard the newcomer reciting:--
+
+"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven;" and at seven her eyes rested
+upon me with a look that mingled surprise and annoyance.  She took a
+step toward me, and I started to rise, but she said quickly:--
+
+"I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table."
+
+[Illustration: "I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh
+table."]
+
+"Now that you call my attention to it," I remarked, gaining my feet, "I
+am bound to concede the point.  If by any chance I am intruding"--
+
+"Not in the least.  On the other hand I beg that you remain where you
+are;" and without further ado she sank into a chair opposite my own.
+
+I tinkled a tiny crystal bell that was among the table-furnishings, and
+a waitress appeared and handed the lady who had thus introduced herself
+to my acquaintance a copy of the tiny card on which the articles of
+refreshment offered by the Asolando were indicated within a border of
+hand-painted field daisies.
+
+"Never mind that," said the lady in gray, ignoring the card.  "You may
+bring me a caviare sandwich and a cocktail,--a pink
+one--providing,--providing,"--and she held the waitress with her
+eye,--"you have the imported caviare and your bar-keeper knows the
+proper frappé of the spirit-lifter I have named."
+
+"Pardon me, madam," replied the waitress icily, "but you have mistaken
+the place.  The Asolando serves nothing stronger than the pure water of
+its own fount of Castalia; intoxicants are not permitted here."
+
+"Intoxicants!" repeated the old lady with asperity.  "Do I look like a
+person given to intoxication?  I dare say your Castalia water is
+nothing but Croton whose flavor has been destroyed by distillation.
+You may bring me the sandwich I have mentioned and with it a pot of
+tea.  Yes, thank you; lemon with the tea."
+
+As the girl vanished with the light tread that marked the service of
+the place, I again made as to rise, but the old lady lifted her hand
+with a delaying gesture.
+
+"Pray remain.  It is not unlikely that we have friends and ideas in
+common, and as you were seated at the seventh table it is possible that
+some ordering of fate has brought us together."
+
+She took from me, in the hand which she had now ungloved, the copy of
+my minor poet, glanced at it scornfully, and tossed it upon the floor
+with every mark of disdain.
+
+"What species of mental disorder does this place represent?" she
+demanded.
+
+"It is sacred to the fine arts, apparently; an endowed tea-room, where
+persons of artistic ideals may come to refresh body and soul.  Such at
+least seems to be the programme.  This is only my second visit, but I
+have long heard it spoken of by artists, poets, and others of my
+friends."
+
+"I am sixty-two years old, young man, and I beg to inform you that I
+consider the Asolando the most preposterous thing I have ever heard of
+in this most preposterous city.  And from a casual glimpse of you I
+feel justified in saying that a man in your apparent physical health
+might be in better business than frequenting, in mid-afternoon, a shop
+that seems to be a remarkably stupid expression of twentieth-century
+anæmia."
+
+"Attendance here is not compulsory," I remarked defensively.
+
+"If you imply that I must have sought the place voluntarily, let me
+correct your false impression immediately.  I dropped in here for the
+excellent reason that this shop is the seventh in numerical progression
+from Fifth Avenue."
+
+"You were not guided by any feeling of interest, then, but rather by
+superstition?"
+
+"That remark is unworthy of a man of your apparent intelligence.  I was
+born on the seventh of November, and all the great events of my life
+have occurred on the seventh of the month.  If you were to suggest that
+I am of an adventurous or romantic nature, I should readily acquiesce;
+but the sevens in my life have been so potent an influence in all my
+affairs that my belief in that numeral has become almost a religious
+faith; and if you have been a reader of Scripture you will understand
+that one does not become a pagan in ascribing to seven all manner of
+subtle influences."
+
+I was relieved to find that she accepted the tea and sandwiches the
+waitress had brought without parley.  It is with shame I confess that
+in the first moments of my encounter I believed her capable of
+quarreling with a waitress; but she thanked the girl pleasantly,
+lifting her head with a smile that illumined her face attractively.
+Her demand for a cocktail had not been wholly convincing as to her
+sincerity, and I wondered whether she were not playing a part of some
+kind.  She suggested pleasant and wholesome things--tiny gardens with
+neat borders of box and primly-ordered beds of spicy, old-fashioned
+pinks before the day of carnations, and the verbenas, heliotrope, and
+honeysuckle we associate with our grandmothers' taste in floriculture.
+Or perhaps I strike nearer the gold with an intimation of a sunny
+window-ledge, banked neatly and not too abundantly in geraniums.
+
+In any event the impression was wholly agreeable.  I had to do with a
+lady and a lady of no mean degree.  The marks of breeding were upon
+her, and she spoke with that quiet authority that is the despair of the
+vain and vulgar.  Her features were small and delicate; her ringless
+hands were perfectly formed, and both face and hands belied the age to
+which she had so frankly confessed.  She was more than twice my age,
+and there was not the slightest reason why she should not address me if
+it pleased her to do so; and her obsession as to the potency of the
+numeral seven was not in itself proof of an ill-balanced mind.  I
+recalled that my own mother had, throughout her life, imputed all
+manner of occult powers and influences to the number thirteen, and I
+have myself always been averse to walking beneath a ladder.  Musing
+thus, I reached the conclusion that this encounter was very likely the
+sort of thing that happened to patrons of the Asolando.  My time has,
+however, a certain value, and I began to wonder just how I should
+escape.  I was about to excuse myself when my companion suddenly put
+down her cup and addressed me with a directness that seemed habitual in
+her.
+
+"I have formed an excellent opinion of your bringing up from the manner
+in which you have suffered my advances, if I may so call them.  You act
+and speak like a gentleman of education.  I imagine from your being in
+this strange place that you may be a water-colorist or a designer of
+_l'art-nouveau_ wall-papers, though I trust for your own sake that I am
+mistaken.  Or it may be that you are a magazine poet, though when I
+tell you that I read no poets but Isaiah and Walt Whitman, you will
+understand that mere verse does not attract me.  All this"--and she
+indicated the mottoes on the wall with a slight movement of the
+head--"is the sheerest rubbish, a form of disease.  Will you kindly
+tell me the nature of your occupation?"
+
+I produced one of my professional cards.
+
+    +-----------------------------+
+    |                             |
+    |        ARNOLD AMES          |
+    |                             |
+    |   CONSULTANT IN CHIMNEYS    |
+    |  Suite 92, Landon Building  |
+    |                             |
+    +-----------------------------+
+
+She read it aloud without glasses and mused a moment.
+
+"This is very curious," she remarked, placing my card in a silver case
+she drew from her pocket.  "This is very curious indeed.  It was only
+yesterday that my friend General Glendenning was speaking of you.  He
+told me that you had rendered him the greatest service in adjusting
+several flues in his country house at Shinnecock.  My own fireplaces
+doubtless require attention, and you may consider yourself retained.  I
+shall make an early appointment with you.  You will find my name and
+residence sufficiently described on this card."
+
+    +-----------------------------+
+    |                             |
+    |        _Miss Hollister_     |
+    |                             |
+    |  HOPEFIELD MANOR            |
+    |                             |
+    +-----------------------------+
+"Oh!" I exclaimed, bowing.  "Any further introduction is unnecessary,
+Miss Hollister."
+
+"The name is familiar?  I recall that General Glendenning mentioned
+that you were related to the Ames family of Hartford, and your mother
+was a Farquhar of Charlottesville, Virginia.  If you bear your father's
+name, I dare say it was he whom I met ten years ago in Paris.  There is
+no reason, therefore, why we should not be the best of friends."
+
+She continued to talk as she drew on her gloves, and I saw, as her eyes
+rested on mine from time to time during this process, that they were
+the most kindly and humorous eyes in the world.  Her face was scarcely
+wrinkled, but the hair that showed under the small plain hat was evenly
+and beautifully gray.  It was a kind fate indeed that had led me back
+to the Asolando, and introduced me to the aunt of Wiggins's inamorata.
+
+It may well be believed that I was immediately interested, attentive,
+absorbed.  As she smoothed her gloves, Miss Hollister continued to
+speak in a low musical voice that was devoid of any of the quavers of
+age.
+
+"On the day I reached my sixtieth year, Mr. Ames, I decided that my
+humdrum life must cease.  The strictest conventions had guided me from
+earliest childhood.  My experience of life had been limited to those
+things which women of education and means enjoy--or suffer, as you
+please to take it.  I resolved that for the years that remained to me I
+should seek to enjoy myself after my own fashion.  To sit in the
+inglenook and knit, with no human companionship but sick kittens, with
+dull monotony broken only by visits from dutiful clergymen in pursuit
+of alms for foreign missions, was not for me.  Two years ago I
+chartered a yacht and cruised among the Lesser Antilles, enjoying many
+adventures.  Later I crossed the Andes; and I have just returned from
+Switzerland, where I accomplished some of the most difficult ascents.
+I have a clipping bureau engaged to inform me of all rumors of hidden
+treasure and sunken ships, and I hope that of this something may come,
+as I retain a marine engineer and corps of divers and can leave at an
+hour's notice for any likely hunting-ground.  This may strike you as
+the most whimsical self-indulgence.  Tell me candidly whether my
+remarks so affect you."
+
+"If it were not that your benefactions of all kinds have given you
+noble eminence among American philanthropists, I might be less biased
+in favor of the sort of thing you describe; but your gifts to
+orphanages, colleges, hospitals"--
+
+"Ah!" she interrupted; "enough of that.  Philanthropy in these times is
+only selfish exploitation, the recreation of the conscience-stricken.
+But you see no reason why," she pursued eagerly, "if I wished to dig up
+the Caribbean Sea in search of Spanish doubloons, I should not do so?
+Answer me frankly, without the slightest fear."
+
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that such projects appeal to me
+strongly.  I have often lamented that my own lot fell in these
+eventless times.  As an architect I proved something of a failure; as a
+chimney-doctor I lead a useful life, but the very usefulness of it
+bores me.  And besides, many people take me for a sweep."
+
+"I dare say they do, for unfortunately many people are fools.  But I am
+bent upon adventure.  It has dawned upon me that every day has its
+possibilities, that the right turn at any corner may bring me face to
+face with the most stirring encounters.  My age protects me where youth
+must timidly turn back.  My physician pronounces me good for ten years
+more of active life, and I intend to keep amused.  If I were a young
+man like you, I should crawl through chimneys no more, but take to the
+open road.  I resent the harsh clang of these meaningless years.  As I
+walked among the hills that lie behind the Manor this morning I heard
+the bugles calling.  Out there in the Avenue at this hour there are
+miles of fat dowagers in padded broughams who think of nothing but
+clothes and food.  And speaking of food," she continued, with a droll
+turn, "I am convinced that the caviare in that sandwich was never
+nearer Russia than Casco Bay."
+
+She drew out her watch, and noting the hour, concluded:--
+
+"Clearly we have much in common.  I should like to ask you further as
+to your unusual profession, but errands summon me elsewhere.  However,
+something tells me we shall meet again."
+
+She rose in her swift bird-like fashion and passed lightly down the
+room and through the door.  She had left a dollar beside her plate to
+pay her check, which I noted called for only forty cents.  I glanced at
+the cashier's desk.  The aureoled head had not reappeared; but
+immediately I heard a voice murmuring beside me.  I had believed myself
+alone, and in my surprise I thought some wizardry had made audible one
+of the verses on the wall.
+
+  "What of Rafael's sonnets, Dante's picture"--
+
+
+It was she whose aureoled head I had marked earlier in the receipt of
+custom, the girl who had vanished as Miss Hollister appeared.  She wore
+the snowy vestments of the other attending vestals, with the difference
+that the cap that crowned the waitresses was omitted in her case.  This
+I took to be the Asolando's tribute to her adorable head, which clearly
+did not need the electric light or other adventitious aid to invoke its
+lovely glow.  The line she had spoken hung goldenly upon the air.  She
+was not tall, and her eyes, I saw, were brown.  She had clearly not
+climbed far the stairway of her years, but her serenity was the least
+bit disconcerting.
+
+"Pardon me," I began, "but I am an ignorant Philistine, and cannot cap
+the verse you have quoted."
+
+"There is no reason why you should do so.  It is the rule of the
+Asolando that we shall attract the attention of customers when
+necessary by speaking a line of verse.  We are not allowed to open a
+conversation, no matter how imperative, with 'Listen,' or the even more
+vulgar 'Say.'"
+
+"A capital idea, of which I heartily approve, but now that I am a
+waiting auditor, eager"--
+
+"It's merely the check, if you please," she interrupted coldly.  "My
+desk is closed, and the Room will refuse further patrons for the next
+hour, as the executive committee of the Shelley Society meets here at
+four o'clock and the Asolando is denied to outsiders."
+
+"This, then, is my dismissal?  The lady who joined me here for a time
+left a dollar, which, you will see, is somewhat in excess of her check.
+My own charge of fifty cents is so moderate that I cannot do less than
+leave a dollar also."
+
+"Thank you," she replied, unshaken by my generosity.  "The tips at the
+Asolando all go to the Sweetness and Light Club, which is just now
+engaged in circulating Matthew Arnold's poems in leaflet form in the
+jobbing district."
+
+"I sympathize with that propaganda," I replied, gathering up my hat and
+stick, "and am delighted to contribute to its support.  And now I dare
+say you would be glad to be rid of me.  The Asolando has tolerated me
+longer than my slight purchases justified."
+
+I bowed and had turned away, when she arrested me with the line,--
+
+  "My good blade carves the casques of men."
+
+
+I turned toward her.  Several of the waitresses were now engaged in
+rearranging the tables, but they seemed not to heed us.
+
+"Permit me to inquire," she asked, "whether the lady who joined you
+here expressed any interest in the life beautiful as it is exemplified
+in the Asolando?"
+
+"I am constrained to say that she did not.  She spoke of the Asolando
+in the most contumelious terms."
+
+The golden head bowed slightly, and a smile hovered about her lips; but
+her amusement at my answer was more eloquently stated in her eyes.
+
+"I must explain that my sole excuse for addressing you is that we are
+required to learn, where possible, just why strangers seek the
+Asolando."
+
+"In the case of the lady to whom you refer, it was a matter of this
+being the seventh shop from the corner; and my own appearance was due
+to the idlest curiosity, inspired by enthusiastic descriptions of the
+Asolando's atmosphere and rumors of the cheapness of its food."
+
+"The reasons are quite ample," was her only comment, and her manner did
+not encourage further conversation.
+
+"May I ask," I persisted, "whether the Asolando's staff is permanent,
+and whether, if I return another day."
+
+"I take it that you do not mean to be impertinent, so I will answer
+that my service here is limited to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
+On the other days Pippa is in the cash-booth.  My name at the Asolando
+is Francesca."
+
+"I had guessed it might be Lalage or Chloris," I ventured.
+
+She shook her head gravely.
+
+"Kindly write your name in the visitors' book at the door as you pass
+out."
+
+There was no ignoring this hint.  I thought she smiled as I left her.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH
+
+Miss Hollister's summons lay on my desk the next morning and was of the
+briefest.  I was requested to call at Hopefield Manor at four o'clock
+the following afternoon, being Thursday.  A trap would meet me at
+Katonah, and it was suggested that I come prepared to spend the night,
+so that the condition of the flues might be discussed and any necessary
+changes planned during the evening.  The note, signed Octavia
+Hollister, was written in a flowing hand, on a wholly impeccable note
+sheet stamped Hopefield Manor, Katonah.
+
+Before taking the train I sought Wiggins by telephone at his office,
+and at the Hare and Tortoise, where he lodged, but without learning
+anything as to his whereabouts.  His office did not answer, but
+Wiggins's office had never been responsive to the telephone, so this
+was not significant.  The more I considered his conduct during the
+recital of my visit to the Asolando the more I wondered; and in spite
+of my wish to ignore utterly Jewett's revelations as to Wiggins's
+summer abroad, I was forced to the conclusion that Jewett had not lied.
+I had known Wiggins long, and this was the first time that I had ever
+been conscious of any withholding of confidence on his part; and on my
+own I had not merely confided all my hopes and aims to him, but I had
+leaned upon him often in my perplexities.  There was, indeed, a kind of
+boyish compact between us, that we should support each other through
+all difficulties.  This, as I remembered, dated back to our prep
+school-days and had been reinforced by a fearsome oath, inspired
+doubtless by some dark fiction that had captivated our youthful
+imaginations.  His failure to tell me of his summer abroad or of his
+interest in the Hollisters when I had afforded him so excellent an
+opening by my reference to the Asolando emphasized the seriousness of
+his plight.  His reserve hid, I knew, a diffident and sensitive nature,
+and it was wholly possible that if his affair with Cecilia Hollister
+had not prospered he had fled to his ranch there to wrestle in
+seclusion with his disappointment.  My mind was busy with such
+speculations as I sped toward Katonah, where I found the trap from
+Hopefield Manor awaiting me.
+
+"It's rather poor going over the hills; about five miles, sir," said
+the driver, as we set off.
+
+This sort of thing was wholly usual in the nature of my vocation.  The
+flues in country houses seem much more willful and obdurate than those
+in town, a fact which I have frequently discussed with architects, and
+I had been met in just this way at many stations within a radius of
+fifty miles of New York, and carried to houses whose chimneys were
+provocative of wrath and indignation in their owners.
+
+This was the first week in October.  There was just zest enough in the
+air to make a top coat comfortable.  The team of blacks spoke well for
+Miss Hollister's stable, and the liveried driver kept them moving
+steadily, but eased the pace as we rose on the frequent slopes to the
+shoulders of pleasant hills.  The immediate neighborhood into which we
+were wending was unknown to me, though I saw familiar landmarks.  I am
+not one to quibble over the efforts of man to supplement the work of
+nature, so that I confess without shame that the Croton lakes, to my
+cockney eye, merge flawlessly into this landscape.  It is not for me to
+raise the cry of utilitarianism against these saucerfuls of blue water,
+merely because the fluid thus caught and held bubbles and sparkles
+later in the taps of the Manhattaners.  Early frosts had already
+wrought their miracle in the foliage, and the battle-banners of
+winter's vanguard flashed along the horizons.  I rejoiced that my
+business, vexatious enough in many ways, yet afforded me so charming an
+outing as this.
+
+Presently we climbed a hill that shouldered its way well above its
+fellows and came out upon a broad ridge, where we entered at once a
+noble gateway set in an old stone wall, and struck off smartly along a
+fine bit of macadam.  The house, the driver informed me, was a quarter
+of a mile from the gate.  The way led through a wild woodland in which
+elms and maples predominated; and before this had grown monotonous we
+came abruptly upon an Italian garden, beyond which rose the house.  I
+knew it at once for one of Pepperton's sound performances; Pepperton is
+easily our best man in domestic Tudor, and the whole setting of
+Hopefield Manor, the sunken garden, the superb view, the billowing
+fields and woodlands beyond, all testified to a taste which no ignorant
+owner had thwarted.  The house was Tudor, but in no servile sense: it
+was also Pepperton.  I lifted my eyes with immediate professional
+interest to the chimney-pots on the roof.  It occurred to me on the
+instant that I had never before been called to retouch any of
+Pepperton's work.  Pep knew as much as I about flue-construction; I had
+an immense respect for Pep, and as my specializing in chimneys had been
+a subject of frequent chaffing between us, I anticipated with a chuckle
+the pleasure I should have later in telling him that at last one of his
+flues had required my services.
+
+My good opinion of Miss Hollister did not diminish as I stepped within
+the broad hall.  Houses have their own manner of speech, and Hopefield
+Manor spoke to all the senses in accents of taste and refinement.  A
+servant took my bag and ushered me into a charming library.  A fire
+smouldered lazily in the great fireplace; there was, in the room, the
+faintest scent of burnt wood; but the smoke rose in the flue in a
+perfectly mannerly fashion, and on thrusting in my hand I felt a good
+draught of air.  I instinctively knelt on the hearth and peered up, but
+saw nothing unworkmanlike: Pepperton was not a fellow to leave obvious
+mistakes behind him.  But possibly this was not one of the recalcitrant
+fireplaces I had been called to inspect; and I rose and was continuing
+my enjoyment of the beautiful room, when I became conscious, by rather
+curious and mixed processes not wholly of the eye, that a young woman
+had drawn back the light portieres--they were dark brown, with borders
+of burnt orange--and stood gravely gazing at me.  She held the curtains
+apart--they made, indeed, a kind of frame for her; but as our eyes met
+she advanced at once and spoke my name.
+
+[Illustration: She held the curtains apart.]
+
+"You are Mr. Ames.  My aunt expected you.  I regret to say that she is
+not in the house just now, but she will doubtless return for tea.  I am
+her niece.  Won't you sit down?"
+
+As she found a seat for herself, I made bold to survey her with some
+particularity.  She carried her fine height with beautiful dignity.
+She was a creature of grace, and it was a grace of strength, the
+suppleness and ease that mark our later outdoor American woman.  She
+could do her miles over these hills,--I was sure of that.  Her fine
+olive face, crowned with dark hair, verified the impression I had
+gathered from Jewett, that she was a woman of cultivation.  She had
+read the poets; Dante and Petrarch spoke from her eyes.  Cecilia was no
+bad name for her; she suggested heavenly harmonies!  And as for
+Jewett's story of Wiggins's infatuation, I was content: if this was the
+face that had shattered the frowning towers of Wiggins's Ilium and sent
+him to brood disconsolate upon his broad acres in Dakota, my heart went
+out to him, for his armor had been pierced by arrows worthy of its
+metal.
+
+She was talking, meanwhile, of the day and its buoyant air and of the
+tapestries hung in the woodlands, in a voice deep with rare intimations
+of viol chords.
+
+"It's very quiet here.  It doesn't seem possible that we are so near
+the city.  My aunt chose the place with care, and she made no mistake
+about it.  Yes; the house was built by Mr. Pepperton, but not for us.
+My aunt bought it of the estate of the gentleman who built it.  This
+will be her first winter here."
+
+She made no reference to the object of my visit, and I wondered if she
+knew just how I came there.  A man-servant wheeled in a portable
+tea-table and placed it beside a particular chair, lighted the lamp
+under the kettle, and silently departed.  And with the stage thus
+disposed Miss Hollister herself appeared.  She greeted me without
+surprise and much as she might have spoken to any guest in her house.
+I had sometimes been treated as though I were the agent of a
+decorator's shop, or a delinquent plumber, by the people whom I served;
+but Miss Hollister and her niece established me upon a plane that was
+wholly social.  I was made to feel that it was the most natural thing
+in the world for me to be there, having tea, with no business ahead of
+me but to be agreeable.  The fact that I had come to correct the
+distemper of their flues was utterly negligible.  I remembered with
+satisfaction that I had journeyed from town in a new business suit that
+made the best of my attenuated figure, and I will not deny that I felt
+at ease.
+
+Miss Hollister talked briskly as she made the tea.
+
+"I was over at the kennels when you came.  I believe the kennel-master
+is a rascal, Cecilia.  I have no opinion of him whatever."
+
+"He was highly recommended," replied the niece.  "It's not his fault
+that the fox terriers were sick."
+
+"I dare say it is n't," said the old lady, measuring the tea; "but it's
+his fault that he whipped one of those Cuban hounds,--I 'm sure he
+whipped her.  The poor beast was afraid to crawl out when I called her
+this afternoon."
+
+"We were warned against those dogs, Aunt Octavia; but I must admit that
+they have lovely eyes."
+
+Miss Cecilia's manner toward her aunt left nothing to be desired; it
+was wholly deferential and kind, and her dignity, I surmised, was equal
+to any emergency that might rise between them.
+
+"Do you ever shoot behind traps?" demanded Miss Hollister abruptly.
+
+The question surprised me.  I did not shoot behind traps or anywhere
+else, for that matter; but it delighted me to find that her unusual
+interests, as she had touched upon them at the Asolando, were part of a
+consistent scheme of life.  She talked of her experiments with
+different guns and traps, her arms folded, her eyes reverting
+occasionally to the kettle.  It was all in the shells, she said.
+Before she had begun filling her own cartridges she had no end of
+trouble.
+
+"It is not necessary for you to take tea if you don't care for it, Mr.
+Ames," she said, as I rose and handed the first cup to Cecilia.  "If
+you will touch the bell at your elbow you may have liquids of quite
+another sort.  It may interest you to know that this temperance wave
+that is sweeping the country does not interest me in the least.  Our
+great Americans of the old times were gentlemen who took their liquor
+with no cowardly fear of public censure.  You will find my sideboard
+well stocked after the fashion of old times; and I have with my own
+hand placed in your room a quart of Scotch given me at the distillery
+four years ago by its proprietor, Lord Mertondale.  A case of like
+quality is yours at any moment you choose to press the button at the
+head of your bed."
+
+"You are most generous, Miss Hollister.  Tea will suffice for the
+moment.  It is fitting that I should take it here, it having been a
+weakness for tea as well as curiosity and chance that threw me in your
+way at the Asolando."
+
+"That absurd, that preposterous hole in the wall!"
+
+She put down her cup and faced me, continuing: "Mr. Ames, I will not
+deny that if it had not been for General Glendenning's cordial
+indorsement of you, and the further fact that I had met your late
+father, I should not have invited you to my house on the occasion to
+which you refer.  My contempt for the Asolando and the things it stands
+for is beyond such language as a lady may use before the young."
+
+I laughed at her earnestness; but on turning toward Miss Cecilia I saw
+that she was placidly stirring her cup.  It might be that one was not
+expected to manifest amusement in Miss Hollister's utterances; and I
+was anxious to adjust myself to the proper key in my intercourse, no
+matter how brief it might be, with this remarkable old lady.
+
+In my embarrassment I rose and offered the bread and butter to Cecilia,
+who declined it.  The austerity of her rejection rather unnerved me.
+
+"To think, that with all the opportunities for adventure that offer in
+this day and generation, any one should waste time on the idiotic
+worship of a lot of silly moulders of literary patisserie!  It is
+beyond me, Mr. Ames, and when I recall that your late father commanded
+a cavalry regiment in the Civil War, I fall back upon the privilege of
+my age to beg that you will hereafter give the Asolando a wide berth."
+
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have no wish to become an habitué
+of the place.  And yet you will pardon me if I repeat that, but for it,
+I should not now be enjoying the hospitality of Hopefield Manor."
+
+She lifted her head from her cup and bowed; but I was immediately
+interested in the fact that her niece was speaking.
+
+"I think Aunt Octavia is hard on the Asolando," she was saying.  "Aunt
+Octavia is interested in the revival of romance, and romance without
+poetry seems to me wholly impossible.  The Asolando makes no
+pretensions to be more than an incident in a real movement whose aim is
+the diffusion of poetic fire,--it is merely a shrine where the divine
+lamp is never allowed to fail or falter."
+
+"And if, Cecilia Hollister, you think that sandwiches named for
+Browning's poems or macaroons dedicated to Walter Pater can assist
+foolish virgins in keeping their lamps filled, I give you the word of
+an old woman that you are in danger of a complete loss of your mind.
+The age is decadent, and I know no better way of restoring the race to
+its ancient vim and energy than by sending men back to the camp and
+field or to sail the high seas in new armadas.  The men of this age
+have become a lot of sordid shopkeepers, and to my moral sense the
+looting of cities is far more honorable than the creation of trusts and
+the manipulation of prices, though I cannot deny that but for my late
+father's zeal in destroying his competitors in the baby-buggy business
+we might not now be enjoying the delicate fragrance of caravan tea."
+
+I continued to flounder in my anxiety to determine just how Miss
+Hollister wished to be taken.  She spoke with the utmost seriousness
+and with the earnestness of deep conviction.  If the aims of the
+Asolando were absurd, what might be said of the declarations of this
+old lady in favor of a return to the age of sword and buckler!
+
+I again turned to Cecilia, thinking that I should find a twinkle in her
+eye that might solve the riddle and make easier my responses to her
+aunt's appeals.  Her reply did not help me greatly:--
+
+"I assure you, Mr. Ames, that the Asolando is a very harmless place,
+and that as a matter of fact its aims are wholly consonant with those
+of Aunt Octavia.  I myself served there for a time, and those were
+among the most delightful days of my life."
+
+"And you might still be handing about the Rossetti éclairs in that
+smothery little place if I had not rescued you from your bondage.  I
+assure you, Mr. Ames, that my niece is a perfectly healthy young woman,
+to whom all such rubbish is really abhorrent."
+
+I expected Miss Cecilia to rouse at this; but she ignored her aunt's
+fling, saying merely,--
+
+"There are times when I miss the Asolando."
+
+"Mr. Ames," began Miss Octavia presently in her crisp, direct fashion,
+which had the effect of leading me, in my anxiety to appear ready with
+answers, to take a flattering view of my own courage and
+resourcefulness,--"Mr. Ames, are you equal to the feat of swimming a
+moat under a shattering fire from the castle?"
+
+"I have every reason to think I am, Miss Hollister," I replied modestly.
+
+"And if a white hand waved to you from the grilled window of the lonely
+tower, would you ride on indifferently or pause and thunder at the
+gate?"
+
+"White hands have never waved to me, save occasionally when I have gone
+a-riding in the Sixth Avenue elevated, but it is my honest belief that
+my sword would promptly leave its scabbard if the hand ever waved from
+the ivied tower."
+
+She nodded her pleasure in this avowal.  For a chimney-doctor I was
+doing well.  In fact, as I submitted to Miss Octavia's examination, I
+felt equal to charging a brigade single-handed.  Something about the
+woman made it possible and pleasant to be absurd.
+
+"If a king or an emperor of Europe should ask you to inspect his
+chimneys, would you be content to perform your service in the most
+expeditious and professional manner and depart with a nominal fee?"
+
+"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister.  On the other hand I should nurse the
+job for all it was worth, plunder the public treasury, explore the
+dungeons, make love to the princesses, and free the rightful heir to
+the throne from his cell beneath the bosom of the lake."
+
+My friends at the Hare and Tortoise would have heard this avowal with
+some surprise, for no man's life had ever been tamer than mine.  I am
+by nature timid, and fall but a little short of being afraid of the
+dark.  Prayers for deliverance from battle, murder, and sudden death
+cannot be too strongly expressed for me.  My answer had, however,
+pleased Miss Octavia, and she clapped her hands with pleasure.
+
+"Cecilia," she cried, "something told me, that afternoon at the
+Asolando, that my belief in the potential seven was not ill-placed, and
+now you see that in introducing myself to Mr. Ames at the seventh table
+from the door, in the seventh shop from Fifth Avenue, I was led to a
+meeting with a gentleman I had been predestined to know."
+
+As we talked further, a servant appeared and laid fresh logs across the
+still-smouldering fire.  This I thought would suggest to Miss Hollister
+the professional character of my visit; but the fire kindled readily,
+the smoke rose freely in the flue; and Miss Hollister paid no attention
+to it other than to ask the man whether the fuel he had taken from a
+carved box at the right of the hearth was apple-wood from the upper
+orchard or cherry from a tree which, it appeared, she had felled
+herself.  It was apple-wood, the man informed her, and she continued
+talking.  The merits of chain-armor, I think it was, that held us for
+half an hour, Cecilia and I listening with respect to what, in my
+ignorance, seemed a remarkable fund of knowledge on this recondite
+subject.
+
+"We dine at seven, Mr. Ames, and you may amuse yourself as you like
+until that hour.  Cecilia, you may order dinner in the gun-room
+to-night."
+
+"Certainly, Aunt Octavia."
+
+Once more I glanced at the girl, hoping that some glimmer in her eyes
+would set me right and establish a common understanding and sympathy
+between us; but she was moving out of the room at her aunt's side.  The
+man who had tended the fire met me in the hall and, conducting me to my
+room, suggested various offices that he was ready to perform for my
+comfort.  The house faced south, and my windows, midway of the east
+wing, afforded a fine view of the hills.  The room was large enough for
+a chamber of state, and its furniture was massive.  A four-poster
+invited to luxurious repose; half a dozen etchings by famous
+artists--Parrish and Van Elten among them--hung upon the walls; and on
+a table beside the bed stood a handsome decanter and glasses,
+reinforced by the quart of Scotch which Miss Hollister had recommended
+for my refreshment.
+
+My bag had been opened and my things put out, so that, there being more
+than an hour to pass before I need dress for dinner, I went below and
+explored the garden and wandered off along a winding path that stole
+with charming furtiveness toward a venerable orchard of gnarled apple
+trees.  From the height thus gained I looked down upon the house, and
+caught a glimpse beyond it of one of the chain of lakes, on which the
+westering sun glinted goldenly.  Thus seeing the house from a new
+angle, I was impressed as I had not been at first by its size: it was a
+huge establishment, and I thought with envy of Pepperton, to whom such
+ample commissions were not rare.  Pepperton, I recalled a little
+bitterly, had arrived; whereas I, who had enjoyed exactly his own
+training for the architect's profession, had failed at it and been
+obliged to turn my hand to the doctoring of chimneys.  But I am not a
+morbid person, and it is my way to pluck such joy as I may from the
+fleeting moment; and as I reflected upon the odd circumstance of my
+being there, my spirits rose.  Miss Hollister was beyond question a
+singular person, but her whims were amusing.  I felt that she was less
+cryptic than her niece, and the thought of Cecilia drove me back upon
+Jewett's story of Wiggins's interest in that quarter.  I resolved to
+write to Wiggins when I got back to town the next day and abuse him
+roundly for running off without so much as good-bye.  That, most
+emphatically, was not like dear old Wiggins!
+
+I had been sitting on a stone wall watching the shadows lengthen.  I
+rose now and followed the wall toward a highway along which wagons and
+an occasional motor-car had passed during my revery.  The sloping
+pasture was rough and frequently sent me along at a trot.  The wall
+that marked the boundary at the roadside was hidden by a tangle of
+raspberry bushes, and my foot turning on a stone concealed in the wild
+grasses, I fell clumsily and rolled a dozen yards into a tangle of the
+berry bushes.  As I picked myself up I heard voices in the road, but
+should have thought nothing of it, had I not seen through a break in
+the vines, and almost within reach of my hand, Cecilia Hollister
+talking earnestly to some one not yet disclosed.  She was hatless, but
+had flung a golf-cape over her shoulders.  The red scarlet lining of
+the hood turned up about her neck made an effective setting for her
+noble head.
+
+"Oh, I can't tell you!  I can't help you!  I must n't even appear to
+give you any advantage.  I went into it with my eyes open, and I 'm in
+honor bound not to tell you anything.  You have said
+nothing--nothing,--remember that.  There is absolutely nothing between
+us."
+
+"But I must say everything!  I refuse to be blinded by these absurd
+restrictions, whatever they are.  It's not fair,--it's inviting me into
+a game where the cards are not all on the table.  I 've come to make an
+end of it!"
+
+My hands had suffered by contact with the briars, and I had been
+ministering to them with my handkerchief; but I fell back upon the
+slope in my astonishment at this colloquy.  Cecilia Hollister I had
+seen plainly enough, though the man's back had been toward me; but
+anywhere on earth I should have known Wiggins's voice.  I protest that
+it is not my way to become an eavesdropper voluntarily, but to disclose
+myself now was impossible.  If it had not been Wiggins--but Wiggins
+would never have understood or forgiven; nor could I have explained
+plausibly to Cecilia Hollister that I had not followed her from the
+house to spy upon her.  I should have made the noise of an invading
+army if I had attempted to effect an exit by creeping out through the
+windrow of crisp leaves in which I lay; and to turn back and ascend the
+slope the way I had come would have been to advertise my presence to
+the figures in the road.  There seemed nothing for me but to keep still
+and hope that this discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley
+Wiggins would not be continued within earshot.  To my relief they moved
+a trifle farther on; but I still heard their voices.
+
+[Illustration: This discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley
+Wiggins.]
+
+"I cannot listen to you.  Now that I 'm committed I cannot honorably
+countenance you at all; and I can explain nothing.  I came here to meet
+you only to tell you this.  You must go--please!  And do not attempt to
+see me in this way again."
+
+I was grateful that Wiggins's voice sank so low in his reply that I did
+not hear it; but I knew that he was pleading hard.  Then a motor
+flashed by, and when the whir of its passing had ceased, the voices
+were inaudible; but a moment later I heard a light quick step beyond
+the wall, and Cecilia passed hurriedly, her face turned toward the
+house.  The cape was drawn tightly about her shoulders, and she walked
+with her head bowed.
+
+I breathed a sigh of relief, and when I felt safe from detection
+climbed the slope.
+
+Pausing on the crest to survey the landscape, I saw a man, wearing a
+derby hat and a light top-coat, leaning against a fence that inclosed a
+pasture.  As I glanced in his direction he moved away hastily toward
+the road below.  The feeling of being watched is not agreeable, and I
+could not account for him.  As he passed out of sight, still another
+man appeared, emerging from a strip of woodland farther on.  Even
+through the evening haze I should have said that he was a gentleman.
+The two men apparently bore no relation to each other, though they were
+walking in the same direction, bound, I judged, for the highway below.
+I had an uncomfortable feeling that they had both been observing me,
+though for what purpose I could not imagine.  Then once more, just as I
+was about to enter the Italian garden from a fallow field that hung
+slightly above it, a third man appeared as mysteriously as though he
+had sprung from the ground, and ran at a sharp dog-trot along the
+fence, headed, like the others, for the road.  In the third instance
+the stranger undoubtedly took pains to hide his face, but he, too, was
+well dressed and wore a top-coat and a fedora hat of current style.
+
+I did not know why these gentlemen were ranging the neighborhood or
+what object they had in view; but their several appearances had
+interested me, and I went on into the house well satisfied that events
+of an unusual character were likely to mark my visit to the home of
+Miss Octavia Hollister.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM
+
+Cecilia sat reading alone when I entered the library shortly before the
+dinner-hour.  She put down her book and we fell into fitful talk.
+
+"I took a walk after tea.  I always feel that sunsets are best seen
+from the fields; you can't quite do them justice from windows," she
+began.
+
+She seemed preoccupied, but this may have been the interpretation of my
+conscience, whose twinges reminded me unpleasantly of my precipitation
+into the briar bushes at the foot of the pasture, where I had witnessed
+her meeting with Wiggins.  My admiration gained new levels.  Her black
+evening gown became her; a band of velvet circled her throat,
+emphasizing its firm whiteness.  It seemed incredible that I had seen
+her so recently, in the filmy dusk, talking with so much earnestness to
+Hartley Wiggins.  It was my impression, gained from the few sentences I
+had overheard by the road, that she did not repulse him, but that some
+mysterious, difficult barrier kept them apart.  Where, I wondered, was
+Wiggins now, and what were to be the further incidents of this singular
+affair?
+
+While we waited for Miss Hollister to appear, she continued to speak of
+her joy in the hills.  It is not every one who can admire a sunset with
+sincerity, but she conveyed the spirit of the phenomena that had
+attended the lowering of the bright targe of day in terms and tones
+that were delightfully natural and convincing.  And yet the far-away
+look in her eyes suggested inevitably the scene I had witnessed and the
+phrases I had caught by the roadside.  Wiggins was in her recollection
+of the glowing landscape,--I was confident of this; and poor Wiggins
+was even now wandering these hills, no doubt, brooding upon his
+troubles under the clear October stars.
+
+Dinner was announced the moment Miss Hollister entered, and I walked
+out between them.  Miss Octavia Hollister was a surprising person, but
+in nothing was she so delightfully wayward as in the gowns she wore.
+My ignorance of such matters is immeasurable, but I fancy that she
+designed her own raiment and that her ideas were thereupon carried out
+by a tailor of skill.  At the Asolando and when we had met at tea in
+her own house, she had worn the severest of tailored gowns, with short
+skirt and a coat into whose pockets she was fond of thrusting her
+hands.  To-night the material was lavender silk trimmed in white, but
+the skirt had not lengthened, and over a white silk waist she wore a
+kind of cut-away coat that matched the skirt.  An aigrette in her
+lovely white hair contributed a piquant note to the whole impression.
+As we passed down the hall she talked with great animation of the Hague
+Tribunal, just then holding a prominent place in the newspapers for
+some reason that has escaped me.
+
+"The whole thing is absurd; perfectly absurd!  I know of nothing that
+would contribute more to human enjoyment than a real war between
+Germany and England.  The Hague idea is pure sentimentalism,--if
+sentimentalism can ever be said to be pure.  I will go further and say
+that I consider it positively immoral."
+
+This new view of the matter left me stammering.  Cecilia, I saw, had no
+intention of helping me over these difficult hurdles that were
+constantly popping up in my conversations with her aunt.  This
+delightful old lady in lavender, the mistress of a house whose luxury
+and peace were antipodal to any hint of war, continued to baffle me.
+She had ordered dinner in the gun-room, but I thought this merely a
+turn of her humor; and I was taken aback when she led the way into a
+low, heavily raftered room, where electric sconces of an odd type were
+thrust at irregular intervals along the walls, which were otherwise
+hung with arms of many sorts in orderly combinations.  They were not
+the litter of antique shops, I saw in a hasty glance, but rifles and
+guns of the latest patterns, and beside the sideboard stood a gun-rack
+and a cabinet which I assumed contained still other and perhaps
+deadlier weapons.  At one end of the room, and just behind Miss
+Hollister, was a sunburst of swords, which gleamed with a kind of
+mockery behind her white head.
+
+The small round table was conventionally set, but this only added to
+the grimness of the encompassing arsenal.  A bowl of crimson roses in
+the centre of the snowy cloth would ordinarily have mitigated the
+effect of the grim walls; but I confess that the color reminded me a
+little too sombrely of the ugly business for which this steel had been
+designed.  But for the presence of Miss Cecilia, who was essentially
+typical of our twentieth-century American woman, I think I might
+readily have yielded to the illusion that I was the guest of some
+eccentric chatelaine who had invited me to dine with her in a bastion
+of her fortress before ordering me to some chamber of horrors for
+execution.
+
+There seemed to be no reason why one of those keen blades on the wall
+might not find its way through my ribs between a highly satisfactory
+plate of _potage à la tortue_ and a bit of sea-bass that would have
+honored any kitchen in the land.  No reference was made to the
+character of the room; I felt, in fact, that Cecilia rather pleaded
+with her eyes that I should make no reference to it.  And Miss
+Hollister remarked quite casually as though in comment upon my
+thoughts:--
+
+"Consistency has buried its thousands and habit its tens of thousands.
+We should live, Mr. Ames, for the changes and chances of this troubled
+life.  Between an opera-box and a villa at Newport many of my best
+friends have perished."
+
+"I have thought myself that Thoreau had the right idea,"--I began
+hopefully; but she raised her finger warningly.
+
+"Mr. Ames, the mention of Henry David Thoreau is wholly distasteful to
+me.  A man who will deliberately choose to whittle lead-pencils for
+chipmunks and write a book about a moist sand-pile like Cape Cod
+arouses no sympathy in me.  And these well-meaning women who are
+forever gathering autumn leaves, or who tire you in spring by telling
+you they have found the first pussy-willow feathering, and who make all
+Nature odious by their general goo-gooings, bore me to death.  There is
+no such thing possible as the simple life.  I give you my word for it
+that it is only in the most complex existence that the spirit of man
+can thrive."
+
+I am only a chimney-doctor; I have never been able to make any headway
+in discussing things æsthetic, sentimental or spiritual with persons of
+sound conviction in such matters.  A bishop with whom I once roamed the
+English cathedrals confessed to me his sincere belief that in the days
+of the inquisition the gridiron would have been my rightful portion.  I
+was fearful lest my hostess should suggest the mediæval church as a
+topic, and this I knew would be disastrous.  As an abbess she would, I
+fancied, have ruled with an iron hand.  But with startling abruptness
+she put down her fork, and bending her wonderfully direct gaze upon me,
+asked a question that caused me to strangle on a bit of asparagus.
+
+"I imagine, Mr. Ames, that you are a member of some of the better clubs
+in town.  If by any chance you belong to the Hare and Tortoise,--the
+name of which has always pleased me,--do you by any chance happen to
+enjoy the acquaintance of Mr. Hartley Wiggins?"
+
+Cecilia lifted her head.  I saw that she had been as startled as I.  It
+crossed my mind that a denial of any acquaintance with Wiggins might
+best serve him in the circumstances; but I am not, I hope, without a
+sense of shame, and I responded promptly:--
+
+"Yes, I know him well.  We are old friends.  I always see a good deal
+of him during the winter.  His summers are spent usually on his ranch
+in the west.  We dined together two days ago at the Hare and Tortoise,
+just before he left for the west."
+
+"You will pardon me if I say that it is wholly to his credit that he
+has forsworn the professions and identified himself with the honorable
+calling of the husbandman."
+
+"We met Mr. Wiggins while traveling abroad last summer," interposed
+Cecilia, meeting my eyes quite frankly.
+
+"Met him!  Did you say met him, Cecilia?  On the contrary we found him
+waiting for us at the dock the morning we sailed," corrected Miss
+Hollister, "and we never lost him a day in three months of rapid
+travel.  I had never met him before, but I cannot deny that he made
+himself exceedingly agreeable.  If, as I suspected, he had deliberately
+planned to travel on the same steamer with my two nieces, I have only
+praise for his conduct, for in these days, Mr. Ames, it warms my heart
+to find young men showing something of the old chivalric ardor in their
+affairs of the heart."
+
+"I 'm sure Mr. Wiggins made himself very agreeable," remarked Cecilia
+colorlessly.
+
+"For myself," retorted Miss Hollister, "I should speak even more
+strongly.  He repeatedly served us with tact and delicacy; and I recall
+with the greatest satisfaction his vigorous chastisement of our courier
+in Cologne, where that person was found to have treated us in the most
+treacherous manner.  He had, in fact, in collusion with an inn-keeper,
+connived at the loss of our baggage to delay our departure, even after
+I had pronounced the cathedral the greatest architectural monstrosity
+in Europe."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Octavia, you didn't really mean that!"  And Cecilia laughed
+for the first time.  Her color had risen, and her dark eyes lit with
+pleasure.
+
+"I had formed so high an opinion of Mr. Wiggins," Miss Octavia
+continued, "that I learned with sincerest regret that his ancestors
+were Tories and took no part in the struggle for American independence.
+There are times when I seriously question the wisdom of the colonists
+in breaking with the mother country; but certainly no man of character
+in that day could have hesitated as to his proper course."
+
+Then, as though by intention, Miss Hollister dropped upon the smooth
+current of our talk a sentence that drove the color from Cecilia's
+face.  At once the girl was cold again, and I felt embarrassed and
+uncomfortable that a friend of mine had been brought into the
+conversation to my befuddlement.  The situation was trying, but in
+spite of this it grew steadily more interesting.
+
+"Hezekiah and Mr. Wiggins were the best of friends," was Miss
+Hollister's remark.
+
+Cecilia's eyes were on her plate; but her aunt went on in her blithest
+fashion:--
+
+"You may not know that Hezekiah is another niece, Cecilia's sister.
+She was named, at my suggestion, for my father, there being no son in
+the family, and I trust that so unusual a name in a young girl does not
+strike you as indefensible."
+
+"On the contrary, it seems to me wholly refreshing and delightful.  As
+I recall the Sunday-school of my youth, Hezekiah was a monarch of great
+authority, whose animosity toward Sennacherib was justified in the
+fullest degree.  The very name bristles with spears, and is musical
+with the trumpets of Israel.  Nothing would make me happier than to
+meet the young lady who bears this illustrious name."
+
+"As to your knowledge of ancient history, Mr. Ames," began Miss
+Hollister, as she helped herself to the cheese,--sweets, I noted, were
+not included in the very ample meal I had enjoyed,--"it is clear that
+you were well taught in your youth.  I am not surprised, however, for I
+should have expected nothing less of a son of the late General Ames of
+Hartford.  As to meeting my niece Hezekiah, I fear that that is at
+present impossible.  While Cecilia remains with me, Hezekiah's duty is
+to her father, and I must say in all kindness that Hezekiah's ways,
+like those of Providence and the custom-house, are beyond my feeble
+understanding.  In a word, Mr. Ames, Hezekiah is different."
+
+"Hezekiah," added Cecilia with feeling, "is a dear."
+
+"Please don't bring sentimentalism to the table!" cried Miss Hollister.
+"Mr. Wiggins once informed me in a moment of forgetfulness,--it was at
+Fontainebleau, I remember, when Hezekiah persisted in reminding a
+one-armed French colonel who was hanging about that we named cities in
+America for Bismarck,--it was there at the inn, that Mr. Wiggins
+confided to me his belief that Hezekiah bears a strong resemblance to
+the common or domestic peach.  As a single peach at that place was
+charged in the bill at ten francs, the remark was ill-timed, to say the
+least.  But Mr. Wiggins was so contrite when I rebuked him, that I
+allowed him to pay for our luncheon,--no small matter, indeed, for
+Hezekiah's appetite is nothing if not robust."
+
+The table-talk had yielded little light on the subject of Wiggins's
+predicament, whatever that might be; but these references to the absent
+Hezekiah had set a troop of interrogation points to dancing on the
+frontiers of my curiosity.  Miss Hollister had given so many turns to
+the conversation that I could reach no conclusion as to her feeling
+toward Wiggins or Hezekiah Hollister; and as for Cecilia, I was unable
+to determine whether she was a prisoner at Hopefield Manor or the
+willing and devoted companion of her aunt.
+
+In this bewildered state of mind, while we lingered over our coffee,
+the servant appeared with a card for each of the ladies.  I saw Cecilia
+start as she read the name.
+
+"Mr. Wiggins!  How remarkable that he should have appeared just as we
+were speaking of him," said Miss Hollister.  "Be sure the gentleman is
+comfortable in the library, James.  We shall be in at once.  Mr. Ames,
+you will of course be delighted to meet your friend here, and you will
+assist us in dispensing our meagre hospitality."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY
+
+There was no reason in the world why Hartley Wiggins should not call
+upon two ladies living in Westchester County, and I must say that he
+appeared to advantage in Miss Hollister's library.
+
+He had got into his evening clothes somewhere, perhaps at a neighboring
+inn, or maybe at the house of a friend; for he could not possibly have
+motored into town and back since his interview with Cecilia in the
+highway.  He had impressed the clerk at the Hare and Tortoise with the
+idea that he had left New York for a long absence, and he had
+apparently camped at the gates of Hopefield to be near Cecilia.
+
+When he had paid his compliments to the ladies, he turned to me with an
+almost imperceptible lifting of the brows; but he was cordial enough.
+If he was surprised or disappointed at seeing me, his manner did not
+betray the feeling.
+
+"Glad to see you, Ames.  Rather nice weather, this."
+
+"Even Dakota could n't do better," I affirmed with a grin; but he
+ignored the fling.
+
+"It is quite remarkable, Mr. Wiggins, that you should have appeared
+just when you did, for we had been speaking of you, and I had been
+telling Mr. Ames of our travels abroad and in particular of the
+thumping you very properly gave our courier at Cologne.  And I shall
+not deny that I mentioned also our brief discussion of the peach-crop
+at Fontainebleau."
+
+Cecilia stirred restlessly; Wiggins shot a glance of inquiry in my
+direction; and I felt decidedly ill at ease.  Miss Hollister crossed to
+the fireplace and poked the logs.
+
+Just what part Hezekiah Hollister played in the situation was beyond
+me.  If I had not witnessed Wiggins's clandestine meeting with Cecilia,
+matters would have been clearer to my comprehension; but his appearance
+at the house, after the colloquy I had overheard from the briar patch,
+was in itself inexplicable.  Cecilia was a woman, therefore to be
+wooed, and yet she had indicated by her words to him that the wooing,
+independently of her feeling and inclination, might not go forward with
+entire freedom.  Miss Hollister's singular references to Hezekiah--a
+person about whom my curiosity was now a good deal aroused--added to
+the mystery that enfolded the library.
+
+"Our American peaches are not what they were in my youth.  Cold storage
+destroys the flavor.  I have not tasted a decent peach for twenty
+years."
+
+This was pretty tame, I admit; but I felt that I must say something.
+Responsive to Miss Hollister's energetic prodding, the flames in the
+fireplace leaped into the great throat of the chimney with a roar.  She
+turned, her back to the blaze, and looked upon her guests benignantly.
+
+"If all your flues draw like that one, they are not seriously in need
+of doctoring," I remarked, feeling that flues were a safer topic than
+the peach-crop.
+
+"Flues are nothing if not erratic," replied Miss Hollister.  The
+subject did not appear to interest her; nor had she, by the remotest
+suggestion, referred to the object of my coming.  I had sniffed vainly
+in the halls above and below for any trace of the stale smoke which
+usually greeted me at once on my arrival at the house of a client.  The
+air of Hopefield Manor was as sweet as that of a June meadow.  Wiggins
+remarked to me that I doubtless knew the Manor had been designed by
+Pepperton, whom we both knew well.
+
+"This is Pep's masterpiece.  He need do nothing better to keep his grip
+at the top," he said.
+
+"I consider it a great privilege to be permitted to visit a house
+designed by a dear friend and occupied by a lady peculiarly fitted to
+appreciate and adorn it."
+
+I thought rather well of this as I spoke the words; but neither Cecilia
+nor Wiggins rose to it as I hoped they might.
+
+"You have a neat turn for the direct compliment," said Miss Hollister
+promptly.  "The house was built, you may not know, for a manufacturer
+of umbrellas, who died before he had occupied it, in circumstances I
+may later disclose to you; which accounts, Mr. Ames, for that figure of
+Cupid under a pink parasol on the drawing-room ceiling.  At the first
+opportunity I shall remove it, as baby Cupids are irreconcilable with
+the militant love-making I admire.  I consider umbrellas detestable,
+and never carry one when I can command a mackintosh."
+
+"When I 'm on the ranch I wear a slicker," said Wiggins.  "It's
+bullet-proof, and that I have found at times a decided advantage."
+
+We discussed mackintoshes for at least ten minutes, with far more
+sprightliness than I had imagined the subject could evoke.  Then Miss
+Hollister, after a turn up and down the room, paused beside me.
+
+"Mr. Ames," she said, "would you care to join me in a game of
+billiards?  I 'm not in my best form, but I think we might profitably
+knock the balls for half an hour."
+
+I acquiesced with alacrity.  I assumed it to be Miss Hollister's
+purpose to leave Cecilia and Wiggins alone.  I should be rendering
+Wiggins and Cecilia a service by withdrawing, and I was glad of a
+chance to escape.
+
+To my infinite surprise they both protested, not in mere polite murmurs
+but with considerable vehemence.
+
+"It's quite cool to-night, and I don't believe you ought to use the
+billiard-room until the plumber has fixed the radiator," said Cecilia.
+
+"And if you knew Mr. Ames's game I 'm sure you would n't care to waste
+time on him," piped Wiggins, whom I had frequently vanquished in
+billiard bouts at the Hare and Tortoise, where, I may say modestly, I
+had long been considered one of the most formidable of the club's
+players.
+
+Both he and Cecilia had risen, and we stood, I remember, just before
+the hearth, during this exchange.  At this moment, a singular thing
+happened.  The fire that had been sweeping in a broad wave-like curve
+into the chimney was checked suddenly.  I had repeatedly marked the
+admirable draught, the facile grace of the flame as it rose and
+vanished.  The cessation of the draught was unmarked by any of those
+premonitory symptoms by which a fire usually gives warning of evil
+intentions.  The upward current of air had ceased utterly and without
+apparent cause.  We were all aware of a choking, a gasping in the deep
+flue, which could not be accounted for by any natural stoppage incident
+to chimneys--the dislodging of masonry, or a packing of soot.  The
+former was hardly possible and the house was not old enough to make the
+latter theory plausible.  From my survey of the flue on my arrival in
+the afternoon, I judged that this particular chimney had been little
+used.
+
+The smoke now rolled out in billows and drove us back from the hearth.
+I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs, without,
+however, any hope of correcting a difficulty that lay patently in the
+upper regions of the flue itself.  The smoke, after a courageous effort
+to rise, encountered an obstruction of some sort and ebbed back upon
+the hearth and out into the room.  My efforts to stop the trouble by
+shifting the logs were futile, as I expected them to be, and I
+retreated quickly, making, I fear, no very gallant appearance as I
+mopped my face and eyes.
+
+[Illustration: I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the
+logs.]
+
+"Well," exclaimed Miss Hollister, who had rung for a servant to open
+the doors and windows, "this is certainly most extraordinary.  What
+solution do you offer, Mr. Ames?"
+
+"The matter requires investigation.  I can't venture an opinion until I
+have made a thorough investigation.  The night is perfectly quiet and
+the wind is hardly responsible.  I think we had better abandon the room
+until I can solve this riddle in the morning."
+
+The prompt opening of the windows and doors caused the slow dispersion
+of the smoke, but the lights in the room still shone dimly as through a
+fog.
+
+"It's beastly," ejaculated Wiggins, coughing.  "I did n't suppose
+Pepperton would put a flue like that into a house.  He ought to be
+shot."
+
+"It is fortunate," said Miss Hollister, "that Mr. Ames is on the
+ground.  He now has a case that will test his most acute powers of
+diagnosis."
+
+The logs that had burned so brightly before the chimney choked still
+held their flames stubbornly, and I had advised against pouring water
+upon them, fearing to crack the brick and stonework.  We were about to
+adjourn to the drawing-room; Miss Hollister and the others had in fact
+reached the door, leaving me alone before the hearth.  Then, as I stood
+half-blinded watching the smoke pour out into the room, and more
+puzzled than I had ever been before in any of my employments, the
+chimney, with a deep intake of breath, began drawing the smoke upward
+again; the flames caught and spread with renewed ardor; and when the
+trio still loitering in the hall returned in answer to my exclamation
+of surprise, the flue had recovered its composure and was behaving in a
+sane and normal manner.
+
+There is, I imagine, nothing pertaining to the life of man (unless it
+be rival climates, motor-cars or pianos) that so inspires incompetent,
+irrelevant and immaterial criticism as wayward fireplaces.  It is part
+of my business to listen respectfully to opinions, to receive with an
+appearance of credulity the theories of others; and those advanced in
+Miss Hollister's library were not below the average to which I was
+accustomed.
+
+"A swallow undoubtedly fell into the chimney-pot and then got itself
+out again," suggested Cecilia.
+
+"The logs must have been wet.  The sap had n't dried out yet," proposed
+Wiggins.
+
+"The wood was as dry as tinder," averred Miss Hollister, not without
+irritation.  "And one swallow does not make a summer or a chimney
+smoke.  It must have been a changing current of air.  I was reading a
+book on ballooning the other day, and it is remarkable how the air
+currents change."
+
+"That is quite possible, as the air cools rapidly after sunset at this
+season, and that is bound to have an effect on the quality and
+resistance of the atmosphere," I replied sagely.
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Miss Hollister, with one of those flashes of
+animation that were so delightful in her, "perhaps it was a ghost!
+Will you tell us, Mr. Ames, whether in your experience you have ever
+known a chimney ghost?"
+
+As I had no opinion of my own as to what had caused the chimney's brief
+aberration, I was glad to follow Miss Hollister's lead.
+
+"I have had several experiences with ghosts," I began, "though I should
+not like you to think that I profess any special genius for the
+analysis of psychical phenomena.  But there was a house at Shinnecock
+that was reputed to be haunted.  The living-room chimney behaved
+damnably.  The house was one of Buffington's.  Buffington, you know,
+was quite capable of building a house and omitting any stairway.  We
+used to say at the club that he ought to have specialized in
+fire-engine houses, where the men don't use stairways but slide down a
+pole.  Well, the living-room chimney in this particular house could n't
+be made to draw with a team of elephants, and it had also the
+reputation of being haunted.  Strange flutings of the weirdest and most
+distressing kind were often heard at night.  The owner gave up in
+despair and moved out, turning the house over to me.  After eliminating
+all other possibilities, I decided that the piping spook must be
+related to the disorder in the chimney.  It served two fireplaces, and
+I proceeded to knock the kinks out of it so it did n't tie knots in a
+plumb-line as at first; but, believe me, when it stopped smoking it
+still whistled, in the most fantastical fashion.  I was living in the
+house, with only the servants about, and for a week gave my whole
+thought to this flue.  The ghostly flutist was an amateur, but he tried
+his hand at every sort of tune, from 'Sally in our Alley' to the jewel
+song in Faust.  The whistling did n't begin till nearly midnight, and
+continued usually for about an hour.  I tried in every way to lure him
+into the open, and I fell downstairs one night as I crept about in the
+dark trying to trace the sound.  And to what palpable and mundane
+source do you suppose I traced that ghost?"
+
+"I never should guess," murmured Cecilia, "unless it was merely the
+weird whistling of the wind."
+
+"Nothing so poetical, I'm sorry to confess.  It was the butler!  In his
+nightly cups his soul inclined to music, and being a timid soul,
+fearful of the cynical tongues of the other servants, he crawled into
+the ash-dump in the cellar, which communicated with the several
+fireplaces above, and there indulged himself gently upon the tuneful
+reed.  The night I caught him he was breathing the wild strains of
+Brunhilde's Battle-Cry into the tube, and it was shuddersome, I can
+tell you!  I took it upon myself to discharge him on the spot, and the
+grateful owner returned the next day."
+
+"The presence of a ghost in this house would give me the greatest
+pleasure," declared Miss Hollister, who had listened intently to my
+recital.  "I should look upon a ghost's appearance at Hopefield Manor
+as a great compliment.  If any reputable, decent ghost should by any
+chance take up his residence in this house, I should give him every
+encouragement."
+
+Miss Hollister seemed to have forgotten the proposed game of billiards.
+The chimney's lawless demonstration had, in fact, given a new turn to
+the evening.  We discussed ghosts for half an hour, and then, without
+having enjoyed any opportunity for a single private word with Cecilia,
+Wiggins rose to leave.  He shook hands all around and bowed from the
+door.  It was in my mind to follow, making a pretext of walking with
+him to the station or of helping him find his car; but nothing in his
+good-night to me encouraged such attentions, and as I pondered, the
+outer door closed upon my irresolution.
+
+At the stroke of ten Miss Hollister rose and excused herself.  "We
+breakfast at eight, Mr. Ames.  I trust the hour does not conflict with
+your habits."
+
+I assured her that the hour was wholly agreeable, and she gave me her
+hand with great dignity.
+
+When I turned toward Cecilia she had moved to a seat close by the
+hearth and was gazing dreamily into the fire, now a bed of glowing
+coals.
+
+"It was odd," I remarked.
+
+"You mean the chimney?"
+
+"Yes.  It was quite unaccountable.  I confess that I never knew a
+chimney's mood to change so abruptly."
+
+She sat silent for several minutes, and then she lifted her head and
+her eyes met mine.
+
+"Pardon me, Mr. Ames, but did my aunt ask you here to examine the
+chimneys?  I did n't quite understand.  We have been here only a week;
+the weather has been warm, and I believe this fire had not been lighted
+before to-day.  You will pardon my frankness, but I can't quite
+understand why my aunt invited you here if you came professionally.  I
+thought when you appeared this afternoon that you were a guest--nothing
+more--or less."
+
+"You had heard nothing of any trouble with the fireplaces?  Then I am
+in the dark as much as you.  As I understood it, I was called here to
+examine the flues; but now that I think of it, she did not say
+explicitly that her chimneys were behaving badly, though that was of
+course implied.  I naturally assumed that she summoned me here in my
+professional capacity.  I was a stranger to your aunt; she would hardly
+have invited me otherwise."
+
+She turned again to the fire as though referring to it for counsel.
+Her perplexity was no greater than my own.  It was certainly an
+extraordinary experience to be invited to a strange house where my
+services had not been needed, and to find that an apparently sound
+chimney had begun to smoke at once as though in mockery of my presence.
+
+"I imagine, however, that your aunt acts a good deal on impulse.  Her
+asking me here may have been only a whim."
+
+"Please don't imagine that your coming has not been agreeable to me,"
+Cecilia protested.  "My aunt is quite capable of inviting a stranger to
+the house.  She met you, I believe, at the Asolando.  I hope you
+understand that it is only because I am in deep trouble, Mr. Ames,
+trouble of the gravest nature, that I have ventured to speak to you in
+this way of my aunt, for whom I have all respect and affection."
+
+She had never, I was sure, been lovelier than at this moment.  Her eyes
+filled, but she lifted her head proudly.  Whatever the trouble might be
+I was sorry for it on her own account; and if it involved Hartley
+Wiggins my sympathy went out to him also.  On an impulse I spoke of him.
+
+"I was surprised to meet Hartley Wiggins here.  He 's a dear friend of
+mine, you know.  I thought he had gone to his ranch.  He left the Hare
+and Tortoise very abruptly a few nights ago just after we had dined
+together.  He must be stopping somewhere in the neighborhood."
+
+"It's quite possible.  And there's an inn, you know.  I fancy he drove
+over from there."
+
+"I hadn't thought of that; the Prescott Arms, I suppose you mean."
+
+She nodded, but she was clearly not interested in me, and when I found
+myself failing dismally to divert her thoughts to cheerfuller channels,
+I rose and bade her good-night.
+
+The servant who had previously attended me appeared promptly when I
+reached my room, bearing a tray, with biscuits and a bottle of ale.  He
+gave me an envelope addressed in a hand I already knew as Miss
+Octavia's, and I opened and read:--
+
+"The following I either detest or distrust, so kindly refrain from
+mentioning them while you are a guest of Hopefield Manor:--
+
+  Automobiles.
+  Mashed Potatoes.
+  Whiskers.
+  Chopin's Concerto in E Minor (op. 11).
+  Bishop's Coadjutor.
+  Limericks.
+  Cats.
+
+    OCTAVIA HOLLISTER."
+
+
+I absorbed this with a glass of ale.  There were seven items, I noted,
+and I had no serious quarrel with her attitude toward any of them; but
+just what these matters had to do with me or my presence in her house I
+could not determine.  She had referred to me in the note as a guest--I
+had noted that; and I did know, moreover, that Miss Octavia Hollister
+possessed a quaint and delicate humor; and I looked forward with the
+pleasantest anticipations to our further meetings.
+
+Before I slept I threw up my window and stepped out upon a narrow
+balcony that afforded a capital view of the fields and woods to the
+east.  The night was fine, with the sky bright with stars and moon.  As
+my eyes dropped from the horizon to the near landscape, I saw a man
+perched on a knoll in the midst of a corn-field.  He stood as rigid as
+a sentry on duty, or like a forlorn commander, counting the spears of
+his tattered battalions.  I was not sure that he saw me, for the
+balcony was slightly shadowed, but at any rate, he was sharply outlined
+to my vision.  His derby hat and overcoat gave him an odd appearance as
+he stood brooding above the corn.  Then he vanished suddenly, though,
+as he retired toward the highway, I followed him for some time by the
+shaking and jerking of the corn-stalks.
+
+I lay awake far into the night, considering the events of the day.  Of
+these the curious stoppage of the library chimney was the least
+interesting.  I doubted whether it would ever recur.  The love-affair
+of Hartley Wiggins was, however, a matter of importance to me, his
+friend, and I determined to make every effort to see him the next day
+and learn the exact status of his affair with Cecilia Hollister.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+I DELIVER A MESSAGE
+
+I was aroused at six o'clock the next morning by the sound of
+gun-shots, and springing out of bed I beheld, in an open pasture beyond
+the stable-yard, the indomitable Miss Hollister engaged in the pleasing
+pastime of breaking clay pigeons with a fowling-piece.  Her Swedish
+maid stood by with a formidable pad of paper, keeping score.  A boy
+pulled the trap for her, and she threw up her gun and blazed away with
+a practised hand.  Her small, slight, tense figure, awaiting the
+launching of the target, the quick up-bring of the gun as she sighted,
+and the pause, following the firing of the shot, in which she bent
+forward rigidly watching the result, were features of a picture which I
+would not have missed.  My eye could not follow the curving disc in its
+flight, but when the shot told, the bursting clay made a little patch
+of dust in the air that was plainly visible from where I sat.  Beyond
+the stable-roofs, on a broad stretch of pasture whose aftermath made a
+green field about her, and against a background of the more distant
+woods' tapestry, Miss Octavia Hollister was a figure to admire.  And I
+will write it down here and be done with it, that it has been my good
+fortune to know many delightful women, but I have never known one more
+interesting or charming than Miss Octavia Hollister.  The spirit of
+deathless youth was in her heart; and youth's gay pennants fluttered
+about her, as the reports of her gun fell cheerily upon the crisp
+morning air, a rebuke and a challenge to all indolent souls.
+
+[Illustration: She threw up her gun and blazed away with a practised
+hand.]
+
+I made myself presentable as quickly as possible and went forth to
+report to her.  She nodded pleasantly as I greeted her immediately
+after she had scored a capital shot.  A second gun was produced, and I
+saw that it was not without satisfaction that she observed my lack of
+prowess.  One out of five was the best I could do, whereas she smashed
+three with the greatest ease.
+
+On alternate mornings, she informed me, she shot glass balls with a
+rifle, a sport which she declared to be superior to pigeon-shooting in
+the severity of its demand upon the nerve and eye.
+
+"If I had known you would be up so early I should have sent coffee to
+your room," she remarked as we walked toward the house.  "Very likely
+your lack of luck with the birds is attributable entirely to the
+impoverished state of your stomach."
+
+Breakfast was served on a delightful sun-porch that I had not before
+seen.  Cecilia appeared promptly, having in fact been gathering fall
+flowers for some time, I judged, from the considerable armful of
+chrysanthemums, asters, dahlias and marigolds, which we found her
+arranging for the table.  She seemed in excellent spirits, and greeted
+us most amiably.
+
+"I heard the artillery booming and thought an army had descended.  It's
+a great regret to me, Mr. Ames, that I have never been able to make any
+headway at the traps.  I suffer from chronic and incurable gun-shyness.
+I 'm sorry archery has gone out.  I think I might have done better with
+the long bow."
+
+"Pinkle!" exclaimed Miss Hollister disdainfully.  "I cured myself of
+gun-shyness easily enough by having the gardener follow me about
+whenever I took my daily walks, firing a gun at irregular intervals
+just behind me.  I was threatened with deafness when I began, but the
+agitation of my tympanums by the explosions of my gun has corrected the
+difficulty.  I have mentioned my discovery of this remedy to a
+distinguished aurist, and he is preparing a paper on the subject--not,
+however, without my permission--which he expects to read shortly before
+one of the most learned societies in Europe.  Cecilia, the chops are
+overdone again; please remind me to speak to the cook about it.  If it
+were not that he is so expert in detecting spurious steam-mill
+corn-meal, which is constantly sold as a substitute for the Boydville
+water-ground article, I should discharge him for this.  An ill-broiled
+chop can do much to shake one's faith in human nature.  If I wanted to
+eat grilled patent leather I should order it."
+
+In spite of her sharp observations it was quite clear to me that Miss
+Hollister's was the gentlest and sweetest of natures.  I fully believed
+that her whims were the honest expression of a revolt against the
+tedious and conventional, and nothing in my later acquaintance
+disturbed this opinion.  It was her privilege to do as she liked, and
+if she preferred cracking clay saucers with a shot-gun to knitting or
+darning stockings or gossiping, it was no one's business.
+
+The mail arrived and was placed by her plate before we left the table.
+She opened first a bulky envelope containing cuttings from a clipping
+bureau, and she mused aloud upon these as she read.
+
+"This persistent story of a sunken galleon off the Bolivian coast
+sounds plausible, but I fear it is the work of some bright young
+journalist.  Our minister in that benighted country does n't take any
+stock in it.  I had a cable from him yesterday.  If he had given the
+story credence I should have gone down at once with a steamer and crew
+of divers.  The imaginative young newspaper men continue romancing,
+however; and it costs me five cents a clipping."
+
+She next opened a letter that roused her to vigorous declamation.
+
+"Cecilia," she began, "here is a letter from that Mrs. Stanford we met
+in Berne.  She encloses a card that indicates her wish to be called
+Mrs. Appleby now, having, I believe, spent a few months since our
+meeting in one of our American States where the marital tie readily
+evaporates, and shaken Stanford, whom I have heard spoken of in the
+highest terms by persons of character.  We live in an era of horseless
+carriages, wireless telegraphy, husbandless wives and wifeless
+husbands.  I have hit upon a formula which I am tempted to utilize
+hereafter when I meet husbandless women.  When they are introduced I
+shall ask:--
+
+   Shaken,
+  Or taken?
+
+signifying in the first instance a loss by way of Nevada, or, in the
+second, through the pearlier gates of that Paradise which is the hope
+of us all.  Mr. Ames, as the butler has gone to sleep in the pantry,
+you will kindly pass the salt."
+
+She had handed Cecilia a number of letters, which the girl opened and
+then to my surprise meekly turned over to her aunt.  Miss Hollister
+surveyed them critically.
+
+"I thought," she remarked, "that that young Henderson who was so
+attentive to you at Madrid was an impostor, and this note settles the
+matter.  He flirted outrageously with Hezekiah behind your back.  He
+asks if he may call upon you here.  If he were the nephew of Colonel
+Abner Henderson of Roanoke, as he represented himself to be, he would
+not ask if he might call upon you, but would have appeared at once in
+his proper person to pay his addresses.  An unchivalrous and wobbly
+character, who evidently expects you to make the advances.  But such
+are the youth of our time.  And besides, Cecilia, his stationery leaves
+much to be desired.  As for these other gentlemen we need not discuss
+them.  Their actions must speak for them."
+
+Miss Hollister, having thus dismissed her niece's correspondents, rose
+and led the way to the library.  Cecilia seemed in no wise depressed by
+her aunt's fling at Mr. Henderson, whoever he might be, but threw the
+notes upon the flames that blazed merrily in the fireplace.
+
+I suggested immediately that as I had come to Hopefield Manor to
+inspect the flues I should now be about my business; but to my surprise
+Miss Hollister evinced no interest whatever in the matter.  Her tone
+and manner implied that the condition of her chimneys was wholly
+negligible.
+
+"There is no haste, Mr. Ames.  I have suffered all my life from the
+ill-considered and hurried work of professional men.  Even the
+clergy--and I have enjoyed the acquaintance of many--are quite reckless
+in giving opinions.  I once asked the Bishop of Waxahaxie--was it
+Waxahaxie, Cecilia, or Tallahassee?--well, it does n't matter
+anyhow--whether he honestly believed there are no women angels.  He
+replied with unusual frankness for one in holy orders that he did n't
+know, but added that he was sure there are angel women.  Just for that
+impertinence I cut in two my subscription to his cathedral
+building-fund.  When I ask an expert opinion of an educated person I
+don't intend to be put off with mere persiflage.  And to return to my
+chimneys, I beg that you give me the result of your most serious
+deliberations.  At this hour I ride; Cecilia, will you dress
+immediately and accompany me?"
+
+She disappeared at once and I stared mutely after her.  I am by no
+means an idler, and this cool indifference to the value of my time
+would ordinarily have enraged me; but I believe I laughed, and when I
+turned to Cecilia I found her smiling.
+
+"I 'm glad, Mr. Ames, that you are a person of humor.  My aunt's
+conduct verifies what I said to you last night--that the flues in this
+house have given us no trouble; that they have indeed had little chance
+to do so in the short time we have spent here.  It is true that this
+one acted queerly last night, and I have wondered about its temporary
+sulkiness a good deal.  It will be well, of course, for you to go over
+it, and all the others in the house.  It is no joke that my aunt is a
+believer in thoroughness, and one of these days, when she is ready to
+talk of chimneys, she will subject you to a most rigid examination."
+
+"One of these days?  Why, I have looked at the time-table, and it is my
+present intention to take the 12:03 into town.  I have appointments at
+my office for the afternoon.  I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I 'm a
+man of engagements, particularly at this season."
+
+I remembered what Jewett had told me of Fortner, the painter, and his
+detention at Newport by Miss Octavia Hollister.  I had no intention of
+being immured in any such fashion, and I was about to protest further
+when Cecilia took a step toward me, and after a glance at the door
+spoke in a low tone and with great earnestness.
+
+"Mr. Ames, I have every reason to believe that you are a gentleman, and
+in that confident belief I 'm going to ask a favor of you.  You have
+said that you know Mr. Hartley Wiggins well."
+
+"I know no man better.  You might not have inferred it from his manner
+last night, but he was undoubtedly surprised and embarrassed by my
+presence, and did not act quite like himself."'
+
+"I think I understand the cause of that.  If I should ask you to see
+him to-day and give him a message for me, could you do so?"
+
+"It will be an honor to serve you; and a very simple matter, as I
+should see him on my own account if he is still in the neighborhood."
+
+"He is doubtless at the Prescott Arms.  My message is a verbal one.
+Please urge him not to make any effort to see me, and not to call here
+again.  But at the same time, as the chimney smoked just as we were
+about to be left alone last night, I think--I think"--she hesitated a
+moment--"You may say that his interests have not been jeopardized by
+his temerity in calling."
+
+In her pause before concluding this curious commission her eyes
+searched mine deeply, and I felt that she had not lightly entrusted me
+with this singular errand.  Her dark eyes held mine an instant after
+she had spoken; then she smiled, and her face showed relief.
+
+"Ask for anything you want.  Aunt Octavia despises motors, so there 's
+no car here, but you will find plenty of horses and traps.  Order
+whatever pleases you.  I shall expect to meet you at dinner if not at
+luncheon--and so"--she smiled again--"will Aunt Octavia."
+
+She nodded to me from the door, and I heard her running lightly
+upstairs.
+
+Left to my own devices I rang the bell and ordered the library fire
+extinguished and the hearth cleaned.  This required a little time; but
+the house man obeyed me readily, and soon, clad in my professional
+overalls and jumper, I was going carefully over the flue whose behavior
+had been so unaccountable the previous night.  Guided by the servant I
+inspected the three fireplaces in the upper chambers that were served
+by flues in this chimney and finally dropped my torch and plumb-line
+from the chimney-pot.  Never in all my experience had I seen better
+flues; but remembering my ghost at Shinnecock, I had the ashes thrown
+out of the dump in the cellar and found the chute in perfect order.  I
+learned by inquiry that the other flues worked perfectly, but I
+nevertheless scrutinized them carefully.  My freedom of the house
+afforded an excellent opportunity for a study of its beautiful
+construction.  It was modern in every sense, with no dark, mysterious
+corners in which goblins might lurk.  I prowled about with increasing
+admiration for Pepperton, and with a deepening sense of my own failure
+in the art which he adorned.
+
+My professional labors were finished.  I was quite ready for Miss
+Hollister's most searching inquiries.  As for the library flue, I had
+decided that a little care in piling the logs in the hearth would
+obviate the possibility of any recurrence of the difficulty.  And I
+thereupon hurried to my room, and after a tub (my vocation encouraged
+frequent tubbing) chose from the stable a neat trap for one horse.
+Thus equipped I set out to find Wiggins.
+
+The Prescott Arms is an inn that sprang into being with the advent of
+motoring.  The tourist is advised of his approach to it by signs swung
+at the crossways, and its plaster and timber walls are in plain sight
+from one of the excellent state roads.  Gasoline and other liquids are
+offered there; one may have tea or an ampler meal on short notice; and
+a few guests may be lodged in case of necessity.  I remembered it well,
+having several times found it a haven on motor-flights with friends.
+As I drove into the entrance I saw Wiggins pacing the long veranda.  He
+waved a hand and came out to meet me, and when I had rid myself of the
+trap he suggested that we take a walk.
+
+[Illustration: As I drove into the entrance.]
+
+His manner was not cordial, and he wore the haggard look of a man on
+bad terms with his pillow.  I attributed his appearance to
+preoccupation with his love-affair.  When we had withdrawn a little way
+from the inn he turned on me sharply.
+
+"Well?" he demanded.
+
+"Well," I laughed.
+
+"Oh, you needn't take that tone about it!  Your being here is something
+that requires explanation; and your being _there_"--he flung out his
+arm toward Hopefield Manor--"your presence there is not a laughing
+matter."
+
+"My dear Wiggins, I came here in a spirit of friendship, and you treat
+me like a pickpocket.  I must say that if you had not acted like a clam
+the other night at the club, but had told me what was in the wind, we
+might not be meeting now like ancient enemies instead of old and
+intimate friends."
+
+He vouchsafed no reply, but threw himself down under a scarlet maple
+and began to whittle a stick, while I went on with my story.
+
+"I met Miss Octavia Hollister in the Asolando the day after our last
+dinner at the club.  I had dropped into the tea-room merely to look at
+the place again.  I had never seen her before in all my life.  She is a
+whimsical old lady--but a lady, you must admit that--and we exchanged
+cards.  On learning my occupation she at once declared that I must come
+up here to look at her chimneys.  She made an appointment by mail for
+yesterday afternoon.  It is not my fault that she treated me like a
+guest, or that she introduced me of necessity to her niece Cecilia.
+And now I have finished my work, and after I have made my report I
+shall probably not meet her again.  As for Miss Cecilia Hollister, I
+can only say, my dear Wiggins, that she is a rarely beautiful woman,
+and that if you wish to marry her you have my very best wishes for your
+success and happiness."
+
+"It struck me that you were pretty well established there," he blurted.
+"I confess that I took it for granted you were not there wholly on a
+professional errand; and I won't deny, Ames, that I was not pleased to
+see you."
+
+"You honor me in assuming that I might aspire to the hand of so
+splendid a woman as Cecilia Hollister; but, my dear Wiggins, I tell you
+I never laid eyes on her until last night."
+
+"But you had been to the Asolando," he persisted, hacking away doggedly
+at his stick.
+
+"Of course I had.  I told you I had.  I told you the whole story.  But
+I did not see Cecilia Hollister there.  She was n't there!  I fancy
+that after you saw her there last spring and became infatuated with her
+and followed her to Europe instead of going to Dakota to harvest your
+blooming wheat--after that bit of history she never returned to the
+Asolando.  Your lack of frankness in all this has pained me.  And you
+left it for a gossiping chap like Jewett to tell me the whole story.
+And to cap your duplicity you sneaked out of the club the other night
+while Jewett was talking to me and let the club people think you were
+bound for your ranch.  I call it rather low down, Wiggins, after all
+the years we have known each other.  My slate is clean; how about
+yours?"
+
+He threw the stick at a sparrow whose chirp irritated him from a stone
+fence beyond us, and turned toward me a countenance on which dejection,
+humiliation, and chagrin were written large.
+
+"Damn it all!" he bellowed, "I believe I 'm losing my mind.  I don't
+know what I 'm doing.  That old woman up there is responsible for all
+this.  She 's as crazy as a March hare,--crazier!  And she 's made a
+prisoner of that girl.  I tell you Cecilia Hollister is the grandest
+girl in the world."
+
+"Go it, son!  Those descendants of Cæsar's legions at work in the road
+down there are pausing to listen.  Try to affect calmness if you don't
+feel it.  I agree to all you say of Miss Cecilia.  And please get it
+into your noddle that I have no intention of becoming your rival for
+her hand.  But I must beg of you also not to speak in such terms of her
+aunt.  She 's the most delightful woman I ever met."
+
+"Mad, I tell you, quite mad!"
+
+"Wise,--with the most beautiful wisdom; you simply don't understand
+her."
+
+"I know all I want to about her.  If she were not insane she would not
+build a wall of mystery about her niece and keep me camping out here
+not knowing where I stand.  I tell you, Ames, that woman is a
+malevolent being; she 's perfectly fiendish."
+
+There is no way of answering a man in this humor save by laughter; and
+I laughed long and loud, to the consternation of the Italian
+road-laborers who were now swallowing their luncheons a short distance
+away from us.
+
+Wiggins sulked awhile and then addressed me seriously.
+
+"I didn't tell you I was going abroad, because the situation made
+explanations difficult.  I could hardly tell you that I was about to
+race over Europe after a waitress I had seen in a tea-room.  You 're
+always so confoundedly suspicious.  It would have an odd sound even now
+if she were--well, if she were a waitress instead of what you know her
+to be.  And my animosity toward Miss Octavia Hollister is due to the
+fact that after I had been as courteous to her all summer long as I
+could, and thought myself tolerably established in her mind as a decent
+person and a gentleman, she suddenly shuts Cecilia up in that
+house,--bought it on purpose, I fancy,--and Cecilia herself is
+compelled to take on an air of mystery, warning me to keep away,
+suggesting the darkest possibilities, but giving me no hint whatever of
+the reason for her conduct."
+
+"Let us confine ourselves to Miss Octavia for a moment.  While you were
+acting as cavalier to her party abroad she was friendly; then she
+suddenly changed.  Now there must be some explanation of that."
+
+"Well, for one thing, she flew off at a tangent about my ancestors.  We
+were in Berlin on the Fourth of July and got to talking about the
+American revolution.  She asked me what my people had done for the
+patriotic cause.  The painful fact is that most of them were Tories;
+but my great-grandfather broke with his father and brothers, joined
+Washington's army, and fought through the whole business.  But to save
+the feelings of the rest of them, who went to England till it was all
+over, he changed his name.  There's no mention of him in the war
+records anywhere.  I've had experts working on it, but they can't find
+any trace of him.  He was greatly embittered by the estrangement from
+his people, and though he had a farm in this very neighborhood
+somewhere--I 've thought sometime I 'd look it up and try to get hold
+of it--he never mentioned his military experiences even to his own
+children.  Usually Miss Hollister changes front if you give her time.
+I've heard her say that we'd have been better off if we'd never broken
+with England; but she persists in prodding that weak place in my armor."
+
+"That's very dark, Wiggy.  If she keeps it up you'll have to dig up
+your great-grandfather someway.  The spiritualists might call him on
+long distance.  But let us turn to Miss Cecilia.  I don't for a moment
+believe that she is a victim of ancestor worship.  The perambulator
+rampant adorns the Hollister shield to the exclusion of everything
+else.  From what you say Cecilia has not repelled you; on the other
+hand she has frankly given you to understand that you must not press
+your suit at this time for reasons she sees fit to withhold.  A little
+more patience, a little calm deliberation and less violent language,
+and in due course the girl is yours.  Now what do you fancy is the
+cause of Cecilia's abrupt change of attitude?"
+
+He refused to meet my eyes, but turned away as though to conceal an
+embarrassment whose cause I could not surmise.  When he spoke it was in
+a voice husky with emotion.
+
+"Am I a cad?  Am I beneath the contempt of decent people?"
+
+"It's possible, Wiggy, that you are.  Go on with it."
+
+"Well, you know," he began diffidently, "Cecilia has a sister."
+
+I grinned, but his scowl brought me to myself again.
+
+"Yes.  And her name is Hezekiah.  The name pleases me."
+
+"She was with Miss Octavia in her gallop over Europe, so I saw a good
+deal of her necessarily.  She is younger than Cecilia; she's a good
+deal of a kid,--the sort that never grows up, you know."
+
+"Just like her aunt Octavia!"
+
+"Bah!  Don't mention that woman.  Hezekiah is a very pretty girl; and I
+suppose,--well, when you are thrown with a girl that way, seeing her
+constantly"--
+
+I clapped my hand on his knee as the light began to dawn upon me.
+
+"You old rascal, you don't need to add a single word!  I dare say you
+are guilty.  I can see it in your eye.  After waiting till you reached
+years of discretion before beginning an attack upon womankind, you
+began mowing them down in platoons.  So they come running now that you
+'ve got a start.  Oh, Wiggy, and I believed you immune!  And you 're
+trying to drive 'em tandem."
+
+The thing was funny, knowing Wiggins as I did, and I gave expression to
+my mirth; but his fierce demeanor quickly brought me back to the
+serious contemplation of his difficulty.
+
+"That, you shameless wretch, would be a sufficient reason for Miss
+Octavia's aloofness,--your double-faced dealing with her nieces?  You
+confirm my impression that she is a wise woman.  And Cecilia, I take
+it, may be deeply embarrassed by her sister's infatuation for you.  You
+certainly have made a tangle of things, you heart-wrecker, you
+conscienceless deceiver!  But where, may I ask, does this Hezekiah keep
+herself?"
+
+"Oh, she's with her father.  They have a bungalow over the hills there,
+several miles from Hopefield Manor."
+
+"Well, I hope you are no longer toying with her affections.  Of course
+you don't see her any more?"
+
+"Well," he mumbled, "I did see her this morning.  But I could n't help
+it.  It was the merest chance.  I met her in the road when I was out
+taking a walk.  She 's always turning up,--she's the most unaccountable
+young person."
+
+"I suppose, Wiggy, that if you stand in the road and Miss Hezekiah
+Hollister strolls by on her way to market, you fancy that she is
+pursuing you.  As Miss Octavia has well said, this is not a chivalrous
+age.  I 'm deeply disappointed in you.  Your conduct and your attitude
+toward this trusting young girl are disgraceful."
+
+He rose and flung up his arms despairingly.  It was much easier to
+laugh at Wiggins than to be angry at him; but I recalled the message
+which Cecilia had entrusted to me, and this, I thought, might give him
+some comfort.
+
+"Miss Cecilia asked me this morning to say to you that you must not try
+to see her again; you must keep away from the house."
+
+This obviously increased his dejection.
+
+"But," I added, "I was to say that she thought nothing had yet occurred
+to interfere with your ambitions, as you were not permitted to see her
+alone last night.  The chimney, you may remember, began playing pranks
+just at the moment when Miss Hollister and I were about to adjourn to
+the billiard-room, so a tête-à-tête between you and Cecilia was
+impossible."
+
+"She told you to see me?"
+
+"She certainly did.  I confess that my message does n't seem luminous,
+but I have a feeling that she meant to be kind.  It may be that she is
+giving you time to disentangle yourself from the delectable Hezekiah's
+meshes.  I can't elucidate; I merely convey information.  But answer
+honestly if you can: has Cecilia ever by word or act refused you?"
+
+"No," he replied grimly; "she 's never given me the chance!"
+
+He asked me to luncheon, and on the way back to the inn, after
+inquiring my plans for returning to town, he proposed that I delay my
+departure until the following day.  What he wanted, and he put it
+bluntly, was a friend at court, and as I had seemingly satisfied him of
+my entire good faith and of my devotion to his interests, he begged
+that I prolong my stay in Miss Hollister's house, giving as my excuse
+the condition of the chimneys of Hopefield Manor.  He brushed aside my
+plea of other engagements and appealed to our old friendship.  He was
+taking his troubles hard, and I felt that he really needed counsel and
+support in the involved state of his affairs.  I did not see how my
+continued presence under Miss Hollister's roof could materially assist
+him, and the thought of remaining there when there was no work to be
+done was repugnant to my sense of professional honor; but he was so
+persistent that I finally yielded.
+
+While we ate luncheon I sought by every means to divert his thoughts to
+other channels.  After we were seated in the dining-room four other men
+followed, exercising considerable care in placing themselves as far
+from one another as possible.  A few moments later a motor hummed into
+the driveway, and we heard its owner ordering his chauffeur to return
+to town and hold himself subject to telephone call.  This latest
+arrival appeared shortly in the dining-room, and surveying the rest of
+us with a disdainful air, sought a table in the remotest corner of the
+room.  Others appeared, until eight in all had entered.  The presence
+of these men at this hour, their air of aloofness, and the care they
+exercised in isolating themselves, interested me.  They appeared to be
+gentlemen; they were, indeed, suggestive of the ampler metropolitan
+world; and one of them was unmistakably a foreigner.
+
+While Wiggins appeared to ignore them, I was conscious that he reviewed
+the successive arrivals with every manifestation of contempt.  One of
+these glum gentlemen seemed familiar; I could not at once recall him,
+but something in his manner teased my memory for a moment before I
+placed him.  Then it dawned upon me that he was the third man I had met
+in the field overhanging the garden after my eavesdropping experience
+the day before.  I thought it as well, however, not to mention this
+fact, or to speak of the man I had seen so grimly posted in the midst
+of the cornfield.  I was an observer, a looker-on, at Hopefield, and my
+immediate business was the collecting of information.
+
+"Will you kindly tell me, Wiggy, who these strange gentlemen are and
+just what has brought them here at this hour?  They seem greatly
+preoccupied, and the last one, in particular, surveyed you with a
+murderous eye.  If we could be translated to some such inn as this in
+the environs of Paris, I should conclude that a duel was imminent and
+that these gentlemen were assembling to meet after their coffee
+to-morrow morning for an affair of honor."
+
+"I know them; they are guests of the inn.  Most of them were more or
+less companions in our procession across Europe last summer.  The one
+in the tan suit is Henderson; you must have heard of him.  The short
+dark chap of atrabilous countenance is John Stewart Dick, who pretends
+to be a philosopher.  As for the others"--
+
+He dismissed them with a jerk of the head.  My wits struggled with his
+explanation.  It is my way to wish to reduce information to plain terms.
+
+"Are these gentlemen, then, your rivals for the hand of Miss Cecilia
+Hollister?  If so, they are a solemn band of suitors, I must confess."
+
+"You have hit it, Ames.  They are suitors, assembled from all parts of
+the world."
+
+"Nice-looking fellows, except the chap with the monocle, who has just
+ordered rather more liquor than a gentleman should drink at this hour."
+
+"That is Lord Arrowood.  I have feared at times that Miss Octavia
+favored him."
+
+"Possibly, but not likely.  But how long is this thing going to last?
+If you fellows are going to hang on here until Miss Cecilia Hollister
+has chosen one of you for her husband, I shudder for your nerves.  I
+imagine that any one of these gentlemen is likely to begin shooting
+across his plate at any minute.  Such a situation would become
+intolerable very quickly if I were in the game and forced to lodge
+here."
+
+"I hope," replied Wiggins with heat, "that you don't imagine these
+fellows can crowd me out!  I 've paid for a month's lodging in advance,
+and if you will stand by me I 'm going to win."
+
+"Spoken like a man, my dear Wiggins!  You may count on me to the sweet
+or bitter end, even if I pull down all the superb chimneys with which
+Pepperton adorned that house up yonder."
+
+He silently clasped my hand.  A little later I telephoned from the inn
+to my office explaining my absence and instructing my assistant to
+visit several pressing clients; and I instructed the valet at the Hare
+and Tortoise to send me a week's supply of linen and an odd suit or two.
+
+At about three o'clock I left Wiggins in first-rate spirits and set out
+on my return to Hopefield Manor.  I felt the eyes of the eight other
+suitors, who were scattered at intervals along the verandah, glued to
+my back as I drove out of the inn yard.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE
+
+A girl in a white sweater sat on a stone wall and munched a red apple;
+but this is to anticipate.
+
+I had made a wrong turn on leaving the Prescott Arms, and I came out
+presently near Katonah village.  I got my bearings of a shopkeeper and
+started again for Hopefield Manor; but the mid-afternoon was warm, and
+the hills were steep, and as Miss Hollister's admirable cob showed
+signs of weariness, I drove into a fence-corner and loosened the mare's
+check.  On a sunny slope several hundred yards above the highway lay an
+orchard, advertised to the larcenous eye by the ruddiest of red apples.
+Not in many years had I robbed an orchard, and I felt irresistibly
+drawn toward the gnarled trees, which were still, in their old age,
+abundantly fruitful.
+
+When I reached the orchard I found it quite isolated, with only fallow
+fields, seamed with stone fences, stretching on either hand.  A spring
+near by sent the slenderest of brooks flashing down the slope.  There
+was no house in sight anywhere, and the neglected orchard flaunted its
+bright fruit with pathetic bravado.  I drew down a bough and plucked my
+first apple, tasted, and found it good.  At my palate's first
+responsive titillation, something whizzed past my ear, and following
+the flight of the missile, I saw an apple of goodly size fall and roll
+away into the grass.  I had imagined myself utterly alone, and even
+now, as I looked guiltily around, no one was in sight.  The apple had
+passed my ear swiftly and at an angle quite un-Newtonian.  It had been
+fairly aimed at my head, and the law of gravitation did not account for
+it.  As I continued my scrutiny of the landscape, I was addressed by a
+voice whose accents were not objurgatory.  Rather, the tone was
+good-natured and indulgent, if not indeed a trifle patronizing.  The
+words were these:--
+
+  "Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!"
+
+
+It was then that, lifting my eyes, I beheld, sitting lengthwise of the
+wall, with her feet drawn comfortably under her, a girl in a white
+sweater, bareheaded, munching an apple.  There was no question of
+identity: it was the girl whose head behind the cashier's grill of the
+Asolando had interested me on the occasion of my second visit to the
+tea-room.  In soliciting my attention by reciting a line of verse, she
+had merely followed the rule of the tea-room in like circumstances.
+The casting of the apple at my head possessed the virtue of novelty,
+but now that her shot was fired and her line spoken, she addressed
+herself again to her apple.  Her manner implied indifference; but her
+unconcern was that of a trout not wishing to discourage the fisherman,
+feigning a languid interest in a familiar fly dropped at its nose.
+While I tried to think of something to say, I pecked at my own apple,
+but kept an eye on her.  She concluded her repast calmly and flung away
+the core.
+
+"I mentioned soup," she remarked.  "The courses are mixed.  We have
+partaken of fruit.  Are you fish, flesh, fowl, or good red herring?"
+
+"Daughter of Eve, I will be anything you like.  I 'm obliged for the
+apple, and I apologize for having entered Eden uninvited."
+
+"It's not my Eden.  Nobody invited me.  But it's not too much to say
+that these apples are grand."
+
+"I 'm glad we 're both in the same boat.  I 'm a trespasser myself.  I
+don't even know the name of the owner.  But if you have had only one
+apple, two more are coming to you, if you follow Atalanta's precedent."
+
+"I don't follow precedents, and I 've forgotten the name of the boy who
+threw the apples in the race.  It does n't matter, though; nothing
+matters very much."
+
+Her hands clasped her knees.  Her skirt was short, and I was conscious
+that she wore tan shoes.  She continued to regard me with lazy
+curiosity.  She seemed younger than at the Asolando.  Not more than
+eighteen times had apples reddened on the bough in her lifetime!  She
+was even slenderer and more youthful in her sweater than in the snowy
+vestments of the Asolando.  Her hair which, in the glow of the lamp at
+Asolando cash-desk had been golden, was to-day burnished copper, and
+was brushed straight back from her forehead and tied with a black
+ribbon.
+
+"I quite agree with your philosophy.  Nothing is of great importance."
+
+"So it's not your orchard?" she asked.
+
+"The thought flatters me.  I own no lands nor ships at sea.  I 'm a
+chimney doctor, and if necessary I 'll apologize for it."
+
+"You needn't submit testimonials; I take the swallows out of my own
+chimneys."
+
+"That requires a deft hand, and I 'm sure you 're considerate of the
+swallows."
+
+"You may come up here and sit on the wall if you care to.  I saw you
+driving in a trap.  I hope your horse is n't afraid of motors; motors
+speed scandalously on that road."
+
+"I am not in the least worried about my horse.  It's borrowed.  As you
+remarked, this is a nice orchard.  I like it here."
+
+"If you are going to be silly, you will find me little inclined to
+nonsense."
+
+"Shall we talk of the Asolando?  I haven't been back since I saw you
+there.  And yet,--let me see, is n't this your day there?"
+
+She seemed greatly amused; and her laughter rose with a fountain-like
+spontaneity, and fell, a splash of musical sound, on the mellow air of
+the orchard.  She had changed her position as I joined her, sitting
+erect, and kicking her heels lazily against the wall.
+
+"Mr. Chimney Man, something terrible happened just after you left that
+afternoon.  I was bounced, fired; I lost my job."
+
+"Incredible!  I 'm sure it was not for any good cause.  I can testify
+that you were a model of attention; you were surpassingly discreet.
+You repelled me in the most delicate manner when I intimated that I
+should come often on the days that you made the change."
+
+"The sad part of it was that that was not only my last day but my
+first!  I had never been there before, except for a nibble now and then
+when I was in town.  But I could n't stand it.  It was like being in
+jail; in fact, I think jail would be preferable.  But I 'm glad I spent
+that one day there.  It proved what I have long believed, that I am a
+barbarian.  That poetry on the walls of the Asolando made me tired, not
+that it is n't good poetry, but that the walls of a tea-shop are no
+place for it.  I always suspect that people who like their poetry
+framed, and who have uplift mottoes stuck in mirrors where they can
+study them while they brush their hair in the morning, never really get
+any poetry inside of them.  You need a place like this for poetry,--an
+old orchard, with blue sky and a crumbly wall to sit on.  I tried the
+Asolando as a lark, really, not because I 'm deeply entertained by that
+sort of thing.  They dispensed with my company because I remarked to
+one of the silly girls who are making the Asolando their life-work that
+I thought the English Pre-Raphaelites had carried the dish-face rather
+too far.  The girl to whom I uttered this heresy was so shocked she
+dropped a tea-cup,--you know how brittle everything is in there,--and I
+came home.  You were really the only adventure I got out of my day
+there.  And I did n't find you entirely satisfactory."
+
+"Thank you, Francesca, for these confidences.  And having lost your
+position you are now free to roam the hills and dream on orchard walls.
+Your scheme of life is to my liking.  I can see with half an eye that
+you were born for the open, and that the walls of no prison-house can
+ever hold you again."
+
+She nodded a dreamy acquiescence.  Then she turned two very brown eyes
+full upon me and demanded:--
+
+"What is your name, please?"
+
+I mentioned it.
+
+"And you doctor chimneys?  That sounds very amusing."
+
+"I 'm glad you like it.  Most people think it absurd."
+
+"What are you doing here?  There's not a chimney in sight."
+
+"Oh, I have a commission in the neighborhood.  Hopefield Manor; you may
+have heard of Miss Hollister's place."
+
+"Of course; every one knows of her."
+
+"And now that I think of it, it was she about whom you asked in the
+Asolando that afternoon.  You wanted to know what she said about the
+tea-room."
+
+"I remember perfectly."
+
+She was quiet for a moment, then she threw back her head and laughed
+that rare laugh of hers.
+
+"You might let me into the joke."
+
+"It would n't mean anything to you.  I have a lot of private jokes that
+are for my own consumption."
+
+"Your way of laughing is adorable.  I hope to hear more of it.  In the
+Asolando you repulsed me in a manner that won my admiration, but I
+venture to say now that, if you roam these pastures, I am the grass
+beneath your feet; and if yonder tuneful water be sacred to you, I sit
+beside the brook to learn its song."
+
+"You talk well, sir, but from your tone I fear you can't forget that we
+met first in the Asolando.  That day of my life is past, and I am by no
+means what you might call an Asolandad.  I don't seem to impress you
+with that fact.  I 'm a human being, not to be picked like a red apple,
+or trampled upon like grass, or listened to as though I were a foolish
+little brook.  I 'm greatly given to the highway, and I prefer macadam.
+I like asphalt pavements, too, for the matter of that.  I should love a
+motor, but lacking the coin I pedal a bicycle.  My wheel lies down
+there in the bushes.  You see, Mr. Chimney Man, I am a plain-spoken
+person and have no intention of deceiving you.  My name was Francesca
+for one day only.  It may interest you to know that my real name is
+Hezekiah."
+
+"Hezekiah!"
+
+I must have shouted it; she seemed startled by my violence.
+
+"You have pronounced it correctly," she remarked.
+
+"Then you are Cecilia's sister and Miss Hollister's niece."
+
+"Guilty."
+
+"And you live?"--
+
+"Over there somewhere, beyond that ridge," and she waved her hand
+vaguely toward the village and laughed again.
+
+"Pray tell me what this particular joke is: it must be immensely
+funny," I urged, struggling with these new facts.
+
+"Oh, it's Aunt Octavia!  She will be the death of me yet!  You know the
+girl who waited on Aunt Octavia that afternoon took all that artistic
+nonsense as seriously as a funeral, and she told me after you left,
+with the greatest horror, that Aunt Octavia had asked for a cocktail!"
+That laugh rippled off again to carry joy along the planet-trails above
+us.  "But you know," she resumed, "that Aunt Octavia never drank a
+cocktail in her life,--and would n't!  She does n't know a cocktail
+from soothing syrup!  She pines for adventures.  She is just like a
+boarding-school girl who has read her first romance of the young
+American engineer in a South American republic, shooting the insurgents
+full of tortillas and marrying the president's dark-eyed daughter.  She
+reads pirate books and is crazy about buried chests and pieces of
+eight.  And they say I 'm just like her!  She is the most perfectly
+killing person in the world!"
+
+Hezekiah laughed again.
+
+So this was the child whose devotion had rendered Wiggins so miserable,
+and the sister of whom Cecilia Hollister and her aunt had spoken so
+strangely.  I had not suspected it.  She was as unlike Cecilia as
+possible, and the difference lay in her independent spirit and bubbling
+humor.  Her individuality was more pronounced.  You took her, without
+debate, on her own ground; and though she had expressed a preference
+for macadam, she seemed related to the days when maidens sat on sunny
+walls and were not disappointed in their expectation that light-footed
+youths, or mayhap winged sons of the Olympians, would reward patient
+waiting.  But at the same time she struck the note of modernity.  Her
+flings at the Asolando were reassuring; she was a healthy-minded,
+vigorous young woman whose nature protested against affectation and
+pose.  She rebelled against closed doors, whether those of town or
+country.  I am myself much of a cockney, and not averse to asphalt and
+streets ablaze with electric banners.  My imagination sprang to meet
+this Hezekiah.  I had, in fact, a feeling that I had waited for her
+somewhere in some earlier incarnation.  She jumped down from the wall,
+shook three apples from a tree, and sustained them in the air with the
+deftness and certainty of practised _jonglerie_.  Her absorption was
+complete, and when she wearied of this sport, she flung the apples
+away, one after the other, with a boy's free swing of the arm.  Herrick
+would have delighted in her; Dobson would have spun her bright hair
+into a rondeau; but only Aldrich, with a twinkle in his eye, could have
+brought her up to date in a dozen chiming couplets.  I felt that no
+matter how much one admired and respected this Hezekiah one would never
+deal with her in the phrases of drawing-rooms.  Her charming
+inadvertences made this impossible; and it was the part of discretion
+to await her own initiative.
+
+She had gone on up to the crest of the orchard, and stood clearly
+limned against the sky, her hands thrust into the pockets of her
+sweater.  She appeared to be intent upon something that lay beyond, and
+half turned her head and summoned me by whistling.  I liked this better
+than the quotation method of address.  It was a clear shrill pipe, that
+whistle, and she emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm.
+When I stood beside her I was surprised to find that the site commanded
+a wide area, including the unmistakable roofs and chimneys of Hopefield
+Manor half a mile distant.
+
+[Illustration: She emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her
+arm.]
+
+"You will see something funny down there in a minute.  They are out of
+sight now, but there 's a stile--the kind with steps, just beyond those
+trees.  It's in a path that leads from the Prescott Arms to Aunt
+Octavia's.  Look!"
+
+My eyes discovered the stile.  It was set in a wall that was, she told
+me, the boundary dividing Hopefield Manor from another estate nearer
+our position.
+
+Suddenly a silk hat bobbed in the path beyond the stile; it rose as its
+owner mounted the steps; it paused an instant when the top of the stile
+was reached; then quickly descended, and came toward us, a black blot
+above a black coat.  I was about to ask her the meaning of this
+apparition when a second silk hat bobbed in the path and then rose like
+its predecessor, descending and keeping on its way until hidden from
+our sight by shrubbery.  A third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,
+eighth, and ninth followed.  Nine gentlemen in silk hats crossing a
+stile in a lonely pasture between woodlands; so much was plain to the
+eye from our vantage-ground; but I groped blindly for an explanation of
+this spectacle.  The bobbing hats and dark coats suggested wanderers
+from some dark Plutonian cave, bent upon mischief to the upper world.
+Their step was jaunty; they moved as though drilled to the same cadence.
+
+We waited a moment, expecting that another figure might join the
+strange procession, but nine was the correct count.  I looked down to
+find Hezekiah checking them off on the fingers of her slim brown hand.
+
+"Has there been a funeral and are they the returning pall-bearers?" I
+inquired.
+
+"Not yet," she replied.
+
+Her face showed amusement; the twitching of her lips encouraged hope
+that another of those delightful laughs was imminent.
+
+"It was positively weird," I said.  "It reminds me of a dream I used to
+have, when I was a boy, of a long line of Chinamen running along the
+top of a great wall,--an interminable procession.  I must have dreamed
+that dream a hundred times.  I could hear the pigtails of those fellows
+flapping against their backs as they trotted along, and the soft
+scraping of their sandals on the smooth surface of the wall.  But the
+pot hats are equally eerie and unaccountable to my dull
+twentieth-century senses.  Pray tell me the answer, Hezekiah."
+
+"Oh, those are Cecilia's suitors.  They've been to Aunt Octavia's to
+tea.  They 're staying at the Prescott Arms probably."
+
+"They 're terribly formal.  I can't get rid of the impression of
+sombreness created by those fellows.  You 'd hardly expect them to
+tramp cross country in those duds.  Such grandeur should go on wheels."
+
+"Oh, they are afraid of Aunt Octavia!  She won't allow a motor on her
+grounds; and I suppose they 're afraid they might break some other rule
+if they went on any kind of wheels.  She 's rather exacting, you know,
+my aunt Octavia."
+
+"I was at the Prescott for luncheon to-day, and I must have seen these
+gentlemen there."
+
+"Oh, _you_ were at the Prescott?"
+
+Almost for the first time her manner betrayed surprise; but mischief
+danced in the brown eyes.  With Wiggins's confession as to the havoc he
+had played with Hezekiah's confiding heart fresh in my memory, I felt a
+delicacy about telling her that it was to see Wiggins that I had
+visited the inn.  But to my surprise she introduced the subject of
+Wiggins immediately, and with laughter struggling for one of those
+fountain-like splashes that were so beguiling.
+
+"Oh, Wiggy is staying there!  Do you know Wiggy?"
+
+"Know Wiggy, Hezekiah?  I know no man better."
+
+"Wiggy is no end of fun, isn't he?  I've heard him speak of you.  You
+are his friend the Chimney Man.  He was the last man over the stile.
+Did you notice that he lingered a moment longer at the top than the
+others?  From his being the ninth man I imagine that he was the last to
+leave the house, and he probably felt that this set him apart from the
+others.  Wiggy is nothing if not shy and retiring."
+
+A heart-broken, love-lorn girl did not speak here.  She whistled softly
+to herself as we descended.  The air was cooling rapidly, and the west
+was hung in scarlet and purple and gold.  The horse neighed in the road
+below, and I knew that I must be on my way to the Manor.
+
+"Hezekiah," I said, when I had drawn her bicycle from its hiding-place,
+"you 'd better leave your wheel here and let me drive you home.  It's
+late and there 's frost in the air.  I imagine it's some distance to
+your house."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Chimney Man; but it is much farther to Aunt Octavia's,
+for you have to make a long circuit around the hills.  And besides, as
+we met in the orchard, it would be altogether too commonplace a
+conclusion of our adventure for you to drive me home behind a mere
+horse.  But tell me this: what do you think of Wiggy's chances?"
+
+"Of winning your sister?  I should say from my knowledge of Wiggins
+that he is a man much given to staying in a game once the cards are
+shuffled."
+
+She nodded, standing beside her wheel, her hands on the bars.  Her
+manner was contemplative; her eyes for a moment were deep, shadowless
+pools of reverie.
+
+"Then you think he knows the game?"
+
+There seemed to be something beneath the surface meaning of her words,
+but I answered:--
+
+"Wiggy's affairs have been few, and while he may not know the game in
+all its intricacies, he has a shrewd if rather slow mind, and besides,
+he has asked my help in the matter."
+
+"One of these speak-for-yourself-John situations, then?  Well, I should
+say, Mr. Chimney Man, I should say"--
+
+She made ready for flight, looking ahead to be sure of a clear
+thoroughfare.
+
+"I should say," she concluded, settling her skirts, "that that
+indicates considerable intelligence on Wiggy's part."
+
+The tires rolled smoothly away; the gravel crunching, the pebbles
+popping.  The white sweater clasped a straight back snugly; then
+suddenly, as the wheels gained momentum, she bent low for a spurt, and
+her rapidly receding figure became a gray blur in the purple dusk.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+
+Miss Octavia was in the gayest spirits at dinner that night, and struck
+afield at once with one of her amusing dicta.
+
+"Human beings," she said, "may be divided into two groups,--interesting
+and uninteresting; but idiots abound in both classes."
+
+Cecilia and I discussed this with more or less gravity, until we had
+exhausted the possibilities, Miss Octavia following with apparent
+interest and setting us off at a new tangent when our enthusiasm
+lagged.  She referred in no way whatever to her chimneys, nor did she
+ask me how I had spent the day.  I felt the pleading of Cecilia's eyes
+that I should accept the situation as it stood, and having already
+agreed to Wiggins's suggestion that I abide in Miss Hollister's house
+as a spy,--for this was the ignoble fact,--I felt the threads of
+conspiracy binding me fast.  So far as my hostess was concerned, I was
+now less a guest than a member of the household.
+
+The variety of subjects that Miss Octavia suggested was amazing.  From
+aeronautics to the negro question, from polar exploration to the
+political conditions in Bulgaria, she passed with the jauntiest
+insouciance and apparently with a considerable fund of information to
+support her positions.  She knew many people in all walks of life.  I
+remember that she spoke with the greatest freedom of the Governor of
+Indiana, whom she had met on a railway journey.  She quoted this
+gentleman's utterances with keenest zest.  His anecdotal range she
+declared to be the widest and raciest she had ever encountered in a
+considerable acquaintance with public characters.  She thought the
+Hoosier statesman eminently fitted by reason of his acute sense of
+humor for the office of president.
+
+"That man," said Miss Octavia, "was splendidly equipped for handling
+the most perplexing affairs of state.  It seemed absurd that his public
+services should be limited to the petty business of a commonwealth
+whose chief products are pawpaws, persimmons, and politics.  The
+governor told me that before his election he had been sorely beset by
+reformers.  They had teased him persistently to express his views on
+the most absurd questions.  They wanted him to promise all manner of
+things before they gave him their support.  And finally, to appease
+them, he answered that he would combine their questions in one and
+reply to all that, the earth being round, he would, if elected, do all
+in his power to make it square.  This he found to be perfectly
+satisfactory to the reformers.  Solomon was a mere tyro in wisdom
+compared with that man.  You would n't expect so much sagacity in one
+who, by his own frank confession, had been raised on fried meat, and
+who declared that if grand opera were attempted in his state he would
+suspend the writ of habeas corpus and call out the militia to suppress
+it."
+
+I was not at all sure whether the governor whom she quoted with so
+great delight was an actual person or a myth upon whom Miss Octavia
+hung her own whimsicalities; but as if to rebuke my skepticism, she
+dwelt on this personage at considerable length, inviting my own and
+Cecilia's questions as to her knowledge of him.
+
+"I didn't suppose," remarked Cecilia provocatively, "that Indiana was
+really a place that you could go to on trains, but a kind of imaginary
+kingdom like Eppenwelzen-Sarkeld or Grunewald or Zenda, or an extinct
+place in Asia where lions crouch upon the ruins in the moonlight."
+
+"Indiana," said Miss Octavia sternly, "is a commonwealth for which I
+have always had the greatest veneration, and which, in due course, I
+hope to visit.  In the early seventies my father, the late Hezekiah
+Hollister, invested a considerable part of his fortune in Indiana
+farm-mortgages.  On these investments the interest was paid with only
+the greatest reluctance and in the most fitful fashion.  This, I think,
+argues for a keen sense of humor in the Hoosier people.  Interest is
+something that I should never think of paying in any circumstances, as
+I have always considered it immoral.  My father, keenly enjoying the
+playfulness of the Hoosiers in this particular, saved himself from loss
+merely by raising the price of baby-cabs throughout the world, and gave
+the mortgages as a free gift to the Society for the Amelioration of the
+Condition of Good Indians.  All the good Indians being dead, the
+society had no expenses except officers' salaries, and as the Hoosiers
+gave up politics for a season and raised enough corn to pay their
+debts, the society became enormously rich."
+
+As we rose from the table Miss Octavia declared that she must show me
+the pie-pantry.  I was now so accustomed to her ways that I should not
+have been in the least surprised if she had proposed opening a steel
+vault filled with a mummified Egyptian dynasty.
+
+"The gentleman who built this house," she explained, "had already grown
+rich in the manufacture of the famous ribless umbrella before he
+acquired a second fortune from a nostrum warranted to cure dyspepsia.
+He was inordinately fond of pies, and in order that this form of pastry
+might never be absent from his home, he had a special pantry built to
+which he might adjourn at his pleasure without any fear of finding the
+cupboard bare."
+
+She led the way through the butler's pantry and into a small cupboarded
+room adjoining the table-linen closet.  At her command the butler threw
+open the doors, and disclosed lines of shelves so arranged as to
+accommodate, in the most compact and orderly form imaginable, several
+dozens of pies.  These pastries, in the pans as they had come from the
+oven, peeped out invitingly.  Miss Octavia explained their presence in
+her usual impressive manner.
+
+"It was one of the conditions of the sale of this house to me by the
+original owner's executors that the pie-vault should be kept filled at
+all times, whether I am in residence here or not.  He felt greatly
+indebted to pie for the success of the dyspepsia cure.  It had widened
+and steadily increased the market for the cure, and pie was to him a
+consecrated and sacred food.  It was his habit to eat a pie every night
+before retiring, and on the nightmares thus inspired he had planned the
+strategy of all his campaigns against dyspepsia.  The man had elements
+of greatness, and these shelves are a monument to his genius.  In order
+to keep perfect my title to this property it is necessary for me to
+maintain a pastry-cook, and as I do not myself care greatly for
+pie--though contrary to common experience I have found it a splendid
+antephialtic--the total output is distributed among the people of the
+neighborhood every second day.  The station agent at Bedford is a heavy
+consumer, and a retired physician at Mt. Kisco has a standing order for
+a dozen a week.  My niece Hezekiah, of whom you have heard me speak, is
+partial to a particular type of pie and one only.  It is the gooseberry
+that delights Hezekiah's palate, and under G in File 3, in the corner
+behind you, there is even now a gooseberry pie that I shall send to
+Hezekiah, who, for reasons I need not explain, does not now visit here."
+
+"But the dyspepsia man--you speak of him as though he were dead."
+
+"Your assumption is correct, Mr. Ames.  The builder of Hopefield died
+only a few weeks after he had established himself in this house.
+Having entered upon the enjoyment of his well-earned leisure, and made
+it unnecessary that he should ever go pieless to bed, he gave himself
+up for a fortnight to a mad indulgence in meringues, and died after
+great suffering, steadily refusing his own medicine to the end."
+
+We still lingered in the pie-crypt after this diverting recital, while
+Miss Octavia entertained me with her views on pies.
+
+"The soul-color of pies varies greatly, Mr. Ames.  It has always seemed
+to me that apple-pie stands for the homelier virtues of our
+civilization; it is substantial, nutritious and filling.  The custard
+and lemon varieties are feminine, and do not, perhaps for that reason,
+appeal to me.  Cherry-pie at its best is the last and final expression
+of the pie genus, and where cooks have been careful in eliminating the
+seeds, and the juice hasn't made sodden dough of the crust, a
+cherry-pie meets the soul's highest demands.  Grape and raisin-pie are
+on my cook's _index expurgatorius_; I consider them neither palatable
+nor respectable.  But rhubarb is the most odious pie of all, in my
+judgment.  It suggests the pharmacopoeia--only that and no thing more.
+You will pardon me for mentioning the matter, but one of my gardeners,
+a Swiss, crawled in here two nights ago and stole a rhubarb-pie, which,
+I rejoice to say, made him hideously ill.  The R's, you will notice,
+are placed near the floor and within easy reach of any larcenous hand.
+The ease of his approach was his undoing.  The pumpkin variety reaches
+almost the same lofty heights as the cherry.  When not over-dosed with
+spices, a pumpkin-pie conveys a sense of the October landscape that is
+the despair of the best painters.  In the gooseberry I find a certain
+raciness, or if I may use the expression, zip, that is highly
+stimulating.  Both qualities you will observe in Hezekiah if you come
+to know her well.  The thought of blackberry or raspberry-pie depresses
+me, but huckleberry buoys the spirit again.  The huckleberry seems to
+me to voice a protest, and unless managed with the greatest neatness
+and circumspection it is bound to stimulate the laundry business.  As
+any one who would eat a cooked strawberry would steal a sick baby's
+rattle, I need hardly say that the strawberry-pies, even in their
+season, shall have no place on these shelves."
+
+"So it is the gooseberry that Miss Hezekiah prefers," I remarked with
+feigned carelessness, as we walked toward the library.
+
+"It is, Mr. Ames; and I trust that your inquiry implies no reflection
+on Hezekiah's judgment."
+
+"Quite the reverse, Miss Hollister.  It is not going too far to say
+that I have formed a high opinion of Miss Hezekiah, and that I should
+deal harshly with any one who ventured to criticise her in any
+particular."
+
+"Will you kindly inform me just when you made the acquaintance of my
+younger niece?  I should greatly dislike to believe you guilty of
+dissimulation, but when Hezekiah was mentioned in the gun-room last
+night your silence led me to assume that she was wholly unknown to you."
+
+"She was, I assure you, at the dinner-hour last night; but I met her
+quite by chance this afternoon, in an orchard at no great distance from
+this house."
+
+I did not think it necessary to mention the Asolando, as Hezekiah
+herself had taken pains to avoid her aunt in the tea room.  It was
+clear that my words had interested Miss Octavia.  She paused in the
+hall, and bent her head in thought for a moment.
+
+"May I inquire whether she referred in any way to Mr. Wiggins in this
+interview?"
+
+"She did, Miss Hollister," I replied; and I could not help smiling as I
+remembered Hezekiah's laughter at the mention of my friend.  My smile
+did not escape Miss Octavia.
+
+"Just how, may I ask, did she refer to Mr. Wiggins?"
+
+"As though she thought him the funniest of human beings.  She laughed
+deliciously at the bare mention of his name."
+
+"It was not your impression, then, that she was deeply enamored of him;
+that she was eating her heart out for him?"
+
+"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister.  She gave me quite a different idea."
+
+"You relieve me greatly.  Mr. Wiggins's sense of humor is the
+slightest, and I should not in the least fancy him for Hezekiah.  And
+besides, I am not yet ready to arrange a marriage for her."
+
+She laid the slightest stress on the final pronoun.  It was a fair
+inference, then, that Miss Cecilia's affairs were being "arranged;"
+when they had been determined, a husband would be found for Hezekiah.
+But had there ever existed before, anywhere in the Copernican system, a
+wealthy aunt so delightfully irresponsible, so vertiginous in her
+mental processes, so happily combining the maddest quixotism with the
+bold spirit of the Elizabethan mariners!  My faith in the real
+sweetness and kindliness of her nature was unshaken by her
+capriciousness.  I did not doubt that her intentions toward her nieces
+were the friendliest, no matter what strange devices she might employ
+to bend those young women to her purposes.
+
+She disappeared in the hall without excuse, and I entered the library
+to find Cecilia sitting alone by the fire.  She put aside a book she
+had been reading, and seeing that her aunt had not followed me, asked
+at once as to my visit to the inn.
+
+"I conveyed your message," I answered; "but you have seen Mr. Wiggins
+since, unless I am greatly mistaken."
+
+"Yes; he called this afternoon.  We had several callers at the
+tea-hour.  I had rather expected you back."
+
+"The fact is," I replied, "that after I had taken luncheon at the
+Prescott Arms, I got lost among the hills, and while in the act of
+robbing an apple-orchard I came most unexpectedly upon your sister."
+
+"Hezekiah!"
+
+"The same; and oddly enough, I had met her before, though I did n't
+realize it was she until the meeting in the orchard.  It was in the
+Asolando that I saw her; she was at the cashier's wicket the afternoon
+I met your aunt there."
+
+She seemed puzzled for a moment; then her eyes brightened, and she
+laughed; but her laugh was not like Hezekiah's.  Cecilia's mirth had
+its own expression.  It was touched with a sweet gravity, and her
+laughter was such as one would expect from the Milo if that divine
+marble were to yield to mirth.  Cecilia grew upon me: there was magic
+in her loveliness; she was a finished product.  It seemed inconceivable
+that she and the fair-haired girl with whom I had exchanged banter in
+the upland orchard were daughters of one mother.
+
+"You have given me information, Mr. Ames.  I did not know that Hezekiah
+had ever been connected with the Asolando."
+
+"Oh, it was only that one historic day.  She says the place was
+unbearable.  She jarred the holiest chords of the divine lyre by harsh
+comments on the Pre-Raphaelite profile.  One of the devotees was so
+shocked that she dropped a plate or something, and, to put it coarsely,
+Hezekiah got the bounce."
+
+My description of Hezekiah's brief tenure of office at the Asolando
+seemed to amuse Cecilia greatly.
+
+"There is no one like my sister," she said; "there never was and there
+never will be any one half so charming.  Hezekiah is an original, who
+breaks all the rules and yet always sends the ball over the net.  And
+it is because she is so inexpressibly dear and precious that I am
+anxious that nothing shall ever hurt her,--nothing mar the sweet,
+beautiful child-spirit in her."
+
+It was my turn to laugh now.  Cecilia's manifestation of maternal
+solicitude for Hezekiah seemed absurd.  For Hezekiah, in her way, was
+older; Hezekiah had raced with Diana and plucked arrows from her
+girdle; she had heard Homer at the roadside singing of Achilles' shield.
+
+"Hezekiah is reasonably safe, I should say, because she is so amazingly
+swift of foot and eye, and so nimble of speech.  She is not to be
+caught in a net or tripped with a word."
+
+"I suppose that is so," remarked Cecilia soberly.  "You thought her
+happy when you met her to-day?  She did not strike you as being a girl
+with a wound in her heart?  She was n't particularly _triste_?"
+
+"Not more so than sunlight on rippled water or the song of the lark
+ascending."
+
+"Of course you made no reference to Mr. Wiggins?  If I had imagined you
+would meet her I should have"--
+
+She ended with an embarrassment that I now understood, and I broke in
+cheerfully.
+
+"We did mention him.  She asked me if I had seen him, and it was the
+thought of him that evoked her merriest laughter."
+
+She shook her head and sighed; then her manner changed abruptly.
+
+"You delivered my message to Mr. Wiggins?"
+
+"I did.  He is badly out of sorts and sees nothing clearly.  He is very
+bitter toward your aunt.  He thinks she has treated him outrageously."
+
+"Aunt Octavia has done nothing of the kind," she replied with spirit.
+"Mr. Wiggins has no right to speak of Aunt Octavia save in terms of
+kindness.  If her wits are sharper than his, it is not her fault, that
+I can see!  But there are matters here that I do not understand, Mr.
+Ames.  I trust you, as my aunt evidently does, or I should not be
+talking to you as I am; and I am moved to ask a favor of you,--a favor
+of considerable weight in view of the fact that you are a professional
+man with doubtless many pressing calls upon your time."
+
+I bowed humbly before this compliment.  My time had been lightly
+appraised by Miss Octavia and again by Wiggins.  A long telegram from
+my assistant that reached me while I dressed for dinner had urged my
+immediate attendance upon my office.  Some of my best clients, now
+reopening their houses for the winter, were in desperate straits.  From
+the number of appeals for help reported by my assistant I judged that
+all the chimneys in the republic had grown obstreperous.  But Father
+Time learned early in his career that to women his scythe's edge has no
+terrors.  In this instance I must admit that if Cecilia Hollister
+wished to cut a few days out of my reasonable expectation of life it
+was not for me to plead sick chimneys as an excuse for declining to
+serve her.
+
+In fact, I had never found myself so close upon the heels of the
+adventure that we all crave as since making the acquaintance of the
+Hollisters.  Octavia Hollisters do not occur in the life of every young
+man, and both Cecilia and Hezekiah had taken strong hold upon my
+imagination.  Wiggins's place among the dramatis personæ would in
+itself have compelled my sympathetic attention; and the nine silk hats
+that I had seen bobbing over the stile still danced before my eyes.
+
+"Miss Hollister," I said, "my time is yours to command.  My office is
+well organized, and I am sure that my assistant is equal to any demands
+that may be made upon him.  Pray state in what manner I may serve you."
+
+"I am going far, I know, Mr. Ames, but I beg that you will not be in
+haste to leave my aunt's house.  She must have been strongly prejudiced
+in your favor, or she would not have asked you here on so short
+acquaintance.  I am confident that she has no thought of your leaving.
+She expressed her great liking for you at luncheon, and I am sure that
+she will see to it that you do not lack for entertainment.  I assume
+that you must have gathered from what Mr. Wiggins told you of my
+acquaintance with him the peculiar plight in which I am placed."
+
+I bowed.  If she groped in the dark and needed my help in finding the
+light, I was not the man to desert her.  I had dropped my plumb-line
+into too many dark chimneys not to feel the fascination of mystery.  As
+I expressed again my entire willingness to abide at Hopefield Manor as
+long as she wished, the footman announced Mr. Hartley Wiggins.
+
+We had hardly exchanged greetings before another man was announced, and
+then another.  I should say that it was at intervals of about three
+minutes that the sedate servant appeared in the curtained doorway and
+announced a caller, until nine had been admitted.  My spirits soared
+high as the gentlemen from the Prescott Arms appeared one after the
+other.  The earlier arrivals rose to greet the later ones,--and as they
+were all in evening clothes I experienced, as when I had seen the same
+gentlemen in their afternoon raiment crossing the stile, a sense of
+something fantastic and eerie in them.  There was nothing unusual about
+them, taken as individuals; collectively they were like life-size
+studies in black and white that had stepped from their frames for an
+evening's recreation.  Cecilia introduced me in the order of their
+arrival; and in the interest of brevity, and to avoid confusion, I
+tabulate them here, with a notation as to their residence and
+occupation, taking such data from the notebook in which, at subsequent
+dates, I set down the facts which are the basis of this chronicle.
+
+
+HARTLEY WIGGINS, Lawyer and Farmer; Hare and Tortoise Club, New York.
+
+LINNÆUS B. HENDERSON, Planter; Roanoke, Virginia.
+
+CECIL HUGH, LORD ARROWOOD, no occupation; Arrowood, Hants, England.
+
+DANIEL P. ORMSBY, Manufacturer of Knit Goods; Utica, New York.
+
+S. FORREST HUME, Lecturer on Scandinavian Literature, Occidental
+University; Long Trail, Oklahoma.
+
+JOHN STEWART DICK, Pragmatist; Omaha, Nebraska.
+
+PENDENNIS J. ARBUTHNOT, Banker and Horseman; Lexington, Kentucky.
+
+PERCIVAL B. SHALLENBERGER, Novelist and Small Fruits; Sycamore, Indiana.
+
+GEORGE W. GORSE, Capitalist; Redlands, California.
+
+
+We rose and stood in our several places when, a moment later, Miss
+Octavia entered.  She greeted the suitors graciously, and then, in her
+most charming manner, called one after the other to sit beside her on a
+long davenport, the time apportioned being weighed with nicety, so that
+none might feel himself slighted or preferred.  These interviews
+consumed more than half an hour, and the movement thus occasioned gave
+considerable animation to the scene.
+
+It may seem ridiculous that nine gentlemen thus paying court to a young
+woman should call upon her at the same hour, but I must say that the
+gravity of the suitors and the entire sobriety of Cecilia did not
+affect me humorously.  Nor did I feel at all out of place in this
+strange company.  I found myself agreeably engaged for several minutes
+in discussing Ibsen with the Oklahoma professor, who proved to be a
+delightful fellow.  His experience of life was apparently wide, and he
+told me with an engaging frankness of his meeting with the Hollisters
+in France and of his pursuit of them over many weary parasangs the
+previous summer.  As no one had elected his courses in the university
+at the beginning of the fall term, he had been granted a leave of
+absence, and this accounted for his freedom to press his suit at
+Hopefield Manor at this season.  He was a big fellow, with clean-cut
+features, and bore himself with a manly determination that I found
+attractive.
+
+He alone, I may say, of the nine men who had thus appeared in Miss
+Octavia's library, met me in a cordial spirit.  Even Wiggins seemed not
+wholly pleased to find me there again, though he had asked me to
+remain.  The manner of the others expressed either disdain, suspicion,
+or fierce hostility, and Lord Arrowood, who was older than the others
+and a man well advanced toward middle age, glared at me so savagely
+with his pale blue eyes, that I should have laughed in his face in any
+other circumstances.
+
+When the last man rose from the davenport, Miss Octavia called me to
+her side.  She seemed contrite at having neglected me during the day,
+but assured me that later she hoped to place an entire day at my
+disposal.  As we talked, the nine suitors sat in a semicircle about
+Cecilia, while the group listened to an anecdotal exchange between
+Professor Hume and Henderson, the Virginia planter.  My opinion of
+Cecilia Hollister as a girl of high spirit, able to carry off any
+situation no matter how difficult, rose to new altitudes as I watched
+her.  If this strange wooing _en bloc_ was not to her liking, she
+certainly made the best of it.  She capped Henderson's best story with
+a better one, in negro dialect, and no professional entertainer could
+have improved upon her recital.  As she finished we all joined in the
+general laugh, Lord Arrowood's guffaw booming out a trifle
+boisterously, when Miss Octavia quietly rose and excused herself.
+About five minutes later, when the company had plunged into another
+series of anecdotes, I suddenly became conscious that the fireplace,
+near which I sat, had all at once begun to act strangely.  Much in the
+manner of its performance the previous night, it abruptly gasped and
+choked; the smoke ballooned in a great swirl and then poured out into
+the room.
+
+After my examination of the flues in the morning, I had dismissed them
+from my mind, and this extraordinary behavior of the library fireplace
+astounded me.  It is not in reason that a perfectly normal fireplace,
+built in the most approved fashion, and with chimneys that rise into as
+clear an ether as October can bestow, could act so monstrously without
+the intervention of some malign agency.  We had discussed all the
+possibilities the previous night, and I was not anxious to hear further
+lay opinions.  The chimney's conduct was annoying, the more so that to
+my professional sense it was inexplicable.
+
+Lord Arrowood had retreated discreetly toward the door, and the others
+had risen and stood close behind Cecilia, whose gaze was bent rather
+accusingly upon me.
+
+A dark thought had crossed my mind.  As our eyes met, I felt that she
+had read my suspicions and did not wholly reject them.  Henderson was
+valiantly poking the logs, while one or two of the other men gave him
+the benefit of their advice.  I crossed the hall to the drawing-room,
+but no one was there.  I went back to the billiard-room, but saw
+nothing of Miss Octavia.  Cecilia had rung for the footman, and I
+passed him in the hall on his way to answer her summons.  I stopped him
+with an inquiry on my lips; but I could not ask the question; even in
+my perplexity as to the cause of the chimney's remarkable performances
+I did not so far forget myself as to communicate my suspicion to a
+servant.
+
+"Nothing, Thomas," I said; and the man passed on.
+
+It was possible, of course, that Miss Octavia knew more than she cared
+to tell about the erratic ways of the library chimney, or she might
+indeed be the cause of its vagaries.  Sufficient time had elapsed after
+her retirement from the library to allow her to gain the roof and clap
+a stopper on the chimney-pot.  This did not however account for the
+fact that on the previous evening she had been present in the library
+when the same chimney had manifested a similar sulkiness.  I was still
+pondering these things when I heard loud laughter from the library, and
+on returning found the logs again blazing in the fireplace, from which
+the smoke rose demurely in the flue.
+
+"This fireplace is like a geyser, Mr. Ames," said Cecilia, "and spurts
+smoke at regular intervals.  As I remember, the clock on the stair was
+striking nine last night when the smoke poured out, and there--it is
+striking nine now!"
+
+She tossed her head slightly; and this was, I thought, in disdain of
+the suspicion that must still have shown itself a little stubbornly in
+my face.
+
+I withdrew again in a few minutes, and followed the great chimney's
+course upward.  Miss Octavia's apartments were at the front of the
+house, her sitting-room windows looking out upon the Italian garden.
+Her doors were closed, but I knew from my examination in the morning
+that the flue of her fireplace tapped the chimney that rose from the
+drawing-room, and had nothing whatever to do with the library chimney.
+
+From the fourth floor I gained the roof, by the route followed on my
+inspection of the house in the morning.  The smoke from the library
+chimney was rising in the crisp, still air blithely.  I leaned upon the
+crenelations and looked off across the hills, enjoying the loveliness
+of the sky, in which the planets throbbed superbly.  There was nothing
+to be learned here, and I crept back to the trap-door through which I
+had come, made it fast, and continued on down to the library.
+
+There, somewhat to my surprise, I found that in my absence all but Hume
+had taken their departure.  As I paused unseen in the doorway, I caught
+words that were clearly not intended for my ear.
+
+Cecilia sat by the long table near the fireplace; Hume stood before
+her, his arms folded.
+
+"You are kind; you do me great honor, Professor Hume, but under no
+circumstances can I become your wife."
+
+I retreated hastily to the billiard-room, where I took a cue from the
+rack and amused myself for perhaps fifteen minutes, when, hearing the
+outer door close and knowing that Hume had departed with his congee, I
+returned to the library.
+
+Cecilia sat where I had left her, and at first glance I thought she was
+reading; but she turned quickly as I crossed the room.  She held in her
+hand an oblong silver trinket not larger than a card-case.  A short
+pencil similar to those affixed to dance-cards was attached to it by a
+slight cord, and she had, I inferred, been making a notation of some
+kind on a leaf of the silver-bound booklet.  Even after she had looked
+up and smiled at me, her eyes sought the page before her; then she
+closed the covers and clasped the pretty toy in her hand.  As though to
+divert my attention she recurred at once to the chimney, in a vein of
+light irony.
+
+"You see," she said, "there is ample reason for your remaining here.
+You would hardly find anywhere else so interesting a test of your
+professional powers as Hopefield Manor offers.  The house is haunted
+beyond question, and I can see that you are not a man to leave two
+defenseless women to the mercy of a ghost who drops down chimneys at
+will."
+
+I suffered her chaff for several minutes, then I asked point-blank:--
+
+"Pardon me, but have you the slightest idea that Miss Octavia is behind
+this?  It is not possible that she was responsible last night; but she
+was not on this floor a while ago when the smoke poured in here.  I
+should be glad to hear your opinion."
+
+"I saw that you suspected her before you left the room, Mr. Ames, and I
+must say that the idea is in no way creditable to you.  If you
+entertain such a suspicion you must supply a motive, and just what
+motive would you attribute to my Aunt Octavia in this instance?"
+
+Her tone and manner piqued me, or I should not have answered as I did.
+
+"It is possible," I said, "that some of these gentlemen who came here
+to-night were not to her liking, and it may have occurred to her to get
+rid of them by the obviously successful method of smoking them out."
+
+She rose, still clasping the little silver-backed note-book, and looked
+me over with amusement in her face and eyes.
+
+"You are almost too ingenious, Mr. Ames.  I hope that by breakfast-time
+you will have some more plausible solution of the problem.  Good-night."
+
+And so, tightly clasping the little book, she left the room.  I
+followed her to the door, and at the turn of the stair she glanced down
+and nodded.  Her face, as it hung above me for an instant, seemed
+transfigured with happiness.
+
+But, as will appear, my adventures for the day were not concluded.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST
+
+It was not yet ten o'clock, and I was dismayed at the thought of being
+left to my own devices in this big country-house, at an hour when the
+talk at the Hare and Tortoise usually became worth while.  I sat down
+and began to turn over the periodicals on the library table, but I was
+in no mood for reading.
+
+The butler appeared and offered me drink, but the thought of drinking
+alone did not appeal to me.  I repelled the suggestion coldly; but
+after I had dropped my eyes to the English review I had taken up, I was
+conscious that he stood his ground.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Hit's a bit hod about the chimney, sir."
+
+The professional man in me was at once alert.  The chimney's conduct
+was inexplicable enough, but I was in no humor to brook the theories of
+a stupid servant.  Still, he might know something, so I nodded for him
+to go on.
+
+He glanced over his shoulder and came a step nearer.
+
+"They say in the village, sir, that the 'ouse is 'aunted."
+
+"What?"
+
+"'Aunted, sir."
+
+"Who say it, James?"
+
+"The liveryman told the coachman, and the 'ousemaid got hit from a
+seamstress.  Hit's werry queer, sir."
+
+"Rubbish, James.  I 'm amazed that a person of your station should
+listen to a liveryman's gossip.  There 's the chimney, it's working
+perfectly.  Some shift of air-currents causes it to puff a little smoke
+into this room occasionally, but those things are not related to the
+supernatural.  We 'll find some way of correcting it in a day or two."
+
+"Werry good, sir.  But begging pardon, the chimney hain't hall.  Hit
+walks, if I may so hexpress hit."
+
+"Walks?" I exclaimed, sitting up and throwing down my review.  "What
+walks?"
+
+"You 'ear hit, sir, hin the walls.  Hit goes right through the solid
+brick, most hunaccountable."
+
+"You hear a mouse in the walls and think it's a ghost?  But you forget,
+James, that this is a new house,--only a year or so old,--and spooks
+don't frequent such places.  If it were an old place, it might be
+possible that the creaking of floors and the settling of walls would
+cause uneasiness in nervous people.  The ghost tradition usually rests
+on some ugly fact.  But here nothing of the kind is present."
+
+"Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he answered hoarsely.
+
+[Illustration: "Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he
+answered hoarsely.]
+
+It flashed over me that this big stolid fellow was out of his head; but
+sane or mad he was clearly greatly disturbed.  It was best, I thought,
+on either hypothesis, to speak to him peremptorily, and I rose, the
+better to deal with the situation.
+
+"What nonsense is this you have in your head?  You 're in the United
+States, and there are n't any majesty's soldiers to deal with.  You
+forget that you 're not in England now."
+
+"But this 'ere country used to be Henglish, you may recall, sir.  The
+story the coachman got hin the village goes back to the hold times,
+sir, when the colonies was hin rebellion, if I may so call hit, sir,
+and 'is majesty's troops was puttin' down the rebellion hin these
+parts.  Some American rebels chased a British soldier from hover near
+White Plains to these 'ere woods as they was then, and they 'anged 'im,
+sir, right where this 'ere 'ouse stands, if I may make so free."
+
+"Ah!  This is a revolutionary relic, then?"
+
+"You 'ave got hit, sir," he sputtered eagerly.  "They 'anged the man
+right 'ere where the 'ouse stands."
+
+"That's not a bad story, James.  And what does your mistress say about
+it?"
+
+"Well, sir; hit's the talk hin the village that that's why she bought
+the place, sir.  She rather fancies ghosts and the like, as you may
+know, sir."
+
+"Be careful what you say, James.  Miss Hollister is a noble and wise
+lady, and you do well to give her your best service."
+
+"We're all fond of 'er, sir, though she's a bit troubled hin the 'ead,
+if I may make so bold.  She says a good ghost is a hasset."
+
+I did not at once catch 'asset' with an aspirate, but when he repeated
+it, I laughed in spite of myself.
+
+"You 'd better go to bed, James.  And don't encourage talk among the
+other servants about this ghost.  I know something about the building
+of houses, and I 'll give these walls a good looking over.  Good-night."
+
+It was apparent that my interview had not cheered him greatly.  He
+turned at the door, to ask if I would put out the lights, and fear was
+so clearly written upon his big red face that I dismissed him sharply.
+
+I made myself comfortable for an hour, smoking a cigar over an article
+on English politics, and while I read, a big log placidly burned itself
+to ashes.  I found the switch and snapped out the library lights.  When
+I had gained the second floor I turned off the lights in the hall
+below, and as I looked down the well to make sure I had turned the
+right key, the third floor lights suddenly died and I was left in
+darkness.  This was the least bit disconcerting.  I was quite sure that
+the upper lights had remained burning brightly after the darkening of
+the lower hall, so that it was hardly possible that the one switch had
+cut off both lights.
+
+Standing by the rail that guarded the well, I peered upward, thinking
+that some one above me was manipulating another switch; but the silence
+was as complete as the blackness.  I was about to turn from the rail to
+the wall to find the switch, but at this moment, as my face was still
+lifted in the intentness with which I was listening, something brushed
+my cheek,--something soft of touch and swift of movement.  As I gripped
+the rail I felt this touch once, twice, thrice.  Then my hand sought
+the wall madly, and with so bad an aim that it was quite a minute
+before I found the switch-plate and snapped all the keys.  The stair,
+and the halls above and below me sprang into being again, and I stood
+blinking stupidly upward.
+
+Though I was in a modern house thoroughly lighted by electricity, I
+cannot deny that this incident, following so quickly upon the butler's
+story, occasioned a moment's acute horripilation, accompanied by an
+uncomfortable tremor of the legs.  As already hinted, I lay no claim to
+great valor.  As for ghosts, I am half persuaded of their existence,
+and after witnessing a presentation of Hamlet, always feel that
+Shakespeare is as safe a guide in such matters as the destructive
+scientific critics.
+
+There were various plausible explanations of the failure of the lights.
+Some switch that I did not know of, perhaps in the third-floor hall,
+might have been turned; or the power house in the village might have
+been shifting dynamos.  Either solution of the riddle was credible.
+But the ghostly touch on my face could not be accounted for so readily.
+Leaving the lights on, I continued to the third floor, and examined the
+switch, and sought in other ways to explain these phenomena.  My
+composure returned more slowly than I care to confess, and I think it
+was probably in my mind that the ghost of King George's dead soldier
+might be lying in wait for me; but I saw and heard nothing.  The doors
+of the unused chambers on the third floor were closed, and I did not
+feel justified in trying them.  The servants were housed on this floor,
+at the rear of the house, and a door that cut off their quarters proved
+on examination to be tightly locked.
+
+The fourth floor was only a half-story, used for storage purposes.  The
+roof was gained, I recalled, by an iron ladder and a hatchway in a
+trunk-room.  I ran down to my room and found a candle, to be armed
+against any further fickleness of the lights, and set out for the
+fourth floor.  I had changed my coat, and with a couple of candles and
+a box of matches started for the roof.  My courage had risen now, and I
+was ready for any further adventure that the night might hold for me.
+Miss Hollister and Cecilia were both in their rooms, presumably asleep;
+the servants doubtless had their doors barred against ghostly visitors,
+and the house was mine to explore as I pleased.
+
+I think I was humming slightly as I mounted the stair, which, in
+keeping with the general luxuriousness that characterized the
+furnishing of the house, was thickly carpeted even to the fourth floor.
+I was slipping my hand along the rail, and mounting, I dare say, a
+little jauntily as I screwed my courage to an unfamiliar notch, when
+suddenly, midway of the first half, and just before I reached the turn
+where the stair broke, the lights failed again, with startling
+abruptness.  This was carrying the joke pretty far, and instantly I
+clapped my hand to my pocket for the box of safety-matches, dug it out,
+and then in my haste dropped the lid essential to ignition, and stooped
+to find it.
+
+The stair had narrowed on this flight, and as I sought with futile
+eagerness to regain the box-lid, I could have sworn that some one
+passed me.  Still half-stooping, I stretched out my arms and clasped
+empty air, and so suddenly had I thrown myself forward, that I lost my
+balance and rolled downward the space of half a dozen treads before I
+recovered myself.  I was badly scared and hardly less angry at having
+missed through my own clumsiness the joy of grappling with the ghost of
+one of King George's soldiers; but the matches having been lost in the
+pitch-darkness of the stair, I could get my bearings again only by
+clinging to the stair-rail until I found the second-floor switch.  I
+should say that two full minutes had passed between the loss of the
+matches and my flashing on of the lamps.  From top to bottom the lights
+shone brightly; but no one was visible and I heard no sound in any part
+of the house.
+
+As I began to analyze my sensations during the temporary eclipse of the
+lights, I was conscious of two things.  The being, human or other, that
+had passed me had been light of step and fleet of motion.  There had
+been something uncanny in the ease and speed of that passing.  I was
+without conviction as to its direction, whether up or down, though I
+inclined to the former notion for the reason that the employment of a
+concealed switch above seemed the more reasonable argument.  And a
+faint, an almost imperceptible scent, as of a flower, had seemed to be
+a part of the passing.  Mine is a sensitive nostril, and I was
+confident that it did not betray me in this.  The sensation stirred by
+that faintest of odors had been agreeable; there was nothing suggestive
+of grave-mold or cerecloth about it.  There was in fact something
+rather delightfully human and contemporaneous in this fellow that
+pleased and reassured me.  That scamp of a revolutionary British
+soldier, resenting as was his right the application of hemp to his
+precious neck, had still a grace in him, and a ghost who prowls
+undaunted about an electric-lighted house in this twentieth century,
+having his whim with the switches, cannot be an utterly bad fellow.  My
+respect for all who are doomed to walk the night rose as, leaving the
+lights on clear to the lower hall, I gathered up my matches and started
+again for the roof.  The trunk-room door opened readily, as on my
+morning inspection of the chimney-pots, but as I glanced up, I saw that
+the hatch was open.  Through the aperture shone the heavens, a square
+of stars, and bright with the moon's radiance.  Pocketing my matches, I
+ran nimbly up the ladder.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES
+
+I had been surprised to find the hatch open, but it is not too much to
+say that I was greatly astonished by what I saw on the moon-flooded
+roof.  There, midway of a flat area that lay between the two larger
+chimney-pots, two persons were intently engaged, not in ghostly
+promenading or posturing, or even in audible conversation, but in a
+spirited bout with foils!  The clicking and scraping of the steel
+testified unmistakably to the reality of their presence.  And I was
+grateful for those sounds!  It needed only silence to tumble me back
+down the trap with chattering teeth, but these were beyond question
+corporeal beings, albeit rendered weird and fantastical by the oddity
+of their playground and the soft effulgence of the moon.  The vigor of
+the onset and the skill of the antagonists held me spellbound.  I stood
+with head and shoulders thrust through the opening, staring at this
+unusual spectacle, and not sure but that after all my eyes were
+tricking me.
+
+"_Touché!_"
+
+It was a woman's voice, faint from breathlessness.  She threw off her
+mask and dropped her foil, and with a most human and feminine gesture
+put up her hands to adjust her hair.  It was Cecilia Hollister, in a
+short skirt and fencing coat!
+
+Her opponent was a man, and as he too flung off his mask I saw that he
+was a gentleman of years.  If Miss Cecilia Hollister chose to meet
+strange men on the roof of her aunt's house and practice the fencer's
+art with them, it was no affair of mine, and I was about to withdraw
+when the stranger swung round and saw me.  His sudden exclamation
+caused the girl to turn, and as a reasonable frankness has always
+seemed to me essential to a nice discretion, I crawled out on the roof.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Hollister, but if I had known you were here I
+should not have intruded.  The vagaries of the library chimney have
+been on my mind, and I was about to have another peep into yonder pot."
+
+She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly against the
+inexplicable chimney in question, and still somewhat spent from her
+exercise.
+
+[Illustration: She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly
+against the inexplicable chimney.]
+
+"Father," she said, turning to the stranger who stood near, "this is
+Mr. Ames, who is Aunt Octavia's guest."
+
+The light of the gibbous moon enabled me to discern pretty clearly the
+form and features of Mr. Bassford Hollister.  And I find, in looking
+over my notes, that I accepted as a matter of course the singular
+meeting with my hostess's brother.  I had grown so used to the ways of
+the Hollisters I already knew, that the meeting with another member of
+the family at eleven o'clock at night on the roof of this remarkable
+house gave me no great shock of surprise.  He was tall, slender and
+dark, with fine eyes that suggested Cecilia's.  His close-trimmed beard
+was slightly gray: but he bore himself erect, and I had already seen
+that he was alert of arm and eye and nimble of foot.
+
+He put on his coat, which had been lying across one of the
+crenelations, and covered his head with a small soft hat.
+
+"This will do for to-night, Cecilia.  You had the best of me.  We 'll
+try again another time.  I 'm glad you stopped us, Mr. Ames.  We 'd had
+enough."
+
+He seemed in no wise disturbed by my appearance, nor in any haste to
+leave.  This meeting between the father and daughter, I reasoned, could
+hardly have been a matter of chance, and it must have been in Cecilia's
+mind that some sort of explanation would not be amiss.
+
+"Father and I have fenced together for years," she said.  "My sister
+Hezekiah does not care for the sport.  As you have already seen that my
+aunt Octavia is an unusual woman, given to many whims, I will not deny
+to you that at present my father is _persona non grata_ in this house.
+I beg to assure you that nothing to his discredit or mine has
+contributed to that situation, nor can our meeting here to-night be
+construed as detrimental to him or to me.  In meeting my father in this
+way I have in a sense broken faith with my aunt Octavia, but I assure
+you, Mr. Ames, that it is only the natural affection for a daughter
+that led my father to seek me here in this clandestine fashion."
+
+Cecilia had spoken steadily, but her voice broke as she concluded, and
+she walked quickly toward the hatchway.  Her father stepped before me
+to give her his hand through the opening.
+
+I withdrew to the edge of the roof while a few words passed between
+them that seemed to be on his part an expostulation and on hers an
+earnest denial and plea.  He passed her the foils and masks and she
+vanished; whereupon he addressed himself to me.
+
+"I had learned from both my daughters of your presence in my sister's
+house, and I had expected to meet you, sooner or later.  This is a
+strange business, a strange business."
+
+He had drawn out a pipe, which he filled and lighted dexterously.  The
+flame of his match gave me better acquaintance with his face.  He
+leaned against the serrated roof-guard with the greatest composure, his
+hat tilted to one side, and drew his pipe to a glow.  I had not
+forgotten my encounter with the ghost on the stair, and as I waited for
+him to speak, I was trying to identify him with the mysterious agency
+that had tampered with the lights, and passed so ghostly a hand across
+my face in the stair-well.  I could hardly say that there had not been
+time for either Bassford Hollister or his daughter to have reached the
+roof after my experiences on the stair; and yet they had been engaged
+so earnestly at the moment of my appearance at the hatchway that it was
+improbable that either could have played ghost and flown to the roof
+before I reached it.  And eliminating the ghost altogether, I had yet
+to learn how Bassford Hollister had gained entrance to the house.  It
+seemed best to drop speculations and wait for him to declare himself.
+
+"You must understand, Mr. Ames, that my daughters, both of them, are
+very dear to me.  It is the great grief of my life that owing to
+matters beyond my control I have been unable to care for them as I
+should like to do.  This being the case, I have been obliged to allow
+them to accept many favors from my only sister Octavia.  This in
+ordinary circumstances would not be repugnant to my pride; but my
+sister is a very unusual person.  She must do for my children in her
+own way, and while I was prepared, in agreeing that they should accept
+her bounty, for some whimsical manifestation of her eccentric
+character, I did not imagine that she would go so far as to shut me out
+from all knowledge of her plans for them.  That, Mr. Ames, is what has
+happened."
+
+His voice rose and fell mournfully.  He puffed his pipe for a moment
+and continued:--
+
+"Cecilia, being the older, was to be launched first.  Hezekiah was to
+be cared for in due season.  Last summer Octavia took them both abroad.
+As you are aware, they are young women of unusual distinction of
+appearance and manner, and they attracted a great deal of attention.
+From what I hear, a troop of suitors followed them about.  That sort of
+thing would appeal to Octavia; to me it is most repellent, but I had
+already committed myself, agreeing that Octavia should manage in her
+own fashion.  There is now something forward here which I do not
+understand.  I have an idea that Octavia has contrived some
+preposterous scheme for choosing a husband for Cecilia that is in
+keeping with her odd fashion of transacting all her business.  I do not
+know its nature, and by the terms of her agreement Cecilia is not to
+disclose the method to be employed to me,--not even to me, her own
+father.  You must agree, Ames, that that is rather rubbing it in."
+
+"But you don't assume that your daughter is not to be a free agent in
+the matter?  You don't believe that some unworthy and improper man is
+to be forced upon her?"
+
+"That, sir, is exactly what I fear!"
+
+"You will pardon me, but I cannot for a moment believe that Miss
+Hollister would risk her niece's happiness even to satisfy her own
+peculiar humor.  Your sister is a shrewd woman, and her heart, I am
+convinced, is the kindest.  Among the suitors now camped at the
+Prescott Arms there must be some one whom your daughter approves, and I
+see no reason why he should not ultimately be her choice.  Now that you
+have broached the matter, I make free to say that one of these suitors
+is an old friend of mine.  Hartley Wiggins by name, and that he is a
+man of the highest character and a gentleman in the strictest sense."
+
+He had been listening to me with the greatest composure, but at the
+mention of Wiggins's name he started and nervously clutched my arm.
+
+"That man may be all that you say," he cried chokingly, "but he has
+acted infamously toward both my daughters.  He is a rogue, and a most
+despicable fellow.  He has flirted outrageously with Hezekiah while at
+the same time pretending to be deeply interested in Cecilia.  I say to
+you in all candor that a man who will trifle with the affections of a
+child like Hezekiah is a villain, nothing less."
+
+"But, my dear sir, is it not possible that you do him a great wrong?
+May it not be the other way round, that Hezekiah is trifling with
+Wiggins's affections?  He 's a splendid fellow, Hartley Wiggins, but he
+'s a little slow, that's all.  And between two superb young women like
+your daughters a man may be pardoned for doubts and hesitations; a case
+of being happy with either if t'other dear charmer were only away.  To
+put it quite concretely, I will say that in my own very slight
+acquaintance with these young women I feel the spell of both.  Your
+sister, I take it, is anxious not to show partiality for any of these
+men, and yet I dare say she probably feels kindly disposed toward
+Wiggins.  His worst crime seems to be that he chose Tory ancestors!
+The thing is bound to straighten itself out."
+
+He tossed his head impatiently.
+
+"Has it occurred to you that Octavia's interest in this Hartley Wiggins
+may be due to a trifling and immaterial fact?"
+
+"Nothing beyond his indubitable eligibility."
+
+"Then let me tell you what I suspect.  Both his names contain seven
+letters.  My sister is slightly cracked as to the number seven.  I
+swear to you my belief that the fact that his names contain seven
+letters each is at the bottom of all this.  Incredible, my dear sir,
+but wholly possible!"
+
+"Then, such being the case, why does n't she show her hand openly?  If
+she believes that Wiggins with his septenary names is ordained by the
+seven original pleiades to marry your daughter Cecilia, I should think
+that by the same token she would have sought a man rejoicing in the
+noble name of Septimus.  You send conjecture far when once you
+entertain so absurd an idea."
+
+"You think my assumption unlikely?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"I certainly do, Mr. Hollister.  But I confess that I had never counted
+the letters in Wiggins's name before, and your suggestion is
+interesting.  And this whole idea of the potential seven in our affairs
+has possibilities.  If seven at all, why is n't it possible that your
+sister has Jacob in mind and the seven years he served for Rachel?  You
+may as well assume that, as Wiggins is specially favored in the number
+of letters in his singularly prosaic and unromantic name, it is Miss
+Hollister's plan to keep him dallying seven years."
+
+He seized me by the arm and forced me back against the battlements,
+then stood off and eyed me fiercely.
+
+"You speak of serving and of service!  Will you tell me just why you
+are here and what brings you into this affair!  My daughter Hezekiah is
+the frankest person alive, and she told me of her meetings with you and
+that you had been to the Asolando,--where she spent a day in the
+sheerest spirit of mischief.  That was the beginning of all our
+troubles, that damned hole with its insane confectionery and poetry.
+If Cecilia, in a misguided notion of earning her own living, had not
+gone there and worn an apron for a week before I dragged her out, she
+would never have met Wiggins.  And now will you kindly tell me just
+what you are doing in my sister's house, where I have to come like a
+thief in the night to see one of my own children?"
+
+This fierce deliverance touched me nearly: I doubted my ability to
+explain to one of these amazing Hollisters just how I came to be
+sojourning in the house of another of the family without any business
+that would bear scrutiny.  I hastened to declare my profession, and
+that I had been summoned by Miss Hollister to examine her chimneys.  I
+could not, however, tell him that until my arrival the chimneys had
+behaved themselves admirably!
+
+"You've admitted your friendship for this Wiggins person; that's
+enough," he said when I had concluded.  "I advise you to leave the
+house at once.  I tell you he 's got to be eliminated from the
+situation.  Understand, that I do not threaten you with violence, but I
+will not promise to abstain from visiting heavy punishment upon that
+fellow.  And you?  A chimney-doctor?  I am a man of considerable
+knowledge of the world, and I say to you very candidly that I don't
+believe there is any such profession."
+
+"Then let me tell you," I replied, not without heat, "that I am a
+graduate in architecture, and that if you will do me the honor to
+consult a list of the alumni of the Institute of Technology, you will
+find that I was graduated there not without credit.  And as for
+remaining in this house, I beg to inform you, Mr. Hollister, that as I
+am your sister's guest and as she is perfectly competent to manage her
+own affairs, I shall stay here as long as it pleases her to ask me to
+remain.  And now, one other matter.  How did you gain this roof
+to-night, when by your own admission you are not on such terms with
+your sister as would justify you in entering it openly?"
+
+The moonlight did not fail to convey the contempt in his face, but I
+thought he grinned as he answered quietly:--
+
+"You don't seem to understand, young man, that you are entitled to no
+explanations from me.  If my sister has her sense of a joke, I assure
+you that I have mine.  I came here to see my daughter.  As I taught her
+to fence when she was ten years old and as she is particularly expert,
+and moreover, as in my present condition of poverty I have been obliged
+to forego the pleasure of metropolitan life and to give up my
+membership in the Fencers' Club, you can hardly deny my right to meet
+my own daughter for a brief bout anywhere I please.  You strike me as a
+singularly fresh young person.  It would be a positive grief to me to
+feel that my conduct had displeased you.  And now, as the night grows
+chill, I shall beg you to precede me into the house by the way you
+came."
+
+"But first," I persisted, "let me ask a question.  It is possible that
+you yourself have some preference among your daughter's several
+suitors, Mr. Hollister.  Would you object to telling me which one you
+would choose for Miss Cecilia?"
+
+"Beyond question, the man for Cecilia, if I have any voice in the
+matter, is Lord Arrowood."
+
+"Arrowood!" I exclaimed.  "You surprise me greatly.  I saw him at the
+inn, and he seemed to me the most insignificant and uninteresting one
+of the lot."
+
+"That proves you a person of poor gifts of discernment, Mr. Ames;" and
+his tone and manner were quite reminiscent of his sister's ways; and
+his further explanation proved him even more worthily the brother of
+his sister.
+
+"As I was obliged," he began, "owing to an unfortunate physical
+handicap, to abandon my art, that of a marine painter, I have given my
+attention for a number of years to the study of the Irish situation.
+Between the various political parties of Great Britain, poor Ireland
+can never regain her ancient power.  But I see no reason why she should
+not become once more a free and independent nation.  I have gone deeply
+into Irish history, and I may modestly say that I probably know that
+history from the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion to the death of
+Gladstone better than any other living man.  I met Arrowood by chance
+in the highway yesterday, and I found that he holds exactly my ideas."
+
+"But Arrowood isn't an Irishman," I interjected; "neither, I should
+say, are you!"
+
+"That's not to the point.  Neither was Napoleon a Frenchman strictly
+speaking; nor was Lafayette an American.  A friend of mine in Wall
+Street is ready, when the time is ripe, to finance the scheme by
+selling bonds to the multitudes of Irish office-holders throughout the
+United States,--most of whom are not unknown to the banks."
+
+"And I suppose you and Arrowood would sit jointly in the seat of the
+ancient kings in Dublin after you had effected your _coup_."
+
+"You lose your bet, Mr. Ames.  We have agreed that, as the mayors of
+Boston for many years have been Irishmen, and as they have, by their
+prowess in holding the natives in subordination, demonstrated the
+highest political sagacity, we could not do better than take one of
+these rulers of the old Puritan capital and place him on the Irish
+throne.  The keen humor of that move would so tickle all interested
+powers, that the investiture and coronation of the new ruler would be
+accomplished without firing a shot."
+
+This certainly had the true Hollister touch!  Miss Octavia herself
+could not have devised a more delightful scheme.
+
+"And so," Mr. Bassford Hollister concluded, "I naturally incline toward
+Arrowood, though he is so poor that he was obliged to come over in the
+steerage to continue his wooing of my daughter."
+
+He let himself down into the dark trunk-room, waited for me
+courteously, and walked by my side to the stairway, both of us
+maintaining silence.  I was deeply curious to know how he had entered
+and whether he expected to go down the front way and out the main door.
+We kept together to the third-floor hall,--I could have sworn to that;
+then suddenly, just as we reached the stairway, out went the lights,
+and we were in utter darkness.  I smothered an exclamation, clutched my
+matches and struck a light, and as the stick flamed slowly, I looked
+about for Bassford Hollister; but he had vanished as suddenly and
+completely as though a trap had yawned beneath us and swallowed him.  I
+found the third-floor switch and it responded immediately, flooding the
+stair-well to the lower hall, but I neither saw nor heard anything more
+of Hollister.
+
+Astounded by this performance, I continued on to the lower floor to
+have a look around, and there, calmly reading by the library table, sat
+Miss Octavia!
+
+"Late hours, Mr. Ames!" she cried.  "I supposed you had retired long
+ago."
+
+I was still the least bit ruffled by that last transaction on the
+stair, and I demanded a little curtly:--
+
+"Pardon my troubling you; but may I inquire, Miss Hollister, how long
+you have been sitting here?"
+
+The clock on the stair began to strike twelve, and she listened
+composedly to a few of the deep-toned strokes before replying.
+
+"Just half an hour.  I thought some one knocked at my door about an
+hour ago.  The lights were on and I came down, saw a magazine that had
+escaped my eye before, and here you find me."
+
+"Some one knocked at your door?"
+
+"I thought so.  You know, the servants have an idea that the place is
+haunted, and I thought that if I sat here the ghost might take it upon
+himself to walk.  I confess to a slight disappointment that it is only
+you who have appeared.  I suppose it was n't you who knocked at my
+door?"
+
+"No," I replied, laughing a little at her manner, "not unless it was
+you who switched off the lights as I was coming down from the fourth
+floor.  I have been studying this chimney from the roof.  I know
+something of the ways of electric switches, and they don't usually move
+of their own accord."
+
+"Your coming to this house has been the greatest joy to me, Mr. Ames.
+I should not have imagined, in a chance look at you, that you were
+psychical, and yet such is clearly the fact.  I assure you that I have
+not touched any switch since I left my room.  It was unnecessary, as I
+found the lights on.  And I acquit you of rapping, rapping at my
+chamber-door.  It gives me the greatest satisfaction to assume that the
+house is haunted, and at any time you find the ghost, I beg that you
+will lose no time in presenting me.  If the prowler is indeed one of
+King George's soldiers, hanged during the Revolution on the site of
+this house, I should like to have words with him.  I have just been
+reading an article on the political corruption in Philadelphia in this
+magazine.  It bears every evidence of truth, but if half of it is
+fiction I still feel that, as an American citizen, though denied the
+inalienable right of representation assured me in the Constitution, we
+owe that ghost an apology; for certainly nothing was gained by throwing
+off the British yoke, and that poor soldier died in a worthy cause."
+
+She wore a remarkable lavender dressing-gown, and a night-cap such as I
+had never seen outside a museum.  As she concluded her speech, spoken
+in that curious lilting tone which, from the beginning, had left me in
+doubt as to the seriousness of all her statements, she rose and, still
+clasping her magazine, made me a courtesy and was soon mounting the
+stair.
+
+I heard her door close a minute later, and then, feeling that I had
+earned the right to repose, I went to my room and to bed.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+I PLAY TRUANT
+
+I slept late, and on going down found the table set in the
+breakfast-room.  A pleasant inadvertence marked the choice of
+eating-places at Hopefield Manor; I was never quite sure where I should
+find a table spread.  No one was about, and I was seized with that mild
+form of panic familiar to the guest who finds himself late to a meal.
+As I paused uncertainly in the door, viewing the table, set, I noticed,
+for only one person, Miss Octavia entered briskly, her slight figure
+concealed by a prodigious gingham apron.
+
+"Good-morrow, merry gentleman," she began blithely.  "The most
+delightful thing has happened.  Without the slightest warning, without
+the faintest intimation of their dissatisfaction, the house-servants
+have departed, with the single exception of my personal maid, who,
+being a Swede and therefore singularly devoid of emotion, was unshaken
+by the ghost-rumors that have sent the rest of my staff scampering over
+the hills."
+
+She lighted the coffee-machine lamp in her most tranquil fashion, and
+begged me to be seated.
+
+"I have already breakfasted," she continued, "and Cecilia is even now
+preparing you an omelet with her own hand.  I beg to reassure you, as
+my guest, that the _émeute_ of the servants causes me not the slightest
+annoyance.  From reading the comic papers you may have gained an
+impression that the loss of servants is a tragic business in any
+household, but nothing so petty can disturb me.  Cecilia is an
+excellent cook; and I myself shall not starve so long as I have
+strength to crack an egg or lift a stove-lid.  And besides, I still
+retain my early trust in Providence.  I do not doubt that before
+nightfall a corps of excellent servants will again be on duty here.
+Very likely they are even now bound for this place, coming from the wet
+coasts of Ireland, from Liverpool, from lonely villages in Scandinavia.
+The average woman would merely fret herself into a sanatorium if
+confronted with the problem I face this morning, but I hope you will
+testify in future to the fact that I faced this day in the cheeriest
+and most hopeful spirit."
+
+"Not only shall I do so, Miss Hollister," I replied, trying to catch
+her own note, "but it will, throughout my life, give me the greatest
+satisfaction to set your cause aright.  To that extent let me be
+Horatio to your Hamlet."
+
+"Thank you, milord," she returned, with the utmost gravity.  "And may I
+say further that the incident gives the stamp of authenticity to my
+ghost?  I was obliged to pay those people double wages to lure them
+from the felicities of the city, and they must have been a good deal
+alarmed to have left so precipitately.  You must excuse me now, as it
+is necessary for me to do the pastry-cook's work this morning, that
+individual having fled with the rest, and it being incumbent on me, to
+maintain my fee-simple in this property, to make a dozen pies before
+high noon.  But first I must visit the stables, where I believe the
+coachman still lingers, having been prevented from joining the stampede
+of the house-servants by the painful twinges of gout."
+
+With this she left me, and I began pecking at a grape-fruit.  It had
+been in my mind as I dressed that morning to play truant and visit the
+city.  It was almost imperative that I take a look at my office, and I
+had resolved upon a plan which would, I believed, give me the key to
+the ghost mystery.  If Pepperton had built that house he must know
+whether he had contrived any secret passages that would afford exits
+and entrances not apparent to the eye.  It would be an easy matter to
+run into the city, explain myself to my assistant, and get hold of
+Pepperton.  My mind was made up, and I had even consulted a time-table
+and chosen one of the express trains.  As I sat at the table absorbed
+in my plans for the day, my nerves received a sudden shock.  I had
+heard no one enter, yet a voice at my shoulder murmured casually:
+
+  "Hast thou seen ghosts?  Hast thou at midnight heard"--
+
+
+It was the voice of Hezekiah, I knew, before I faced her.  She wore a
+blue sailor-waist with a broad red ribbon tied under the collar, and a
+blue tam o' shanter capped her head.  She bore a tray that contained my
+omelet, a plate of toast, and other sundries incidental to a
+substantial breakfast, which she distributed deftly upon the table.
+
+"How did you get here?" I blurted, my nerves still out of control.
+
+"The kitchen door, sir.  I had ridden into the garden, and seeing Aunt
+Octavia heading for the stables and Cecilia at the kitchen window, I
+pedaled boldly in.  Cecilia wanted to borrow my bicycle, and being a
+good little sister, I gave it to her.  She also said that you required
+food, so I told her to go and I would carry you your breakfast.  I
+shall skip myself in a minute.  You may draw your own coffee.  Mind the
+machine; it tips if you are n't careful."
+
+She went to the window and peered out toward the stables.
+
+"May I ask, Daughter of Kings, where your sister has gone so suddenly?"
+
+"Certainly.  She 's off for town to chase a cook and a few other people
+to run this hotel.  I heard at the post-office that the whole camp had
+deserted, so I ran over to see what was doing; and just for that I 've
+got to walk home."
+
+"But your aunt said that Providence would take care of the servant
+question; she expected a whole corps of ideal servants to come straying
+in during the day."
+
+Hezekiah laughed.  (It is not right for any girl to be as pretty as
+Hezekiah, or to laugh as musically.)  She told me to sit down, and as I
+did so she passed the toast and helped herself to a slice into which
+she set her fine white teeth neatly, watching me with the merriest of
+twinkles in her brown eyes.
+
+"Cecilia has n't Aunt Octavia's confidence in Providence, so she 's
+taking a shot at the employment agencies.  She has left a note on the
+kitchen table to inform Aunt Octavia that she had forgotten an
+engagement with the dentist and has gone to catch the ten-eighteen."
+
+"That, Hezekiah, is a lie.  It isn't quite square to deceive your aunt
+that way," I remarked soberly.
+
+Hezekiah laughed again.
+
+"You absurdity!  Don't you know Aunt Octavia yet!  She will be
+perfectly overjoyed when she comes back and finds that note from
+Cecilia.  She likes disappearances, mysteries, and all that kind of
+thing.  But it is barely possible that you will have to wash the
+dishes.  I can't, you see, for I 'm not supposed to come on the
+reservation at all--not until Cecilia has found a husband.  Is n't it
+perfectly delicious?"
+
+"All of that, Daughter of Kings!  I think that as soon as I can regain
+confidence in my own sanity I shall like it myself.  But,"--and I
+watched her narrowly,--"you see, Hezekiah, there is really a ghost, you
+know."
+
+Once more that divine mirth in her bubbled mellowly.  She had walked
+guardedly to the window and turned swiftly with a mockery of fear in
+her face.
+
+"Aunt Octavia approaches, and I must be off.  But that ghost, Mr.
+Chimney-Man,--when you find him, please let me know.  There are a lot
+of things I want to ask some reliable ghost about the hereafter."
+
+With this she fled, and I heard the front door close smartly after her.
+An instant later Miss Octavia appeared and asked solicitously how I
+liked my omelette.
+
+"The coachman has been telling me a capital ghost-story.  He believes
+them to be beneficent and declares that he will under no circumstances
+leave my employment."
+
+She sat down and folded her arms upon the table.  For the first time I
+believed that she was serious.  There was, in fact, a troubled look on
+her sweet, whimsical face.  It occurred to me that the loss of her
+servants was not really the slight matter she had previously made of it.
+
+"Mr. Ames, will you pardon me for asking you a question of the most
+intimate character?  It is only after much hesitation that I do so."
+
+I bowed encouragingly, my curiosity fully aroused.
+
+"You may ask me anything in the world, Miss Hollister."
+
+"Then I wish you would tell me whether,--I can't express the dislike I
+feel in doing this,--but can you tell me whether you have seen in the
+hands of my niece Cecilia a small--a very small, silver-backed
+note-book."
+
+"Yes, I have," I answered, greatly surprised.
+
+"And may I ask whether,--and again I must plead my deep concern as an
+excuse for making such an inquiry,--whether you by any chance saw her
+making any notation in that book?"
+
+I recalled the silver-bound book perfectly, but had attached no
+importance to it; but if Cecilia's fortunes were so intimately related
+to it as Miss Hollister's manner implied, I felt that I must be careful
+of my answer.  I was trying to recall the precise moment at which I had
+entered the library the preceding evening after Hume's departure, and
+while I was intent upon this my silence must have been prolonged.  I
+felt obliged to make an answer of some sort, and yet I did not relish
+the thought of conveying information that might distress and embarrass
+a noble girl like Cecilia Hollister.  Something in my face must have
+conveyed a hint of this inner conflict to Miss Hollister, for she rose
+suddenly, holding up her hand as though to silence me.  She seemed
+deeply moved, and cried in agitation:--
+
+"Do not answer me!  The question was quite unfair,--quite unfair,--and
+yet I assure you that at the moment I made the inquiry, I felt
+justified."
+
+She retreated toward the door as I rose; and then with her composure
+fully restored she courtesied gracefully.
+
+"Luncheon here will be a buffet affair to-day, as I shall be engaged
+with matters of pastry.  I'm sure, however, that you will find
+employment until dinner-time, when my house will be fully in order
+again."
+
+I intended that this should be a busy day, so without making
+explanations I went to the stable, told the coachman I wished to be
+driven to the station, and was soon whizzing over the hills toward
+Katonah.  The coachman, an Irishman, introduced the subject of the
+ghost as soon as we were out of sight of the house.
+
+"The ole lady's dipped; she's dipped, sir," he remarked leadingly.
+
+"It's catching," I answered; "so you'd better forget it."
+
+He thereupon settled glumly to his driving.  As we crossed the bridge
+near where I had first encountered Hezekiah in the apple-orchard, I
+spied her trudging across a meadow, and she waved her hand gaily.
+Meadows and streams and stars!  Of such were Hezekiah's kingdom.
+
+I wondered how Wiggins and the other gentlemen at the Prescott Arms
+were faring.  My question was partially answered a second later, as we
+passed the road that forked off to the inn.  On a stone by the roadside
+sat Lord Arrowood, desolately guarding a kit-bag and a suit-case.  He
+was dressed in a shabby Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and sucked a
+pipe.
+
+[Illustration: On a stone by the roadside sat Lord Arrowood.]
+
+I bade the driver pause, and greeted the nobleman affably.
+
+"Can I give you a lift?  You seem to be bound for the station, and I'm
+taking a train myself."
+
+"No, thanks," he replied sharply.  "They're a lot of
+bounders,--bounders, I say!"
+
+
+
+
+"Ah!  Of whom do you speak, Lord Arrowood?" I asked glancing at my
+watch.
+
+"Those scoundrels at the inn.  They have thrown me out.  Thrown me
+out--me!"
+
+"Hard lines, for a fact; but if you are interested in trains"--
+
+"I refuse to leave the county!" he shouted.  "If they think they're
+going to get rid of me they're mistaken.  Bounders, I say, bounders!"
+
+He uttered this opprobrious term with great bitterness, and crossed his
+legs, as though to emphasize his permanence upon the boulder.  Patience
+on a monument is not more eternally planted.  He seemed in no mood for
+conversation, so I sped on, with no time to lose.
+
+I gained the step of the chair-car attached to the ten-eighteen with
+some loss of dignity, the porter yanking me aboard under the
+conductor's scornful eye.  The Katonah passengers were still in the
+aisle, and as I surveyed them I saw Cecilia take a seat in the middle
+of the car.  She was just unfolding a newspaper when I moved to a seat
+behind her and bade her good-morning.
+
+The look she gave me in turning round had in it something of Hezekiah's
+quizzical humor.  This interested me, because I had not previously seen
+any but the most superficial resemblance between the sisters.  Her
+cheeks were aglow from her sprint on the wheel.  The short skirt and
+the shirt waist are the true vesture of emancipated woman.  Cecilia
+Hollister, whose apparel at home had struck me as rather formal, seemed
+this morning quite a new being.  She drew a folded veil from the pocket
+of her jacket, removed her hat, and pinned the veil to it.  She kept
+the hat in her lap, however, and went on talking.
+
+"We are both truants.  You must have breakfasted in a hurry to have
+caught this train."
+
+"Not at all.  I enjoyed a brief conversation with your sister, and
+after she had gone, your aunt came back and lingered for a moment."
+
+"She told you, I suppose, that Providence would look after the servant
+question."
+
+"She did, just that."
+
+"Well, Providence is hardly equal to getting enough servants to run
+that place, so I'm going to assist Providence a little."
+
+"You become the vicaress of Providence?  I admire your spirit."
+
+"It's mere self-preservation.  Aunt Octavia would have me chained to
+the kitchen if I did n't do something about it."
+
+She had permitted me to settle with the conductor, and when I had
+completed this transaction I found that she had drawn from her purse
+the little silver booklet about which Miss Octavia had inquired so
+anxiously.  She held this close to her eyes, so that I had a clear view
+of the silver backs, on one of which "C.H." was engraved in neat
+script.  The subjoined pencil she held poised ready for use, touching
+the tip of it absent-mindedly to her tongue.  She raised her eyes with
+the far-away look still in them.
+
+"Can you tell me how to spell Arrowood,--is it one or two w's?"
+
+"One, I think the noble lord uses."
+
+She seemed to write the name, and I saw her counting on her fingers,
+touching them lightly on the open page of the book.
+
+Then she dropped it into her purse, which she thrust back carefully
+into her pocket.  She sighed, and was silent for a moment.  We were
+passing a series of huge signs built like a barricade along the right
+of way, and on one of these I observed with fresh interest an
+advertisement whose counterpart I had seen often about New York, but
+without ever observing it attentively.  It drew a laugh from me now.
+It represented an infant in a perambulator, behind which stood the
+effigy of a capped and aproned nurse.  A legend was inscribed on the
+board to this effect:--
+
+      HUSH!  Baby's asleep.
+  It's a HOLLISTER PERAMBULATOR!
+
+
+"If it's a Hollister," I remarked as a second of these flew by the
+window, "it's perfect."
+
+"Oh, those things!" she exclaimed.
+
+"I was n't referring to the perambulator necessarily.  Anything that's
+Hollister must be good."
+
+"We're out of the business, except that Aunt Octavia gets a dollar for
+every one that's made; but the trust keeps the name."
+
+"The trust could hardly change your name.  You will have to do that
+yourself."
+
+"You've been talking to Hezekiah.  That's the way people always talk to
+her."
+
+"It's certainly not the way I've been talking to you; but we've run
+away from school, and I'm disposed to make the most of it.  Our
+conversation at your aunt's has been so high up in the air, that it's
+pleasant to come down to earth and tune it to the less strenuous note
+of a twentieth-century railway journey."
+
+"That, Mr. Ames, may depend upon the point of view."
+
+"But you will make it yours, won't you?  You see, I've always dreamed
+of adventures, but since I met your aunt in the Asolando they've been
+coming a little too fast.  There's that ghost business.  Now I 'm going
+to catch that ghost to-night, if it's the last thing I do!"
+
+"Well, I'm not the ghost, and neither is my father, if that's what's in
+your mind.  Tell me just what you have seen and heard."
+
+I gave her the story in detail, and my recital seemed to amuse her
+greatly.
+
+"You thought it was Aunt Octavia herself at first, then you thought I
+was the spook, and now you are not fully persuaded that it is not my
+father.  I will take you into my confidence this far--that I don't know
+how father got into the house last night.  He wrote a note asking me to
+meet him on the roof and bring the foils.  That was not unlike him, as
+he is the dearest father in the world, and his whims are just as jolly
+in their way as Aunt Octavia's.  I was sure that Aunt Octavia had
+retired for the night, so I changed my dress and carried the foils up
+through the trunk-room.  I had hardly reached there before my father
+appeared.  The whole situation--my being there and all that--has
+distressed father a great deal; so I let you see me cry a little.  I
+promise never to do it again."
+
+Mirth brightened the eyes she turned upon me now.
+
+"You think," she asked, "that those lights could n't have winked out
+twice by themselves while you were on the stairway."
+
+"I am positive of it.  And somebody--a being of some sort--passed me on
+the stairway.  It might imaginably have been you!"
+
+"But I tell you positively it was not."
+
+"Then it might have been your father.  A man who can enter a house at
+will might easily play any manner of other tricks.  His disappearance
+after I had gone down into the house with him was just as mysterious as
+the ghost."
+
+"It was natural for father not to want you to know how he got in; the
+motive for that would be the fact that he is not supposed to see me or
+communicate with me in any way.  But you 've got to get a
+ghost-_motif_."
+
+"I think I have one," I said.
+
+"Then all the rest is easy.  To whom does this ghost-_motif_ lead you?"
+
+"I need hardly say; for it must have occurred to you that there is one
+member of the Hollister family we have n't mentioned in this
+connection."
+
+"If you mean Hezekiah"--
+
+"None other!"
+
+The surprise in her face was not feigned,--I was confident of
+this,--and the questions evoked by my answer at once danced in her eyes.
+
+"If Hezekiah should be caught in the house just now we should all pay
+dearly for her rashness.  Believe me, this is true.  Some day you may
+know the whys and wherefores; at present no one may know.  There is
+this, however,--if Hezekiah or my father should be found at Hopefield
+Manor, anywhere on the premises, while I am there, the consequences
+would be disastrous,--more so than I dare tell you.  But why should
+Hezekiah wish to prowl about there at night,--to assume for a moment
+that she is doing it?"
+
+Her manner was wholly earnest.  It was plain that she had entered into
+some sort of a compact with her aunt, and no doubt the arrangement was
+in the characteristic whimsical vein of which I had enjoyed personal
+experience.  I did not wish to press Cecilia for explanations she might
+not be free to make, but I ventured a suggestion or two.
+
+"Hezekiah may be entering the house and playing ghost for amusement,
+merely in a spirit of childish rebellion against the interdiction that
+forbids her the house.  That is quite plausible, Hezekiah being the
+spirited young person we know her to be.  And it may amuse her, too, to
+plug the chimneys at a time when her sister is enjoying the visits of
+suitors.  Without quite realizing that such was her animus, she may be
+the least,--the very least bit jealous!"
+
+Cecilia flushed and her eyes flashed indignantly.  She bent toward me
+eagerly.
+
+"Please do not say such a thing!  You must not even think it!"
+
+"She may be a little forlorn, alone in your father's house over the
+hills at times when you are surrounded by admirers, and it is my
+assumption from what I have learned in one way and another of your
+flight abroad last summer, that some of these gentlemen now established
+at the Prescott Arms are known to her."
+
+"Oh, all of them, certainly."
+
+"And Hartley Wiggins among the rest?"
+
+"That, Mr. Ames, is most unkind," she declared earnestly.  "She has
+told me that she was not in the least interested in Mr. Wiggins."
+
+"And she told me the same thing, but I do not feel sure of it!  But
+what if she is!  You are not really interested in him yourself!"
+
+In the library at Hopefield Manor I should not have thought of speaking
+to Cecilia Hollister in any such fashion; but the flying train gave
+wings to my daring.  I was surprised at my own temerity, and more
+surprised that she did not seem to resent my new manner of speech.  She
+did not, however, vouchsafe any reply to my statement, but changed the
+subject abruptly.
+
+My description of the ghost had taken considerable time, and we were
+now running through the tunnels and would soon be at the end of our
+journey.  She put on her hat and veil without making it necessary for
+us to discontinue our talk.  A certain languor that had marked her at
+her aunt's vanished.  There was a clearer light in her eye, and as I
+helped her into her coat I felt that here was a woman to whose high
+qualities I had done scant justice.
+
+"I count on finishing my errand and taking the two-seven," she remarked.
+
+"That's a short time to allow yourself.  I've heard that it's a dreary
+business chasing the employment agencies."
+
+"Not if you know where not to go.  If you 'll get me a machine of some
+sort I 'll be off at once."
+
+"I fear I shan't conclude my own business so soon; but if you will
+honor me at luncheon?"--
+
+This last was at the door of a taxicab I had found for her.
+
+"Sorry, Mr. Ames, but it's out of the question.  I hope to see you at
+dinner to-night.  And please"--
+
+"Yes, Miss Hollister"--
+
+"Please remember that you are Aunt Octavia's guest, and don't annoy her
+by failing to appear at dinner.  You know you have n't fixed that
+chimney yet!"
+
+Her smile left me well in the air; I stood staring after the very
+commonplace cab as it rolled away with her, my mind a whirling chaos of
+emotion.  The crowd jostled me impatiently; for other people, not
+breathing celestial ether from an hour of Cecilia Hollister's society,
+were bent upon the day's business.
+
+I set off at once for Pepperton's office, where I learned that the
+architect was out of town; but his chief clerk greeted me courteously.
+I told him frankly that I wanted to look at the plans of Hopefield
+Manor to enable me to learn the exact lines of the chimneys.  He
+confessed surprise that they were causing trouble, and expressed regret
+that they were not in the office.
+
+"Miss Hollister sent for them this morning, and I have just given them
+to a young woman who bore a note from her.  Ordinarily I should not
+have let them go, but the note was peremptory, and Miss Hollister is a
+friend of Mr. Pepperton's, you know, and a person I'm sure he would not
+refuse.  We're at work now on plans for a cathedral she proposes
+building for the Bishop of Manila."
+
+I was not surprised that Octavia Hollister should be building
+cathedrals in the Orient,--I was beyond that,--but I was taken aback to
+find that she had anticipated me in my rush for the plans of her house.
+Clearly, I was dealing with a woman who was not only immensely amusing
+but exceedingly shrewd as well.  Could it be possible after all that
+she was herself playing ghost merely for her own entertainment!  She
+was capable of it; but I had satisfied myself that she could not have
+performed the tricks of which I had been the victim the night previous
+unless she possessed some rare vanishing power like that of the East
+Indian mystics.
+
+"May I ask who came for the plans?"
+
+"I judged the young woman to be a maid, or perhaps she was Miss
+Hollister's secretary."
+
+I had given little heed during my short stay at Hopefield Manor to Miss
+Hollister's personal attendant.  I had passed her in the halls once or
+twice, a young woman of twenty-five, I should say, fair-haired and
+blue-eyed.  She might herself be the ghost, now that I thought of it;
+but this seemed the most unlikely hypothesis possible,--and there was
+no difficulty in accounting for her flight to town, for there were many
+horses and vehicles in the Hopefield stable, and trains were frequent.
+
+"If there is anything further, Mr. Ames"--
+
+I roused myself to find the chief clerk regarding me impatiently, and I
+thanked him and hurried away.
+
+At my own office my assistant pounced upon me wrathfully.  He was half
+wild over the pressure of vexatious business, and had just been
+engaging in a long-distance conversation with a country gentleman at
+Lenox which had left him in bad temper.  I was explaining to him the
+seriousness of my errands at Hopefield, rather unconvincingly I fear,
+and the fact that I must return at once, when the office-boy entered my
+private room to say that three gentlemen wished to see me immediately.
+They had submitted cards, but had refused to state the nature of their
+business.  It was with a distinct sensation of surprise that I read the
+names respectively of Percival B. Shallenberger, Daniel P. Ormsby, and
+John Stewart Dick.
+
+"Show the gentlemen in," I said promptly, greatly to the disgust of my
+assistant, who retired to deal with several clients whom I had passed
+in the reception-room fiercely walking the floor.
+
+I had imagined all the suitors established at the Prescott Arms.  As
+the three appeared clad in light automobiling coats, I could not
+forbear a smile at their grim appearance.  Shallenberger, the novelist,
+and Ormsby, the knit-goods manufacturer, were big men; Dick was much
+shorter, though of compact and sturdy build.  They growled surlily in
+response to my greeting, and Ormsby closed the door behind them.  Dick
+seemed to be the designated spokesman, and he advanced to the desk
+behind which I sat, with a stride and manner that advertised his
+belligerent frame of mind.
+
+"Mr. Ames," he began, "we have come here to speak for ourselves and
+certain other gentlemen who are staying for a time at the Prescott
+Arms."
+
+"Gentlemen of the committee, welcome to our office," I replied, greatly
+amused by his ferocity.
+
+My tone caused the others to draw in defensively behind him.
+
+"We want you to understand that your conduct in accompanying a lady
+that I shall not name to the city is an act we cannot pass in silence.
+Your conduct in going to Hopefield Manor was in itself an affront to
+us, but your behavior this morning passes all bounds.  We have come,
+sir, to demand an explanation!"
+
+At a glance this was a situation I dare not take seriously.  In any
+circumstances the fact that these men had followed me to my office to
+rebuke me for accompanying Cecilia Hollister to town was absurd.  This
+young Mr. Dick was absurd in himself.  His gray cap had twisted itself
+oddly to the side of his head, and a bang of black hair lay at a
+piratical angle across his forehead.  Behind him Ormsby, the knit-goods
+man, tugged at a brown moustache; Shallenberger's blue eyes snapped
+wrathfully.
+
+"Mr. Dick," I said soberly, "I have heard of you as the original
+pragmatist of Nebraska, and as I am a mere ignorant chimney-doctor, to
+whom the later philosophical meaning of that term is only so much punk,
+I must identify you with that more obvious meaning of the word which is
+within my grasp.  Mr. Dick, and gentlemen of the committee, you are
+meddlesome persons!"
+
+"Meddlesome!" cried Dick, heatedly, and leaning toward me across my
+desk, "do I correctly understand, sir, that you mean to insult us?"
+
+"Nothing could be further from my purpose.  But I cannot permit you to
+imagine that I'm going to allow you to beard me in my office and
+criticise my conduct in regard to Miss Cecilia Hollister or anybody
+else.  As a philosopher from the fertile corn-lands of Nebraska, I
+salute you with admiration; as a critic of my ways and manners, I show
+you the door!"
+
+This I did a bit jauntily, and I had a feeling that I was playing my
+part well.  But the young man before me seemed to swell with the rage
+that surged within him.  He broke out furiously, beating the air with
+his fist.
+
+"You not only insult this committee, but you speak with intentional
+disrespect of my native state, and of the great philosophical school of
+which I am a disciple.  Am I right?"
+
+"You are eminently right, Mr. Dick.  Neither the corn, the
+philosophical schools, nor the packing-house statistics of your native
+Omaha interest me a particle.  So far as I am personally concerned you
+may go back to your wigwam on the tawny Missouri as soon as you please."
+
+"Then," he broke forth explosively, "then, sir, by Minerva's pale brow,
+and by all the gods at once, I brand you"--
+
+"Put the brand on hot, little one!  Make it a good strong curse while
+you're about it!"
+
+He choked with rage for a moment; then he controlled himself with
+painful effort.
+
+"My personal grievances must wait," continued Dick, brokenly, "but
+speaking for the committee I wish to say that your attentions to the
+young lady whom you have dared, sir, to name, are obnoxious to us."
+
+"Nothing less than that!" added Shallenberger.
+
+"We will not stand for it," growled Ormsby's heavy bass.
+
+"Mr. Shallenberger," I replied evenly, "as a member of the great
+Hoosier school of novelists I have the most profound respect for your
+talents.  My office-boy is dead to the world for weeks after the
+appearance of a novel from your pen.  But your interference in my
+private affairs is beyond all reason.  And as for you, Mr. Ormsby, I
+dare say your knit-goods are worthy of the fame of the pent-up Utica
+from which you come.  But to you and all of you, I bid defiance.  I
+return to Hopefield Manor by the four-fourteen express."
+
+I rose and bowed coldly in dismissal; but the trio stood their ground
+stubbornly.
+
+"I tell you, sir, our organization is complete!" declared Dick.  "We
+signed a gentleman's agreement only last night, for the express purpose
+of excluding you, and you cannot enter as a competitor.  You are only
+an outsider, and we don't intend to have you interfering with our
+affairs."
+
+"By the pink left ear of Venus!" I blurted, "is it a trust?"
+
+"You put it coarsely, Mr. Ames, but"--
+
+"A suitors' trust?  Then if I read the newspapers correctly, your
+organization is against public policy and in contravention of the
+anti-trust law.  But may I inquire why, if you have perfected a
+combination of Miss Hollister's suitors, I found Lord Arrowood this
+morning sitting on a stone by the roadside, evidently in the greatest
+dejection.  Can it be possible that an insurgent has crept into your
+organization and incurred the displeasure of the regulars?"
+
+"We ruled him out," Shallenberger burst forth, "because he was a
+foreigner and not entitled to a place among free-born Americans!  That
+is one reason; and for another, the colors of his half-hose were an
+offense to me, personally."
+
+"And for another reason," interposed Ormsby, "he had no money with
+which to pay his board at the Prescott Arms.  For this just cause the
+landlord ejected him shortly after breakfast this morning."
+
+"Then there is already a rift in the lute!" I returned.  "No trust of
+suitors is stronger than its weakest link.  By the bloody footprints of
+our forefathers on the snows of Valley Forge, I stand for the right of
+the American girl to choose where she will.  You may perch on the hills
+about Hopefield Manor, and besiege Cecilia Hollister till the end of
+time, but my hand is raised against your unrighteous compact, and I am
+in the fight to stay!  Go back to the Prescott Arms, gentlemen, and
+assure your associates in this hideous compact of my most distinguished
+consideration and tell them to go to the devil."
+
+
+I had gone to the St. Parvenu Hotel to call upon a Washington lady who
+had been making life a burden to my assistant, and on coming out into
+Fifth Avenue shortly after one, bethought me of the Asolando Tea-Room.
+My interview with the committee of the suitors had driven from my mind
+practically every consideration and every interest not centred in
+Hopefield Manor.  My thoughts turned gratefully to the Asolando, where
+only a few days ago I had been precipitated into the strangest
+adventures my eventless life had known.
+
+A strange face was visible at the cashier's desk as I entered the
+tea-room.  I passed on, finding the place quite full, but I took it as
+a good omen that the seventh table from the right was unoccupied, and I
+hastily appropriated it.  A waitress appeared promptly, murmuring,--
+
+  "There are no birds in last year's nest,"--
+
+and recommended a Locker-Lampson sandwich, whose contents the girl told
+me were secret, but it proved to be wholly palatable.  As I drank my
+tea and ate the sandwich I surveyed the decorated menu card with
+interest, and found pleasurable excitement in discovering an item
+directing attention to "Pickles _à la_ Hezekiah, 15 cents."
+
+The delightful Hezekiah must, then, have impressed herself upon the
+_deus ex machina_ of the Asolando on her brief day there, thus to have
+won this recognition.  And further on I noted, among the desserts,
+_Pêche Cécilie_, with even greater interest and satisfaction.  Miss
+Hollister's nieces were among ten thousand young women, and it was
+quite believable that their brief tenure of office in the tea-room had
+fixed them permanently in the heart of the unknown proprietor.
+
+The girl at the cash-desk was reading, her head bent as demurely as
+Hezekiah's had been on that memorable afternoon; but I did not care for
+the stranger's profile.  I tried to fancy Cecilia in cap and apron
+serving these tables, but my imagination was not equal to the task.
+
+Cecilia occupied my mind now.  The visit of the furious suitors to my
+office had stirred in me thoughts and aspirations that had never known
+harborage in my breast before.  The presumption of those fellows had
+exceeded anything I had known in my contact with human kind, and
+instead of frightening me away from Hopefield Manor, they had called my
+own attention to the strategic importance of my present position as a
+guest in Miss Octavia's house.  Here was a siege of suitors indeed; but
+I was resolved to make the most of my position within the barricade.
+
+As these thoughts ran through my mind, I was finishing my _Pêche
+Cécilie_ (I spurn all sweets ordinarily), when I became interested in
+the unusual conduct of a young woman who had entered the front door
+briskly and walked with a business-like air to the cashier's desk.  The
+girl within the wicket rose promptly, opened the screen, and without
+parley of any sort, emptied the contents of her till into the visitor's
+reticule.  With a nod and a smile and a moment's careless survey of the
+room, the girl departed, swinging the reticule in her hand.  A long
+roll she carried under her arm confirmed my identification.  It was
+Miss Octavia Hollister's Swedish maid; and the roll, beyond
+peradventure, contained the plans she had obtained at Pepperton's
+office.
+
+The girl was well-featured, neat of figure, and becomingly gowned, and
+as I watched her leave the shop the lightness of her step, something
+smooth and flowing in her movements, interested me.  I did not know
+what business she had to be robbing the Asolando money-drawer, but it
+was altogether possible that she was the Hopefield ghost!
+
+On the whole, when I had finally torn myself away from my
+assistant,--who made no attempt to conceal his doubts as to my
+sanity,--and had settled myself in the four-fourteen express with the
+afternoon papers, I was fully satisfied with the day's adventures.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES
+
+I had told the coachman in the morning not to trouble to meet me on my
+return, and I engaged the village liveryman to drive me to the house
+for hire.  As we approached Hopefield I saw the Napoleonic figure of
+John Stewart Dick in the roadway.  He had evidently been waiting for
+me.  He held up his hand with the superb, impersonal scorn of a Fifth
+Avenue policeman, and the driver checked his horse.
+
+"I gave you warning," he said impressively.  "If you return to the
+house the consequences will be upon your own head."
+
+"Thank you," I replied courteously.  "You lay yourself open to the
+severest penalties of the law in attempting to intimidate me.  I have
+enlisted for the whole campaign.  Sick chimneys require my immediate
+professional attention.  If my bark sink, 't is to another sea.  Be
+good, dear child, let those who will be clever; and kindly omit
+flowers."
+
+As the driver slapped his reins, Dick sprang out of the way, muttering
+words that proved the shallowness of his philosophic temper.  The
+liveryman expressed his disapproval of the pragmatist in profane terms
+as we entered the grounds.
+
+"There's a heap o' talk in the village," he observed.  "They do say the
+old lady 's cracked, if I may so speak of her; and that there's ghosts
+in the house.  And the conduct of the gentlemen at the Prescott is most
+remarkable.  The word 's passed that they're all dippy about the young
+Miss Hollister that lives with her aunt.  I reckon all rich people are
+a bit cracked.  It appears to go with the money.  Mr. Bassford
+Hollister,--he's the old lady's brother,--he's just as bad as any of
+'em.  I've drove in these parts fifteen year, and I 've worked a heap
+for the rich, but I never seen nothin' like the Hollisters.  They say
+Mr. Bassford is about broke now.  Had his share of the baby-wagon money
+and blew it in, and now the old lady's marryin' off the girls and he
+gets no money out of her if he takes a hand in that game.  She's doin'
+it to suit herself.  That Bassford is always up to somethin' queer.
+Yesterday he sat in the village street countin' the number of people he
+saw chewin' gum.  Hung around the school-house watchin' the children to
+see how many had their jaws goin'.  Takin' notes just like the census
+man and tax assessor.  Told our doctor in the village he was figurin'
+the amount of horse-power the American people put into gum-chewing
+every year, and expects to find some way of usin' it to run machinery.
+It's harmless, Doc says.  He calls it just the Hollister idiosyncrasy,
+if that's the word.  But I reckon it's idiotsyncrasy all right.  I wish
+you good luck of your place, sir."
+
+He evidently believed me to be some sort of upper servant, and this
+added to my joy of the day.  With my good humor augmented by the
+interview, I entered the house.  A strange footman admitted me, and I
+went to my room at once without meeting any one else.
+
+The man followed me with a penciled note, signed with Cecilia's
+initials, requesting my presence below as soon as possible, as she
+wished to see me before dinner.  The thought that she wished to see me
+at any time filled me with elation; and her few lines scratched on a
+correspondence card were a pleasing addendum to our conversation of the
+morning.  I only wondered whether I should find her the sober, reserved
+young woman of our earlier acquaintance, or whether she would choose to
+renew the good comradeship of our talk on the train.  The finding of my
+assistant's telegraphed resignation on my dressing-table, to take
+effect in January, had not the slightest effect upon the lofty minarets
+in which my fancy now found lodgment.  It pleased me to believe that
+fighting blood still pulsed in the last of the house of Ames, and that
+I had hurled defiance at the organized band of suitors that guarded the
+Hopefield gates and picketed the surrounding hills.
+
+My question as to which Cecilia I should find in the library was
+quickly answered.  Her frank smile, the candor of her eyes, confessed a
+new tie between us; we were becoming conspirators within the main
+conspiracy, whatever its character might be.
+
+"As to Providence and the cook--what luck?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, I managed that very easily.  I ran into some friends who were
+going abroad for the winter.  They have a staff of unusual servants,
+and were anxious to keep them together until their return.  I promptly
+engaged them all, and they are even now installed.  I came up on the
+train with them, and as they are unusually intelligent and biddable,
+they agreed to stray in in a casual and desultory way through the
+afternoon.  Aunt Octavia really believed, or pretended she did, which
+is just as good, that Providence had sent them, and was delighted.  The
+laundress--the last to appear--has just arrived, and Aunt Octavia is in
+fine humor.  She did n't even ask me how I came off in my encounter at
+the dentist's.  She had filled the pie-pantry and had a good time while
+I was gone."
+
+"Well, I have had an adventure of my own," I remarked, after expressing
+my relief that she had solved the servant difficulty with so much ease.
+"A committee of gentlemen waited on me in my office on a matter of
+grave importance."
+
+She lifted her brows, and folded her hands upon her knees--it was a
+pretty way she had.
+
+"Was it the freedom of the city, or some high recognition of your
+professional ability, Mr. Ames?"
+
+"Oh, far more exciting!  Three gentlemen, representing the suitors'
+trust now maintaining headquarters at the Prescott Arms, warned me
+solemnly to keep off the grass.  In other words, I am not to interfere
+with their designs upon the heart of Miss Cecilia Hollister."
+
+She flung open a fan, held it at arm's length, and scrutinized the
+daffodils that were traced upon it.
+
+"So they dared you?"
+
+"So they dared me.  And I took the dare."
+
+"Why?"
+
+Her eyes met mine gravely, but behind her pretty _moue_ a smile lurked
+delightfully.
+
+[Illustration: Her eyes met mine gravely.]
+
+"If I should tell you now it would be flirting, which is a sin."
+
+"I had imagined, Mr. Ames, that that sort of thing came easy to you.
+But if it's sinful, of course"--
+
+"But you do not rule me out!  You will give me a chance"--
+
+My earnestness caused her manner to change suddenly.  Her beautiful
+gravity came like a swift falling of starlit twilight.  I had never
+been so happy as at this moment.  Preposterous as were the
+circumstances of my presence in the house, the juxtaposition of Cecilia
+Hollister gave me unalloyed delight.  The animosity of the gentlemen at
+the Prescott Arms--an animosity which the interview in my office had
+doubtless intensified--quickened my satisfaction in thus being within
+the walls that guarded the lady of their adoration.  She had not
+answered me, and I felt my heart pounding in the silence.
+
+"I want to serve you, now, hereafter, and always," I added.  "These men
+can have no claim upon you greater than that of any other man who
+dares!"
+
+"No, none whatever," she replied firmly.
+
+"And the mystery, the whole story, is in the little silver book!"
+
+She started, flushed, and then laughter visited her lips and eyes.  The
+book was not in her hands nor in sight anywhere, but I felt that I was
+on the right track, and that the little trinket had to do with her
+plight and her compact with her aunt.  Best of all, the fact that I had
+chanced upon this clue gave her happiness.  There was no debating that.
+
+"You had best have a care, Mr. Ames.  You have spoken words that would
+be treasonable if they came from me, and I must not countenance them."
+
+"But you will tolerate from me words that you would not permit another
+to speak?  Do I go too far?"
+
+She bent her head to one side,--with the slightest inclination, as of a
+rose touched by a vagrant wind.
+
+"If I could only half believe in you," she said, "you might really
+serve me.  So those gentlemen warned you away!  Their presumption is
+certainly astounding."
+
+"They know nothing of the silver book!"
+
+"They know less than you do,--and you have a good deal to learn, you
+know."
+
+"I am dull enough, but I have no ambition but to read the riddle of the
+sibyl's leaves.  That and the laying of the ghost are my immediate
+business.  As for the gentlemen at the Prescott, including my old
+friend Hartley Wiggins, I am not in the least afraid of them.  My hand
+is raised against them.  If it's a case of the test of Ulysses over
+again, I 'm as likely as any of them to bend the bow."
+
+I thought this well spoken, but she seemed amused, though without
+unkindness, by the earnestness of my speech.
+
+"If your wit is equal to your valor, you may go far.  But"--and she
+turned her eyes full upon me--"we must play the game according to the
+rules."
+
+"And as for Hartley Wiggins"--
+
+She sat up very straight, and the sudden disdain in her face startled
+me.  I had forgotten my eavesdropping in the clump of raspberries on
+the day of my arrival.  Certainly Wiggins had been decidedly in the
+race then, and my heart thumped in resentment as I recalled her own
+message, all compact of encouragement, which I had borne to Wiggins at
+the Prescott Arms.
+
+"I will tell you something, Mr. Ames.  This afternoon, as I drove from
+the station, I came round by the lake, merely to cool my eyes on the
+water, and I saw Mr. Wiggins and my sister seated on a wall in an old
+orchard.  They were so busily engaged that they did not see me.  At
+least he did not; but I think Hezekiah did."
+
+"Hezekiah," I answered, relieved by the nature of her disclosure, which
+could not but prejudice Wiggins' case, "Hezekiah is fond of orchards.
+I dare say this was the same one in which I had a charming talk with
+her myself.  Doubtless she was amusing herself with Wiggins just as she
+did with me.  She finds the genus homo entertaining."
+
+"She is the dearest girl in the world,--the sweetest, the loveliest,
+the brightest.  Mr. Wiggins has treated her outrageously.  He has taken
+advantage of her youth and susceptible nature."
+
+"His punishment is sure," I answered complacently.  "Hezekiah laughed
+when I mentioned his name.  And you frown to-day at the thought of him."
+
+"Aunt Octavia is coming," she remarked, feigning at once a careless
+air; but I was content that she let my remark pass unchallenged.
+
+Miss Octavia's entrances were always effective.  She appeared to-night
+charmingly gowned, but the bright twinkle in her eyes made it clear
+that no matter of dress could affect her humor or spirit.  She greeted
+me, as she always did, as though our acquaintance were a matter of
+years rather than of days.  I even imagined that she seemed pleased to
+find me back again.  She asked no questions as to my day's occupations,
+but as we went in to dinner sallied forth cheerfully upon a description
+of her own activities.
+
+"After I had baked my required quota of pies this morning, I sought
+recreation at the traps.  The stable-boy who has been pulling the
+string for me having struck-work, it most providentially happened that
+I espied Lord Arrowood hanging on the edge of the maple tangle beyond
+the barn.  I summoned him at once and put him to work managing the
+traps for me, finding him most efficient.  He seemed extremely
+despondent, and after I had satisfied myself that two out of three was
+not an impossible record for one of my years, I brought him to the
+house and made tea for him.  I left the room for a moment--I had taken
+him into the kitchen where, during the incumbency of the regular cook I
+hardly dare venture myself, and he made himself comfortable quite near
+the range.  The pies on which I had been engaged all morning lay
+cooling near him.  I had composed twenty-nine pies,--I am an excellent
+mathematician, and I could not have been mistaken in the count.  What
+was my amazement to find, after his lordship's departure, that one pie
+was missing!  The pan in which it was baked I discerned later, jammed
+into a barrel of excellent Minnesota flour.  My absence from the room
+was the briefest; his lordship must indeed be a prestidigitateur to
+have made way with the pie so expeditiously."
+
+"His lordship was doubtless hungry," I suggested.  "Even nobility must
+eat.  I passed Lord Arrowood in the highway early this morning, sitting
+upon a stone, with sundry items of hand-baggage reposing beside him.  I
+have rarely seen any one so depressed."
+
+"He belongs to an ancient house," remarked Miss Octavia.  "He is
+descended from either Hengist or Horsa,--I forget which, but it does
+not greatly matter.  The missing pie, I may add, was an effect in
+Westchester pippin; and as our American experiment in self-government
+bores him, I take it as significant that he chanced upon food that is
+the veritable sacrament of democracy."
+
+"Now that the little matter of the servants has been adjusted, we must
+have a care lest the newly-arrived phalanx, which Providence so kindly
+sent to you to-day, is not stampeded by any further manifestations of
+the troubled spirit of the unfortunate Briton who was hanged on the
+site of this house."
+
+"Mr. Ames," replied Miss Octavia impressively, "that matter is entirely
+in your hands."
+
+"But if I could see the plans of this house, I should be better able to
+grapple with his ghostship."
+
+I had thrown this out in the hope of eliciting some remark from her
+touching the Swedish maid's visit to Pepperton's office; but Miss
+Octavia met my gaze unflinchingly.
+
+"You are a clever man, Mr. Ames, and I have every confidence that you
+will not only solve the mystery of the library chimney but find the
+ghost that switched off the lights on the stair last night.  I prefer
+that you should accomplish these feats without any help from the plans.
+I myself have no suggestions.  I am gratified that you are meeting the
+emergencies that have risen here with so much determination, but it is
+what I should expect of the son of Arnold Ames of Hartford.
+Opportunity is all that any of us need to find ourselves truly great,
+and if, in the ordinary course of our lives, the gate does not open
+freely, we are justified in picking the lock.  When I determined to
+seek adventures in my old age, I resolved that I should miss no chance,
+and that I should be prepared for any beckoning of the hand of fate.
+An odd fancy struck me at the beginning of my new life that Boston
+would some day be the starting-point of some interesting experience.
+This has not yet developed, but in order that I may be prepared for
+anything that may occur I keep a blue-silk umbrella constantly checked
+at the Parker House.  The presence of the little brass check in my
+purse is a constant reminder that Boston may one day call me."
+
+A discussion of the Parker House umbrella followed, Cecilia and I
+joining, and it proved so fruitful a topic that it carried us to our
+coffee.
+
+Coffee-making, in a machine she had herself contrived, was always
+attended with rites that required deliberation, and while she performed
+them Miss Hollister continued to amuse us.
+
+"You may not know," she remarked, in one of her charming irrelevant
+outbursts, "that the most important furniture transactions effected in
+this country are those negotiated daily by the head-waiters of the
+Fifth Avenue restaurants.  Such is, I assure you, the fact.  These
+gentlemen, who have attained front rank among our predatory rich, allow
+no one to dine at the inns they dominate who does not first purchase a
+table and chairs at a profit of at least two hundred per cent over the
+original Grand Rapids cost, the furniture thus purchased reverting in
+every case to the party of the first part after the purchasers have
+eaten to their satisfaction.  The Fifth Avenue head-waiters are not
+only the most absolute autocrats of our time, but the most acute
+students of human nature among us.  The sale of the tables by the lords
+of the dining-rooms is alone worth a fortune every season at our
+fashionable victualing houses and, in addition, the humbler members of
+the minor orders of waiters, who merely fetch and carry, are obliged to
+share their gratuities with their august chiefs."
+
+"The system is iniquitous," I declared.  "It's enough to pay two prices
+for the food without buying the hotel furniture."
+
+"The system, Mr. Ames, is wholly admirable, if you will pardon me for
+expressing a difference of opinion.  We cannot do less than admire the
+austere genius before which mere plutocrats and men of affairs meekly
+bow.  In making my own investments I would rather have the advice of
+Alphonse at the Hotel Pallida than that of the president of the
+strongest trust company on Manhattan Island.  The varying size of the
+sums he receives for the dining-room furniture is the best possible
+indication of the condition of the market.  When a citizen of Pittsburg
+will pay no more than one hundred dollars for the use of a table to eat
+from at the Pallida you may be sure that a panic impends.  By the way,
+I proposed to Alphonse last winter the organization of a limited
+company of leading head-waiters to control the waiting industry of
+Fifth Avenue.  It was my idea that some special forms of torture might
+be devised for calculating persons--usually readers of New York letters
+in provincial newspapers--who think a waiter entitled to only ten per
+cent of the bill, and this could best be managed by an arrangement
+between the five or six magnates who control the more gilded and
+imposing refectories.  I suggested the placing of a special mark in the
+hats of the ten-per-cent fiends, so that wherever they dine the symbol
+of their indiscreet frugalities would be apparent to the initiated eye.
+It is another of my notions that the head-waiter and his humble slave
+should present a formal bill for their services, while the hotel or
+restaurant should merely be tipped.  In this way the more important
+service would receive its due consideration.  The sole office of the
+proprietor is to provide the head-waiter a place in which to follow his
+profession.  Alphonse is impressed with my ideas, and has even offered
+to make me a director of the company."
+
+"I suppose that you won the regard of Alphonse, the magnificent, only
+by the most princely tips through many years of acquaintance, Miss
+Hollister."
+
+"On the other hand, Mr. Ames, I never gave him a cent in my life; but
+last Christmas, in recognition of his friendliness in warning me
+against an alligator-pear salad, at a moment when that vegetable was at
+the turn of the season, I knit him a pair of blue worsted bed-room
+slippers, which he received with the liveliest expressions of delight."
+
+Three suitors were announced at this moment, and I slipped away without
+excuses, while Miss Octavia and Cecilia adjourned to the library.
+
+The ghost, I had sworn, should not baffle me another night.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS
+
+As I crossed the second-floor hall, I passed the Swedish maid, walking
+toward Miss Octavia's room.  I was somewhat annoyed to find, on looking
+over my shoulder to make sure of her destination, that she, too, had
+paused, her hand on Miss Octavia's door, and was watching me with
+interest.  She vanished immediately; but to throw her off the track I
+went to my own room, closed the door noisily, and then came out quickly
+and ran up to the third floor.
+
+Bassford Hollister's mysterious exit had lingered in my mind as the
+most curious incident of the eventful Friday night.  Having been
+baffled in my effort to get hold of the architect's plans, my thought
+now was to await in the upper part of the house a repetition of the
+various phenomena that had so puzzled me.  By the process of exclusion
+I had eliminated nearly every plausible theory, but if the ghost
+manifested himself with any sort of periodicity (and the hour of the
+chimney's queer behavior had been nine) I was now prepared to meet him
+in the regions he had chosen for his exploits.  When it is remembered
+that I had always been most timorous, not at all anxious to shine in
+any heroic performances, it will be understood that the atmosphere of
+Hopefield Manor was exerting a stimulating effect upon my courage.  Or,
+more likely, my inherent cowardice had been brought into subjection by
+my curiosity.
+
+I had a pretty accurate knowledge by this time of the position and
+function of all the electric switches between the lower hall and the
+fourth floor, but I tested them as I ascended, glancing down now and
+then to make sure I was not observed.  From the sound of voices in the
+library I judged that most of Cecilia's suitors must now have arrived,
+and so much the better, I argued; for with Miss Octavia and her niece
+fully occupied, I could the better carry on my ghost-hunt above stairs.
+
+At a quarter before nine I switched off the lights on the third and
+fourth floors, and established myself at the head of the stairway, and
+quite near the trunk-room door.  This door I had opened, as I fancied
+that if Bassford Hollister were at the bottom of the business, he would
+probably wish to find his way to the roof again.  So far as I was able
+to manage it, the stage was in readiness for the entrance of the
+goblin.  And I may record my impression, that as we wait for a
+visitation of this sort, it is with a degree of credence in things
+supernatural, to which we would not ordinarily confess.  In spite of
+ourselves we expect something to appear, something unearthly,
+impalpable, and unresponsive to those tests we apply to the known and
+understood.
+
+The clock below struck nine upon these meditations, and almost upon the
+last stroke I heard a sound that set my nerves tingling.  I crouched in
+the dark waiting.  Some one was coming toward me, but from where?  The
+bottom of a well at midnight was not blacker than the fourth floor, but
+the switch lay ready to my hand, and my pockets were stuffed with
+matches of the sort that light anywhere.  The stairways were all
+carpeted, as I have said, and yet some one was ascending bare treads,
+lightly, and with delays that suggested a furtive purpose.  Meanwhile,
+as a background for this unreality, murmurs of talk and occasional
+laughter rose from the library.
+
+This concealed stairway, wherever it was, could not be of interminable
+length, and I had counted, I think, fifteen steps of that strange
+ascent when it ceased.  I heard a fumbling as of some one seeking a
+latch, and suddenly a light current of air swept by me, but its clean
+fresh quality was not in itself disturbing.  I stooped and struck a
+match smartly on the carpet and at the same time clicked the switch.  I
+should say that not more than ten seconds passed from the moment the
+soft rush of air had first advertised the opening of a passage near me
+until the hall was flooded with the glow of the electric lamps
+overhead.  My match had also performed its office, but finding the
+electric current behaving itself normally, I blew it out.  What I saw
+now interested me immensely.
+
+In the solid wall, near the stair, and almost directly opposite the
+trunk-room, a narrow door had swung outward,--a neat contrivance, so
+light in its construction that it still swayed on its concealed hinges
+from the touch of the hand that had released it.  How it had opened or
+what had become of the prowler who had unlatched it remained to be
+discovered.  It seemed impossible that whoever or whatever had climbed
+the hidden stairway had descended, nor had I been conscious of a
+ghostly passing as on the previous night.  I had only my senses to
+apply to this problem, and their efficiency was minimized for a moment
+by fear.
+
+The opening in the wall engaged my attention at once, and I was
+steadied by the thought that here was a practical matter susceptible of
+investigation.  I stepped within the door and lighted a candle; and
+just as the wick caught fire, click went a switch somewhere, and out
+went the hall lamps.  But having, so to speak, put my foot to the
+mysterious stair I would not turn back, and I continued on down the
+steps.
+
+Great was my astonishment to find that I had apparently stepped from a
+new into an old house.  The stair treads were worn by long use, the
+plaster walls that inclosed them were battered and cracked, and I
+seemed to have plunged from the glory of Hopefield into some dim lost
+passage of a domicile of another era, that lay within or beneath the
+walls of the Manor.  As I slowly descended, holding high my candle, I
+recalled, not without a qualm, the story of the British soldier whom
+tradition or superstition linked to the site of Miss Hollister's
+property.  This stairway might certainly have been built in the early
+days of the republic, and it refuted my disdain of the ghost-myth on
+the theory that new houses are inhospitable to spirits.
+
+At the foot of the stair I found two rooms, one on either side of a
+small hall, and these, also, were clearly part of an old house that
+seemed to be somehow merged into the Hollister mansion.  I remembered
+now that the mansion stood wedged against a rough spur of rock, and
+that the front and rear entrances were upon different levels, and it
+was conceivable that the back part of the mansion might inclose these
+rooms of an earlier house that had occupied the same site; why they
+should have been retained was beyond me.
+
+Through the carefully-preserved windows, many-paned and quaint, of
+these hidden rooms, the infolding walls of the new house were blank and
+black.  An odd thing indeed, that Pepperton should have lent himself to
+the preservation of a commonplace and thoroughly uninteresting relic,
+for beyond doubt he must have countenanced it; and Miss Hollister's
+prompt removal of the plans from the architect's office became more
+enigmatical than ever.
+
+One door only remained in this shell of the old house, and I hastened
+to fling it open, still lighting my way with a candle.  Before me lay
+the coal cellar, at which I had merely glanced on the morning after my
+installation at Hopefield.  I now began to get my bearings.  I
+remembered two iron lids in the cemented surface of an area on the east
+side of the house where fuel was deposited, and mounting a few steps
+that were of recent construction, and had evidently been built to
+afford communication between the remnant of the old house and the
+subterranean portion of the new, I found to my relief and satisfaction
+beneath one of these openings a short ladder, through which the court
+might be reached.  Here, then, the manner of ghostly ingress was
+illustrated by perfectly plausible means.  The lid of the coal-hole was
+entirely withdrawn, and a bar of moonlight lay brightening upon a pile
+of anthracite at the foot of the ladder.
+
+The ghost I believed to be still in the upper halls of the house, and
+now that I was in a position to watch the ladder by which he had
+entered I felt confident that I had cut off his retreat.  I was
+surveying the cellar, when I heard faint sounds in a new direction.
+Far away under the house, and remote from the secret steps, some one
+was moving toward me, and rapidly, too!  The ghost that I believed to
+have disappeared into the fourth-floor hall must then have changed the
+line of his retreat and descended by one of the regular stairways.
+
+I blew out my candle and stood with my back to the wall of the long
+corridor on which opened the various store-rooms, the heating plant,
+laundry and other accessories of the modern house.  My ghost was coming
+in haste,--a haste that did not harmonize with the stately tread of the
+spooks of popular superstition.  A slower pace and I should doubtless
+have fled before him; but quick light steps echoed in the dark
+corridor, and I gathered courage from the thought that ghosts create
+echoes no more than they cast shadows.
+
+As the steps drew nearer I prepared myself to spring upon him.  I must
+unconsciously have taken a step, for he paused suddenly, stood still
+for a moment, then turned and scampered back the way he had come.
+After him I went as fast as I could run.  The cement-paved corridor was
+four or five feet wide, and I plunged through the dark at my best
+speed.  At the end of the corridor I was pretty certain of my quarry,
+and I made ready to grapple with him.  Then as I plunged into the wall
+my hands touched a man's face and for a moment clutched the collar of
+his coat.  He had been waiting for me to strike the wall, and as he
+slipped out of my grasp he ran back toward the coal cellar.  I had
+struck the wall with a force that knocked the wind out of me, but I got
+myself together with the loss of only an instant and renewed pursuit.
+I had no fear but that, if he attempted to reach the open by means of
+the coal-hole, I should catch him on the ladder, and I sprinted for all
+I was worth to make sure of him.
+
+My fleeting grasp of the man's collar and the agility with which he had
+slipped from my clasp had settled the ghost question, and I had now
+resolved the intruder into a common thief.  As we neared the coal
+cellar I increased my pace, and felt myself gaining on him; though in
+the dark I saw nothing until I glimpsed the faint light from the
+coal-hole.
+
+It had evidently occurred to him by this time that if he tried to climb
+the ladder I could easily pull him down by the legs; and when he
+reached the cross hall, he turned quickly and dived through the opening
+into the hidden chambers.  I lost no time in following, but the fellow
+put up a good race, and as I reached the old stairway he was mounting
+it two steps at a time, as I judged from the sound.  I had hoped to
+catch and dispose of him without alarming the house, but it seemed
+inevitable now that the chase would end in such fashion as to arouse
+the company assembled in the library.
+
+I heard him stumble and fall headlong at the door above; then he shot
+off into the still darkened hall, and when I had gained the top I lost
+track of him for a moment.  I paused and was about to strike a match,
+when he resumed his flight, and I was forced to grapple with the fact
+that some one else was pursuing him.  I held my match unstruck upon
+this new disclosure, and stepped back within the concealed door and
+waited.  Up and down the hall, two persons were running, and when they
+reached the ends of the corridor I heard hands touch the wall and the
+sound of dodging, and then almost instantly the two runners flashed by
+me again.  The hall was so dark that I saw nothing, but as the runners
+passed the door I felt the rush of air caused by their flight.
+
+Three or four times this had happened, and then, still without having
+made a light, I thrust out my foot at the next return of the unseen
+runners.  Some one tripped and fell headlong, and I promptly flung
+myself upon him.
+
+My prisoner's resistance engaged my best attention a moment, but when I
+had sat upon his legs and got hold of his struggling hands, some one
+stole softly by me.  My prisoner, too, heard and was attentive.  Not
+only did I experience the same sensation as on the previous night, of a
+passing near by, but I was conscious of the same faint perfume, as of a
+flower-scent half-caught in a garden at night, that had added to my
+mystification before.  Then without the slightest warning the lights
+flashed on, and a door closed somewhere, but it was not the hidden one
+leading down into the remnant of the old house, for my prisoner's head
+and shoulders lay across its threshold.  He sighed deeply, bringing my
+dazed wits back to him, and I found myself gazing into the blinking
+eyes of Lord Arrowood.
+
+"Bounders, I say, bounders!" he gasped.
+
+"In the circumstances, Lord Arrowood, I should not call names.  Will
+you tell me what you mean by running through this house in this
+fashion?  Stand up and give an account of yourself."
+
+I helped him to his feet and bent over the stair-rail leading down to
+the third floor.  Evidently our strange transactions beneath and above
+had not disturbed the assembled suitors and their hostesses; but in
+common decency Lord Arrowood must be disposed of promptly; there was no
+doubt about that.
+
+"I was an ass to try it," muttered his lordship, pulling his tie into
+shape.  "And now I want to get out.  I want to go away from here."
+
+He was tugging at the belt of his Norfolk coat, and something between
+it and his waistcoat evidently gave him concern.  It did not seem
+possible that he was really a thief, with chattels concealed on his
+person, but he continued to smooth his jacket anxiously, meanwhile
+eyeing me apprehensively.  He puffed hard from his recent game of
+hide-and-seek, and his face was wet with perspiration.  Our
+conversation was carried on in half-whispers.  He was so crestfallen
+that if it had n't been for the necessity of maintaining silence I
+should have laughed outright.
+
+"Out with it, my lord.  What have you stuck in your coat?"
+
+"They're bounders, all the rest of 'em," he asserted doggedly, "but I
+believe you to be a gentleman."
+
+"I thank you, Lord Arrowood, for this mark of confidence; but you have
+led me a hot chase through this house, and it is clear that you have
+something tucked under your coat that you have seized feloniously.
+We're standing here in the light, and our voices may at any moment
+attract Miss Hollister and the others in the library.  Open your coat!
+I declare that even if you have lifted a bit of the Hollister plate I
+will let you go.  My lord, if you please, stand and unfold yourself!"
+
+Reluctantly, shamefacedly, and still breathing hard from his late
+exertions, Lord Arrowood of Arrowood, Hants, England, obeyed me.  There
+were five buttons to the close-fitting jacket, and the loosening of
+every succeeding one seemed to give him pain.  Then with his head
+slightly lifted as though in disdain of me, he held out for my
+observation a pie, in the pan in which it had been baked!  The top
+crust was browned to a nicety; its edges were crimped neatly; and in
+spite of the fact that I had so lately dined sumptuously at Miss
+Hollister's hospitable board, at sight of this alluring pastry I
+experienced the sharp twinges of aroused appetite.
+
+[Illustration: He held out for my observation a pie.]
+
+"Now you have it, and I hope you are satisfied," said Lord Arrowood.
+"Kindly allow me to retire by the way I came."
+
+"First," I replied, sobered by the gravity of his manner, "it would
+interest me as a student of character to know just what species of pie
+lured you to this burglarious deed."
+
+"I have reason to think," he answered, with tears in his eyes, "that it
+is a gooseberry.  I was damned hungry, if you must know the truth, and
+having sampled the old lady's pies this morning, and had nothing to eat
+since, I saw the coal-hole open and ladder beneath, and the rest of it
+was easy.  If you and the other chap had n't chased me all over the
+estate, I 'd have been off with my pie and no harm done.  The old lady
+'s insane, you know, and has no manner of use for pies.  The house is
+haunted in the bargain.  When you had about winded me down in the
+cellar and cut me off from the ladder and chased me up here, the ghost
+took a hand, and if you had n't tripped me and sat on me the spirits
+would certainly have nailed me.  O Lord, what a night!"
+
+"It's your impression then that when you got up here somebody else
+broke into the game."
+
+"Quite that, only I should say some_thing_, not some_body_.  It was a
+lighter step than yours.  It had its hand on me once; but I could n't
+touch it.  Damn me," he concluded hoarsely, "it was n't there to touch!"
+
+"You are sure you speak the truth when you say that the coal-hole was
+open and that you found the ladder there when you came?"
+
+"No manner of doubt of it.  As I have already said, I believe you to be
+a gentleman, and between gentlemen certain confidences may pass that
+would n't be possible between a gentleman and those _canaille_ down
+there."
+
+He jerked his head scornfully to indicate the suitors below.
+
+I bowed with such dignity as is possible in addressing a nobleman whom
+you have just caught in the act of lifting a gooseberry-pie from a
+lady's pantry,--a pie which you hold perforce in your hands.
+
+"The fact is that I was without the price of food; and to repeat, I was
+beastly hungry."
+
+"Poverty and hunger, my lord, are pardonable sins.  And I dare say that
+Miss Hollister would be highly pleased to know that a gentleman of your
+high position--she told me herself that you were descended from the
+Jutish chiefs--had paid so high a compliment to the excellence of her
+pastry.  Your only error, as I view the matter, lies in the fact that
+you have laid felonious hands upon a gooseberry-pie.  All gooseberry
+pastries are sacred to Hezekiah.  My impressions of Hezekiah are the
+pleasantest, and I cannot allow you to intervene between her and the
+pie I hold in my hands.  If you will accompany me below, I will
+undertake to gain access to the pie vault, return this pie to its
+proper place, and hand you, at the foot of the ladder, an apple-pie in
+place of it.  I dare say it never will be missed; but from what I know
+of Hezekiah, any trifling with her appetite would be a crime indictable
+at common law."
+
+His lordship seemed reassured, and we were about to descend by the
+concealed stair when he arrested me.
+
+"Mr. Ames, you are a gentleman, and possess a generous heart.  We
+understand each other perfectly.  And as I have every reason to believe
+that my suit is hopeless, I ask the loan of five dollars until I can
+confer with my friend the British consul at New York.  I shall sail at
+once for England."
+
+I was moved to pity by his humility.  A man who, finding himself
+reduced to larceny by hunger, and being unable to win the woman of his
+choice, meekly yields to the inevitable, is not a fair mark for
+contumely.  He stepped down before me into the dark stairway, and I
+closed the door after me and followed him.
+
+I found my way to the pie pantry without difficulty, returned the
+gooseberry-pie to its proper shelf, chose an apple-pie and gave it,
+with a five-dollar note, to Lord Arrowood.
+
+At the bottom of the ladder he pressed my hand feelingly, and expressed
+his gratitude in terms that would have touched a harder heart than mine.
+
+Then having closed the coal-hole and hidden the ladder under a pile of
+wood, I resumed my pursuit of the ghost.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+LADY'S SLIPPER
+
+I lighted my way with a candle through the lost chambers of the old
+house, up the hidden stairway, and out into the fourth-floor hall
+again.  The old stair, I found on closer observation, reached only from
+the second to the fourth floor, and below this had been pieced with
+lumber carefully preserved from the earlier house.  There was nothing
+so strange after all about the hidden stairway, though I was convinced
+that this had been no idea of Pepperton's, but that he had merely
+obeyed the orders of his eccentric client, the umbrella and
+dyspepsia-cure millionaire.
+
+I had no sooner let myself through the secret door into the upper hall
+than I was aware of a disturbance in the library below.  I heard
+exclamations from the men, and as I ran down toward the third floor
+Miss Octavia's voice rose above the tumult.
+
+"We must have patience, gentlemen.  Chimneys are subject to moods just
+like human beings; and we are fortunate in having in the house a
+gentleman who is an expert in such matters.  I do not doubt that Mr.
+Ames even now has his hand upon the chimney's pulse, and that he will
+soon solve this perplexing problem."
+
+"If you wait for that man to mend your chimney you will wait until
+doomsday."
+
+So spake John Stewart Dick, taking his vengeance of me with my client
+and hostess.  I might have forgiven him; but I could not forgive
+Hartley Wiggins.
+
+"He does n't know any more about chimneys than the man in the moon," my
+old friend was saying, between coughs.
+
+And then quite unmistakably I smelt smoke, and bending further over the
+rail and peering down the stair-well I saw smoke pouring from the
+library into the hall.  It seemed to be in greater volume to-night than
+at previous manifestations.  A gray-blue cloud was filling the lower
+hall and rising toward me.  I ran quickly to the third floor, to the
+chamber whose fireplace was served by the library chimney.  The lights
+in the third-floor hall winked out as I opened the door,--I heard a
+step behind me somewhere; but I did not trouble about this.  The switch
+inside the unused guest-chamber responded readily to my touch, and on
+kneeling by the hearth I found it cold, as I had expected.  There was
+absolutely no way of choking the library flue at this point, for, as I
+had established earlier, all the fireplaces in this chimney had their
+independent flues.  Pepperton would never have built them otherwise,
+and no one but a skilled mason could have tapped the library flue here
+or higher up, and the work could not have been done without much noise
+and labor.
+
+The hall outside was still dark, and I did not try the switch.  The
+pursuit was better carried on in darkness, and I had by this time
+become accustomed to rapid locomotion through unlighted passages.  I
+leaned over the stair-well and heard exclamations of surprise at the
+sudden cessation of the smoke, which had evidently abated as abruptly
+as it had begun.  The windows and doors had been opened, and the
+company had returned to the library.
+
+"Quite extraordinary.  Really quite remarkable!" they were saying
+below.  I heard Cecilia's light laughter as the odd ways of the chimney
+were discussed.  And as I stood thus peering down and listening, the
+Swedish maid's blonde head appeared below me, bending over the
+well-rail on the second floor.  She too was taking note of affairs in
+the library, and as I watched her she lifted her head and her eyes met
+mine.  Then, while we still stared at each other, the second-floor
+lights went out with familiar abruptness, and as I craned my neck to
+peer into the blackness above me I experienced once more that ghostly
+passing as of some light, unearthly thing across my face.  I reached
+for it wildly with my hands, but it seemed to be caught away from me;
+and then as I fought the air madly, it brushed my cheek again.  I have
+no words to describe the strange effect of that touch.  I felt my scalp
+creep and cold chills ran down my spine.  It seemingly came from above,
+and it was not like a hand, unless a hand of wonderful lightness!
+Certainly no human arm could reach down the stair-well to where I
+stood.  And in that touch to-night there was something akin to a
+gentle, lingering caress as it swept slowly across my face and eyes.
+
+I waited for its recurrence a moment, but it came no more.  Then on a
+sudden prompting I stole swiftly to the fourth floor, lighted my
+candle, and gazed about.  I thought it well to let the electric light
+alone, for my ghost had once too often plunged me into darkness at
+critical moments, and a candle in my hands was not subject to his
+trickery.
+
+The hall was perfectly quiet.  The door leading down the hidden stair
+was invisible, and I had not yet learned how it might be opened from
+the hall, though Mr. Bassford Hollister had undoubtedly left the house
+by this means after my interview with him on the roof.  And reminded of
+the roof, I opened the trunk-room door and peered in.  The candle-light
+slowly crept into its dark corners, and looking up I marked the
+presence of the trap-door secure in the opening.  As I stood on the
+threshold of the trunk-piled room, my hand on the knob and the candle
+thrust well before me, I heard a slight furtive movement to my left and
+behind the door.  I was quite satisfied now that I was about to solve
+some of the mysteries of the night, and to make sure I was
+unobserved--for having gone so far alone I wanted no partners in my
+investigations--I listened to the murmur of talk below for a moment,
+then cautiously advanced my candle further into the room.  I was not
+yet so valiant, even after all my night-prowlings and explorations of
+hidden chambers, but that I thrust the light in well ahead of me and
+bent my wrist so that the candle's rays might dispel the last shadow
+that lurked behind the door before I suffered my eyes to look upon the
+goblin.  I took one step and then cautiously another, until the whole
+of the trunk-room was well within range of my vision.
+
+And there, seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a dozen
+foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!
+
+[Illustration: Seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a
+dozen foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!]
+
+As I recall it she was very much at her ease.  She sat on one foot and
+the other beat the trunk lightly.  She was bareheaded, and the
+candle-light was making acquaintance with the gold in her hair.  She
+wore her white sweater, as on that day in the orchard; and with much
+gravity, as our eyes met, she thrust a hand into its pocket and drew
+out a cracker.  I was not half so surprised at finding her there as I
+was at her manner now that she was caught.  She seemed neither
+distressed, astonished nor afraid.
+
+"Well, Miss Hezekiah," I said, "I half suspected you all along."
+
+"Wise Chimney-Man!  You were a little slow about it though."
+
+"I was indeed.  You gave me a run for my money."
+
+She finished her cracker at the third bite, slapped her hands together
+to free them of possible crumbs, and was about to speak, when she
+jumped lightly from the trunk, bent her head toward the door, and then
+stepped back again and faced me imperturbably.
+
+"And now that you've found me, Mr. Chimney-Man, the joke's on you after
+all."
+
+She laid her hand on the door and swung it nearly shut.  I had heard
+what she had heard: Miss Octavia was coming upstairs!  She had
+exchanged a few words with the Swedish maid on the second-floor
+landing, and Hezekiah's quick ear had heard her.  But Hezekiah's
+equanimity was disconcerting: even with her aunt close at hand she
+showed not the slightest alarm.  She resumed her seat on the trunk, and
+her heel thumped it tranquilly.
+
+"The joke's on you, Mr. Chimney-Man, because now that you 've caught me
+playing tricks you've got to get me out of trouble."
+
+"What if I don't?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," she answered indifferently, looking me squarely in the
+eye.
+
+"But your aunt would make no end of a row; and you would cause your
+sister to lose out with Miss Octavia.  As I understand it, you 're
+pledged to keep off the reservation.  It was part of the family
+agreement."
+
+"But I'm here, Chimney-pot, so what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"Mr. Ames!  If you are ghost-hunting in this part of the house"--
+
+It was Miss Octavia's voice.  She was seeking me, and would no doubt
+find me.  The sequestration of Hezekiah became now an urgent and
+delicate matter.
+
+"You caught me," said Hezekiah, calmly, "and now you've got to get me
+out; and I wish you good luck!  And besides, I lost one of my shoes
+somewhere, and you've got to find that."
+
+In proof of her statement she submitted a shoeless, brown-stockinged
+foot for my observation.
+
+"The one I lost was like this," and Hezekiah thrust forth a neat tan
+pump, rather the worse for wear.  "I was on the second floor a bit
+ago," she began, "and lost my slipper."
+
+"In what mischief, pray?"
+
+"Mr. Ames," called Miss Octavia, her voice close at hand.
+
+"I wanted to see something in Cecilia's room; so I opened her door and
+walked in, that's all," Hezekiah replied.
+
+"Wicked Hezekiah!  Coming into the house is bad enough in all the
+circumstances.  Entering your sister's room is a grievous sin."
+
+"If, Mr. Ames, you are still seeking an explanation of that chimney's
+behavior"--
+
+It was Miss Octavia, now just outside the door.
+
+"Don't leave that trunk, Hezekiah," I whispered.  "I'll do the best I
+can."
+
+Miss Octavia met me smilingly as I faced her in the hall.  She had
+switched on the lights, and my candle burned yellowly in the white
+electric glow.
+
+Miss Octavia held something in her hand.  It required no second glance
+to tell me that she had found Hezekiah's slipper.
+
+"Mr. Ames," she began, "as you have absented yourself from the library
+all evening, I assume that you have been busy studying my chimneys and
+seeking for the ghost of that British soldier who was so wantonly slain
+upon the site of this house."
+
+"I am glad to say that not only is your surmise correct, Miss
+Hollister, but that I have made great progress in both directions."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you have really found traces of the ghost?"
+
+"Not only that, Miss Hollister, but I have met the ghost face to
+face,--even more, I have had speech with him!"
+
+Her face brightened, her eyes flashed.  It was plain that she was
+immensely pleased.
+
+"And are you able to say, from your encounter, that he is in fact a
+British subject, uneasily haunting this house in America long after the
+Declaration of Independence and Washington's Farewell Address have
+passed into literature?"
+
+"You have never spoken a truer word, Miss Hollister.  The ghost with
+whom or which I have had speech is still a loyal subject of the King of
+England.  But by means which I am not at liberty to disclose, I have
+persuaded him not to visit this house again."
+
+"Then," said Miss Hollister, "I cannot do less than express my
+gratitude; though I regret that you did not first allow me to meet him.
+Still, I dare say that we shall find his bones buried somewhere beneath
+my foundations.  Please assure me that such is your expectation."
+
+She was leading me into deep water, but I had skirted the coasts of
+truth so far; and with Hezekiah on my hands I felt that it was
+necessary to satisfy Miss Hollister in every particular.
+
+"To-morrow, Miss Hollister, I shall take pleasure in showing you
+certain hidden chambers in this house which I venture to say will
+afford you great pleasure.  I have to-night discovered a link between
+the mansion as you know it and an earlier house whose timbers may
+indeed hide the bones of that British soldier."
+
+"And as for the chimney?"
+
+"And as for the chimney, I give you my word as a professional man that
+it will never annoy you again, and I therefore beg that you dismiss the
+subject from your mind."
+
+I saw that she was about to recur to the shoe she held in her hand and
+at which she glanced frequently with a quizzical expression.  This,
+clearly, was an issue that must be met promptly, and I knew of no
+better way than by lying.  Hezekiah herself had plainly stated, on the
+morning of that long, eventful day, when she walked into the
+breakfast-room in her aunt's absence and explained Cecilia's trip to
+town, that it was perfectly fair to dissimulate in making explanations
+to Miss Hollister; that, in fact, Miss Octavia enjoyed nothing better
+than the injection of fiction into the affairs of the matter-of-fact
+day.  Here, then, was my opportunity.  Hezekiah had thrown the
+responsibility of contriving her safe exit upon my hands.  No doubt,
+while I held the door against her aunt, that remarkable young woman was
+coolly sitting on the trunk within, eating another cracker and awaiting
+my experiments in the gentle art of lying.
+
+"Miss Hollister," I began boldly, "the slipper you hold in your hand
+belongs to me, and if you have no immediate use for it I beg that you
+allow me to relieve you of it."
+
+"It is yours, Mr. Ames?"
+
+A lifting of the brows, a widening of the eyes, denoted Miss Octavia's
+polite surprise.
+
+"Beyond any question it is my property," I asserted.
+
+"Your words interest me greatly, Mr. Ames.  As you know, the grim hard
+life of the twentieth century palls upon me, and I am deeply interested
+in everything that pertains to adventure and romance.  Tell me more, if
+you are free to do so, of this slipper which I now return to you."
+
+I received Hezekiah's worn little pump into my hands as though it were
+an object of high consecration, and with a gravity which I hope matched
+Miss Octavia's own.  I was, I think, by this time completely
+hollisterized, if I may coin the word.
+
+"As I am nothing if not frank, Miss Hollister, I will confess to you
+that this shoe came into my possession in a very curious way.  One day
+last spring I was in Boston, having been called there on professional
+business.  In the evening, I left my hotel for a walk, crossed the
+Common, took a turn through the Public Garden, where many devoted
+lovers adorned the benches, and then strolled aimlessly along Beacon
+Street."
+
+"I know that historic thoroughfare well," interrupted Miss Hollister,
+"as my friend Miss Prudence Biddeford has lived there for half a
+century, and once, while I was staying in her house, she gave me her
+recipe for Boston brown bread, thereby placing me greatly in her debt."
+
+"Then, being acquainted with the neighborhood and its sublimated social
+atmosphere, you will be interested in the experience I am about to
+describe," I continued, reassured by Miss Octavia's sympathetic
+attention to my recital.  "I was passing a house which I have not since
+been able to identify exactly, though I have several times revisited
+Boston in the hope of doing so, when suddenly and without any warning
+whatever this slipper dropped at my feet.  All the houses in the
+neighborhood seemed deserted, with windows and doors tightly boarded,
+and my closest scrutiny failed to discover any opening from which that
+slipper might have been flung.  The region is so decorous, and acts of
+violence are so foreign to its dignity and repose, that I could scarce
+believe that I held that bit of tan leather in my hand.  Nor did its
+unaccountable precipitation into the street seem the act of a
+housemaid, nor could I believe that a nursery governess had thus sought
+diversion from the roof above.  I hesitated for a moment not knowing
+how to meet this emergency; then I boldly attacked the bell of the
+house from which I believed the slipper to have proceeded.  I rang
+until a policeman, whose speech was fragrant of the Irish coasts, bade
+me desist, informing me that the family had only the previous day left
+for the shore.  The house he assured me was utterly vacant.  That, Miss
+Hollister, is all there is of the story.  But ever since I have carried
+that slipper with me.  It was in my pocket to-night as I traversed the
+upper halls of your house, seeking the ghost of that British soldier,
+and I had just discovered my loss when I heard you calling.  In
+returning it you have conferred upon me the greatest imaginable favor.
+I have faith that sometime, somewhere, I shall find the owner of that
+slipper.  Would you not infer, from its diminutive size, and the fine,
+suggestive delicacy of its outlines that the owner is a person of
+aristocratic lineage and of breeding?  I will confess that nothing is
+nearer my heart than the hope that one day I shall meet the young
+lady--I am sure she must be young--who wore that slipper and dropped it
+as it seemed from the clouds, at my feet there in sedate Beacon Street,
+that most solemn of residential sanctuaries."
+
+"Mr. Ames," began Miss Hollister instantly, with an assumed severity
+that her smile belied, "I cannot recall that my niece Hezekiah ever
+visited in Beacon Street; yet I dare say that if she had done so and a
+young man of your pleasing appearance had passed beneath her window,
+one of her slippers might very easily have become detached from
+Hezekiah's foot and fallen with a nice calculation directly in front of
+you.  But now, Mr. Ames, will you kindly carry your candle into that
+trunk-room?"
+
+And I had been pluming myself upon the completeness of my
+hollisterization!  There was nothing for me but to obey, and my heart
+sank as my imagination pictured Hezekiah's discomfiture when we should
+find her seated on the huge trunk behind the door.  And that stockinged
+foot already called in appealing accents to the shoe I held in my hand!
+The foundations of the world shook as I remembered the compact by which
+Hezekiah was excluded from the house, and realized what the impending
+discovery would mean to Cecilia, her father, and the wayward Hezekiah,
+too!  But I was in for it.  Miss Octavia indicated by an imperious nod
+that I was to precede her into the trunk-room, and I strode before her
+with my candle held high.
+
+But the sprites of mystery were still abroad at Hopefield.  The room
+was unoccupied save for the trunks.  Hezekiah had vanished.  Instead of
+sitting there to await the coming of her aunt, she had silently
+departed, without leaving a trace.  Miss Hollister glanced up at the
+trap-door in the ceiling, and so did I.  It was closed, but I did not
+doubt that Hezekiah had crawled through it and taken herself to the
+roof.  Miss Octavia would probably order me at once to the battlements;
+but worse was to come.
+
+"Mr. Ames," she said, "will you kindly lift the lid of that largest
+trunk."
+
+I had not thought of this, and I shuddered at the possibilities.
+
+She indicated the trunk upon which Hezekiah had sat and nibbled her
+cracker not more than ten minutes before.  Could it be possible that
+when I lifted the cover that golden head would be found beneath?  My
+life has known no blacker moment than that in which I flung back the
+lid of that trunk.  I averted my eyes in dread of the impending
+disclosure and held the candle close.
+
+But the trunk was empty, incredibly empty!  My courage rose again, and
+I glanced at Miss Octavia triumphantly.  I even jerked out the trays to
+allay any lingering suspicion.  Why had I ever doubted Hezekiah?  Who
+was she, the golden-haired daughter of kings, to be caught in a trunk?
+She had slipped up the ladder while I talked to her aunt and was even
+now hiding on the roof; but it was not for me to make so treasonable a
+suggestion.  Miss Octavia might press the matter further if she liked,
+but I would not help her to trap Hezekiah.
+
+Miss Hollister did not, to my surprise and relief, suggest an
+inspection of the roof.  She nodded her head gravely and passed out
+into the hall.
+
+"Mr. Ames, if I implied a moment ago that I doubted your story of the
+dropping of that tan pump from a Beacon Street roof or window, I now
+tender you my sincerest apologies."
+
+She put out her hand, smiling charmingly.
+
+"Pray return to the occupations which were engaging you when I
+interrupted you.  You have never stood higher in my regard than at this
+moment.  To-morrow you may tell me all you please of the ghost and the
+mysteries of this house, and I dare say we shall find the bones of that
+British soldier somewhere beneath the foundations.  As for that
+trifling bit of leather you hold in your hand, it's rather passé for
+Beacon Street.  The next time you tell that story I suggest that you
+play your game of drop the slipper from a window in Rittenhouse Square,
+Philadelphia.  Still, as I always keep an umbrella in the check-room of
+the Parker House, I would not have you imagine that I look upon Boston
+as an unlikely scene for romance.  The last time I was there a Mormon
+missionary pressed a tract upon me in the subway, and I can't deny that
+I found it immensely interesting."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+
+Hezekiah on the roof was safe for a time.  Miss Octavia's gentle
+rejection of my Beacon Street anecdote and her intimation that Hezekiah
+had been an unbilled participant in the comedy of the ghost had been
+disquieting, and in my relief at her abandonment of the search I
+loitered on downstairs with my hostess.  I wished to impress her with
+the idea that I was without urgent business.  Hezekiah would, beyond
+doubt, amuse herself after her own fashion on the roof until I was
+ready to release her.  As I had quietly locked the trunk-room door and
+carried the key in my pocket I was reasonably sure of this.  Humility
+is best acquired through tribulation, and as Hezekiah sat among the
+chimney-crocks nursing one stockinged foot and waiting for me to turn
+up with her lost slipper, it would do her no harm to nibble the bitter
+fruit of repentance with another biscuit.  I should find her much less
+sure of herself when I saw fit to seek her on the roof.  It was a
+pretty comedy we were playing, but it was best that she should not too
+complacently take all the curtains.  Hezekiah's naughtiness had been
+diverting up to a point now reached and passed, but the time had
+arrived for remonstrance, admonition, discipline.  And it should be my
+grateful task to point out the error of her ways and urge her into
+safer avenues of conduct.  Such were my reflections as I attended Miss
+Octavia in her descent.
+
+The memoranda of my adventures at Hopefield Manor fall under two
+general headings.  On the one hand was the ghost and the library
+chimney; on the other the extraordinary gathering of Cecilia's suitors.
+As I followed at Miss Octavia's side, she seemed to have dismissed the
+ghost and the fractious chimney from her mind; her humor changed
+completely.  As in the morning when, unaccountably abandoning her
+habitual high-flown speech, she had asked me about Cecilia's silver
+note-book, she seemed troubled; and when we had reached the second
+floor she paused and lost herself in unwonted preoccupation.
+
+"Let us sit here a moment," she said, indicating a long davenport in
+the broad hall.  For the first time her manner betrayed weariness.  She
+laid her hand quietly on my arm and looked at me fixedly.  "Arnold,"
+she said,--"you will let me call you Arnold, won't you?" she added
+plaintively, and never in my life had I been so touched by anything so
+sweet and gentle and kind,--"Arnold, if an old woman like me should do
+a very foolish thing in following her own whims and then find that she
+had probably committed herself to a course likely to cause unhappiness,
+what would you advise her to do about it?"
+
+"Miss Hollister," I answered, "if you trusted Providence this morning
+to send you a corps of servants when yours had been most unfortunately
+scattered by ghosts or rumors of ghosts, why will you not continue to
+have confidence that your affairs will always be directed by agencies
+equally alert and beneficent?"
+
+She flashed upon me that rare wonderful smile of hers; she looked me in
+the eyes quizzically with her head bent slightly to one side; but for
+once her usual readiness seemed to have forsaken her.  Could it be
+possible that she was losing faith in her own play-world, and that the
+tuneful trumpets of adventure and romance which she had set vibrating
+on her own key jarred dully in her ears?  It passed swiftly through my
+mind that it was incumbent on me to win her back to complete belief in
+the potency of the oracles that had called to her old age.  She had
+dipped her paddle into bright waters and had splashed up all manner of
+gay imaginings, and what disasters awaited her now if she beached her
+argosy and found no gold at the end of the rainbow!  It occurred to me,
+prosaic man and chimney-doctor that I was, that no one should be
+disappointed who has heard the dream-gods calling at twilight, or
+wakened to the chanting of the capstan-song, or heard the timbers
+creaking in the stout old caravel of romance as it wallows in the seas
+that wash the happy isles.  I had not crawled through so many chimneys
+but that I still believed that dreams come true, not because they will
+but because they must!  And in the case of Miss Octavia Hollister I
+felt a great responsibility; for what irremediable loss might not
+result to a world too little given these days to dreaming, if she, who
+at sixty had turned her heart trustfully to adventure, should find only
+sorrow and disappointment?  The thing must not be!  I was feeling the
+least bit elated over my success in solving the riddle of the ghost,
+and I knew that the hidden chambers and stair would delight her when I
+revealed them on the morrow; so I quite honestly sought to restore her
+to the joy of life.  I felt that she was waiting for me to speak
+further, and I plunged ahead.
+
+"Our meeting in the Asolando was the most interesting thing that ever
+happened to me, Miss Hollister.  I was rapidly becoming hopelessly
+cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears as to
+the promise of life held out to us in the nursery, where, indeed, all
+education should begin and end.  Your appearance at the Asolando that
+afternoon was well-timed to save me from death in a world that was
+rapidly losing for me all its illusion and witchery.  But now that you
+have so readily won me back to the true faith, I beg of you do not
+yourself revert to the dreary workaday world from which you rescued me."
+
+I had never in my life spoken more sincerely.  I had never been so
+happy as since I knew her, and I was pleading for myself as well as for
+her--there where, from her own doorstep and in her own garden, one who
+listened attentively might hear the faint roar of trains bound toward
+the teeming city along iron highways.  It was with relief that I saw my
+words had struck home.  She touched my hand lightly; then she took it
+in both her own.
+
+"You really believe that; you are not merely trying to please me?"
+
+"I was never half so much in earnest!  Please go on in the way you have
+begun.  And have no fear that the charts will mislead you, or that the
+seas will grind your bark on hidden shoals.  Shipwreck, you know, is
+one of the greatest joys of our adventures,--we have to be wrecked
+first before we find the island of the treasure-chests."
+
+She sighed softly, but I felt that her spirits were rising.
+
+"But those men down there?  How shall I manage that?" she asked eagerly.
+
+I snapped my fingers.  We must get back into the air again.  And it was
+remarkable how readily my long-untried wings bore me upward.  The
+earth, after all, does not bind us so fast!
+
+"I don't know the game; but I have found out a lot of things without
+being told, so tell me nothing!  Remember that I have something quite
+remarkable, startling even, to show you to-morrow.  I have even
+overcome, you know, the obstacle you placed in the way of my
+discoveries by sending in ahead of me this morning for the plans of the
+house."
+
+I watched her narrowly, but she was in no wise discomfited.
+
+"Well, I burned them the moment Hilda brought them back," she laughed.
+"I had faith in you, and I wanted you to manage it all for yourself.  I
+rather guessed that you would go to Pepperton.  That was when I still
+believed."
+
+"But you must go on believing.  Make-believing is the main cornerstone
+and the keystone of the arch of the happy life."
+
+"You are sure you are not mocking a foolish old woman?"
+
+"You are the wisest woman I ever knew!" I asserted, and my heart was in
+the words.
+
+"I believe you have persuaded me; but Cecilia"--
+
+She was again at the point of loosening her hold upon the cord that
+linked her shallop to Ariel's isle, but my own youth was resurgent in
+me.
+
+I rose hastily, the better to break the current of her thought.
+
+"Those men down there!  They are in the hands of a higher fate than we
+control.  I don't know the game"--
+
+"But if"--she broke in.
+
+"But if you gave away the secret, explained it to me, you would throw
+me back into my darkest chimney to hope no more.  Leave it to me; trust
+me; lean upon me!  I assure you that all will be well."
+
+She bent her head and yielded herself to reverie for a moment.  Then
+she sprang to her feet in that indescribably light, graceful way that
+erased at least fifty of her years from the reckoning, and was herself
+again.
+
+"Arnold Ames," she said, laughing a little but gazing up at me with
+unmistakable confidence and liking in her eyes, "we will go through
+with this to the end.  And whether that slipper really fell at your
+feet in Beacon Street or in the even less likely precincts of
+Rittenhouse Square, or under the windows of the Spanish Embassy in
+Washington, I believe that you are my good knight, and that you will
+see me safely through this singular adventure."
+
+And I, Arnold Ames, but lately a student of chimneys, bent and kissed
+Miss Octavia's hand.
+
+[Illustration: And I bent and kissed Miss Octavia's hand.]
+
+She led the way to the library, where I thought it well to appear for a
+moment, and I was heartily glad that I did so.  It was joy enough for
+any man that he should have earned such glances of hatred and suspicion
+as the suitors bent upon me.  There they were, some standing, some
+seated, about Cecilia.  I bowed low from the door, feeling that to
+offer my hand to these gentlemen in their present temper would be too
+severe a strain upon their manners.  As Miss Octavia appeared, several
+of them advanced courteously and engaged her in conversation.  She
+found a seat and called the others to her, on the plea that she wished
+to ask them their opinion touching some matter,--I believe it was a
+late rumor that Andree, who had gone ballooning to discover the
+Hyperboreans, had been heard of somewhere.
+
+Cecilia appeared distrait, and I wondered what new turn her affairs had
+taken.  She rose as I crossed the room, and from her manner I judged
+that she welcomed this chance of addressing me.
+
+"You have scorned the library to-night.  Has there been trouble?  Is
+Aunt Octavia alarmed about anything?"
+
+I was sure that this inquiry covered some ulterior question.  Hartley
+Wiggins, listening with a bored air to Miss Octavia's discussion of
+Andree's fate, glanced in our direction with manifest displeasure in
+our propinquity.  Cecilia Hollister was a beautiful, charming woman of
+the world, but I felt her spell less to-night.  It may be that the
+presence of Hezekiah's slipper in my inside coat-pocket, pressing
+rather insistently against my ribs, acted as a counter-irritant.  I
+certainly could not imagine myself possessed of one of Cecilia's
+slippers!  If I had tried my fictitious Beacon Street episode on
+Cecilia, she would undoubtedly have expressed her scorn of me.  The
+hollisteritis germ, that had heretofore infected me only
+intermittently, was now exerting its full tonic power.  In trying to
+hold Miss Octavia to her covenants with the lords of romance, I had
+strengthened my own confidence in their bold emprise.  The gravity with
+which the suitors gave heed to Miss Octavia's ideas on arctic
+ballooning touched my humor.  Cecilia had but to state her perplexity
+and I would interest myself promptly in her business.  If I had been
+asked that night to enlist in the most hopeless causes I should have
+done so without a quibble, and died cheerfully under any barricade.
+
+Our time was short; at any moment the suitors might cease covertly
+glaring at me, drift away from Miss Octavia, and interpose themselves
+between me and the girl on whom they had set their collective hearts.
+
+"You are in difficulty, Miss Cecilia," I said; "please tell me in what
+way I may serve you."
+
+"I don't know why I should appeal to you"--
+
+"No reason is necessary.  I have told you before that you need only to
+command me.  We may be interrupted at any moment.  Pray go on."
+
+"I have lost an article of the greatest value to me.  It has been taken
+from my room."
+
+For a moment only I read distrust and suspicion in her eyes as it
+occurred to her that I had access to every part of the house; but my
+manner seemed to restore her confidence.  And she could not have
+forgotten that her own father had met her secretly on the roof of a
+house that was denied him, and that I was perfectly cognizant of the
+fact.
+
+"I am sure you can be of assistance," she said.  "There's something
+behind this ghost-story; some one has been in and about the house; you
+believe that?"
+
+"Yes.  There has really been a sort of ghost, you know."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.  Cecilia had no patience with ghosts, and
+we were losing time.  My conversation with Cecilia was annoying
+Wiggins, as was plain from his nervousness.  Wiggins's courtesy was
+unfailing, but there are points at which the restraints of civilization
+snap.  Cecilia realized that time passed and that she had not stated
+her difficulty.  She now lowered her voice and spoke with great
+earnestness.
+
+"I went to my room for a moment, while Aunt Octavia was above, with you
+I suppose, just after the chimney gave another of its strange
+demonstrations.  I remembered that I had left my little silver-bound
+book, that I usually carry with me, on my dressing-room table.  It
+contains a memorandum of great importance to me.  It positively cannot
+be duplicated.  I am sure it was there when I came down to dinner.  But
+it was not on my dressing-table or anywhere to be found."
+
+"You may be mistaken as to where you left it.  You would not be
+absolutely positive that you left it on the dressing-table?"
+
+"There is not the slightest question about it.  I had been looking at
+it just before dinner.  I had sent you a note, you know, immediately
+after you came back, and hurried down to see you."
+
+"Yes.  I recall that.  You were in the library when I came down.  And I
+think I remember having seen the little trinket,--slightly smaller than
+a card-case, silver-backed and only a few leaves.  You had it in your
+hand the other night when I came in after Mr. Hume had left."
+
+She flushed slightly at this, but readily acquiesced in my description.
+Miss Octavia's inquiry as to whether I had seen the book came back to
+me; and no less clearly her withdrawal of her question almost the
+moment she had spoken it.
+
+I felt the sudden impingement of Hezekiah's slipper upon my own
+conscience, if I may so state the matter.  Hezekiah, playing ghost, had
+confessed to me that she had visited Cecilia's room.  Hezekiah, amusing
+herself with the library chimney and frightening the servants by
+stealing into the forbidden house through the coal-hole, was a culprit
+to be scolded and forgiven; but what of Hezekiah mischievously filching
+an article of real value to her sister!  I did not like this turn of
+affairs.  I must get back to the roof, find Hezekiah, and compel her to
+return the silver book.  Only by tactfully managing this could I serve
+well all the members of the house of Hollister.  But first I must leave
+Cecilia with a tranquil mind.
+
+"I thank you for confiding this matter to me, Miss Hollister.  Please
+do not attach suspicion to any one until I have seen you again."
+
+"But if you should be unable to restore"--
+
+"I assure you that the book is not lost.  It has been mislaid, that's
+all.  I shall return it to you at breakfast.  I give you my word."
+
+"Do you really mean it?" she faltered.  "Please keep this from Aunt
+Octavia!  I can't tell you how important it is that she be kept in
+ignorance of my loss.  The consequences, if she knew, might be very
+distressing."
+
+I could not for the life of me see what great importance could attach
+to those few leaves of paper in their silver case, but if Miss Octavia
+and Hezekiah were interested in it as well as Cecilia, it must have a
+significance wholly unrelated to its intrinsic value.  It is the way of
+professional detectives to suggest impossible theories merely to
+conceal their own plans and intentions, and as I had reached a point
+where my tongue was astonishingly glib in subterfuge and evasion, I
+suggested that it might perhaps have been one of the new servants, or
+indeed the Swedish maid.
+
+"We will look into the matter, Miss Hollister.  At breakfast I shall
+have something to report.  Meanwhile silence is the word!"
+
+Miss Octavia was carrying the invincible John Stewart Dick away to the
+billiard-room.  He glared at me murderously as he trailed glumly after
+the lady of the manor.  The others were crowding about Cecilia again,
+and I yielded to them willingly.  As I sauntered toward the door Ormsby
+detained me a moment.  His manner was arrogant and he hissed rather
+than spoke.
+
+"I'm directed to command your presence at the Prescott Arms to-morrow
+at twelve o'clock.  The business is important."
+
+"I regret, my dear brother, that I shall be unable to sit with you at
+that hour in committee of the whole, and for two reasons.  The first is
+that I am paired with Lord Arrowood.  You refused to take him into your
+base compact, and allowed him to be thrown out of the inn for not
+paying his bill.  The act was deficient in generosity and gallantry."
+
+"Then I suppose you would think it a fine thing for such a pauper to
+marry a woman like that,--like that, I say?" and he jerked his head
+toward Cecilia.
+
+"I consider a lord of Arrowood as good as the proprietor of a
+knitting-mill any day, if you press me for an opinion," I replied
+amiably.
+
+"And this from a chimney-sweep?" he sneered.
+
+"You flatter me, my dear sir.  I've renounced soot and become a
+gentleman adventurer merely to prevent a type that long illumined
+popular fiction from becoming extinct.  I advise you to fill the void
+existing in the heavy-villain class; believe me, your talents would
+carry you far.  Study Dumas and forget the wool-market, and you will
+lead a happier life.  My second reason for declining to meet you at the
+Arms at twelve to-morrow is merely that the hour is inconvenient.  I
+assume that you mean to urge luncheon upon me, and I never eat before
+one.  My doctor has warned me to avoid early luncheons if I would
+preserve my figure, of which you may well believe me justly proud."
+
+"You're a coward, that's all there is to that.  I dare you to come!"
+
+"Well, as I think of it I 'd rather be dared than invited.  If I find
+it quite convenient I shall drop in.  But you need n't keep the waffles
+hot for me.  Good evening."
+
+It did not seem possible that I, the timid, uncombative and unathletic,
+had thus cavalierly addressed a dignified gentleman in a white
+waistcoat who was perfectly capable of knocking me down with a slap in
+the face.  Valor, I aver, is only another of the offsprings of
+necessity.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+JACK O' LANTERN
+
+I hurried back to the trunk-room and had soon gained the roof.  The
+moon was harassed by flying clouds that obscured it fitfully, and a
+keen wind swept the hills.  I crept over the several levels of roof
+thinking that any moment I should come upon Hezekiah; I searched a
+second time, peering behind chimney-pots, and into dark angles; but to
+my disappointment and chagrin my young lady of the single slipper was
+nowhere in sight.  I found, however, lying near the library chimney, a
+trunk-tray that required no explanation.  With this Hezekiah had
+blocked the flue, and I smiled as I pictured her tip-toeing to reach
+the chimney-crock, and dropping the tray across the top.  How gleefully
+she must have chuckled as she waited for the flue to fill and send the
+smoke ebbing back into the library, to the discomfiture of her aunt and
+sister and the suitors gathered about the hearth!  The spirit of
+mischief never whispered into a prettier ear a trick better calculated
+to cause confusion.
+
+I had thought Hezekiah secure when I locked the trunk-room door, but I
+had not counted upon the versatility and resourcefulness of that young
+person.  I dropped to the second roof-level and inspected the
+down-spouts, but it was incredible that she had sought the earth by
+this means.  I swung myself to a third level, and after much groping
+for my bearings, decided that an athletic girl of Hezekiah's
+venturesome disposition might, if she set no great store by her neck,
+clamber off the kitchen-roof by means of a tall maple whose branches
+now raspingly called attention to their slight contact with the house.
+It was here that the walls of Hopefield thrust themselves into the
+shoulder of a rough rocky knoll, and it was perfectly clear now that
+the chambers of the earlier house around which the mansion had been
+built were neatly enfolded by the walls on the east side.
+
+As the moon cruised into a patch of clear sky something white fluttered
+from a maple limb, and I bent and pulled it free.  I took counsel of a
+match behind the kitchen chimney, and found that it was a handkerchief
+that had been knotted to the tip of the bough.  No one but Hezekiah
+would have thought of marking her trail in this fashion.  I held it to
+my face, and that faint perfume that had been a mystifying
+accompaniment of the passing of the mansion ghost became nothing more
+unreal than the orris in Hezekiah's handkerchief-case.  The wind
+whipped the bit of linen spitefully in my hands.  I reasoned that if
+Hezekiah the inexplicable had not meant for me to know the manner of
+her exit she need not have left this plain hint behind; but the swaying
+maple bough did not tempt me.  I hurried back across the roof to secure
+the trunk-tray, resolved to dispose of it, seek the open, and find the
+errant Hezekiah if she still lingered in the neighborhood.
+
+I looked off across the windy landscape before descending, and as my
+eyes ranged the dark I caught the glimmer of a light, as of a lantern
+borne in the hand, in the meadow beyond the garden.  It paused, and was
+swung back and forth by its unseen bearer.  It shed a curious yellow
+light and not the white flame of the common lantern; and now it rose a
+trifle higher and slowly resolved itself into a weird fantastic face.
+
+Three minutes later I was out of the house, using the backstairs to
+avoid the company in the library, and had crossed the garden and
+crawled through the hedge.  As I rose to my feet a voice greeted me
+cheerfully,--
+
+"Well done, Chimney-Man!  You were a little slow hitting the trail, but
+you do pretty well, considering.  How did you manage with Aunt Octavia
+about that slipper?  I had a narrow escape in the second-floor hall,
+when I came out of Cecilia's room.  I must have lowered a record
+getting upstairs.  And one shoe is n't a bit comfortable.  Allow me to
+relieve you!"
+
+"Here's your slipper.  You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
+
+"For losing my slipper?  I thought Cinderella had made that
+respectable."
+
+She placed her hand on my shoulder, lifted her foot, and drew the pump
+on with a single tug.
+
+"Well, what did Aunt Octavia say?"
+
+"Oh, she had thoughts too dark to express.  You probably heard what we
+said.  It was she who found the slipper!"
+
+Hezekiah laughed.  The wind caught up that laugh and whisked it away
+jealously.
+
+"She found it and carried it to you, Chimney-Man, and I skipped just as
+you began that beautiful story about finding it in Beacon Street.
+Hurry and tell me how you got me out of it."
+
+"How did you know I would try to explain it?  You did a perfectly
+foolhardy thing in roaming the house that way, scaring Lord Arrowood
+nearly to death, to say nothing of me.  Why should I help you?"
+
+"Oh, you're a man and I was just a little girl who had lost her
+slipper," she replied.  "I was sure you would fix it up."
+
+"Well, I like your nerve, Hezekiah!  I had to lie horribly to explain
+the slipper, and Miss Octavia did n't swallow more than half my yarn."
+
+"Oh, well, if it was a good story, Aunt Octavia would n't mind.  She'd
+have minded, though, if you had n't tried to get me out of it.  That's
+the way with Aunt Octavia.  I hope you made a romantic tale of it."
+
+"I can't say that it would place me among the great masters of fiction,
+Hezekiah, but as lies go I think it had merit.  And I 'll improve if I
+stay here much longer."
+
+"Oh, you'll stay all right.  Aunt Octavia has no intention of letting
+you go.  When she left the Asolando that afternoon she met you, she had
+her plans all made for kidnapping you."
+
+"She did n't tell you so, did she?"
+
+"No; because I have n't seen her and I'm not supposed to see her, you
+know, until Cecilia is all fixed."
+
+"Married?"
+
+"Um," replied Hezekiah.
+
+She drew from behind a boulder by which we stood a pumpkin of portable
+size, which I surmised had been carved into the most hideous of jack o'
+lanterns by the shrewd hand of Hezekiah.  I took it from her with the
+excuse of relieving her, but really to turn the light of the fearsome
+thing more directly upon her.  The wind blew her hair about her face;
+hers was an elfish face to-night.  With a pleasant tingling I met her
+eyes.  The light of a jack o' lantern is not of the earth earthy.  Even
+when you know perfectly well that it's only a candle stuck in a
+pumpkin, you are not fully satisfied of its mundane character.  In its
+glow one becomes a conspirator, ready for treason, stratagems and
+spoils.  More concretely, in these moments a small archipelago of
+freckles revealed itself about Hezekiah's nose and caused my heart to
+palpitate strangely.  Her sun-browned cheek was perilously near.  I
+hoped that she would bend forever over the lantern, so that I might not
+lose the tiny shadows of her lashes, or, again, the laughter of her
+brown eyes as she glanced up to ask my judgment as to the security of
+the candle.  She viewed her handiwork with feigned solicitude, the tip
+of her tongue showing between her lips.  Then the mirth in her bubbled
+out, and she drew away and clapped her hands together like a child.
+
+"Come!" she cried.  "If you are good and won't begin preaching about my
+sins, I'll show you the funniest thing you ever saw in your life."
+
+In my joy of seeing her I was neglecting Cecilia's commission.  Very
+likely Hezekiah had forgotten all about her theft; hers, I reasoned,
+was a nature that delighted in the nearest pleasure.  I would follow
+her jack o' lantern round the world for the chance of seeing the fun
+brighten in her brown eyes, but I had made a promise to Cecilia and I
+meant to fulfill it.
+
+She led me now across the meadow, over a stone wall, up a steep slope,
+and by devious ways through a strip of woodland.  I bore the jack o'
+lantern,--she had bidden me do it, with some notion, I did not
+question, of making me _particeps criminis_ in whatever mischief was
+afoot.  Dignified conduct in a man of twenty-eight, in his best evening
+clothes, carrying a jack o' lantern over stone walls, under clumps of
+briar, and through woods whose boughs clawed the night wildly!  The
+moon lost and found under the flying scud was in keeping with the
+general irresponsibility of a world ruled by Hezekiah.
+
+She swung along ahead of me with the greatest ease and certainty.
+Occasionally she flung some word back at me or whistled a few bars of a
+tune, and when I slipped and nearly fell on a smooth slope she laughed
+mockingly and bade me not lose the pumpkin.  Once, when a boy, I stole
+a watermelon and bore it a mile to the rendezvous of my pirate band
+camped at a riverside; but carrying a pumpkin, even a hollow one, is
+attended with manifold discomforts.  It would help, I reflected, to
+know just what I was lugging it for, but Hezekiah vouchsafed nothing.
+When I threatened to drop the grinning gargoyle she laughed and told me
+to trot along and not be silly; and a moment later she stopped and
+demanded that I repeat fully the story I had told her aunt of the
+finding of the slipper.
+
+"You are better than I thought you were, Chimney-Man!" she declared,
+when I had concluded and added her aunt's comment.  "You may be sure
+that tickled Aunt Octavia.  You can lie almost as well as an architect.
+Aunt Octavia says architects are better liars than dress-makers."
+
+"It was my weakness for the truth that caused me to abandon
+architecture.  For heaven's sake, what are you up to?"
+
+I had kept little account of the direction of our flight, and I was
+surprised that we had now reached the stile over which I had watched
+the passing of the suitors on the afternoon of my meeting with Hezekiah
+in the orchard.
+
+"This is the appointed place," she remarked, taking the pumpkin from me
+and dropping down on the far side of the stile.
+
+"Hezekiah, I've trotted across most of Westchester County after you,
+and my arm is paralyzed from carrying that pumpkin.  I must know what
+you're up to right here, or I'll go home.  Besides, there's a mist
+falling and you'll be soaked.  What do you suppose your father thinks
+of your absence at this time of night?"
+
+"Oh, he'll never forgive me for not letting him in on this.  This is
+the grandest thing I ever thought of.  Sit on this step and gently
+incline your ear toward the house.  It's about time those gentlemen
+were leaving Cecilia, and they'll be galloping for their inn in a
+minute, and then"--
+
+Hezekiah whistled the rest of it.
+
+While we waited, she bade me reset the candle and snuff the wick, which
+I did of necessity with my fingers.  Sitting on a stile with a pretty
+girl is an experience that has been commended by the balladists, but
+surely this felicity loses nothing where the night is fine.  When you
+get used to sitting in a drizzle in your dress-suit, while your
+shirt-bosom assumes the consistency of a gum shoe and your collar glues
+itself odiously to your neck, I dare say the ordeal may be borne
+cheerfully, but my expressions of discomfort seemed only to amuse
+Hezekiah.  While we waited for I knew not what, I tried once or twice
+to revert to the silver note-book, but without success.  Hezekiah was a
+mistress of the art of evasion with her tongue as well as her feet!
+
+"Wait till the evening performance is over and I'll talk about that.
+'Sh!  Quiet!  Crawl over there out of the way, and when I say run, beat
+it for the road."
+
+These last phrases were uttered in a whisper, her face close to my ear.
+She gave me a little push, and I withdrew a few yards and waited.  The
+ground, I may say, was wet, and the drizzle had become a monotonous
+autumn rain.
+
+The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face as she held
+its illumined countenance toward her, crouching on the stile-steps.  I
+heard now what her keener ear had caught earlier--the tramp of feet
+along the path.  The suitors were returning to the inn, and the voices
+of one or two of them reached me.  One--I thought it was Ormsby--was
+execrating the weather.  They were stepping along briskly, and my
+remembrance of their retreat over this same stile through the amber
+evening dusk was so vivid that I knew just how they would appear if a
+light suddenly fell upon the path.
+
+[Illustration: The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's
+face.]
+
+The nature of Hezekiah's undertaking suddenly dawned upon me.  No one
+but Hezekiah could ever have devised anything so preposterous, so
+utterly lawless; but in spite of myself I waited in breathless
+eagerness for the outcome.  I could not have interfered now, if I had
+wished to do so, without betraying her and involving myself in a
+predicament that could not redound to my credit.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the patter of feet, and I heard, for I could not
+see, the scraping of Hezekiah's slipper,--a wet little shoe by now!--as
+she crept higher on our side of the stile.  The first suitor groped
+blindly for the steps, slipped on the wet plank, growled, and rose to
+try again.  That growl marked for me the leader of the van.  Hartley
+Wiggins, beyond a doubt, and in no good humor, I guessed!  The others,
+I judged, had trodden upon one another's heels at the moment Wiggins
+stumbled.  Thus let us imagine their approach--six gentlemen in top
+hats headed for a stile on a chilly night of rain.
+
+It was at this strategic moment that Hezekiah pushed into the middle of
+the stile-platform, its grinning face turned toward the advancing
+suitors, the jack o' lantern her hand had fashioned.
+
+I marked its position by its faint glow an instant, but an instant
+only.  The world reeled for a moment before the sharp cry of a man in
+fear.  It cut the dark like a lash, and close upon it the second man
+yelled, in a different key, but no less in accents of terror.  The
+first arrival had flung himself back, and so close upon him pressed the
+others and so unexpected was the halt, that the nine men seemed to have
+flung themselves together and to be struggling to escape from the
+hideous thing that had interposed itself in their path.
+
+All was over in a moment.  In the midst of the panic the lantern winked
+out, and instantly Hezekiah was beside me.
+
+"Skip!" she commanded in a whisper; and catching my hand she led me off
+at a brisk run.  When we had gone a dozen rods she paused.  We heard
+voices from the stile, where the gentlemen were still engaged in
+disentangling themselves; and then the planks boomed to their steps as
+they crossed.  They talked loudly among themselves discussing the cause
+of their discomfiture.  The lantern, I may add, had been knocked off
+the stile by the thoughtful Hezekiah when she blew out the light.
+
+A moment more and all sounds of the suitors had died away.  I stood
+alone with Hezekiah in the midst of a meadow.  She was breathing hard.
+Suddenly she threw up her head, struck her hands together, and stamped
+her foot upon the wet sod.  I had waited for an outburst of laughter
+now that we were safely out of the way, but I had reasoned without my
+Hezekiah.  Her mood was not the mood of mirth.
+
+"Well, Hezekiah," I said when I had got my wind, "you pulled off your
+joke, but you don't seem to be enjoying it.  What's the matter?"
+
+"Oh, that Hartley Wiggins!  I might have known it!"
+
+"Known what?" I asked, pricking up my ears.
+
+"That he would be afraid of a pumpkin with a candle inside of it.  Did
+you hear that yell?"
+
+"Anybody would have yelled," I suggested.  "I think I should have
+dropped dead if you'd tried it on me."
+
+"No, you would n't," she asserted with unexpected flattery.
+
+"Don't be deceived, Hezekiah; I should have been scared to death if
+that thing had popped up in front of me."
+
+"I don't believe it.  I gave you a worse test than that.  When I
+switched off the lights and swung a feather duster down the stair-well
+by a string and tickled your face you did n't make a noise like a
+circus calliope scaring horses in Main Street, Podunk.  But that
+Wiggins man!"
+
+"He's a friend of mine and as brave as a lion.  Out in Dakota the
+sheriff used to get him to go in and quiet things when the boys were
+shooting up the town."
+
+"Maybe; but he shied at a pumpkin and can be no true knight of mine.
+Cecilia may have him.  I always suspected that he was n't the real
+thing.  Why, he's even afraid of Aunt Octavia!"
+
+"Well, I rather think _we 'd_ better be!"
+
+I wanted to laugh, but I did not dare.  I was not prepared for the
+humor in which the panic of the suitors had left her.  I did not quite
+make out--and I am uncertain to this day--whether she had really wished
+to test the courage of her sister's lovers or whether she had yielded
+to a mischievous impulse in carrying the jack o' lantern to the stile
+and thrusting it before those serious-minded gentlemen as they returned
+from Hopefield.  In any event Hartley Wiggins was out of it so far as
+she, Hezekiah, was concerned.  She trudged doggedly across the field
+until we came presently to the highway.
+
+"My wheel's in the weeds somewhere; please pull it out for me.  I'm
+going home."
+
+"But not alone; I can't let you do that, Hezekiah."
+
+"Oh, cheer up!" she laughed, aroused by my lugubrious tone.  "And
+here's something you asked me for.  Don't drop it.  It's Cecilia's
+memorandum-book.  Give it back to her, and be sure no one sees it, and
+you need n't look into it yourself.  And we've got to have a talk about
+it and Cecilia.  Let me see.  There's an iron bridge across an arm of
+that little lake over there, and just beyond it a big fallen tree.
+To-morrow at nine o'clock I'll be there.  I've got to tell you
+something, Chimney-Man, without really telling you.  You'll be there,
+won't you?"
+
+"I'll be there if I'm alive, Hezekiah."
+
+I had found the wheel and lighted the lamp.  She scouted my suggestion
+that I find a horse and drive her home.  The lighting of the lamp
+required time owing to the wind and rain; but when its thin ribbon of
+light fell clearly upon the road, she seized the handle-bars and was
+ready to mount without ado.
+
+She gave me her hand,--it was a cold, wet little hand, but there was a
+good friendly grip in it.  This was the first time I had touched
+Hezekiah's hand, and I mention it because as I write I feel again the
+pressure of her slim cold fingers.
+
+"Sorry you spoiled your clothes, but it was in a good cause.  And you
+'re a nice boy, Chimney-Man!"
+
+She shot away into the darkness, and the lamp's glow on the road
+vanished in an instant; but before I lost her quite, her cheery whistle
+blew back to me reassuringly.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+SEVEN GOLD REEDS
+
+I woke the next morning to the banging of Miss Octavia's fowling-piece.
+In spite of the crowding incidents of the day and night I had slept
+soundly, and save for a stiffness of the legs I was none the worse for
+my wetting.  The service of the house was perfect, and in response to
+my ring a man appeared who declared himself competent to knock my dress
+clothes into shape again.
+
+I should hardly have believed that so much history had been made in a
+night, if it had not been for certain indubitable evidence: Cecilia's
+silver note-book; Hezekiah's handkerchief, which I had forgotten to
+return to her; and a patch of tallow grease from the jack o' lantern
+that had attached itself firmly to my coat-cuff.
+
+Cecilia met me at the foot of the stairs, looking rather worn, I
+thought.  We were safe from interruption a moment longer, as her aunt's
+gun was still booming, and I followed her to the library.
+
+"Please don't tell me you have failed," she cried tearfully.  "That
+little book means so much, so very much to us all!"
+
+"Here it is, Miss Hollister," I said, placing it in her hand without
+parley.  "I beg to assure you that I return it just as you saw it last.
+Please satisfy yourself that it has not been tampered with in any way.
+I have not opened it; and it has not left my hand since I recovered it."
+
+She had almost snatched it from me, and she turned slightly away and
+ran hurriedly over the leaves.
+
+In her relief she laughed happily; and with one of her charming,
+graceful gestures she gave me her hand.
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Ames; thank you! thank you!  You have rendered me the
+greatest service.  And I hope you were able to do so without serious
+inconvenience to yourself."
+
+"On the other hand it was the smallest matter, and instead of being a
+trouble I found the greatest pleasure in recovering it."
+
+I stood with my hands thrust carelessly into my trousers pockets,
+rocking slightly upon my heels to convey a sense of the unimportance of
+my service.  It was a manner I had cultivated to meet the surprise and
+gratitude of my clients when I had brought a seemingly incurable flue
+into a state of subjection.  I think I may have appeared a little
+bored, as though I had accomplished a feat that was rather unworthy of
+my powers.  A doctor who prescribes the wrong pill and finds to his
+amazement that it cures the patient, might improve upon that manner,
+but not greatly.
+
+"You naturally wonder, Miss Hollister, how I found this trinket so
+readily.  And in order that you may not suspect perfectly innocent
+persons, I will tell you exactly how I came by it.  It was your belief
+that you had left it on your dressing-table.  But as a memorandum-book
+of any character pertains to a writing-desk rather than to a
+dressing-table, my interest centred at once upon such writing-table as
+you doubtless have in your room."
+
+"There is a writing-desk, in the corner by the window, but"--
+
+"Ah, you are about to repeat your belief that you left the book on the
+dressing-table and that it could not have moved to the desk.  May I ask
+whether you did not, just before you came down to dinner, scribble me a
+line asking for an interview?"
+
+"Why, yes; I remember that perfectly."
+
+"You wrote in some haste, as indicated by the handwriting in your
+message.  It is possible that you wrote and destroyed one note, or
+perhaps two, before you had expressed yourself exactly to your liking.
+We are all of us, with any sort of feeling for style, prone to just
+such rejections."
+
+"It is possible that I did," she replied, coloring slightly.  "I was
+extremely anxious to see you."
+
+"Very well, then; is it not possible that in throwing the rejected
+correspondence cards into the waste-paper basket that stands beside
+your desk,--there is such a basket, is there not?"
+
+"Yes," she replied breathlessly.
+
+"Is it not possible, then, that that little booklet, hardly heavier
+than paper itself, may have been brushed off without your seeing it?"
+
+"It is possible; I must admit that it is possible; but"--
+
+"It is on that 'but' that any theory implicating another hand must
+break.  What I have indicated is exactly what must have happened.  To
+the nice care that characterizes the house-keeping of this
+establishment we must now turn.  I find that when I go to my own room
+after dinner it is always in perfect order,--pens restored to the rack
+on my writing-table, brushes laid straight on the dressing-table, and
+so on.  The well-trained maid who cares for your room, seeing scraps of
+paper in the basket by your desk, naturally carried it off.  When I
+accepted your commission last night I went directly to the cellar,
+sought the bin into which waste paper is thrown, and found among old
+envelopes and other litter this small trinket, which but for my
+promptness might have been lost forever."
+
+"It does n't seem possible," she faltered.
+
+"Oh," I laughed easily, "possible or impossible, you could not on the
+witness-stand swear that the book had not dropped into the waste-paper
+basket precisely as I have described."
+
+"No, I suppose I couldn't," she answered slowly.
+
+My powers of mendacity were improving; but her relief at holding the
+book again in her hand was so great that she would probably have
+believed anything.
+
+"You see," she said, clasping the book tight, "this was given me for a
+particular purpose and it contains a memorandum of greatest importance.
+And I was in a panic when I found that it was gone, for my recollection
+of certain items I had recorded here was confused, and there was no
+possible way of setting myself straight.  Now all is clear again.  I
+feel that I make poor acknowledgment of your service; but if, at any
+time"--
+
+"Pray think no more of it," I replied; and at this moment Miss
+Hollister appeared and called us to breakfast.
+
+"If it is perfectly agreeable to you, Arnold, I will hear the story of
+the finding of the ghost at four o'clock, or just before tea.  I have
+sent a telegram to Mr. Pepperton asking him to be present.  He 's at
+his country home in Redding and can very easily motor down.  As no
+motors are allowed on my premises he shall be met at the gate with a
+trap."
+
+"You have sent for Pepperton!" I exclaimed.
+
+"That is exactly what I have done, and as he knows that I never accept
+apologies under any circumstances, he will not disappoint me.  In
+addition to reprimanding him for not telling me of the secret passage
+in this house, I have another matter that concerns you, Arnold, which I
+wish to lay before him.  The new cook that Providence sent to my
+kitchen yesterday is the best we have had, Cecilia, and I beg that you
+both indulge yourselves in a second helping of country scrambled eggs."
+
+Miss Octavia made no further allusion to the incidents of the night,
+but went on turning over her mail.  I have neglected to say that her
+library contained a most remarkable array of books in praise of man's
+fortitude and daring.  I have learned later that these had been
+assembled for her by a distinguished scholar, and many of them were
+rare editions.  A "Karlamagnus Saga" elbowed Malory and the "Reali di
+Francia;" and Roland's horn challenged in all languages.  She greatly
+admired and had often visited the Chateau de Luynes, and had a
+portfolio filled with water-color and pen-and-ink drawings of it.  Such
+books as Viollet-le-Duc's "Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français" I
+constantly found lying spread open on the library table.  She read
+German and French readily, and declared her purpose to attack old
+French that she might pursue certain obscure _chansons de geste_ which,
+an Oxford professor had told her, were not susceptible of adequate
+translation.  Why should one read the news of the day when the news of
+all time was available!  Magazines and reviews she tolerated, but no
+newspaper was as good as Froissart.  She therefore read newspapers only
+through a clipping bureau, which sent her items bearing upon her own
+peculiar interests.  By some error the story of a heavy embezzlement in
+a city bank had that day crept in among a number of cuttings relating
+to a ship that had been found somewhere off the Chilean coast with all
+sails set and everything in perfect order, but with not a soul on
+board.  She expressed her bitterest contempt for men in responsible
+positions who betrayed their trusts: highway robbery she thought a much
+nobler crime, as the robber dignified his act by exposing himself to
+personal danger.
+
+"In our day, Arnold," she said, placing her knife and fork carefully on
+her plate, "in our day the ten commandments have lost their moral
+significance and retain, I fear, only a very slight literary interest."
+
+She reminded Cecilia of an appointment to ride that morning; in the
+early afternoon she was to install a new kennel-master; and otherwise
+there was a full day ahead of her.  It was a cheerful breakfast table.
+A letter from my assistant confirming his telegraphed resignation did
+not disturb me; Miss Octavia showed no further signs of abandoning her
+quest of the golden coasts of youth, and Cecilia, having recovered her
+notebook, faced the new day cheerfully.
+
+A little later I met Miss Hollister in the hall dressed for her ride.
+
+"Arnold, you may ride whenever you like.  I may have forgotten to
+mention it.  What have you on hand this morning?"
+
+"An appointment with a lady," I replied.
+
+"If you are about to meet the owner of that Beacon Street slipper I
+wish you good luck."
+
+She was drawing on her gauntlets, and turned away to hide a smile, I
+thought; then she tapped me lightly with her riding-crop.
+
+"Cecilia's silver note-book was missing last night.  She told me of her
+loss with tears.  She has it again this morning.  Did you restore it?"
+
+"It was my good fortune to do so."
+
+"Then allow me to add my thanks to hers.  You are an unusually
+practical person, Arnold Ames, as well as the possessor of an
+imagination that pleases me.  You are becoming more and more essential
+to me.  Cecilia approaches, and I cannot say more at this time."
+
+When they had ridden out of the porte-cochère I set off across the
+fields to keep my tryst with Hezekiah.  The air had been washed sweet
+and clean by the rain of the night, and sky was never bluer.  I was
+surprised at my own increasing detachment from the world.  Nothing that
+had happened before the Asolando mattered greatly; my meeting with Miss
+Octavia Hollister had marked a climacteric from which all events must
+now be reckoned.  I had embarked with high hope in a profession to
+which I had been drawn from youth, had failed utterly to find clients,
+and had therefore taken up the doctoring of flues, a vocation whose
+honors are few and dubious, and in which I felt it to be damning praise
+that I was called the best in America.  My days at Hopefield were the
+happiest of my life.  Few as they had been, they had changed my gray
+bleak course into a path bright with promise.  The world had been too
+much with me, and I had escaped from it as completely as though I had
+stepped upon another planet "where all is possible and all unknown."
+
+I reached the fallen tree that Hezekiah had appointed as our
+trysting-place a little ahead of time, and indulged in pleasant
+speculations while I waited.  I was looking toward the hills expecting
+her to come skimming along the highway on her bicycle, when a splash
+caused me to turn to the lake.  Dull of me not to have known that
+Hezekiah would contrive a new entrance for a scene so charmingly set as
+this!  She had stolen upon me in a light skiff, and laughed to see how
+her silent approach startled me.  She dropped one oar and used the
+other as a paddle, driving the boat with a sure hand through the reeds
+into the bank.
+
+  "'Tis morning and the days are long!"
+
+
+Such was Hezekiah's greeting as she jumped ashore.  She wore a dark
+green skirt and coat, and a narrow four-in-hand cravat tied under a
+flannel collar that clasped her throat snugly.  A boy's felt hat, with
+the brim pinned up in front, covered her head.
+
+"You seem none the worse for your wetting, Hezekiah.  You must have
+been soaked."
+
+"So must you, Chimneys, but you look as fit as I feel, and I never felt
+better.  Did they catch you crawling in last night?"
+
+"I did n't see a soul.  You know I'm an old member of the family now.
+Nobody was ever as nice to me as your Aunt Octavia."
+
+"How about Cecilia?"
+
+"Having found her silver note-book and given it back to her before
+breakfast, I may say that our relations are altogether cordial."
+
+"Are you in love with her--yet?" asked Hezekiah, carelessly, tossing a
+pebble into the lake.  The "yet" was so timed that it splashed with the
+pebble.
+
+"No; not--yet," I replied.
+
+"It will come," said Hezekiah a little ruefully, casting a pebble
+farther upon the crinkled water.
+
+"You mean, Hezekiah, that men always fall in love with your sister."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Well, she's a good deal of a girl."
+
+"Beautiful and no end cultivated.  They all go crazy about her."
+
+"You mean Hartley Wiggins and his fellow-bandits at the Prescott Arms."
+
+"Yes; and lots of others."
+
+"And sometimes, Hezekiah, it has seemed to you that she got all the
+admiration, and that you did n't get your share.  So when her suitors
+began a siege of the castle whose gates were locked against you, you
+plugged the chimney with a trunk-tray, and played at being ghost and
+otherwise sought to terrify your sister's lovers."
+
+"That's not nice, Chimneys.  You mean that I'm jealous."
+
+"No.  I don't mean that you are jealous now: I throw it into the remote
+and irrevocable past.  You were jealous.  You don't care so much now.
+And I hope you will care less!"
+
+"That is being impertinent.  If you talk that way I shall call you Mr.
+Ames and go home!"
+
+"You can't do that, Hezekiah."
+
+"I should like to know why not?  If you say I 'm jealous of Cecilia
+now, or that I ever was, I shall be very, very angry.  For it's not
+true."
+
+"No.  You see things very differently now.  You told me only last night
+that Cecilia might have Hartley Wiggins.  Assuming that she wants him!
+And you and he have been good friends, have n't you?  You had good
+times on the other side.  And while Cecilia was in town assisting
+Providence in finding your aunt a cook, you went walking with him."
+
+"I did, I did!" mocked Hezekiah.  "And why do you suppose I did?"
+
+"Because Wiggy's the best of fellows; a solid, substantial citizen, who
+raises wheat to make bread out of."
+
+"And angel food and ginger cookies," added Hezekiah, feeling absently
+in the pockets of her coat.  "No, Chimneys, you 're a nice boy and you
+don't yell like a wild man when a feather-duster hits you in the dark;
+but there are some things you don't know yet."
+
+"I am here to grow wise at the feet of Hezekiah, Daughter of Kings.
+Open the book of wisdom and teach me the alphabet, but don't be sad if
+I balk at the grammar."
+
+"I never knew all the alphabet myself," said Hezekiah dolefully; then
+she laughed abruptly.  "I was bounced from two convents and no end of
+Hudson River and Fifth Avenue education shops."
+
+"The brutality of that, Hezekiah, wrings my heart!  Yet you are the
+best teacher I ever had, and I thought I was educated when I met you.
+But I had only been to school, which is different.  Not until the first
+time our eyes met, not until that supreme moment"--
+
+"Mr. Ames," Hezekiah interrupted, in the happiest possible imitation of
+Miss Octavia's manner, "if you think that, because I am a poor lone
+girl who knows nothing of the great, wide world, I am a fair mark for
+your cajolery, I assure you that you were never more mistaken in your
+life!"
+
+"You ought n't to mimic your aunt.  It is n't respectful; and besides
+you have something to tell me.  What's all this rumpus about Cecilia's
+silver memorandum-book?  Suppose we discuss that and get through with
+it."
+
+We were sitting on the fallen tree, which lay partly in the lake, and
+Hezekiah leaned over and broke off a number of reeds from the thicket
+at the water's edge.  Out of her pocket she drew a small penknife and
+trimmed them uniformly.
+
+"You see," she began, biting her lip in the earnestness of her labor,
+"I'm going to tell you something, and yet I 'm not going to tell you.
+So far as you and I have gone you 've been tolerably satisfactory.  If
+I did n't think you had some wits in your head I should n't have
+bothered with you at all.  That's frank, is n't it?"
+
+"It certainly is.  But I'm terribly fussed for fear I may not be equal
+to this new ordeal."
+
+"If you fail we shall never meet again; that's all there is to that.
+Now listen real hard.  You know something about it already, but not the
+main point.  Aunt Octavia got father to consent to let her marry us
+off--Cecilia and me.  Cecilia, being older, came first.  I was to keep
+out of the way, and father and I were not to come to Aunt Octavia's new
+house up there or meddle in any way.  While we were abroad I was
+treated as a little girl, and not as a grown-up at all.  But you see I
+'m really nineteen, and some of Cecilia's suitors were nice to me when
+we were traveling.  They were nice to me on Cecilia's account, you
+know."
+
+"Of course.  You're so hard to look at, it must have been painful to
+them to be nice to you,--almost like taking poison!  Go on, Hezekiah!"
+
+"You need n't interrupt me like that.  Well, as part of the
+understanding, and Cecilia agreed to it,--she thought she had to for
+papa's sake,--she was to marry a particular man.  Do you understand me,
+a particular man?  Aunt Octavia gave her the little note-book--she
+bought it at a shop in Paris at the time Cecilia consented to the
+plan--and she was to keep a sort of diary, so that she'd know when the
+right man turned up.  Now we will drop the note-book for a minute; only
+I'll say that Cecilia was to keep the book all to herself and not show
+it to any one, not even to Aunt Octavia, you know, until the right man
+had asked Cecilia to marry him.  Now who do you suppose, Mr. Ames, that
+man is?"
+
+I watched her hands as they deftly cut and fashioned the dry reeds.
+The air grew warm as the sun climbed to the zenith, and Hezekiah flung
+aside her coat.  The breeze caught the ends of her tie and snapped them
+behind her.  She was wholly absorbed in her task, and no boy could have
+managed a pocket-knife better.  The first reed she made a trifle longer
+than her hand; the succeeding ones she trimmed to graduated lessening
+lengths, till seven in all had been cut, and then she notched them.
+
+"Seven," she murmured, laying them neatly in order on her knee.  "I
+remember the right number by a poem I read the other day in an old
+magazine."
+
+She reached down and plucked several long leaves of tough grass with
+which she began to bind the reeds together, repeating,--
+
+  "Seven gold reeds grew tall and slim,
+  Close by the river's beaded brim.
+
+  "Syrnix the naiad flitted past:
+  Pan, the goat-hoofed, followed fast.
+
+
+"It will be easier," said Hezekiah, "if you hold the pipes while I tie
+them."
+
+I found this propinquity wholly agreeable.  It was pleasant to sit on a
+log beside Hezekiah.  It seemed no far cry to the storied Mediterranean
+and Pan and dryads and naiads, as Hezekiah bound her reeds to the music
+of couplets.  There was no self-consciousness in her recitation; she
+seemed to be telling me of something that she had seen herself an hour
+ago.
+
+  "He spread his arms to clasp her there
+  Just as she vanished into air.
+
+  "And to his bosom warm and rough
+  Drew the gold reeds close enough.
+
+
+"I don't remember the rest," she broke off.  "But there!  That's a pipe
+fit for any shepherd."
+
+She put it to her lips and blew.  I shall not pretend that the result
+was melodious: she whistled much better without the reeds; but the
+sight of her, sitting on the fallen tree beside the lake, beating time
+with her foot, her head thrown back, her eyes half-closed in a mockery
+of rapture at the shrill, wheezy uncertainties and ineptitudes she
+evoked, thrilled me with new and wonderful longings.  A heart, a spirit
+like hers would never grow old!  She was next of kin to all the
+elusive, fugitive company of the elf-world.  And on such a pipe as she
+had strung together beside that pond, to this day Sicilian shepherd
+boys whistle themselves into tune with Theocritus!
+
+[Illustration: She put it to her lips and blew.]
+
+"Take it," she said; "I can't tell you more than I have; and yet it is
+all there, Chimneys.  Read the riddle of the reeds if you can."
+
+I took the pipe and turned it over carefully in my hands; but I fear my
+thoughts were rather of the hands that had fashioned it, the fingers
+that had danced nimbly upon the stops.
+
+"There are seven reeds,--seven," she affirmed.
+
+She amused herself by skipping pebbles over the surface of the water
+while I pondered.  And I deliberated long, for one did not like to
+blunder before Hezekiah!  Then I jumped up and called to her.
+
+"One, two, three, four, five, six--seven!  Not until the seventh man
+offers himself shall Cecilia have a husband!  Is that the answer?"
+
+For a moment Hezekiah watched the widening ripples made by the casting
+of her last pebble; then she came back and resumed her seat.
+
+"You have done well, Chimney Man; and now I 'll not make you guess any
+more, though I found it all out for myself.  When Aunt Octavia gave
+that memorandum-book to Cecilia, I knew it must have something to do
+with the seventh man.  You know I love all Aunt Octavia's nonsense
+because it's the kind of foolishness I like myself, and the idea of a
+pretty little note-book to write down proposals in was precisely the
+sort of thing that would have occurred to my aunt.  And it was in the
+bargain, too, that she herself should not in any way interfere, or try
+to influence the course of events: it should be the seventh suitor,
+willy-nilly.  And I suspect she's been a little scared too."
+
+"She has indeed!  She was almost ready to throw the whole scheme over
+last night.  Your naughtiness had got on her nerves."
+
+"You missed the target that time: Aunt Octavia loves my naughtiness,
+and I think she has really been afraid Sir Pumpkin Wiggins would catch
+me.  Now I did n't roam my aunt's house just for fun.  I was doing my
+best to keep Cecilia from getting into some scrape about that
+seventh-suitor plan.  I found out by chance how to get into Hopefield,
+and about the hidden stairway and the old rooms tucked away there.
+Papa really discovered that.  A carpenter in Katonah who worked on the
+house helped to build papa's bungalow, and he told us how that ruin
+came to be there.  That dyspepsia-cure man, who also immortalized
+himself by inventing the ribless umbrella, was very superstitious.  He
+believed that if he built an entirely new house he would die.  So he
+had his architect build around and retain those two rooms and that
+stairway of a house that had been on the ground almost since the
+Revolution.  Mr. Pepperton, the architect, humored him, but hid the
+remains of the relic as far out of sight as possible."
+
+"Trust Pep for that!  And he did it neatly!"
+
+"Yes; but it did n't save the umbrella-man; he died anyhow; or maybe
+his pies killed him.  Papa was so curious about it that he took me with
+him one night just before Aunt Octavia moved here, and he and I found
+the rooms and the stair and the secret spring by which, if you know
+just where to poke the wall in the fourth-floor hall, you can disappear
+as mysteriously as you please."
+
+"But how on earth did you darken the halls so easily?  You nearly gave
+me heart-disease doing that!"
+
+"Oh, that was a mere matter of a young lady in haste!  When I found how
+easily I could pass you on the stair it became a fascinating game, and
+it was no end of fun to see just how long it would take you to catch
+me."
+
+"I wish, Hezekiah, that you would stay caught!"
+
+"Be very, very careful, sir!  We're talking business now.  There's
+another ordeal for you before you dare become sentimental."
+
+"Then hasten; let us be after it."
+
+"Things are in a serious predicament, I can tell you.  I was frightened
+when I looked into that note-book,--I did n't like to do that, but I
+had to assist Providence a little.  Five men have already got their
+quietus."
+
+"Then why don't they clear out, and stop their nonsense?"
+
+"Oh, it's their pride, I suppose; and every man probably thinks that
+when Cecilia has seen a little more of him in particular, in contrast
+with the others, he will win her favor.  They 're afraid of one
+another, those men; that's the reason they've been herding together so
+close since that first day you came.  Mr. Wiggins was taking it for
+granted that he was the whole thing--just like the man!--and those
+others forced him to join in some sort of arrangement by which they
+were to hang together.  These calls in a bunch came from that, as
+though any one of them would n't take advantage of the others if he saw
+a chance!  Some of this I got from Wiggy himself, the rest I just
+guessed."
+
+"But you may not know that they sent a delegation after me into town,
+to warn me off the grass."
+
+"That was Mr. Dick.  He never saw me when Cecilia was around.  And he
+was terribly snippy sometimes, and supercilious; but I'm going to get
+even with him.  I've about underlined him for number six," she
+concluded, with the manner of a queen who, about to give her chief
+executioner his orders for the day, glances calmly over the list of
+victims.
+
+"That's a good idea; Dick is insufferable; I hope you have n't counted
+wrong."
+
+"As we were saying, about the note-book," she resumed, "the fifth man
+has already been respectfully declined.  The dates of the proposals are
+written in the note-book; so I learned from the book that Mr. Ormsby,
+Mr. Arbuthnot, and Mr. Gorse had proposed on the steamer.  Professor
+Hume, as you know, tried his luck at Hopefield; and Lord Arrowood must
+have stopped Cecilia as she was riding to the station on my bicycle
+yesterday morning.  His goose is cooked."
+
+"His gooseberry pie was cooked, but I took it away from him.  No pie
+sacred to Hezekiah can be confiscated by an indigent lord so long as I
+keep my present health and spirits.  It's the close season for lords in
+Westchester County; I potted the last one.  By the way, he thought you
+were a real ghost when you were playing tag with him in the dark."
+
+"He stopped to tell papa good-bye and spoke very highly of you; papa
+and you are the only gentlemen he met in America.  But now we come to
+Mr. Wiggins."
+
+"We do; and why in the name of all that is beautiful and good has n't
+he tried his luck?"
+
+"Because, knowing Cecilia's admiration for him," replied Hezekiah
+demurely, "I have kept him so diverted that he has n't been able to
+bring himself to the scratch."
+
+She examined the palm of her hand critically to allow me time to grasp
+this.
+
+"You did n't want him to blunder in as the first, fourth, or sixth man?"
+
+Hezekiah gravely nodded her pretty head.
+
+"And while you were engaged in this sisterly labor, Cecilia has been
+afraid that you were seriously interested in him!"
+
+"That is like Cecilia.  She's fine, and would n't cause me trouble for
+anything;" and there was no doubt of Hezekiah's sincerity.
+
+"But now that I see the light and understand all this, how can we make
+sure that Wiggy will be on the spot at the right moment?  While we sit
+here, he may be the sixth man!  There's my friend, the eminent thinker
+from Nebraska; he's likely to kneel before Cecilia at any moment, and
+Henderson and Shallenberger are not asleep."
+
+"That's all true; and you've got to fix it."
+
+"You're leaving the fate of Wiggins and your sister in my hands?
+That's a heavy responsibility, Hezekiah.  I might take care of Wiggy by
+asking Cecilia to marry me, being careful to have him appear
+johnny-on-the-spot when I had been duly declined."
+
+"Um, I should n't take any chances if I were you," she replied,
+feigning to look at an imaginary bird in a tree-top; "for if you had
+counted wrong and were really the seventh man, she would have to accept
+you!"
+
+"Hezekiah!"
+
+"Oh, I really did n't mean what you thought I meant.  We don't need to
+discuss it any more.  That's the ordeal I've arranged for you," she
+answered, and set her lips sternly.
+
+"But, my dear Hezekiah, by what means can this be effected?  I don't
+dare tell him the combination he's playing against or sit on him until
+his hour strikes."
+
+"Certainly not; you must n't tell him or anybody else.  You know the
+plan; but you're not supposed to; and nobody must know I've meddled.
+Meanwhile, Cecilia must expose herself to proposals at all times.  Aunt
+Octavia's heart would be broken if she thought Providence had been
+tampered with.  She likes Wiggy well enough, except that his ancestors
+were all Tories and he can't be a son of the Revolution."
+
+"Too bad; it was very careless of him not to do better about his
+ancestors; but he can't change that now."
+
+"Well, you've behaved with considerable intelligence so far, and now
+with your friend's fate in your hands you will need to use great
+judgment and tact in all that follows.  I wash my hands of the whole
+business."
+
+She rose quickly and pointed to her coat.
+
+"Drop it into the boat for me, Chimneys.  We meet in funny places,
+don't we?  Papa expects me for luncheon, and I must row back and get my
+bicycle.  You?  No, you can't go along; you've got a lot of thinking to
+do, and you'd better be doing it."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS
+
+A few minutes later, as I swung along the highway toward the Prescott
+Arms, I saw Cecilia Hollister riding toward me at a lively gallop.  She
+crossed the bridge without checking her horse, and then, with a hurried
+glance over her shoulder, she pointed with her crop to a by-way that
+led deviously into a strip of forest and vanished.
+
+I hurried after her, and found her waiting for me in a quiet lane.  She
+had dismounted and seemed greatly disturbed as I addressed her.  Her
+horse, a superb Estabrook thoroughbred, had evidently been pushed hard.
+Cecilia had taken off her hat, and was giving a touch to the wayward
+strands of hair that had been shaken loose in her flight.  The color
+glowed in her dark cheeks, and her eyes were bright with excitement.
+
+"I hadn't expected to meet you; I thought you rode off with your aunt
+toward Mt. Kisco."
+
+"We did; but on our way home Aunt Octavia stopped to call on a friend,
+and as I did n't feel in a mood for visits this morning I rode on
+alone."
+
+She spoke further of her aunt's friend, of whom I had never heard
+before, to calm herself before touching upon the cause of her wild ride
+or her wish to speak to me.  She pinned on her hat and drew on her
+riding-gloves while I helped to make conversation, and soon regained
+her composure.  The haste with which she had withdrawn into the wood,
+and the imperative wave of her crop by which she had bidden me follow
+her, indicated that something of importance had happened and that she
+wished to confide in me.
+
+"I was walking my horse in the road beyond Bedford, just after I left
+Aunt Octavia, when who should ride up beside me but Mr. Wiggins.  He
+had evidently been following me."
+
+She expected me to express surprise; and with the information that
+Hezekiah had just imparted fresh in my mind I dare say she was not
+disappointed in the effect of her words.  I was thinking rapidly and
+fearfully.  If my friend had sought her in the highway and offered
+himself in some fresh accession of ardor, he might even now be a
+rejected and hopeless man; but I was unwilling to believe that this had
+happened.
+
+"Hartley is fond of riding, and nothing could be more natural than for
+him to have his horse sent out from town."
+
+"Oh, it's natural enough," she cried; "but I was greatly taken aback
+when he rode up beside me."
+
+"An old friend joining you in the highway, on a bright October morning!
+I can't for the life of me see anything surprising or alarming in that,
+Miss Hollister."
+
+"But only yesterday, you remember I told you I had seen him walking
+with my sister."
+
+"It's perfectly easy to talk to Hezekiah!  It seems to me that that
+only shows a friendly attitude toward all the family.  Let us deal with
+facts if I am to help you.  I understand perfectly that Hartley Wiggins
+wishes to marry you; and that being the case I see no reason why he
+should n't be courteous to your sister.  I 've always heard that it's
+the proper thing to be polite to the sisters, cousins, and aunts of
+one's prospective wife.  I know of no more delightful occupation than
+listening to Hezekiah.  Just now, for an hour or so, I have been
+enjoying her conversation myself.  Nothing could be more refreshing or
+stimulating.  She is an unusual young woman, and most amazingly wise."
+
+"You have seen Hezekiah this morning!" she exclaimed.
+
+"I have indeed.  I hope I may say that she and I are becoming good
+friends.  I am learning to understand her; though, believe me, I don't
+speak boastingly.  However, this morning we got on famously together.
+But won't you continue and tell me what happened in the road when
+Hartley rode up beside you?"
+
+"Oh, nothing happened; really nothing!  Nothing could have happened,
+for the excellent reason that I ran away from him.  It was n't what he
+did or said; it was the fear of what he might say!"
+
+"If it had been Mr. Dick who had joined you in exactly the same way in
+the highway, you would not have minded in the least, Miss Hollister.
+Is n't that the truth?"
+
+Her hand that had rested on the pommel of her saddle dropped to her
+side, and she stood erect, her eyes wide with wonder.
+
+"What do you mean?" she gasped.
+
+"I mean exactly what I have said; that if it had been that strutting
+young philosopher from the West you would--well, you would have allowed
+him to say what was in his mind, no matter whether it had been his
+latest thought on Kantianism, the weather, or his admiration for
+yourself.  Am I not right?"
+
+"I wonder, I wonder"--she faltered, drawing away, the better to observe
+me.
+
+"You wonder how much I know!  To relieve your mind without parleying
+further, I will say to you that I know everything."
+
+"Then Aunt Octavia must have told you; and that seems incredible.  It
+was distinctly understood"--
+
+"Your aunt told me nothing.  Not by words did any one tell me."
+
+"Not by words?" she asked, eyeing me wonderingly and clearly fearing
+that I might be playing some trick upon her.  "Then can it be that
+Hezekiah--but no!  Hezekiah does n't know!"
+
+"Trust Hezekiah for not telling secrets," I answered evasively.  "Give
+me credit for some imagination.  The air of Hopefield is stimulating,
+and in the few days I have spent in your aunt's house I have learned
+much that I never dreamed of before.  I am not at all the person you
+greeted with so much courtesy in the library when I arrived there, a
+chimney-doctor and an ignorant person, a few afternoons ago,--called,
+as I thought, to prescribe for flues that proved to be in admirable
+condition, but really summoned by higher powers to assist the fates in
+the proper and orderly performance of their duties to several members
+of the house of Hollister,--yourself among them."
+
+"I don't understand it; you are wholly inexplicable."
+
+"I am the simplest and least guileful of beings, I assure you.  Yet I
+have done some things here not in the slightest way related to chimney
+doctoring; and something else I expect to do for which I believe you
+will thank me through all the years of your life."
+
+"Ah, if you really know, that is possible!" she sighed wearily.  "I am
+very tired of it all.  I was very foolish ever to have agreed to Aunt
+Octavia's plan.  You have seen those men,--any one of them might, you
+know"--  And she shrugged her shoulders impatiently.
+
+"Any one of them might be the seventh man!  There, you see I do know!
+And I mean to help you!"
+
+She was immensely relieved; there was no question of that.  Gratitude
+shone in her eyes; and then, as I marvelled at their beautiful dark
+depths, fear suddenly possessed them.  The change in her was startling.
+Several motors had swept by in the outer road while we talked; they
+were faintly visible through the trees; and just now we both heard a
+horse and caught a fleeting glimpse of Hartley Wiggins, riding slowly
+with bowed head toward the inn.  Cecilia's horse flung up his head, but
+she clapped her hands upon his nostrils and held them there to prevent
+his whinnying until that figure of despair had passed out of hearing.
+
+I was smitten with sorrow for Hartley Wiggins.  I could put myself in
+his place and imagine his feelings as he rode like a defeated general
+back to the inn, there to face the other suitors after the humiliating
+experience which Cecilia Hollister had just described.  In his
+ignorance of the cause of her eagerness to escape from him, he no doubt
+believed that he had all unconsciously made himself intolerable to her.
+It was plain that that glimpse of him had touched Cecilia's pity; if I
+had doubted the sincerity of her regard for him before, I spurned the
+thought now.  I was anxious to requicken hope in her,--an odd office
+for me to assume when in my own affairs I had always yielded my sword
+readily to the blue devils!  Yet during my short stay at Hopefield I
+had already found it possible to restore Miss Octavia's confidence in
+her own chosen destiny, and in this delicate love-affair between
+Cecilia Hollister and my best friend I proffered counsel and sympathy
+with an assurance that astonished me.
+
+"I have told you enough, Miss Hollister, to make it clear that I am in
+a position to help you.  Believe me, I have no other business before me
+but to complete the service I have undertaken."
+
+"But there is always"--she began, then ceased abruptly, and lifted her
+head proudly--"there is always Mr. Wiggins's attitude toward my sister.
+Not for anything in the world would I cause her the slightest
+unhappiness.  You must see that, now that you know her."
+
+I laughed aloud.  Cecilia's concern for Hezekiah's happiness was so
+absurd that I could not restrain my mirth for a moment.  Displeasure
+showed promptly in Cecilia's face.
+
+"I am sorry if you doubt my sincerity, Mr. Ames.  I will put the matter
+directly, to make sure I have not been misunderstood heretofore, and
+say that if Hezekiah is interested in Hartley Wiggins and cares for him
+in the least,--you know she is young and susceptible,--I shall take
+care that he never sees me again."
+
+"Pardon me, but maybe you don't quite understand Hezekiah!"
+
+"Is it possible, then, that you do?" she inquired coldly.  "I imagine
+your opportunities for seeing her have not been numerous."
+
+"Well, it is n't so much a matter of seeing her, when you've read of
+her all your life and dreamed about her.  She's in every fairy story
+that ever was written; she dances through the mythologies of all races.
+Hers is the kingdom of the pure in heart.  Her mind is like a beautiful
+bright meadow by the sea, and her thoughts the dipping of swallow-wings
+on lightly swaying grasses."
+
+Cecilia's manner changed, and she smiled.
+
+"You seem to have an attack of something; it looks serious.  You have
+n't known her long enough to find out so much!"
+
+"Longer than you would believe.  She and I sat on the shore together
+when Ulysses sailed by; we were among those present at the sack of
+Troy; we heard Roland's ivory trumpet at Roncesvalles."
+
+"Such words from you amaze me.  I didn't imagine there was so much
+romance in chimneys."
+
+"They are full of it!  Commend me to an open fire, with a flue that
+knows its business, and a dream or two!  I 've renounced my profession.
+I shall hereafter offer myself as adviser to persons in need of
+illusions; we 'd all be poets if we dared!"
+
+I helped her into the saddle, and she looked down at me with amusement
+in her eyes.  My praise of Hezekiah had pleased her, and I felt, as
+when we journeyed together into town, her kindly, human qualities.  The
+perplexities and embarrassments resulting from her compact with her
+aunt had doubtless checked the natural flow of her spirits.  She talked
+on buoyantly, though I was eager to be off, to avert the catastrophe
+that only her flight had prevented and which Wiggins might at any
+moment precipitate.  She gathered up her reins.
+
+"You are not coming home for luncheon?  Then I shall see you at four.
+I hope the hiding-place of the ghost will prove interesting.  Aunt
+Octavia has built her hopes high, and I may add that she has expressed
+the greatest admiration of you to me.  On her ride this morning she
+declared that great things are in store for you.  I hope so, too, Mr.
+Ames."
+
+She gave me her hand and rode away, and before I had reached the
+highway she was across the bridge and galloping rapidly homeward.
+
+The inn was a mile distant, and I set off at a brisk pace, turning over
+in my mind various projects for controlling the characters now upon the
+stage in such manner that Wiggins should become the seventh man.
+Cecilia could not always run away from him without violating the terms
+of her aunt's stipulation; and it was unlikely that she would attempt
+further to guide or thwart the pointing finger of fate.  I relied
+little upon any arrangement effected among the suitors to stand
+together.  Hume had already found a chance to speak.  Lord Arrowood had
+bitten the dust and turned his face homeward, and Wiggins had been near
+the brink only that morning.  It was unlikely that any of the active
+candidates remaining would stumble upon the key to the situation, which
+Hezekiah had given into my keeping.
+
+It was well on toward two o'clock when I approached the inn.  Before
+long the suitors would depart for their afternoon call at the Manor,
+which was an established event of the day.  Just as I was about to
+enter the gate I was arrested by an imperious voice calling, and John
+Stewart Dick came running toward me.  He had evidently been expecting
+me, and I paused, thinking him about to renew his attack upon me.  To
+my surprise he greeted me cordially, even offering his hand.
+
+"You thought you would come after all.  Well, I'm glad you did.  I've
+decided that there should be peace between us."
+
+In stature he was the shortest of the suitors, but what he lacked in
+height was compensated for by a tremendous dignity.  A dark Napoleonic
+lock lay across his forehead, and his clear-cut profile otherwise
+suggested the Corsican, the resemblance being, I wickedly assumed, one
+that the philosopher encouraged.
+
+"You have several times addressed me, Mr. Ames, in a spirit of
+contumely which I have hesitated to punish by the chastisement you
+deserve; but I am willing to let bygones be bygones."
+
+His changed tone put me on guard, but it was impossible for me to take
+him seriously.  In spite of the fact that he was a vigorous muscular
+young fellow who could have threshed me without trouble, I could not
+resist the impulse he always roused in me to address him in language
+any self-respecting man would resent.
+
+"Chant the _dies iræ_ with considerable _allegro_, Plato, for I am
+hungry and would fain pay for food at the adjacent inn."
+
+"I will overlook the coarseness of your humor," he rejoined haughtily.
+"My own time is as valuable as yours.  You have sneered at my
+attainments as a philosopher; but I will pass that for the present.  I
+am disposed to treat you magnanimously.  You have an excellent opinion
+of yourself; you have come here as an intruder upon the rights of those
+of us who followed Cecilia Hollister across Europe and home to America;
+but in spite of this I waive my rights in your favor.  I had intended
+to offer myself to Miss Hollister this afternoon, with every hope of
+success, but I yield to you.  My only request is that you inform me at
+once when you have learned her decision."
+
+He clapped on his cap and folded his arms, clearly satisfied with the
+expressions of surprise to which my feelings betrayed me.  Could it be
+possible that he had guessed the truth, perhaps by deductive processes
+of which I was ignorant?  Whether he had reasoned from some remark
+thrown out by Miss Octavia as to the influence of seven in the affairs
+of life and her application of that fateful principle to the choice of
+a husband for Cecilia, I could not guess, but assuming that he had
+caught that clue, he might readily enough have managed the rest.
+Having crossed on the steamer with the suitor host, a man of his
+intelligence might readily enough have kept track of the vanquished.
+In any case he had hit upon me as a likely victim, and on the plea of
+generously waiting till I had tried my luck he hoped to thrust me
+forward as the sixth suitor, and immediately thereafter project himself
+as the inevitable seventh man.  The whole situation was rendered
+perilously complex by the knowledge that, unaided, he had possessed
+himself of so much dangerous information.  I must not, however, allow
+him to see what I suspected.
+
+"My dear professor, there's an ancient warning against the Greeks
+bearing gifts.  You must give me time to inspect the horse."
+
+"Are you questioning my good faith?"
+
+"Be it far from me!  I'm a good deal tickled though by your genial
+assumption that if I offered myself to this lady I should be declined
+with thanks.  You have fretted yourself into a state of mind that bodes
+ill for American philosophy."
+
+He was again belligerent.  It may have occurred to him that I might
+know as much as he, but at any rate he grinned; it was a saturnine grin
+I did not like.
+
+"I'm starving to death at the door of an inn, and you must excuse me.
+Have you seen Hartley Wiggins lately?"
+
+"I have, indeed!  He's taken to lonely horseback rides; he's off
+somewhere now.  He has n't the stamina for a contest like this.  One by
+one the autumn leaves are falling," he added, with special intention,
+"and I have given you your chance."
+
+"Thanks, light-bringing Socrates from the lands of the Ogalallas!  For
+so much courtesy I shall take pleasure in reading all your posthumous
+works.  Let us cease being absurd."
+
+He laid his hand on my arm and lowered his tone.
+
+"Don't be an ass.  If you and I both know what's underneath all this
+mystery we might come to an understanding."
+
+"I don't follow you.  Please make a light, like a man about to have an
+idea."
+
+"You mean that you don't understand?"  He eyed me doubtfully, uncertain
+whether I knew or not.
+
+"You have implied that I am incapable of understanding; suppose we let
+it go at that."
+
+With this I left him and entered the low-raftered office--it was really
+a pleasant lounging-room, unspoiled by the usual hotel-office
+paraphernalia.  Dick had followed close behind, and as I paused,
+hearing voices raised angrily in the dining-room beyond, I turned to
+him for an explanation.  As the suitors had been the only guests of the
+inn since their advent, having stipulated that the proprietor should
+exclude other applicants for meals or lodging, I attributed the
+commotion to strife in their own ranks.  Dick nodded sullenly and bade
+me keep on.
+
+"You 'd better take a look at those fellows.  I 've quit them--quite
+out of it; remember that."
+
+The dining-room door was slightly ajar, and I flung it open.
+
+Ormsby, Shallenberger, Henderson, Hume, Gorse, and Arbuthnot had been
+engaged with cards at a round table in an alcove, but some dispute
+having apparently risen, they stood in their places engaged in
+acrimonious debate.  As near as I could determine, some one of them--I
+think it was Ormsby--wished to abandon the game, which had been
+undertaken to determine in what order they should be permitted to pay
+visits to Hopefield in future, the calls _en masse_ having grown
+intolerable.  They were so absorbed in their argument that they failed
+to note my appearance, and I stood unobserved within the door.  The
+dialogue between the card-players was swift and hot.
+
+"It's no good, I tell you!" cried Ormsby.  "There's no fairness in this
+unless all take their chances together!"
+
+"You ought to have thought of that before we began.  This was your
+scheme, but because the cards are running against you, you want to
+quit.  I say we'll go on!"  This from Henderson, who struck the table
+sharply as he concluded.
+
+"You knew Wiggins and Dick were n't going in when we started, and you
+are not likely to get them in now.  Your anxiety to cut the rest of us
+out by any means seems to have unsettled your mind," shouted Gorse.  "I
+say let's drop this and stand to our original agreement that no man
+speak till the end of the fortnight."
+
+"After that whole scheme has been torn to pieces like paper!  There's
+been nothing fair in this business from the start!  We ought to have
+kept Arrowood here and held together.  And we ought to have got rid of
+that Ames fellow--he did n't belong in this at all; and instead of
+protecting ourselves against outsiders we have sat here like a lot of
+fools while he's been making himself agreeable there in the
+house--right there in the house!"
+
+Ormsby's voice rose to a disagreeable squeak as he closed with this
+indictment of me.  Hume fidgeted uneasily, and met my eye so warily
+that I wondered whether he suspected that I knew of his breach of faith
+with the other suitors.  Much dallying with Scandinavian literature had
+not lightened his heart, and there was nothing in Ibsen to which he
+could refer his present plight.  Shallenberger seemed to be the only
+one of the group who had not lost his senses.  He was in the farther
+corner of the alcove, out of sight from the door, but I heard him
+distinctly as he addressed the other suitors with rising anger.
+
+"We're acting like cads, and cads of the most contemptible sort!  I
+only agreed to this game to satisfy Ormsby.  The idea of our sitting
+here to draw cards to determine the order in which we shall offer
+ourselves to the noblest and most beautiful woman in the world would be
+coarse and vulgar if it were not so ridiculous!  The men who had their
+chance on the steamer or after we came here--and I don't pretend to
+know who they are--ought in decency to have left the field.  We seem to
+have forgotten that we pretend to be gentlemen; or, far less
+pardonable, that we pay court to a lady.  Damn you all!  I refuse to
+have anything more to do with you, and if you try to interfere with my
+affairs in any way I'll smash your heads collectively or separately as
+you prefer!"
+
+My interest in this colloquy had led me further into the room, and
+hearing my step they all turned and faced me.  Dick had continued at my
+side, but the black looks they sent our way were intended, I thought,
+rather for me.  Shallenberger, having taken himself out of the tangle,
+leaned against the wall and filled his pipe with unconcern.  My
+appearance roused Ormsby to a fresh outburst.
+
+"You're responsible!  If you had n't forced yourself upon the ladies at
+Hopefield there would n't have been any of this trouble!"
+
+"You're only an impostor anyhow.  You went to the house to fix a
+chimney, and seem to think you 're engaged to spend the rest of your
+natural life there!" protested Henderson, twisting the ends of his
+moustache.
+
+Then they dropped me and assailed Dick.
+
+"We'd like to know what you expect to gain by dropping out!  You got
+cold feet mighty sudden!" bellowed Ormsby.
+
+Gorse and Henderson paid similar tributes to the apostate, whose
+melancholy grin only deepened.  Shallenberger was pacing the floor
+slowly and puffing his pipe.  Hume and Arbuthnot growled occasionally,
+but shared, I thought, Shallenberger's changed feeling.
+
+My silence had been effective up to this time, but I was afraid to risk
+it longer.  Dick, I imagined, had kept close to me for fear of missing
+any part of the altercation he knew my appearance would provoke.  The
+more vociferous suitors had howled themselves hoarse and glared at me
+while I considered the situation.  Henderson rallied for a final shot.
+
+"A good horsewhipping is what you deserve," he cried, leveling his
+finger at me.
+
+"Gentlemen," I began, not without inward quaking, "you have spoken loud
+naughty words to me, and in reply I must say that your vocal efforts
+suggest only the melodies of the braying jackass, and that your
+manners, to speak mildly, are susceptible of considerable improvement."
+
+"You leave this neighborhood within an hour!" boomed Ormsby; and in his
+efforts to free himself from his chair it fell backward with a crash
+that echoed through the long room.
+
+"Then summon the coroner by telephone, for I shall not be taken alive,"
+I answered quietly, trying to recall my youthful delight in Porthos,
+Athos, and Aramis.  "I should dislike to change the mild color-scheme
+of this pleasant dining-room, but as sure as you lay hands on me, these
+walls will become a playground for any corpuscles you carry in your
+loathsome persons."
+
+"Come along, let us put him out," Henderson was saying in an aside to
+Ormsby.
+
+"You were playing a game here for a stake not yours for the winning," I
+continued.  "Now I suggest that you shuffle the pack,--you three, who
+are so full of valor,--shuffle the pack, I say, and draw for the jack
+of clubs.  Whoever is the fortunate man I shall take pleasure in
+pitching through yonder very charming casement."
+
+"Agreed!" cried Henderson, and the three flung themselves into their
+chairs.
+
+The alacrity of their consent had unnerved me for a moment.
+D'Artagnan, I was sure, would have fought them all, but I consoled
+myself, as the cards rattled on the bare table, with the reflection
+that, considering the fact that I had never in my life laid violent
+hands on a fellow-being, I was conducting myself with admirable
+assurance.  My weight has always hung well within one hundred and
+thirty, and physicians have told me that I was incapable of taking on
+flesh or muscle.  Any one of these men could easily toss me through the
+window I had indicated as a means of their own exit.
+
+Shallenberger caught my eye and indicated with a slight jerk of the
+head that I had better run before it was too late.  The painstaking
+care with which Henderson had fallen upon the cards was disquieting, to
+put it mildly.  Dick nudged me in the ribs and offered to hold my coat.
+
+"It will not be necessary," I replied carelessly.  "Tender your
+services to the other gentlemen."
+
+I felt the cold sweat gathering on my brow.  The three had begun to
+draw cards, and I heard them slap the bits of pasteboard smartly upon
+the table as they lifted them from the deck and, finding the jack of
+clubs still undrawn, waited the next turn.  I had no idea that a pack
+of cards would dissolve so readily by the drawing process, and my
+memory ceased trying to recall the adventures of D'Artagnan and hovered
+with ominous persistence about the mad don of La Mancha.  I cannot say
+now whether I stood my ground out of sheer physical inability to run or
+from an accession of courage due to the remembrance of my success in
+detecting the Hopefield ghost.  In any case I affected coolness as I
+waited, even throwing out my arms to "shoot" my cuffs once or twice,
+and yawning.
+
+"Come, gentlemen, hurry: let us not waste time here," I exclaimed
+impatiently.
+
+"If Ormsby turns up the card you're a dead man," Dick was muttering
+gloomily.
+
+"They're all alike to me," I replied loudly.  "Mr. Ormsby is very
+beautiful; I shall hope not to disfigure him permanently;" but as I
+spoke my tongue was a wobbly dry clapper in my mouth.
+
+I was bending over now, watching the three men pick up the cards, and
+once, when I misread the jack of spades for the jack of clubs, a
+shudder passed over me.  They were down to the last card, and Ormsby's
+hand was on it.  I recall that a group of steins on a shelf over
+Henderson's head seemed to be dancing wildly.  Then I looked at the
+floor to steady myself, and hope leaped within me, for there, by
+Ormsby's foot,--a large and heavy one,--lay an upturned card, the jack
+of clubs, whose lone symbol magnified itself enormously in my amazed
+eyes.
+
+At this moment, I became conscious that something had occurred to
+distract the attention of the other men, who were staring at some one
+who had entered noiselessly.
+
+"Gentlemen, you seem immensely interested in the turn of those cards.
+I am glad to have arrived at the critical moment.  Mr. Ormsby, will you
+kindly lift the remaining card from the table?"
+
+Miss Octavia stood beside me.  She was dressed in a dark brown
+riding-habit; the feather in her fedora hat emphasized her usual brisk
+air.  She swung her riding-crop lightly in her hand, and bent over the
+table with the deepest interest.
+
+Ormsby turned up the card.  It was the ten of diamonds.
+
+"Gentlemen," I cried, pointing to the card, "what trick is this?  Can
+it be possible that you have been trifling with me in a fashion for
+which men have died the world over by sword and pistol!"
+
+"Kindly explain, Arnold, the nature of this difficulty," Miss Octavia
+commanded.
+
+"Simply this, Miss Hollister, if I must answer; I had offered to fight
+these three gentlemen in order.  It was agreed that the man who drew
+the jack of clubs from the pack with which they had been playing should
+be my first victim.  They have shuffled their own cards and have drawn
+the whole pack and there is no jack of clubs in the pack!  The only
+possible explanation is one to which I hesitate to apply the obvious
+plain Saxon terms."
+
+"It dropped out, that's all!  You don't dare pretend that we threw out
+the jack to avoid drawing it!" protested Ormsby, though I saw from the
+glances the trio exchanged that they suspected one another.  Ormsby and
+Gorse bent down to look for the missing card, but before they found it
+I stepped forward and drove my fist upon the table with all the power I
+could put into the blow.
+
+"Stop!" I cried.  "I gave you every opportunity to stand up and take a
+trouncing, but I need hardly say that after this contemptible knavery I
+refuse to soil my hands on you!"
+
+"Do you insinuate"--began Henderson, jumping to his feet.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Miss Hollister, lifting the riding-crop, "it is
+perfectly clear to me that Mr. Ames has gone as far as any gentleman
+need go in protecting his honor.  I do not offer myself as an
+arbitrator here, but I advise my young friend that nothing further is
+required of him in this deplorable affair."
+
+With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of
+cards that lay on the table as they had been stacked when drawn.
+
+[Illustration: With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the
+three piles of cards.]
+
+"Arnold," she said, with indescribable dignity, "will you kindly attend
+me to my horse?"
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL
+
+A stable-boy held Miss Octavia's horse at the inn-door.  Her face, her
+figure, her voice expressed outraged dignity as she tested the
+saddle-girth.
+
+"You need never tell me what had happened to provoke your wrath, for
+that is none of my affair; but I wish to say that your conduct and
+bearing won my highest approval.  They had undoubtedly hidden the jack
+of clubs to avoid the drubbing you would have administered to the
+unfortunate man who would have drawn that card if it had been in the
+pack."
+
+"I was not in the slightest danger at any time, Miss Hollister," I
+protested.  "By one of those tricks of fate to which you and I are
+becoming so accustomed, the card had fallen to the floor unnoticed.  If
+you had not arrived so opportunely the lost jack would have been
+discovered, the cards reshuffled, and very likely Mr. Ormsby would have
+been dusting the inn-floor with me at this very minute."
+
+"I refuse to believe any such thing," declared Miss Octavia, who had
+mounted and continued speaking from the saddle.  "Your perfect
+confidence was admirable, and I shudder to think of the terrible
+punishment you would have given them.  I do not particularly dislike
+Mr. Ormsby, though the possibility of Cecilia marrying him has troubled
+me not a little as I have recalled the unromantic aspect of Utica as
+seen from the car-windows; but it is much to your credit that you
+defied them all and brought them to the fighting-point, and then, by a
+stroke of cleverness it pleased me to witness, placed them
+irretrievably in the wrong."
+
+If Miss Octavia wished to view my performances in this flattering light
+it seemed unnecessary and unkind to object.  Now that I was in the open
+again with a whole skin I was not averse to the victor's crown; I would
+even wear it tilted slightly over one ear.  Birds have been killed by
+shots that missed the real target; bunker sands are rich in gutta
+percha and good intentions.  I was a fraud, but a cheerful one.
+
+"It was only a pleasant incident of the day's work, Miss Hollister.
+I'm going to engage a squire and take to the open road as soon as all
+this is over."
+
+"As soon as all what is over!" she demanded, eyeing me keenly.
+
+"Oh, the work I've undertaken to do here.  I flatter myself that I have
+made some progress; but within twenty-four hours I dare say that we
+shall have seen the end."
+
+"Your words are not wholly luminous, Arnold."
+
+"It is much better that it should be so.  You have trusted me so far,
+and I have no intention of failing you now.  If I say that the crisis
+is near at hand in a certain matter that interests you greatly, you
+will understand that I am not striking ignorantly in the dark."
+
+"If you know what I suspect you know, Arnold Ames, you are even
+shrewder than I thought you, and you had already taken a high place in
+my regard.  The curtains of the windows just behind you have shown
+considerable agitation since we have been speaking, not due, I think,
+to the wind, as there is no air stirring.  Those gentlemen you have
+just vanquished are timidly watching you.  Your daring and prowess have
+greatly alarmed them.  You may be sure they will think twice before
+provoking your wrath again."
+
+"I devoutly hope they will," I replied, glancing carelessly over my
+shoulder, and catching a glimpse of Henderson as he drew hastily out of
+sight.  "But will you tell me just how you came to visit the inn at
+this particular hour?"
+
+"Nothing could be simpler.  I had luncheon at the house of a friend on
+whom I called.  Cecilia had left me to continue her ride alone, and on
+my way home I thought I would ride by the Prescott Arms to see how the
+guests were faring.  You see,"--she paused and gave a twitch to her hat
+to prolong my suspense,--"you see, I own the Prescott Arms!"
+
+With this she rode away, and not caring to risk a further meeting with
+the angry suitors from whom Miss Octavia had rescued me by so narrow a
+margin, I set off across the fields toward Hopefield.  From the stile I
+saw Miss Octavia in the highway half a mile distant, sending her horse
+along at a spirited canter.  I reached the house without further
+adventures, was served with a cold luncheon in my room, and by the time
+I had changed my clothes Miss Octavia sent me word that Pepperton had
+arrived.
+
+Miss Octavia and the architect were conversing earnestly when I reached
+the library; and from the abruptness with which they ceased on my
+entrance I imagined that I had been the subject of their talk.
+Pepperton is not only one of the finest architects America has
+produced, but one of the jolliest of fellows.  He grasped my hand
+cordially and pointed to the fireplace.
+
+"So you've at last found one of my jobs to overhaul, have you!  You
+must n't let this get out on me, old man; it would shatter my
+reputation!"
+
+"Please observe that the flue is drawing splendidly now," I answered.
+"A ghost had been strolling up and down the chimney, but now that I
+have found his lair he will not trouble Miss Hollister's fireplaces
+again."
+
+"I have waited for your arrival, Mr. Pepperton, that we might have the
+benefit of your knowledge of the house in following the trail of this
+ghost which Arnold has discovered.  But we must give Arnold credit for
+effecting the discovery alone and unaided.  I destroyed the plans I
+obtained from your office so that Arnold might be fully tested as to
+his capacity for managing the most difficult situations."
+
+When Miss Octavia first referred to me as Arnold, Pepperton raised his
+brows a trifle; the second time he glanced at me laughingly.  He seemed
+greatly amused by Miss Octavia's seriousness, but her amiable attitude
+toward me clearly puzzled him.
+
+"It takes a good man to uncover a thing I try to hide.  I said nothing
+to you, Miss Hollister, about the retention within the walls of this
+house of parts of an old one that formerly occupied the site, for the
+reason that I thought you might refuse to buy the estate.  The
+gentleman for whom I built Hopefield was superstitious, as many men of
+advanced years are, as to the building of a new house, and as the site
+he chose is one of the finest in the county he compelled me to
+construct this house--which is the most satisfactory I have built--in
+such manner enough of the old should be kept intact to soothe his
+superstitious soul with the idea that he had merely altered an old
+house, not built a new one.  As it is the architect's business to yield
+to such caprices I obeyed him strictly.  So there are two rooms of an
+old farmhouse hidden under the east wing, and it amused me, once I had
+got into it, to preserve part of the old stairway, and connect the
+retained chambers with the upper hall of this house.  I had to patch
+the original stair, which was only one flight, with discarded lumber
+from the old house, but I flatter myself that I managed it neatly.  I
+even saved the old nails to avert the wrath of the evil spirits.  When
+the umbrella and dyspepsia-cure man died,--for he did die, as you
+know,--I believed the secret had died with him, as he was very
+sensitive about his superstitions.  Most of the laborers on that part
+of the job were brought from a long distance, and I supposed they never
+really knew just what we were doing.  I might have known, though, that
+if a fellow as clever as Ames got to pecking at the house the trick
+would be discovered.  But the chimney, old man,--what on earth was the
+matter with it?"
+
+"It will never happen again, and I promised the ghost never to tell how
+it was done."
+
+"You were quite right in doing that, Arnold,--a ghost's secrets should
+be sacred; but let us now proceed to the hidden chambers," said Miss
+Hollister, rising without further ado.
+
+She summoned Cecilia, to whom we explained matters briefly, and at
+Pepperton's suggestion the four of us went directly to the fourth
+floor, so that Miss Octavia might see the whole contrivance in the most
+effective manner possible.
+
+My awkward pen falters in the attempt to convey any idea of Miss
+Octavia's delight in Pepperton's revelation; she kept repeating her
+admiration of his genius, and her praise of my cleverness, which, to
+protect Hezekiah, I was forced to accept meekly.  When in broad
+daylight Pepperton found and pressed the spring in the upper hall and
+the hidden door opened, with a slowness that indicated a realization of
+its own dramatic value, Miss Octavia cried out gleefully, like a child
+that witnesses the manipulation of a new and wonderful toy.
+
+"To think, Cecilia, that I should never have known of this if that
+chimney had not smoked!"--a remark that caused Pepperton to glance at
+me curiously.  He knew as well as I did that with ordinary care every
+flue in that house would have drawn splendidly.  "Beyond any question,"
+Miss Octavia kept asserting, "beneath the chambers of the old house
+down there we shall find the bones of that British soldier who perished
+here; or it is even possible that a chest of hidden treasure is
+concealed beneath the floor.  What do you yourself suspect, Mr.
+Pepperton?"
+
+We were lighting candles preparatory to stepping down into the dark
+stairway, and Pepperton was plainly hard put to keep from laughing.
+
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have told you all I know about
+the rooms down there.  I 'm not very strong in the ghost-faith; and our
+friend the umbrella-man never dreamed of such a thing, I assure you,
+not even after he had satisfied his fierce craving for pie."
+
+Miss Octavia followed Pepperton slowly, pausing frequently to hold her
+candle close to the stair-walls, whose rough surfaces confirmed all
+that Pepperton had said of the preservation of the old timbers.  I had
+brought a handful of candles, and when we had reached the dark rooms
+beneath, I lighted these and set them up in the black corners of the
+old rooms, in which, Miss Octavia remarked, not even the wall paper had
+been disturbed.  The exit into the coal-cellar, and concealed openings
+left for ventilation which had escaped me before, were now pointed out
+by the architect, who kept laughing at the huge joke of it all.
+
+Cecilia murmured her surprise repeatedly as we continued the
+examination; nothing quite like this had ever happened in the world
+before, but even as we walked through those hidden rooms my thoughts
+reverted to the crisis so near at hand in her affairs.  I had pledged
+myself to her service, but I saw no way yet of assuring the proper
+sequence of proposals.  The ultimate seventh must be Wiggins; but how
+could I manage the penultimate sixth!  Cecilia's own apparent freedom
+from care on this tour of inspection deepened my sense of
+responsibility to all concerned.  Dick might by now have persuaded some
+one of the others at the inn to offer himself, thus closing the gap,
+and I had determined that the Westerner should not outwit me.  It was
+some consolation to know that while Cecilia was in these lost rooms in
+my company, she was safe from Dick's machinations.
+
+My thoughts were, however, given a new direction by Miss Octavia.  She
+had been scrutinizing the floor closely, asking us all to bring our
+candles to bear upon it, that she might search thoroughly for any signs
+of a trapdoor beneath which the bones of the British soldier might
+repose.
+
+"You can't tell me," she averred in her own peculiar vein, "that a
+house as old as this has been preserved merely to divert calamity from
+a superstitious gentleman engaged in the manufacture of ribless
+umbrellas and a dyspepsia cure."
+
+Miss Octavia Hollister was a woman to be humored; we all knew this; but
+I realized with a pang that she was about to be disappointed.  I had
+expected her to forget the British soldier in the perfectly tangible
+joy of secret springs and ghostly chambers; and if I had foreseen her
+persistence in clinging to the tradition of the ill-fated Briton I
+should have taken the trouble to hide a few bones under the flooring.
+Miss Octavia had brought a stick from the coal-room, and was thumping
+the floor with it even while Pepperton tried to discourage her further
+investigations.  We were all ranged about her with our candles, and
+these, with the others I had thrust into the corners, lighted the room
+well.
+
+"I'm afraid you've seen the whole of it, Miss Hollister," said
+Pepperton.  "The old house was built after the Revolution, I judge, but
+your British soldier was probably left hanging to a tree and never
+buried at all."
+
+"Mr. Pepperton," she replied, holding the candle so close to the
+architect that he blinked, "it would be far from me to question your
+knowledge of history, but I should not be at all surprised if the
+builder of this old house had fought on the seas with John Paul Jones,
+and had buried beneath these walls the very sea-chest that had been his
+companion on many eventful voyages."
+
+Pepperton gasped at the absurdity of this, and then suppressed his
+mirth with difficulty.  Cecilia faintly expostulated; but I knew Miss
+Octavia would not be dissuaded, and I thought it as well to facilitate
+her search and be done with it.  A sailor with rings in his ears and a
+cutlass dangling at his side might have come home from the wars and
+established himself on a farm in Westchester County and even buried his
+sea-chest under the floor of his house, but in all likelihood he never
+had.  It was not my office, however, to advise Miss Octavia Hollister
+in such matters.  Pepperton had changed his tune and seemed anxious to
+follow my lead.  To him she was an eccentric old woman, whose wealth
+alone gained her indulgence in such preposterous obsessions as this;
+but my own feelings were those of regret that she must so quickly be
+disillusioned.  To me she had become an incarnation of the play-spirit
+that never grows old, and there may have risen in me an honest belief
+that what this unusual woman sought she would somehow find.  Once or
+twice when the uneven worn flooring had boomed hollowly under her stick
+I had knelt promptly to examine the planks, and had thus disposed of
+several false alarms.  Pepperton feigned interest for a time, but was
+becoming bored.  Cecilia studied the quaint pattern of the wall paper,
+which she said ought to be reproduced, as nothing in contemporaneous
+designs equaled it.
+
+Miss Octavia had been over the floors of the two rooms twice, and was
+about to desist.  Her less frequent appeals to the rest of us for
+confirmation of some suspected change in the responses to her thumping
+indicated disappointment.  She made her last stand in the corner of the
+smaller room, and as we all stood holding our lights, we were conscious
+that the dull monotonous thump suddenly changed its tone.  We all
+noticed it at the same instant, and exchanged glances of surprise.
+
+"Do you hear that, gentlemen?"
+
+She subdued her gratification in the rebuking glance she gave us.  Calm
+and unhurried, she rested a moment on her stick, with the candle's soft
+glow about her, a smile ineffably sweet on her face.
+
+"The timbers may have rotted away underneath.  We did n't raise these
+floors," said Pepperton; but we both dropped to our knees and brought
+all the candle-light to bear upon the flooring.  Dust and mortar,
+shaken loose in the destruction of the house, filled the cracks.
+Pepperton, deeply absorbed, continued to sound the corner with his
+knuckles.
+
+"It really looks as though these boards had been cut for some purpose,"
+he said, whipping out his knife.
+
+I ran to the kindling-room and found a hatchet, and when I returned he
+had dug the dirt out of the edges of the floor-planks.  Silence held us
+all as I set to prying up the boards.
+
+"I beg of you to exercise the greatest care, gentlemen.  If bones are
+interred here we must do them no sacrilege," warned Miss Octavia.
+
+By this time we all, I think, began to believe that the flooring might
+really have been cut in this corner of the old room to permit the
+hiding of something.  The room had grown hot, and Cecilia opened the
+cellar-windows outside to admit air.  The old planks clung stubbornly
+their joists, but after I had loosened one, the others came up quickly
+and the smell of dry earth filled the room.  Pepperton had, at Miss
+Octavia's direction, brought a chisel and crowbar from the tool-room in
+the cellar, and he stood ready with these when I tore up the last
+board, disclosing an oblong space about five feet long and slightly
+over three feet wide.  It was possible that this was the whole story,
+but Pepperton began driving the bar vigorously into the close-packed
+soil.  As he loosened the earth I scooped it out, and we soon had
+penetrated about six inches beneath the surface.
+
+We were all excited now.  The edge of the bar struck repeatedly against
+something that resisted sharply.  It might have been a root, but when
+Pepperton shifted the point of attack the same booming sound answered
+to the prodding.  Pepperton now thought it might be only an empty cask
+or a box of no interest whatever; but Miss Octavia, hovering close with
+a candle, encouraged us to go on, and was fertile in suggestions as to
+the most expeditious manner of resurrecting whatever might be buried
+there.  We were pretty well satisfied from the soundings that the
+hidden object was somewhat shorter and narrower than the hole itself.
+
+"Quite naturally so," observed Miss Octavia, "for a man who buries a
+treasure has to allow himself room for getting at it."
+
+We worked on silently, Pepperton loosening the soil with the bar while
+I shoveled it out.  In half an hour we had revealed a long flat wooden
+surface, which to our anxious imaginations was the lid of some sort of
+box.
+
+"It's sound red cedar," pronounced Pepperton, examining the wood where
+the tools had splintered it.
+
+"Of course it's cedar," replied Miss Octavia, bending down to it.  "I
+knew it would be cedar.  It always is!"
+
+We paused to laugh at her confident tone, and Cecilia suggested that as
+there was still a good deal to do before we could free the box, we
+should send for some of the servants to complete the work.
+
+"I would n't take a thousand dollars for my chance at this," Pepperton
+answered; and we fell to again.
+
+It must have been nearly six o'clock when we dragged out into that
+candle-lighted chamber a stout, well-fashioned box.  The earth clung to
+its sides jealously, and it was bound with strips of brass that shone
+brightly where the scraping of our tools had burnished it.  We pried
+off the heavy lock with a good deal of difficulty, and when it was free
+Miss Octavia asserted her right to the treasure-trove with much
+calmness.
+
+"I should never forgive myself if I allowed this opportunity to pass;
+you must permit me to have the first look."
+
+"Certainly, Miss Hollister; if it had n't been for you this chest would
+have remained hidden to the end of all time," Pepperton replied.
+
+We gathered close about her as she knelt beside the box.  My hand shook
+as I held my candle, and I think Miss Octavia was the only one in the
+room who showed no nervousness.  Cecilia sighed deeply several times,
+and Pepperton mopped his face with his handkerchief.  The lid did not
+yield as readily as we had expected, and it was necessary to resort to
+the hatchet and chisel again; but we were careful that it should be
+Miss Octavia's hand that finally raised the lid.
+
+We all exclaimed in various keys as the light fell upon the open chest.
+The musty odor of old garments greeted us at once.  The box was well
+filled, and its contents were neatly arranged.  Miss Octavia first
+lifted out the remnants of a military uniform that lay on top.
+
+[Illustration: Miss Octavia first lifted out the remnants of a military
+uniform that lay on top.]
+
+"It's his ragged regimentals!" cried Cecilia, as we unfolded an
+officer's coat of blue and buff, sadly decrepit and faded; "and he was
+not a British soldier at all, but an American patriot."
+
+Time and service had dealt even more harshly with an American flag on
+which the thirteen white stars floated dimly on the dull blue field.
+It had been bound tightly about a packet of papers which Miss Octavia
+asked Pepperton to examine.
+
+"These are commissions appointing a certain Adoniram Caldwell to
+various positions in the Continental Army.  Adoniram had the right
+stuff in him; here he's discharged as a private to become an ensign;
+rose from ensign to colonel, and seems to have been in most of the big
+doings.  'For gallantry in the recent engagement at Stony Point, on
+recommendation of General Anthony Wayne'--by Jove, that does rather
+carry you back!"
+
+Half a dozen of these documents traced Adoniram Caldwell's career to
+the end of the Revolution and his retirement from the military service
+with the rank of colonel.  A sealed letter attached to these
+commissions next held our attention.  The ends were dovetailed in the
+old style before the day of envelopes, and evidently care had been
+taken in folding and sealing it.  The superscription, in a round bold
+hand, without flourishes, read: "To Whom It May Concern."
+
+"I suppose it concerns us as much as anybody," remarked Miss Octavia.
+"What do you say, gentlemen; shall we open it?"
+
+We all demanded breathlessly that she break the seal, and we were soon
+bending over her with our lights.  The ink had blurred and in spots
+rust had obliterated the writing:--
+
+
+"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell"--
+
+
+"Hartley Wiggins!" we gasped; and I felt Cecilia's hand clasp my arm.
+
+Miss Octavia continued reading, and as she was obliged to pause often
+and refer illegible lines to the rest of us, I have copied the
+following from the letter itself, with only slight changes of
+punctuation and spelling.
+
+
+"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell, having
+now resumed my proper name, and being about to marry, and having begun
+the construction of a habitation for myself wherein to end my days,
+truthfully set forth these matters:
+
+"My father, Hiram Wiggins of Rhode Island, having supported the
+royalist cause in our late war for Independence, and angered by my
+friendliness to the patriots, and he, with ... brothers and sister
+having returned to England after the evacuation of Boston, I joined the
+Continental troops under General Putnam on Long Island, in July, 1776,
+serving in various commands thereafter, to the best of my ability, to
+the end....  My father has now returned to Rhode Island, and has, I
+learn, been making inquiries touching my whereabouts and condition, so
+that I have every hope that we may become reconciled.  Yet as my
+services to the Country were against his wishes and caused so much
+harshness and heartache, and being now come into a part of the country
+where I am unknown, I am decided to resume my rightful name, that my
+wife and children may bear it and in the hope that I may myself yet add
+to it some honor....
+
+"Nor shall my wife or any children that may be born to me, know from me
+... (_badly blurred_.)  Yet not caring to destroy my sword, which I
+bore with some credit, nor these testimonials of respect and confidence
+I received as Adoniram Caldwell at various times and from various
+personages of renown, both civilians and in the military service, I
+place them under my house now building, where I hope in God's care to
+end my days in peace.  I would in like case make like choice again."
+
+
+Ten lines following this were wholly illegible, but just before the
+date (June 17, 1789), and the signature, which was written large, was
+this:--
+
+
+"God preserve these American states that they endure in unity and
+concord forever!"
+
+
+We had all been moved by the reading of this long-lost letter, and Miss
+Octavia's voice had faltered several times.  As I turned to Cecilia
+once or twice during the recital of the dead patriot's message, I saw
+tears brimming her eyes.
+
+"Mr. Wiggins once told me that his great-grandfather had lived
+somewhere in Westchester County, but I fancy he had no idea that
+Hopefield was the identical spot," remarked Miss Octavia.  "It seems
+incredible, and yet I dare say the hand of fate is in it."
+
+"Oh, it's so wonderful; so beyond belief!" cried Cecilia, reverently
+folding the letter, which, I observed, she retained in her own hands.
+
+"It's wonderful," added Miss Octavia promptly, taking the sword, which
+Pepperton had with difficulty drawn from its battered scabbard, "that
+even a discerning woman like me could have been so mistaken.  I recall
+with humility that last Fourth of July, at Berlin, I reprimanded Mr.
+Wiggins severely because his family had not been represented in the war
+for American Independence.  By the irony of circumstances it becomes my
+duty to present to him the very sword that his admirable
+great-grandfather bore in that momentous struggle.  I shall, with his
+permission, place a bronze tablet on the outer wall of this house to
+preserve the patriot's memory."
+
+Several copies of New York newspapers, half a dozen French gold coins,
+the miniature of a woman's face, which we assumed to be that of Roger
+Wiggins's mother or sister, were briefly examined; then by Miss
+Octavia's orders we carefully returned everything to the chest.
+Several packets of letters we did not open.
+
+"Arnold," she said when we had closed the chest, "will you and Mr.
+Pepperton kindly carry that box to my room?  No servant's hand shall
+touch it; and I shall myself give it to Mr. Wiggins at the earliest
+opportunity."
+
+We had lost track of time in those hidden rooms, preserved by the whim
+of one man that the secret of another might be discovered, and found
+with surprise, after the chest had been carried to Miss Octavia's
+apartments, that it was after seven o'clock.  We had been in the hidden
+rooms for more than three hours.
+
+"We shall have much to talk about to-night, and I fancy we are all a
+good deal shaken.  It's not often we receive a letter from a dead man,
+so we shall admit no callers to-night unless, indeed, Mr. Wiggins
+should chance to come," announced Miss Octavia.  "The next time Hartley
+Wiggins visits this house he shall come as a conquering hero."
+
+"I hope so," replied Cecilia brokenly.
+
+We were still at dinner when the cards of Dick and the other suitors I
+had last seen at the Prescott Arms were brought in; but Wiggins made no
+sign, and I wondered.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM
+
+The man who looked after my needs handed me a note the next morning
+which added fresh hazards to Cecilia's already perilous plight.
+
+"Left with the gardener before six o'clock by a boy from the village.
+Said it was most confidential, sir."
+
+I waited till he had left the room before opening it.  A square white
+envelope addressed to Arnold Ames, Esq., Hopefield Manor, told me
+nothing, and the handwriting was inscrutable.  It slanted slightly
+upward; the small letters were half-printed and quaintly shaded.  If a
+woman's, she had scorned the rail-fence models of the boarding-schools;
+if a man's--but I knew its gender well enough!  The white note sheet
+within was unadorned, and the same pen had traced compactly, within the
+widest possible margins, the following:--
+
+
+GOOSEBERRY BUNGALOW,
+  Before Breakfast.
+
+DEAR CHIMNEYS:--Pep stopped here yesterday to see B.H.  He and C. old
+pals.  Watch him.  Where's Wig?  H.H.
+
+
+The initials were superfluous, and yet the sight of them pleased me
+mightily.  In her semi-printing she curved the pillars of the H's like
+parentheses, so that they bore an amusing resemblance to four men
+striding forward against a storm.  The report of a chief of scouts
+smuggled through the enemy's lines could not have improved on her
+billet for succinctness, and the information conveyed was startling
+enough.  We had been dealing with a company of suitors outside the
+barricade; now came warning of the presence of a strange knight within
+the gates who greatly multiplied the perils of the situation.  The
+compact between the suitors at the inn was a thing of the past, and I
+now expected them to exercise all the ingenuity of which desperate
+lovers are capable in pressing their claims.  The fact that both
+Wiggins and Pepperton were old friends of mine did not make my task
+easier.  I not only felt it incumbent on me to prevent Dick, the holder
+of the clue, from taking advantage of it, but knowing Cecilia's own
+attitude of mind and heart toward Wiggins I wished to save Pepperton
+the pain of rejection if it could be done.
+
+But what did Hezekiah mean by the question with which she ended her
+note?  If Wiggins, smarting under Cecilia's treatment of him the day
+before, had quit the field, here was a pretty how-d 'ye-do f Miss
+Octavia's refusal to countenance telephones made it necessary for me to
+leave Hopefield to learn what had become of Wiggins, and I realized
+that I must act promptly if I saved the day for him.  His conduct first
+and last had been spiritless, and I was out of patience with him.  It
+seemed impossible to formulate any plan amidst these multiplying
+uncertainties.  If Wiggins had decamped, Dick knew it and would lay his
+plans accordingly.  I felt that it was base ingratitude on Wiggins's
+part to ask me to watch his interests while he went roaming
+indifferently over the country.  One or two consoling reflections
+remained, however: Dick believed me to be a suitor for Cecilia's hand,
+and this doubtless caused him considerable uneasiness; and he did not
+know that Pepperton, whose acquaintance with Cecilia antedated the
+European flight, had to be reckoned with.  I wished Pepperton had kept
+out of it.
+
+Breakfast that morning was interminably long.  Miss Octavia was never
+more thoroughly amusing, never more drolly inadvertent.  She attacked
+Pepperton for all the evils in American architecture, and in particular
+took him to task for some house he had built at Newport which she
+pronounced the most hideous pile of marble on American soil.  From her
+packet of newspaper-cuttings she drew a letter her brother Bassford had
+written to the "Sun,"--the writing of letters to newspapers was, it
+seemed, one of his weaknesses,--protesting against the quality of the
+music ground from the New York hurdy-gurdies.  The selections were
+execrable; the fierce tempo at which the instruments were driven had
+caused an alarming increase in insanity, in proof of which he adduced
+statistics.  He demanded municipal censorship, and volunteered to sit
+on the proposed commission of critics without pay.
+
+"That is just like brother Bassford!  When I begin speaking to him
+again I shall point out the error of his ways.  I always miss the
+hurdy-gurdies when I 'm in the country, and I believe I shall buy one
+and have it play me to sleep at night.  The faster the tempo the
+sweeter the slumber.  I should certainly do so," she concluded, with
+that indefinable smile that always left one wondering, "if it were not
+that my new laundress is a graduate of the Sandusky-Ottumwa
+Conservatory of Music, and I fear the toreador's song on wheels might
+be painful to one of her taste and temperament."
+
+When we left the table at about half-past ten Miss Octavia insisted
+that we must visit the kennels.  A friend had just sent her a fine
+Airedale, and she wished to make sure the kennel-master was treating
+the dog properly.  Later we were all to ride.
+
+I made haste to excuse myself, saying that personal matters required
+attention.
+
+"Certainly, Arnold, you shall do as you like.  Mr. Pepperton is a
+difficult bird to catch, so we hope for you at luncheon, and of course
+we expect you for dinner."
+
+Pepperton looked at me inquiringly.  I judged that he had known Miss
+Octavia a good many years; the tone of their intercourse was intimate;
+and yet he plainly was at a loss to understand just how I came to be so
+thoroughly established in her good graces.  I confess that as I glance
+back over these pages it looks odd to me!
+
+As I paced the hall waiting for a horse to be saddled, Pepperton led me
+out on the terrace above the garden.
+
+"I'm bursting with a great secret, old man.  I'm going to be married."
+
+"What!"
+
+"I'm going to be married."
+
+I grasped a chair to support myself.  This was almost too much.  Could
+it be possible that Hezekiah had miscalculated the list of rejections
+in the silver-bound book, or that Cecilia herself had been deceived?
+Pepperton misread my agitation, and with a hearty laugh clapped me on
+the shoulder.
+
+"Oh, I'm not intruding on your preserves, old man!  Cecilia is the
+second finest girl in the world, that's all.  I'm engaged to Miss
+Gaylord, of Stockbridge.  I 'm telling a few old friends, in advance of
+the formal announcement to be made next week at a dance the Gaylords
+are giving."
+
+I crushed his hand in both my own, and seeing that he misconstrued the
+fervor of my emotion I hastened to set myself right.
+
+"You're a lucky dog as usual, Pep.  But you don't understand about
+Cecilia Hollister.  It's not I; I 'm not in the running at all; but
+Hartley Wiggins is!  I'm here trying to help him score."
+
+"What's this?  You're here to represent Wiggy?"
+
+"Well, he did n't exactly send me here, but when I came I found that
+Wiggy was n't playing the game with quite the necessary zipology.
+There's more required than appears,--a little of the dash and snap of
+the old adventures,--the ready tongue, the eager, thirsty sword!"
+
+Pepperton pursed his lips and looked me over carefully with a twinkle
+in his eye.
+
+"You are contributing those elements!  You are octaviaized, is that
+it?"  Pepperton laughed until the tears came.
+
+"I prefer hollisterized as the broader term.  Brother Bassford has it
+too, and there's always Hezekiah!"
+
+"Ah!  Hezekiah the unpredictable!  I knew there was a skirt fluttering
+somewhere.  I saw her yesterday; stopped to see Bassford, who's a good
+old chap.  Hezekiah of the teasing eyes was whitewashing the
+chicken-coop, and Michael Angelo could n't have done it better."
+
+"Pep," I said, lowering my voice, "if you love me, keep close to
+Cecilia all day.  You're an engaged man and in practice.  Give an
+imitation of devotion.  Keep her out of doors; keep male human beings
+away from her.  Don't fail me in this.  I 've got to pull off the
+greatest coup of my life to-day.  There's a band of outlaws hanging
+round here who will propose to Cecilia the first chance they get--and
+they must NOT.  Wig 's got to speak before night or lose out forever.
+No; not a word of explanation; you've got to take my word for it."
+
+"I'll be the goat; go ahead, but build a fire under Wiggins; I can't
+stay here forever."
+
+Pepperton's engagement smoothed out one wrinkle, and I felt sure that I
+could trust him as an ally.  The groom was holding my horse in the
+porte-cochère, and I mounted and rode away to the Prescott Arms.
+
+I found Ormsby, Shallenberger, Arbuthnot, Henderson, Hume, and Gorse
+glumly sitting in a semicircle before the hall fireplace.  Deepest
+gloom pervaded the inn.  I have rarely seen melancholy so darkly
+stamped upon the human countenance.  They turned indifferently and
+glared as they recognized me.  Shallenberger alone rose and greeted me.
+
+"I hope there is no bad news," he said chokingly.
+
+"Bad news?"
+
+"I mean Miss Hollister--Miss Cecilia.  We were all deeply grieved last
+night to hear of her sudden illness; there's always something so
+terrible in the very name of diphtheria."
+
+My wits had been so sharpened by my late adventures that I readily
+accounted for these false tidings.  Dick was absent; Dick alone would
+have been equal to this diabolical plot for keeping his rival suitors
+away from Hopefield.  The despair in those faces taxed my gravity
+severely.
+
+"It is extremely sad, but the first diagnosis was erroneous," I
+answered.  "I think it more likely to prove to be chicken-pox when the
+truth is known."
+
+"Not diphtheria?"
+
+"No immediate danger of diphtheria, I assure you," I replied; "though
+of course, with winter coming on and all that, one must be prepared for
+the worst."
+
+While he repeated this to the others, I sought the clerk, who promptly
+handed me a note which Wiggins had left late the previous afternoon, to
+be delivered in case I called.  He had gone to spend a day or two with
+Orton, the playwright, who was at his country house, in the hills
+beyond Mt. Kisco, rehearsing a new piece, in which a friend of
+Hartley's was to star.  I gained the telephone-booth in one jump, and
+in five minutes I was bawling wildly into Orton's ear.  I had known him
+well in the Hare and Tortoise, and he answered my demand for Wiggins
+with the heart-breaking news that Hartley had ridden off with some
+other guests in the house--Orton did n't know where.
+
+"I threw them out; I've got to rewrite my third act; I don't care
+whether they ever come back," boomed Orton's voice.
+
+"If you don't send Wiggins back to me at Hopefield as fast as he can
+get there, my third act is ruined."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Tell Wiggins to come back on the run; tell him the world's coming to
+an end any minute."
+
+"I'll be glad to get rid of him," snapped Orton, in the harried tone of
+a man whose third act has wilted in rehearsal.
+
+As I came perspiring out of the telephone-booth I found the suitors
+engaged in eager but subdued debate by the hearth.  They could hardly
+have heard my bleatings over the telephone, but they were greatly
+concerned about something.  Shallenberger, who was apparently the only
+one willing to approach me, followed me to the veranda.
+
+"Those fellows in there don't understand this.  Dick told us all last
+night, after we had called at the house and been refused admittance,
+that Miss Cecilia was ill with diphtheria.  I remember that it was Dick
+who rang the bell and gave our cards to the footman.  It was quite
+singular, you know, our being turned away, unless something had been
+wrong."
+
+I bowed gravely.  They had been turned away for the very simple reason
+that, after unearthing Adoniram Caldwell's effects in the secret rooms
+of her house, Miss Octavia had not cared to be troubled with suitors.
+The haughty Nebraskan had drawn upon his imagination for the rest.
+
+"And I understood you to say a moment ago that Miss Hollister's malady
+is not diphtheria, but chicken-pox?"  Shallenberger persisted with
+almost laughable trepidation.  "These gentlemen, I regret to say, go so
+far as to doubt your word."
+
+"That, Mr. Shallenberger, is their privilege.  But it seems to me that
+when I merely tried to mitigate the terrible news imparted by Dick, you
+are rank ingrates for questioning my far less doubtful story.  Anything
+between you gentlemen and Mr. Dick is, of course, none of my affair,
+for whether considered as a set, group or bunch I am done with the
+whole lot of you.  Farewell!"
+
+I decided as I rode away that nothing was to be gained by going in
+search of Wiggins.  Orton had purposely made his house difficult of
+access, and the roads in that neighborhood are many and devious.  Orton
+had banished his guests that he might tinker his play in peace, and
+knowing his temper, I was sure that Wiggins and the rest of them would
+keep out of his way till the pangs of hunger drove them back.
+
+I had ridden half a mile toward Hopefield, when I espied a woman riding
+rapidly toward me, and as she drew nearer I identified her as Hezekiah,
+mounted on a horse I recognized as one of the best in Miss Octavia's
+stables.  Hezekiah rode astride, as a woman should, her bicycle skirt
+serving well as a habit.  She rode as a boy rides who loves freedom and
+quickened pulses and the rush of wind across his face.  She was
+hatless, for which the sun and I were both grateful.  The big bow at
+the back of her head turned the dial back to sixteen.
+
+[Illustration: I espied a woman riding rapidly toward me.]
+
+She drew rein and fished what seemed to be salted almonds from her
+sweater pocket.  She filliped one of these into the air, and caught it
+in her mouth with a lazy toss of the head that showed the firm contour
+of her lovely throat.  I had never seen her more self-possessed.
+
+"Do you care much for this horse?" she asked, carelessly.
+
+"It's a good horse; I fancy Miss Octavia thinks so herself.  There are
+places, Hezekiah, where they hang people for horse-stealing."
+
+"Thought I might need one to-day, so I borrowed him,--through the back
+way to the old red barn.  The coachman is an ancient chum, and Aunt
+Octavia would never mind even if she knew.  And she will know all
+right!  Anyhow, my rear tire had been patched once too often, and there
+is a satisfaction in a horse!  Where's our sensitive and impressionable
+Wiggy?  Saw him riding over toward Kisco yesterday P.M. with chin on
+his chest,--dreadful riding form."
+
+"Wiggins is at Orton's,--the playwright's, you know.  I've telephoned
+him to hustle back, but he's out of our reach somewhere.  I could n't
+speak to him direct; had to leave a message for him."
+
+"Just like Wiggy to die on the last lap.  What did you make out of
+brother Pepperton?"
+
+"Your note scared me,--thanks so much for your note,--but he's all
+right.  Engaged to another girl."
+
+"Ah," she sighed, "it's comforting that Cecilia could n't keep them all
+going all the time."
+
+We rode along together, our horses in a walk, and I told her everything
+I knew of the condition of affairs, including a true account of my
+experiences at the inn the day before and of the finding of the old
+chest belonging to Wiggins's great-grandfather,--her brown eyes opened
+wide at this,--concluding with the diphtheria stratagem and Dick's
+menace to Cecilia's happiness.
+
+"He's really a bright little boy.  Coming home on the steamer he gave
+me a post-graduate course in pragmatism that I've found helpful in
+keeping house for papa.  It's too bad we have to lay a trap for Mr.
+Dick."
+
+"Is it? Just how are we to manage that, Hezekiah?"
+
+"Oh, that will be easy enough.  He's pretty desperate, and since the
+compact between the suitors has gone to pieces he knows he will have to
+show his hand pretty soon.  He thinks you are wild about Cecilia.  He
+lays great stress on his thinking powers, and he probably argues that
+you are bound to pop pretty soon.  It's just as well he thinks so, but
+we must finish this up to-day; I'll be a nervous wreck if we don't
+close the books to-night.  There's your friend Dick now."
+
+She indicated a high point in the main road, where it crossed the ridge
+from which she had shown me--it seemed, oh, very long ago!--the
+procession of suitors crossing the stile.  Dick, mounted, was gazing
+off across the fields toward Hopefield.  Man and horse were so distant
+as to create the illusion of an equestrian statue on a high pedestal.
+
+"Napoleon before Waterloo," I suggested.
+
+"He does look like Napoleon, doesn't he?" she laughed.  "He's a bit
+fussed to-day.  He knows that Wiggy 's not at the inn, and that you are
+up to something, and to little Mr. Dick the architect probably looks
+like one of those mysterious knights you read about, who suddenly
+appears at the tournament all canned in an ice-cream freezer, with a
+tin pail over his head.  Mr. Pepperton's presence no doubt worries him,
+as I don't think they ever met.  Cecilia and Mr. Pepperton are
+riding--I dodged them just before I struck you, walking their horses in
+the most loverlike fashion in a lane over yonder; but if Mr. Pepperton
+is really engaged it's all right, though if I were the other girl I
+think I'd be anxious."
+
+"Pep's playing the game, that's all.  What are you going to do now?"
+
+She glanced at the sun; I fancy that it was with such a scanning of the
+heavens that her sisters a thousand years before had noted the time.
+
+"This is my pie-day.  There's undoubtedly a gooseberry-pie waiting for
+me at the bungalow, and papa will expect me for luncheon.  I 'd ask you
+to come too, only you 'll have all you can do to keep Mr. Dick from
+persuading somebody to be the sixth man, so he can slip in as number
+seven.  If we get through to-day all right, you may come for luncheon
+to-morrow, maybe.  Papa told me he liked you; he said you were very
+decent that night you met him on the roof of Aunt Octavia's house."
+
+"My compliments to your father.  I hope to be able to persuade him to
+extend his paternal arm to include me.  Aunt Octavia must be my aunt,
+too!"
+
+"Really!" cried Hezekiah, with indescribable mockery; and she wheeled
+her horse and was gone like the wind.
+
+Luncheon at Hopefield passed without incident; and afterward Cecilia
+retired to help her aunt with her correspondence, while Pepperton and I
+lounged about the house and smoked.  I told him of my ineffectual
+efforts to reach Wiggins, and he volunteered to find a motor and search
+for him; but I pointed out the futility of this, and renewed my appeal
+that he stay on guard at Hopefield.
+
+At about three o'clock Cecilia reappeared.  Her color was high and her
+eyes were unusually brilliant.  I knew that she fully realized that the
+crisis was near, but she asked no questions and her manner reassured me
+of her confidence.  We idled on the stone terrace above the
+frost-smitten garden, which in its ruin still satisfied the eye with
+color.  I had purposely drawn some chairs to a corner well screened by
+vines, so that I could note the approach of any visitors who came cross
+country by way of the stile.
+
+We were hardly seated before Dick entered the garden, followed
+immediately by the six other suitors I had last seen at the inn.  They
+ranged themselves on a stone bench facing the house at the end of one
+of the paths.  They wore sack coats and hats in a variety of styles, so
+that they did not present quite the bizarre effect produced by their
+frock coats and silk tiles.  They surveyed the house sadly, bowed their
+heads upon their sticks, and seemed to have come to stay.  The siege,
+then, had become a practical matter!
+
+"Why don't the gentlemen come in?" asked Cecilia, peering through the
+vines.
+
+"Hush!  There's a rumor that you are terribly ill; they've come merely
+to pay their tribute of respect by waiting in the garden.  You had
+better go quietly into the house.  The shock of seeing you in your
+usual health might be too much for them."
+
+"But I can't!  I must be accessible at all times," she cried, looking
+helplessly from me to Pepperton, who was all at sea for an explanation.
+"If that impression is abroad, I shall appear at once."
+
+"Then you and Pepperton must patrol the terrace here; you are lovers
+for all I know.  Ignore them utterly in your absorption with one
+another.  If any one approaches you, Pepperton, ask Miss Hollister to
+marry you."
+
+"Me!" gasped Pepperton.
+
+"No; it can't be done that way," Cecilia interposed.  "Mr. Pepperton
+has told me of his engagement.  I can't be party to a fraud, a trick.
+I can't countenance it at all.  It would ruin everything!"
+
+"Then stay right here; pace back and forth, and I'll manage the rest.
+I don't for the life of me know how, but I'll do it."
+
+As Cecilia and Pepperton stepped from behind the screen of vines, the
+men on the benches lifted their heads; then I heard murmurs of
+amazement and chagrin, and caught a fleeting glimpse of Dick tearing
+through the hedge with his late companions tumbling after in fierce
+pursuit.
+
+I ran to the stable and found a horse, feeling that I must be in a
+position to move rapidly if I saw Wiggins approaching.  If Dick eluded
+his wrathful pursuers he would be on the lookout somewhere, awaiting
+his own time, and if he saw Wiggins rushing madly for the house, he
+might yet circumvent us.
+
+I satisfied myself that Cecilia and Pepperton were still plainly
+visible from the garden, and I knew that for the time she was safe.  I
+gained the high point in the road from which Hezekiah and I had
+observed Dick on guard at noon, and waited.  Remembering the fine
+figure the philosopher had made against the sky, I dismounted and
+rested by a stone wall where I could watch with less risk of being seen
+from a distance.
+
+I at once saw matters that interested me immensely.  Dick had thrown
+off the other suitors, and was rapidly crossing the fields toward
+Hopefield.  When I caught sight of him, he was just leaving the orchard
+where Hezekiah and I had held our memorable interview.  A long stretch
+of rough pasture lay before him, and he settled down to a quick trot.
+He took several fences without lessening his gait, crossed the stile
+like a flash a little later, and was out of sight.
+
+As I turned to my horse I heard the swift patter of hoofs, and saw a
+man and woman galloping furiously toward me.  They were rapidly nearing
+the ridge, and their horses were springing over the firm white road in
+prodigious leaps.  Wiggins had got my message; Hezekiah had met him in
+the road and was urging him on!  Here indeed was a situation to stir
+the heart, and the blood sang in my ears as I watched them.  I waved my
+arm as they checked their horses for the long climb.  The riders had
+lost their hats in their mad race, and Wiggins's horse was nearly done
+for.  As they came still nearer, I saw that Wiggins had taken fire at
+last.
+
+"Orton said some one was killed,--who--what--who"--
+
+"I just picked him up five minutes ago; he doesn't know anything," said
+Hezekiah; "and you dare n't tell him--remember the rules!  What's
+doing?" she inquired coolly.
+
+She bade Wiggins exchange horses with her, and while he was readjusting
+the saddle-girths I explained to Hezekiah the situation at Hopefield
+and told her of Dick's scamper across the fields.
+
+"There's no use fooling with this thing any more.  I'll take Wiggy to
+the house and lock him up until I 've been numbered six,--it's safest."
+
+"Not much it isn't.  I don't intend that Cecilia shall have the
+pleasure of refusing you."
+
+"I'd like to know why not.  It's only to fill the gap."
+
+"Oh!" said Hezekiah, "that would be an embarrassment to me all the rest
+of my life.  Listen carefully.  Take Wiggy in by the back way, and give
+him a picture-book to look at.  Leave Cecilia alone on the terrace when
+you're all ready, and see what happens.  If Dick's on his way to the
+house he's going to do something, and he must feel the edge of my
+displeasure.  I owe him a few on general principles."
+
+"What does all this mean?  You say there 's nothing wrong at the
+house?" began Wiggins as we left Hezekiah and started toward Hopefield.
+
+"Nothing whatever the matter; everything perfectly all right; but
+you've got to keep mum now and do what I tell you.  I've worked hard
+for you, old man, and when it's all over I'm going to send you a bill
+for professional services.  Come!"
+
+I urged my horse to his utmost, and Wiggins rode steadily beside me.
+The fright Orton had given him had done my friend good, and I felt that
+I was dealing with a live man at last.  Our speed did not permit
+conversation, but feeling that Wiggins was entitled to some further
+assurance, I waited until we were climbing our last hill to add a word.
+
+"I'll tell you all about this after we have a good-night cigar
+to-night.  You know I told you I was going to help, and if nothing goes
+wrong and Hezekiah does n't fail, you will see the world with new eyes
+before you sleep."
+
+We rode direct to the stable, and I took Wiggins to my room by the back
+stairs and bade him help himself to my raiment.  He was perfectly
+tractable, and I was glad to see that he trusted implicitly to my
+guidance.
+
+I met Miss Octavia in the lower hall.  She was just in from the
+kennels.  Her new Airedale was a perfect specimen of the breed, she
+declared, and she announced her intention of exhibiting him at all the
+reputable bench shows in America.
+
+"I hope, Arnold, that you have not been without entertainment to-day."
+
+"Miss Hollister, the three musketeers were fat monks asleep under the
+sunny wall of a monastery compared with me!"
+
+"I am glad you are not bored.  By the way, if you should by any chance
+see Hezekiah, you will kindly intimate to her that if she returns that
+Estabrook mare she borrowed this morning in reasonably good condition,
+I will overlook her indiscretion in taking it from the stable without
+permission."
+
+She did not wait for a reply, but continued on to her room, and I went
+direct to the terrace.  Cecilia and Pepperton were just going into the
+house to look up a book or piece of music which they had been
+discussing.  Cecilia was making herself interesting, as she so well
+knew how to do, and she seemed in no wise anxious.
+
+"We had forgotten tea," she said.  "Aunt Octavia has just ordered it."
+
+"She and Mr. Pepperton may have their tea.  I believe the air outside
+will do you good for a little longer,--so if you don't mind, Pepperton,
+Miss Hollister will resume her promenade alone."
+
+Pep has told me since that he thought me quite mad that afternoon.  I
+bade Cecilia patrol the long terrace slowly.  She turned up the collar
+of the covert coat and obeyed, laughing a little nervously but asking
+no questions.  The scene could not have been more charmingly set.  The
+great house loomed darkly behind her; beneath lay the garden, over
+which the dusk was stealing goldenly.
+
+She paused suddenly as I watched from the window, and I stepped out to
+see what had attracted her attention.  There into the garden from its
+farther entrance filed the six suitors who had previously come to sit
+beneath the windows of their stricken lady!  Having failed to visit
+their wrath upon the perfidious Dick they had changed their clothes and
+returned to Hopefield.  If Hezekiah had not expressly commanded me not
+to become the sixth man, I should have offered myself on the spot, and
+waited only until Cecilia had made the inevitable answer before
+summoning Wiggins to end the whole affair.  Such, however, was not to
+be the order of events.
+
+The procession, headed by Ormsby, was within a few yards of the
+terrace.  Cecilia, apparently unconscious of their proximity, continued
+her promenade.  In a moment she must recognize them, ask them into the
+house, give them tea, and otherwise destroy my hope of securing her
+happiness before the day's end.
+
+A chorus of yelps and barks, as of dogs suddenly released, greeted my
+ear.  The oncoming suitors heard it too, and the line wobbled
+uncertainly.  Then round the house swept mastiffs, hounds, terriers,--a
+collection of prize-winners such as few kennels ever boasted, loping
+gayly in unwonted freedom toward unknown and forbidden pastures.
+
+The vanguard of fox-terriers leaped down into the garden, with the rest
+of the pack at their heels.  Happy dogs, to find grown men ready for a
+gambol!  Six coat-tails streamed from the hips of six gentlemen in a
+hurry.  Several battered hats mixed with geraniums were retained later
+as spoils of war by the gardener.  That garden had been built for
+repose and contemplative amblings, not for panic and flight.  The
+disorder was superior in picturesqueness to that which attended the
+pumpkin stampede; at least it struck me at the moment as funnier; and I
+have never since been able to attend a day wedding without appearing
+idiotic--the procession of ushers suggests possibilities that are too
+much for me.  Four of the suitors found one of the proper exits into
+the road; two leaped the box-hedge on the other side without shaking a
+leaf.
+
+I ran round the house, stumbling through the rear-guard of the truant
+canines, and passing the kennel-master, who had rallied the stable men
+and was in hot pursuit.
+
+"Somebody turned 'em out--turned 'em out!" he shouted, and swept
+profanely by.  The gate of the kennel-yard stood open.  A familiar
+figure, running low, paused, and then sprinted nimbly along the paddock
+fence.  A white sweater was distinguishable for a moment on a stone
+wall, then it followed a pair of enchanted heels into oblivion.
+
+Time had been passing swiftly, and the shadows were deepening.  I
+retraced my steps toward the terrace, hearing the cries of pursued and
+pursuers growing fainter.  I had not yet gained a position from which I
+could see Cecilia, when a man appeared some distance ahead of me,
+walking guardedly in one of the garden-plots.  He came uncertainly,
+pausing to glance about, yet evidently led toward the terrace by a
+definite purpose.  All may be fair in love and war, but I confess to a
+feeling of pity for John Stewart Dick as I watched him slowly advancing
+to his fate.  He was going boldly now, and I felt a sudden liking for
+him; nor can I believe that he was other than a manly fellow with sound
+brains and a good heart.
+
+I reasoned, as I marked his approach to the terrace, that he had been
+loitering in the neighborhood, probably watching Cecilia and Pepperton,
+and when the architect retired, he had assumed that the sixth man had
+spoken.  The appearance of his former comrades of the inn had doubtless
+disturbed him as it had me; then, thanks to the resourceful Hezekiah,
+they had been routed and the coast was clear.  I think it likely that
+the sight of Cecilia sombrely pacing the terrace in the darkening
+shadows was too much for his philosophic poise, or like the rest of us
+who were actors in that comedy, he may have felt that any end was
+better than the doubts and uncertainties that beset us.
+
+I watched him draw nearer to Cecilia as I have watched deer go down to
+a lake to drink.  He would speak now; I was confident of it; and I
+stole round to the side entrance and sent word to Wiggins to go to the
+drawing-room and wait for me.
+
+Miss Octavia and Pepperton still lingered over their tea-cups.  The row
+made by the fugitives from her kennels had not, it seemed, penetrated
+to the library, and Miss Octavia bade me join the talk, which had to
+do, I remember, with some project for a national hall of fame that had
+incurred her characteristic displeasure.  A hall of immortal rascals in
+pillories she thought far likelier to please the masses.
+
+In fifteen minutes I saw Cecilia crossing the hall.  She stopped where
+I could see her quite plainly, and thrust her hand into the pocket of
+her coat.  Out flashed the silver note-book.  She made a swift notation
+with the pencil that now, I knew, wrote the fate of the sixth man.
+
+I went out and spoke to her, and walked beside her to the drawing-room
+door, where Hartley Wiggins was waiting.
+
+Miss Octavia had risen when I returned to the library, and it was time
+to dress for dinner.
+
+"Just a moment, Miss Hollister.  Something of great interest is about
+to occur;" and I made excuses for detaining her for perhaps five
+minutes,--not more.
+
+"You have never yet deceived me, Arnold Ames, and such is my confidence
+in you that if you tell me that something interesting will soon occur,
+I have no reason to doubt you.  It is worth remembering, however, that
+fowl is not improved by prolonged roasting."
+
+I heard Wiggins laugh in the hall, and Miss Octavia raised her head.
+Then Cecilia came into the room, and walked directly to her aunt.
+
+"Aunt Octavia, here is the little silver notebook you gave me in Paris;
+I have just written Mr. Wiggins's name in it,  and as I have no further
+use for the book, I return it with my love and thanks."
+
+Without a word, Miss Octavia turned to the wall and pressed the button
+twice.
+
+"William," she said as the butler appeared, "you may serve Oriana '97,
+and be careful not to freeze it to death; and the hour for dinner is
+changed to eight.  Arnold, you may yourself drive to Gooseberry
+Bungalow for my brother and niece.  They dine with me to-night."
+
+
+Hezekiah and I built our bungalow in the orchard where on that October
+afternoon I found her munching a red apple on the stone wall.  She is
+the most scrupulous of housewives, and only now took me to task for
+scattering the hearth with fragments of the notes from which this
+narrative has been written.  She has just been reading these last
+pages, with meditative brown eyes, and not without occasionally
+reaching for the pen and retouching some sentence in which, she says,
+soot from my chimney-doctoring days has clogged the ink.  Cecilia and
+Wiggins live at Hopefield across the fields.  Miss Octavia insisted on
+this, for the reason that the sword of Hartley's great-grandfather,
+found in the chest under the old house, gives him inalienable rights to
+the premises.  Miss Octavia and her brother Bassford are traveling
+abroad and enjoying those mild adventures to which they are both
+temperamentally inclined.  As Miss Octavia carried with her the Parker
+House umbrella-check I am confident of her early return.
+
+My name is joined to Pepperton's on his office-door.  Pepperton
+proposed this arrangement, with so many assurances of faith in me that
+I could not refuse him; but I knew well enough that Miss Octavia had
+first put it into his head.  So while I have called myself a
+chimney-doctor in these pages, I am again an architect, and the new
+cathedral now rising at Waxahaxie is, let me modestly note, the work of
+my hand.
+
+"You ought to say something more about the Asolando," Hezekiah has just
+murmured at my shoulder.  "Everybody will ask whether we ever went back
+there."
+
+"Of course we go back there, Hezekiah, every time you come to town and
+can get hold of me.  Will that be enough?"
+
+"You'd better explain that Aunt Octavia started the tea-room and still
+owns it, and makes money out of it, though she rarely goes there, but
+sends Freda the maid to collect the profits.  And it won't do any harm
+to say that when she met you there that day, she decided at once that
+you would be a proper husband for me.  Any one who reads your book will
+want to know that."
+
+Hezekiah is always right; so here endeth the chronicle.
+
+
+
+
+The Riverside Press
+
+CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
+
+U . S . A
+
+
+
+
+THE RIGHT STUFF
+
+By IAN HAY
+
+"Those who love the companionship of people of fine fibre, and to whom
+a sense of humor has not been denied, will make no mistake in seeking
+the society open to them in 'The Right Stuff.'"--_New York Times_.
+
+"Hay resembles Barrie, and, like Barrie, he will grow in many
+ways."--_Cleveland Leader_.
+
+"A compelling tribute to the homely genuineness and sterling worth of
+Scottish character."--_St. Louis Post Dispatch_.
+
+"Mr. Hay has written a story which is pure story and is a delight from
+beginning to end."--_San Francisco Argonaut_.
+
+"It would be hard, indeed, to find a more winning book."--_New Orleans
+Times-Democrat_.
+
+
+
+With frontispiece by James Montgomery Flagg.  12mo.
+
+$1.20 net.  Postage 10 cents.
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+THE TWISTED FOOT
+
+By HENRY MILNER RIDEOUT
+
+"Henry Milner Rideout has written several good stories of Oriental
+mystery, but none of them approach in excellence 'The Twisted
+Foot.'"--_Cleveland Plain Dealer_.
+
+"The story is fascinating and full of the witchery of the
+East."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+"Its persuasiveness of action, its alluring color and high heart
+courage, make it one of the striking romances of the time."--_New York
+American_.
+
+"The whole story glows with the local life and color."--_New York
+Times_.
+
+
+
+With seven full-page illustrations by G. C. Widney.
+
+12mo.  $1.20 net.  Postage 11 cents.
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+THE PROFESSIONAL AUNT
+
+By MARY C. E. WEMYSS
+
+"One of the most delightful stories that has ever crossed the
+water."--_Louisville Courier-Journal_.
+
+"The legitimate successor of 'Helen's Babies.'"--_Clara Louise Burnham_.
+
+"A classic in the literature of childhood."--_San Francisco Chronicle_.
+
+"Mrs. Wemyss is a formidable rival to E. Nesbit, who hitherto has stood
+practically alone as a charmingly humorous interpreter of child
+life."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean_.
+
+"A charming, witty, tender book."--_Kate Douglas Wiggin_.
+
+"It is a sunny, warm-hearted humorous story, that leaves the reader
+with a sense of time well spent in its perusal."--_Brooklyn Eagle_.
+
+
+
+16mo.  $1.00 net.  Postage 10 cents.
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+FARMING IT
+
+By HENRY A. SHUTE
+
+"There is nothing funnier in Mark Twain."--_Grand Rapids Herald_.
+
+"Every man and woman who lives, or ever has lived, in the country will
+appreciate the situations described....  They are funny enough to
+disturb the calm of the most serious countenance."--_Boston Globe_.
+
+"Includes more fun than is concealed in all his other books taken
+together."--_Living Age_.
+
+"The book is extraordinarily frank ... spicy and
+enlivening."--_Baltimore News_.
+
+"A wholesome and invigorating sort of book....  A real story of real
+life cheerfully narrated."--_New York Times_.
+
+
+
+Fully illustrated by Reginald B. Birch
+
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+OLD HARBOR
+
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+
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+close reluctantly with the hope of soon opening another volume by the
+same author."--_New York Times_.
+
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+opportunity in the pages of a book to come in touch with such a group
+of genial and lovable people."--_Minneapolis Journal_.
+
+"A cheerful, amusing story of old-fashioned people....  The author is a
+genuine humorist."--_Boston Transcript_.
+
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+same philosophy, displaying the same keen insight."--_Brooklyn Eagle_.
+
+
+
+Square crown 8vo.  $1.25 net.  Postage 14 cents
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+THE BREAKING IN OF A YACHTSMAN'S WIFE
+
+By MARY HEATON VORSE
+
+"Clever!  Sparkling!  Full of quaint humor and crisp description!
+Altogether a book which will not disappoint the reader.  It is
+'different,' and that is one great merit in a book."--_Brooklyn Eagle_.
+
+"It will puzzle holiday makers to find a better vacation book than
+this.  Those who go up and down the Sound in yachts will find it
+especially pleasing; it will appeal to those who are fond of human
+nature studies; may be recommended even more decidedly to the serious
+than to the young and frivolous; a tonic to depression and an antidote
+to gloom."--_N. Y. Times_.
+
+"Charming, with its salt, sea-slangy flavor, its double love thread,
+and its pleasant chapters dealing with Long Island Sound, the
+Mediterranean, Massachusetts Bay and Venetian lagoons."--_Chicago
+Record-Herald_.
+
+
+
+Illustrated by Reginald Birch.  12mo, $1.50
+
+
+
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Siege of the Seven Suitors, by 
+Meredith Nicholson
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+The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Siege of The Seven Suitors,
+by Meredith Nicholson
+</TITLE>
+
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+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Siege of the Seven Suitors, by Meredith Nicholson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Siege of the Seven Suitors
+
+Author: Meredith Nicholson
+
+Illustrator: C. Coles Phillips
+             Reginald Birch
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2011 [EBook #35942]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="img-front"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="&quot;Hezekiah&quot;" BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+&quot;Hezekiah&quot;
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t1">
+The Siege of
+<BR>
+The Seven Suitors
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t4">
+BY
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t4">
+AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES," ETC.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t4">
+ILLUSTRATED BY C. COLES PHILLIPS
+<BR>
+AND REGINALD BIRCH
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t4">
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+<BR>
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+<BR>
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+<BR>
+1910
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t4">
+COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+<BR>
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+<BR><BR>
+<I>Published October 1910</I>
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+TO
+<BR>
+THE HONORABLE THOMAS R. MARSHALL
+</P>
+
+<P>
+MY DEAR GOVERNOR:&mdash;It was ordered by the franchises of destiny that you
+become the chief executive of a state in which the telling of tales
+brightened the hunter's camp-fire and cheered the lonely pioneer's
+cabin before our people learned the uses of ink; and the supreme
+fitness of this lies in the fact that you are yourself the best of
+story-tellers and entitled, for your excellence in this particular, as
+well as for weightier reasons, to sit at the head of the table in that
+commonwealth to which we are both bound by many and dear ties.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The morning brings to your mail-box so many demands, necessitating the
+most varied and delicate balancings and adjustments, that I serve you
+ill in adding to your burdens the little packet that contains this
+tale.  Pray consider, however, that I have hidden it discreetly beneath
+a pile of documents touching nearly the state's business; or that I
+hastily serve it upon you in the highway, an unsanctioned writ from
+that high court of letters in which I am the least valiant among the
+bailiffs.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Sincerely yours,<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;M. N.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MACKINAC ISLAND,<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<I>August</I> 10, 1910.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+CONTENTS
+</P>
+
+<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%">
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap01">MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap02">THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap03">I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap04">WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap05">THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap06">I DELIVER A MESSAGE</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap07">NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap08">CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap09">I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap10">MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap11">I PLAY TRUANT</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap12">THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap13">I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap14">LADY'S SLIPPER</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap15">LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap16">JACK O' LANTERN</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap17">SEVEN GOLD REEDS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XVIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap18">TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap19">THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+<TR>
+<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</TD>
+<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top">
+<A HREF="#chap20">HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM</A></TD>
+</TR>
+
+</TABLE>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS
+</H2>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+I
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+I dined with Hartley Wiggins at the Hare and Tortoise on an evening in
+October, not very long ago.  It may be well to explain that the Hare
+and Tortoise is the smallest and most select of clubs, whose windows
+afford a pleasant view of Gramercy Park.  The club is comparatively
+young, and it is our joke that we are so far all tortoises, creeping
+through our several professions without aid from any hare.  I hasten to
+explain that I am a chimney doctor.  Wiggins is a lawyer; at least I
+have seen his name in a list of graduates of the Harvard Law School,
+and he has an office down-town where I have occasionally found him
+sedately playing solitaire while he waited for some one to take him out
+to luncheon.  He spends his summers on a South Dakota ranch, from which
+he derives a considerable income.  When tough steaks are served from
+the club grill, we always attribute them to the cattle on Wiggins's
+hills.  Or if the lamb is ancient, we declare it to be of Wiggins's
+shepherding.  It is the way of our humor to hold Wiggins responsible
+for things.  His good nature is usually equal to the worst we can do to
+him.  He is the kind of fellow that one instinctively indicts without
+hearing testimony.  We all know perfectly well that Wiggins's ranch is
+a wheat ranch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins is an athlete, and his summers in the West and persistent
+training during the winter in town keep him in fine condition.  As I
+faced him to-night in our favorite corner of the Hare and Tortoise
+dining-room, the physical man was fit enough; but I saw at once that he
+was glum and dispirited.  He had through many years honored me with his
+confidence, and I felt that to-night, after we got well started, I
+should hear what was on his mind.  I hoped to cheer him with the story
+of a visit I had by chance paid that afternoon to the Asolando
+Tea-Room; for though Wiggins is a most practical person, I imagined
+that he would be diverted by my description of a place which, I felt
+sure, nothing could tempt him to visit.  I shall never forget the look
+he gave me when I remarked, at about his third spoonful of soup:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By the way, I dropped into an odd place this afternoon.  Burne-Jones
+buns, maccaroons, and all that sort of thing.  They call it the
+Asolando."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was ambling on, expecting to sharpen his curiosity gradually as I
+recited the joys of the tea-room; but at "Asolando" his spoon dropped,
+and he stared at me blankly.  It should be known that Wiggins is not a
+man whose composure is lightly shaken.  The waiter who served us
+glanced at him in surprise, a fact which I mention merely to confirm my
+assertion that the dropping of a spoon into his soup was an
+extraordinary occurrence in Wiggins's life.  Wiggins was a proper
+person.  On the ranch, twenty miles from a railroad, he always dressed
+for dinner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The Asolando," I repeated, to break the spell of his blank stare.
+"Know the place?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He recovered in a moment, but he surveyed me quizzically before
+replying.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course I have heard of the Asolando, but I thought you did n't go
+in for that sort of thing.  It's a trifle girlish, you know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's hardly against it!  I found the girlishness altogether
+attractive."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You always were tolerably susceptible, but broiled butterflies and
+moth-wings soufflé seem to me rather pale food for a man in your
+vigorous health."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They must have discriminated in your favor; I saw no such things,
+though to be sure I was afraid to quibble over the waitress's
+suggestions.  May I ask when you were there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I dropped in quite accidentally one day last spring.  I saw the
+sign, and remembered that somebody had spoken of the place, and I was
+tired, and it was a long way to the club, and"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dissimulation is not an art as Wiggins attempts to practice it at
+times.  He is by nature the most straightforward of mortals.  It was
+clear that he was withholding something, and I resolved to get to the
+bottom of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't think the Asolando is a place that would attract either of us,
+and yet the viands are good as such stuff goes, and the gentle
+hand-maidens are restful to the eye,&mdash;Pippa, Francesca, Gloria, and the
+rest of 'em."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins pried open his artichoke with the care of a botanist.  He had
+regained his composure, but I saw that the subject interested him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You were there this afternoon?" he inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, my first and only appearance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And this is Monday."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The calendar has said it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So you settled your bill with Pippa!  I believe this was her day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you really do know the inner workings of the Asolando," I
+continued; "I thought you would show your hand presently.  Then it is
+perhaps Gloria, Beatrice or Francesca who minds the till on Tuesdays,
+Thursdays and Saturdays, alternating with Pippa, who took my coin
+to-day.  It's a pretty idea.  It has the delicacy of an arrangement by
+Whistler or the charm of a line in Rossetti.  So you have seen the
+blessed damozel at the cash-desk."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On the contrary I was never there on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday,
+and I therefore passed no coin to Francesca, Gloria or Beatrice.  My
+only visit was on a day last May, and my recollection of the system is
+doubtless imperfect."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then beyond doubt I saw Pippa.  She makes the change on Monday,
+Wednesday and Friday.  Her eyelashes are a trifle too long for the
+world's peace."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I dare say.  I have n't your charming knack, Ames, of picking up
+acquaintances, so you must n't expect me to form life-long friendships
+with young women at cash-desks.  I suppose it did n't occur to you that
+those young women who tend till and serve the tables in there are
+persons of education and taste.  The Asolando is not a common hashery.
+I sometimes fear that so much crawling through chimneys is clouding
+your intellect.  It ought to have been clear even to your smoky
+chimney-pot that those girls in there are not the kind you can ask to
+meet you by the old mill at the fall of dewy eve, or who write notes to
+popular romantic actors.  There's not a girl in that place who has n't
+a social position as good as yours or mine.  The Asolando's a kind of
+fad, you know, Ames; it's not a tavern within the meaning of the
+inn-keepers' act, where common swine are fed for profit.  The servants
+serve for love of the cause; it's a sort of cult.  But I suppose you
+are incapable of grasping it.  There was always something sordid in
+you, and I'm pained to find that you're getting worse."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins had, before now, occasionally taken this attitude toward me,
+and it was always with a view to obscuring some real issue between us.
+He requires patience; it is a mistake to attempt to crowd him; but give
+him rope and he will twist his own halter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We sparred further without result.  I had suggested a topic that had
+clearly some painful association for my friend.  He drank his coffee
+gloomily and lighted a cigar much blacker than the one I knew to be his
+favorite in the Hare and Tortoise humidor.  He excused himself shortly,
+and I had a glimpse of him later, in the writing-room, engaged upon
+letters, a fact in itself disquieting, for Wiggins never wrote letters,
+and it was he who had favored making the Hare and Tortoise writing-room
+into a den for pipe-smokers.  The epistolary habit, he maintained, was
+one that should be discouraged.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was moodily turning over the evening newspapers when Jewett turned
+up.  Jewett always knows everything.  I shall not call him a gossip,
+but he comes as near deserving the name as a man dares who lectures on
+the Renaissance before clubs and boarding-schools.  Jewett knows his
+Botticelli, but his knowledge of his contemporaries is equally exact.
+He dropped the ball into the green of my immediate interest with a neat
+approach-shot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Too bad about old Wiggy," he remarked with his preluding sigh.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's the matter with Wiggins?" I demanded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah!  He has n't told you?  Thought he told you everything."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was meant for a stinger, and I felt the bite of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You do me too much honor.  Wiggins is not a man to throw around his
+confidences."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I rather fancy that his love-affairs in particular are locked in
+his bosom."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jewett was a master of the art of suggestion; he took an unnecessarily
+long time to light a cigar so that his words might sink deep into my
+consciousness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Saw her once last spring.  Got a sight draft from the Bank of Eros.
+Followed her across the multitudinous sea.  Bang!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But Wiggy has n't been abroad.  Wiggy was on his Dakota ranch all
+summer.  He's all tanned from the sun, just as he is every fall," I
+persisted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wrote you from out there, did he?  Sent you picture-postals showing
+him herding his cattle, or whatever the beasts are?  Kept in touch with
+you all the time, did he?  I tell you his fine color is due to
+Switzerland, not Dakota."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wiggins is n't a letter-writer, nor the sort of person who wants to
+paper your house with picture-postals.  His not writing does n't mean
+that he was n't on his ranch," I replied, annoyed by Jewett's manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never dropped you before, though, I wager," he chirruped.  "I tell you
+he saw Miss Cecilia Hollister at the Asolando tea-shop: just a glimpse;
+but almost immediately he went abroad in pursuit of her.  The
+chevalier&mdash;that's her aunt Octavia&mdash;was along and another niece.  My
+sister saw the bunch of them in Geneva, where the chevalier was
+breaking records.  A whole troop of suitors followed them everywhere.
+My sister knows the girl&mdash;Cecilia&mdash;and she's known Wiggy all her life.
+She's just home and told me about it last night.  She thinks the
+chevalier has some absurd scheme for marrying off the girl.  It's all
+very queer, our Wiggy being mixed up in it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't be absurd, Jewett.  There's nothing unusual in a man being in
+love; that's one fashion that does n't change much.  I venture to say
+that Wiggins will prove a formidable suitor.  Wiggins is a gentleman,
+and the girl would be lucky to get him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quite right, my dear Ames; but alas! there are others.  The
+competition is encouraged by the aunt, the veteran chevalier.  My
+sister says the chevalier seems to favor the suit of a Nebraska
+philosopher who rejoices in the melodious name of Dick."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Jewett was playing me for all his story was worth, and enjoying himself
+immensely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For Heaven's sake, go on!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nice girl, this Cecilia.  You know the Hollisters,&mdash;oodles of money in
+the family.  The chevalier's father scored big in
+baby-buggies&mdash;responsible for the modern sleep-inducing perambulators;
+sold out to a trust.  The father of Wiggins's inamorata had started in
+to be a marine painter.  A founder of this club, come to think of it,
+but dropped out long ago.  You have heard of him&mdash;Bassford Hollister.
+Funny thing his having to give up art.  Great gifts for the marine, but
+never could overcome tendency to seasickness.  Honest!  Every time he
+painted a wave it upset him horribly.  The doctors could n't help him.
+Next tried his hand at the big gulches down-town.  There was a chance
+there to hit off the metropolitan sky-line and become immortal by doing
+it first; but a new trouble developed.  Doing the high buildings made
+him dizzy!  Honest!  He was good, too, and would have made a place, but
+he had to cut it out.  He was so torn up over his two failures that he
+blew in his share of the perambulator money in riotous living.  Lost
+his wife into the bargain, and has settled down to a peaceful life up
+in Westchester County in one of these cute little bungalows the
+real-estate operators build for you if you pay a dollar down for a
+picture of an acre lot."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And the daughter?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Bassford Hollister has two daughters.  It's the older one that
+has stolen Wiggins's heart away.  She's Cecilia, you know.  Very
+literary and that sort of thing, and pushed tea and cookies at the
+Asolando when that idiocy was opened.  Wiggins saw her there last
+spring.  Miss Hollister, the aunt,&mdash;whom I 'm fond of calling the
+chevalier,&mdash;picked up her nieces about that time and hauled them off to
+Europe, and Wiggins scampered after them.  I don't know what they did
+to Wiggy, but you see how he acts.  I rather imagine that the chevalier
+did n't smile on his suit.  She's a holy terror, that woman, with an
+international reputation for doing weird and most unaccountable things.
+She draws a sort of royalty on all the baby-buggies in creation; it
+amounts to a birth-tax, in contravention of the free guarantees of the
+Constitution.  The people will rise against it some day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She's plausible enough, but she's the past mistress of ulterior
+motive.  She got Fortner, the mural painter, up to a place she used to
+have at Newport a few years ago, ostensibly to do a frieze or
+something, and she made him teach her to fire a gun.  You know Fortner,
+with his artistic ideals!  And he did n't know any more about guns than
+a flea.  It was droll, decidedly droll.  But she kept him there a
+month,&mdash;wouldn't let him off the reservation; but she paid him his fee
+just the same, though he never painted a stroke.  When he got back to
+town, he was a wreck.  It was just like being in jail.  I warn you to
+let her alone.  If you should undertake to fix her flues she's likely
+to put you to work digging potatoes.  She's no end of a case."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Wiggins is a good fellow, one of the very best," I remarked, as
+I absorbed these revelations, "and it is n't the girl's aunt he wants
+to marry."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's a capital fellow," affirmed Jewett, "and that's why it's a sin
+this had to happen to him.  There's no telling where this affair may
+lead him.  There's something queer in the wind, all right.  The
+chevalier has brother Bassford where he can't whimper; I rather fancy
+he feeds from her hand.  His girls have n't any prospects except
+through the chevalier.  Nice girls, so I'm told; but between the father
+with his vertiginous tendencies and a lunatic aunt who holds the family
+money-bags, I don't see much ahead of them.  Miss Cecilia Hollister is
+living with her aunt; it's a sort of compulsory sequestration; she has
+to do it whether she wants to or not.  I rather fancy it's to keep her
+away from Wiggins."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And the other sister; where does she come in?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not important, I fancy.  Rumor is silent touching her.  In fact I 've
+never heard anything of her.  But this Cecilia is no end handsome and
+proud.  Poor old Wiggy!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was already ashamed of myself for having encouraged Jewett to discuss
+Wiggins's affairs, and was about to leave him, when he snorted, in a
+disagreeable way he had, at some joke that had occurred to him, and he
+continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention.  My frown did
+not dismay him.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-013"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-013.jpg" ALT="He continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+He continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"I knew there was something," he was saying, "about Miss Cecilia's
+younger sister, and I've just recalled it.  The girl has a most
+extraordinary name, quite the most remarkable you ever heard."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He laughed until he was purple in the face.  I did not imagine that any
+name known to feminine nomenclature could be so humorous.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah!  Bang!  That's the little sister's name.  Bassford Hollister
+had been saving that name for a son, who never appeared, to do honor to
+old Hezekiah, the perambulator-chap.  So they named the girl for her
+grand-dad.  Bang!  One of the apostles, Hezekiah!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I waited for his mirth to wear itself out, and then rose, to terminate
+the interview with an adequate dramatic dismissal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You poor pagan," I remarked, with such irony as I could command; "it's
+too bad you insist on revealing the abysmal depths of your ignorance:
+Hezekiah was not an apostle, but a mighty king before the day of
+apostles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I left him blinking, and unconvinced as to Hezekiah's proper place in
+history.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins, I learned at the office, had, within half an hour, left the
+club hurriedly in a cab, taking a trunk with him.  He had mentioned no
+mail-address to the clerk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And this was very unlike Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+CHAPTER II
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins's strange conduct and Jewett's dark hints so disturbed me that
+the very next afternoon I again sought the Asolando Tea-Room, feeling
+that in its atmosphere I might best weigh the few facts I possessed
+touching my friend's love-affairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Those who care for details in these matters may be interested to know
+that the Asolando is tucked away among print-shops and exclusive
+haberdashers, a stone's throw from Fifth Avenue.  The Asolando Tea-Room
+has a history of its own, but it is not the office of this chronicler
+to record it.  Weightier matters are ahead of us; and it must suffice
+that the Asolando is sacred to wooers of the flute of Pan, secession
+photographers, and confident believers in an early revival of the
+poetic drama.  One of my friends, who has probably done more to
+popularize Nietzsche than any other American, had frequently urged me
+to visit the Asolando, where, he declared, the daintiest imaginable
+luncheons could be obtained at nominal prices; but I should not have
+paid this second visit had it not been for Jewett's history.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was common gossip in studios where I loafed between my professional
+engagements, that the monthly deficit at the Asolando was cared for by
+a retired banker whose weakness is sonnet-sequences.  As to the truth
+of this I have no opinion.  It will suffice if I convey in the fewest
+possible lines a suggestion of the tranquillity, the charming cloistral
+peace of the little room, with its Arts and Crafts chairs and tables,
+its racks of books, its portraits of Browning, Rossetti, Burne-Jones
+and kindred spirits; nor should I fail to mention the delightful
+inadvertence with which neatly framed excerpts from the bright page of
+British song are scattered along the walls.  Nowhere else, many had
+averred, was one so likely to learn of the latest Celtic poet, or of a
+newly-discovered Keats letter; and lest injustice be done in these
+suggestions to the substantial scholarly attainments of the habitués, I
+must record that it was over a cup of tea in the Asolando that Bennett
+made the first notes for his revolutionary essay on the Sapphic
+fragments in a dog-eared text still treasured among the Room's
+memorabilia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I chose a table, sat down, and suggested (one does not order at the
+Asolando) a few articles from the card an attendant handed me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We 're out of the Paracelsus ginger-cookies," she replied, "but I
+recommend a Ruskin sandwich with our own special chocolate.  The
+whipped cream is unusually fine to-day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She eyed me with a severity to which I was not accustomed, and I
+acquiesced without parley in her suggestion.  Before leaving me she
+placed on my table the latest minor poet, in green and gold.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was nearly three o'clock, and there were few customers in the
+Asolando.  At the next table two women were engaged in conversation in
+the subdued tones the place compelled.  I surmised from the amount and
+variety of their impedimenta and their abstracted air, peculiar to
+those who partake of lobster salad with an eye on the 4.18, that they
+were suburbanites.  One of them drew from her net shopping-bag several
+sheets of robin's-egg blue note-paper and began to read.  By the jingle
+of the rhymes and the flow of the rhythm it was clear even to my
+ignorant lay mind that her offering was a <I>chant-royale</I>.  When she had
+concluded her reading her friend silently pressed her hand, and after a
+subdued debate for possession of the check, they took their departure,
+bound, I surmised, for some muse-haunted Lesbos among the hills of New
+Jersey.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was now alone in the Asolando.  The attending deities in their snowy
+gowns had vanished behind the screen at the rear of the room; the food
+and drink with which I had been promptly served proved excellent; even
+the minor poet in green and gold had held my attention, though
+imitations of Coventry Patmore's odes bore me as a rule.  Near the
+street, half-concealed behind a mosque-like grill, sat the cashier,
+reading.  A bundle of joss-sticks in a green jar beside this young
+woman sent a thin smoke into the air.  Her head was bent above her book
+in quiet attention; the light from an electric lamp made a glow of her
+golden hair.  She was an incident of the general picture, a part of a
+scene that contained no jarring note.  A man who could devise, in the
+heart of the great city, a place so instinct with repose, so lulling to
+all the senses, was not less than a public benefactor, and I resolved
+on the spot to purchase and read, at any sacrifice, the
+sonnet-sequences of the reputed angel of the Asolando.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was at this moment that the adventure&mdash;for it shall have no meaner
+name&mdash;actually began.  My eyes were still enjoying the Rossetti-like
+vision in the cashier's tiny booth, when a figure suddenly darkened the
+street door just beyond her.  The girl lifted her head.  On the instant
+the lamp-key clicked as she extinguished her light, and the aureoled
+head ceased to be.  And coming toward me down the shop I beheld a lady,
+a lady of years, who passed the cashier's desk with her eyes intent
+upon the room's inner recesses.  Her gown, of a new fashionable gray,
+was of the severest tailor cut.  Her hat was a modified fedora, gray
+like the gown, and adorned with a single gray feather.  She was short,
+slight, erect, and moved with a quick bird-like motion, pausing and
+glancing at the vacant tables that lay between me and the door.  Her
+air of abstraction became her, and she merged pleasantly into the
+color-scheme of the room.  As her glance ranged the wall I thought that
+she searched for some favorite flower of song among the framed
+quotations, but I saw now that her gaze was bent too low for this.  She
+appeared to be engaged in a calculation of some sort, and she raised a
+lorgnette to assist her in counting the tables.  The cashier passed
+behind her unseen and vanished.  I heard the newcomer reciting:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven;" and at seven her eyes rested
+upon me with a look that mingled surprise and annoyance.  She took a
+step toward me, and I started to rise, but she said quickly:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table."
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-020"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-020.jpg" ALT="&quot;I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table.&quot;" BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+&quot;I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table.&quot;
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Now that you call my attention to it," I remarked, gaining my feet, "I
+am bound to concede the point.  If by any chance I am intruding"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not in the least.  On the other hand I beg that you remain where you
+are;" and without further ado she sank into a chair opposite my own.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I tinkled a tiny crystal bell that was among the table-furnishings, and
+a waitress appeared and handed the lady who had thus introduced herself
+to my acquaintance a copy of the tiny card on which the articles of
+refreshment offered by the Asolando were indicated within a border of
+hand-painted field daisies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Never mind that," said the lady in gray, ignoring the card.  "You may
+bring me a caviare sandwich and a cocktail,&mdash;a pink
+one&mdash;providing,&mdash;providing,"&mdash;and she held the waitress with her
+eye,&mdash;"you have the imported caviare and your bar-keeper knows the
+proper frappé of the spirit-lifter I have named."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pardon me, madam," replied the waitress icily, "but you have mistaken
+the place.  The Asolando serves nothing stronger than the pure water of
+its own fount of Castalia; intoxicants are not permitted here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Intoxicants!" repeated the old lady with asperity.  "Do I look like a
+person given to intoxication?  I dare say your Castalia water is
+nothing but Croton whose flavor has been destroyed by distillation.
+You may bring me the sandwich I have mentioned and with it a pot of
+tea.  Yes, thank you; lemon with the tea."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the girl vanished with the light tread that marked the service of
+the place, I again made as to rise, but the old lady lifted her hand
+with a delaying gesture.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pray remain.  It is not unlikely that we have friends and ideas in
+common, and as you were seated at the seventh table it is possible that
+some ordering of fate has brought us together."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She took from me, in the hand which she had now ungloved, the copy of
+my minor poet, glanced at it scornfully, and tossed it upon the floor
+with every mark of disdain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What species of mental disorder does this place represent?" she
+demanded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is sacred to the fine arts, apparently; an endowed tea-room, where
+persons of artistic ideals may come to refresh body and soul.  Such at
+least seems to be the programme.  This is only my second visit, but I
+have long heard it spoken of by artists, poets, and others of my
+friends."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am sixty-two years old, young man, and I beg to inform you that I
+consider the Asolando the most preposterous thing I have ever heard of
+in this most preposterous city.  And from a casual glimpse of you I
+feel justified in saying that a man in your apparent physical health
+might be in better business than frequenting, in mid-afternoon, a shop
+that seems to be a remarkably stupid expression of twentieth-century
+anæmia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Attendance here is not compulsory," I remarked defensively.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you imply that I must have sought the place voluntarily, let me
+correct your false impression immediately.  I dropped in here for the
+excellent reason that this shop is the seventh in numerical progression
+from Fifth Avenue."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You were not guided by any feeling of interest, then, but rather by
+superstition?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That remark is unworthy of a man of your apparent intelligence.  I was
+born on the seventh of November, and all the great events of my life
+have occurred on the seventh of the month.  If you were to suggest that
+I am of an adventurous or romantic nature, I should readily acquiesce;
+but the sevens in my life have been so potent an influence in all my
+affairs that my belief in that numeral has become almost a religious
+faith; and if you have been a reader of Scripture you will understand
+that one does not become a pagan in ascribing to seven all manner of
+subtle influences."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was relieved to find that she accepted the tea and sandwiches the
+waitress had brought without parley.  It is with shame I confess that
+in the first moments of my encounter I believed her capable of
+quarreling with a waitress; but she thanked the girl pleasantly,
+lifting her head with a smile that illumined her face attractively.
+Her demand for a cocktail had not been wholly convincing as to her
+sincerity, and I wondered whether she were not playing a part of some
+kind.  She suggested pleasant and wholesome things&mdash;tiny gardens with
+neat borders of box and primly-ordered beds of spicy, old-fashioned
+pinks before the day of carnations, and the verbenas, heliotrope, and
+honeysuckle we associate with our grandmothers' taste in floriculture.
+Or perhaps I strike nearer the gold with an intimation of a sunny
+window-ledge, banked neatly and not too abundantly in geraniums.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In any event the impression was wholly agreeable.  I had to do with a
+lady and a lady of no mean degree.  The marks of breeding were upon
+her, and she spoke with that quiet authority that is the despair of the
+vain and vulgar.  Her features were small and delicate; her ringless
+hands were perfectly formed, and both face and hands belied the age to
+which she had so frankly confessed.  She was more than twice my age,
+and there was not the slightest reason why she should not address me if
+it pleased her to do so; and her obsession as to the potency of the
+numeral seven was not in itself proof of an ill-balanced mind.  I
+recalled that my own mother had, throughout her life, imputed all
+manner of occult powers and influences to the number thirteen, and I
+have myself always been averse to walking beneath a ladder.  Musing
+thus, I reached the conclusion that this encounter was very likely the
+sort of thing that happened to patrons of the Asolando.  My time has,
+however, a certain value, and I began to wonder just how I should
+escape.  I was about to excuse myself when my companion suddenly put
+down her cup and addressed me with a directness that seemed habitual in
+her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have formed an excellent opinion of your bringing up from the manner
+in which you have suffered my advances, if I may so call them.  You act
+and speak like a gentleman of education.  I imagine from your being in
+this strange place that you may be a water-colorist or a designer of
+<I>l'art-nouveau</I> wall-papers, though I trust for your own sake that I am
+mistaken.  Or it may be that you are a magazine poet, though when I
+tell you that I read no poets but Isaiah and Walt Whitman, you will
+understand that mere verse does not attract me.  All this"&mdash;and she
+indicated the mottoes on the wall with a slight movement of the
+head&mdash;"is the sheerest rubbish, a form of disease.  Will you kindly
+tell me the nature of your occupation?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I produced one of my professional cards.
+</P>
+
+<P STYLE="border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 25%" ALIGN="center">
+<BR>
+<SPAN STYLE="font-size: 120%">ARNOLD AMES</SPAN>
+<BR><BR>
+CONSULTANT IN CHIMNEYS<BR>
+Suite 92, Landon Building
+<BR><BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+She read it aloud without glasses and mused a moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is very curious," she remarked, placing my card in a silver case
+she drew from her pocket.  "This is very curious indeed.  It was only
+yesterday that my friend General Glendenning was speaking of you.  He
+told me that you had rendered him the greatest service in adjusting
+several flues in his country house at Shinnecock.  My own fireplaces
+doubtless require attention, and you may consider yourself retained.  I
+shall make an early appointment with you.  You will find my name and
+residence sufficiently described on this card."
+</P>
+
+<P STYLE="border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 30%" ALIGN="center">
+<BR>
+<I>Miss Hollister</I>
+<BR><BR>
+<SPAN STYLE="font-size: 80%">HOPEFIELD MANOR</SPAN><BR>
+<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"Oh!" I exclaimed, bowing.  "Any further introduction is unnecessary,
+Miss Hollister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The name is familiar?  I recall that General Glendenning mentioned
+that you were related to the Ames family of Hartford, and your mother
+was a Farquhar of Charlottesville, Virginia.  If you bear your father's
+name, I dare say it was he whom I met ten years ago in Paris.  There is
+no reason, therefore, why we should not be the best of friends."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She continued to talk as she drew on her gloves, and I saw, as her eyes
+rested on mine from time to time during this process, that they were
+the most kindly and humorous eyes in the world.  Her face was scarcely
+wrinkled, but the hair that showed under the small plain hat was evenly
+and beautifully gray.  It was a kind fate indeed that had led me back
+to the Asolando, and introduced me to the aunt of Wiggins's inamorata.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It may well be believed that I was immediately interested, attentive,
+absorbed.  As she smoothed her gloves, Miss Hollister continued to
+speak in a low musical voice that was devoid of any of the quavers of
+age.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On the day I reached my sixtieth year, Mr. Ames, I decided that my
+humdrum life must cease.  The strictest conventions had guided me from
+earliest childhood.  My experience of life had been limited to those
+things which women of education and means enjoy&mdash;or suffer, as you
+please to take it.  I resolved that for the years that remained to me I
+should seek to enjoy myself after my own fashion.  To sit in the
+inglenook and knit, with no human companionship but sick kittens, with
+dull monotony broken only by visits from dutiful clergymen in pursuit
+of alms for foreign missions, was not for me.  Two years ago I
+chartered a yacht and cruised among the Lesser Antilles, enjoying many
+adventures.  Later I crossed the Andes; and I have just returned from
+Switzerland, where I accomplished some of the most difficult ascents.
+I have a clipping bureau engaged to inform me of all rumors of hidden
+treasure and sunken ships, and I hope that of this something may come,
+as I retain a marine engineer and corps of divers and can leave at an
+hour's notice for any likely hunting-ground.  This may strike you as
+the most whimsical self-indulgence.  Tell me candidly whether my
+remarks so affect you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If it were not that your benefactions of all kinds have given you
+noble eminence among American philanthropists, I might be less biased
+in favor of the sort of thing you describe; but your gifts to
+orphanages, colleges, hospitals"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah!" she interrupted; "enough of that.  Philanthropy in these times is
+only selfish exploitation, the recreation of the conscience-stricken.
+But you see no reason why," she pursued eagerly, "if I wished to dig up
+the Caribbean Sea in search of Spanish doubloons, I should not do so?
+Answer me frankly, without the slightest fear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that such projects appeal to me
+strongly.  I have often lamented that my own lot fell in these
+eventless times.  As an architect I proved something of a failure; as a
+chimney-doctor I lead a useful life, but the very usefulness of it
+bores me.  And besides, many people take me for a sweep."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I dare say they do, for unfortunately many people are fools.  But I am
+bent upon adventure.  It has dawned upon me that every day has its
+possibilities, that the right turn at any corner may bring me face to
+face with the most stirring encounters.  My age protects me where youth
+must timidly turn back.  My physician pronounces me good for ten years
+more of active life, and I intend to keep amused.  If I were a young
+man like you, I should crawl through chimneys no more, but take to the
+open road.  I resent the harsh clang of these meaningless years.  As I
+walked among the hills that lie behind the Manor this morning I heard
+the bugles calling.  Out there in the Avenue at this hour there are
+miles of fat dowagers in padded broughams who think of nothing but
+clothes and food.  And speaking of food," she continued, with a droll
+turn, "I am convinced that the caviare in that sandwich was never
+nearer Russia than Casco Bay."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She drew out her watch, and noting the hour, concluded:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Clearly we have much in common.  I should like to ask you further as
+to your unusual profession, but errands summon me elsewhere.  However,
+something tells me we shall meet again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She rose in her swift bird-like fashion and passed lightly down the
+room and through the door.  She had left a dollar beside her plate to
+pay her check, which I noted called for only forty cents.  I glanced at
+the cashier's desk.  The aureoled head had not reappeared; but
+immediately I heard a voice murmuring beside me.  I had believed myself
+alone, and in my surprise I thought some wizardry had made audible one
+of the verses on the wall.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What of Rafael's sonnets, Dante's picture"&mdash;<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was she whose aureoled head I had marked earlier in the receipt of
+custom, the girl who had vanished as Miss Hollister appeared.  She wore
+the snowy vestments of the other attending vestals, with the difference
+that the cap that crowned the waitresses was omitted in her case.  This
+I took to be the Asolando's tribute to her adorable head, which clearly
+did not need the electric light or other adventitious aid to invoke its
+lovely glow.  The line she had spoken hung goldenly upon the air.  She
+was not tall, and her eyes, I saw, were brown.  She had clearly not
+climbed far the stairway of her years, but her serenity was the least
+bit disconcerting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pardon me," I began, "but I am an ignorant Philistine, and cannot cap
+the verse you have quoted."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is no reason why you should do so.  It is the rule of the
+Asolando that we shall attract the attention of customers when
+necessary by speaking a line of verse.  We are not allowed to open a
+conversation, no matter how imperative, with 'Listen,' or the even more
+vulgar 'Say.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A capital idea, of which I heartily approve, but now that I am a
+waiting auditor, eager"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's merely the check, if you please," she interrupted coldly.  "My
+desk is closed, and the Room will refuse further patrons for the next
+hour, as the executive committee of the Shelley Society meets here at
+four o'clock and the Asolando is denied to outsiders."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This, then, is my dismissal?  The lady who joined me here for a time
+left a dollar, which, you will see, is somewhat in excess of her check.
+My own charge of fifty cents is so moderate that I cannot do less than
+leave a dollar also."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you," she replied, unshaken by my generosity.  "The tips at the
+Asolando all go to the Sweetness and Light Club, which is just now
+engaged in circulating Matthew Arnold's poems in leaflet form in the
+jobbing district."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I sympathize with that propaganda," I replied, gathering up my hat and
+stick, "and am delighted to contribute to its support.  And now I dare
+say you would be glad to be rid of me.  The Asolando has tolerated me
+longer than my slight purchases justified."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I bowed and had turned away, when she arrested me with the line,&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My good blade carves the casques of men."<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I turned toward her.  Several of the waitresses were now engaged in
+rearranging the tables, but they seemed not to heed us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Permit me to inquire," she asked, "whether the lady who joined you
+here expressed any interest in the life beautiful as it is exemplified
+in the Asolando?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am constrained to say that she did not.  She spoke of the Asolando
+in the most contumelious terms."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The golden head bowed slightly, and a smile hovered about her lips; but
+her amusement at my answer was more eloquently stated in her eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I must explain that my sole excuse for addressing you is that we are
+required to learn, where possible, just why strangers seek the
+Asolando."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In the case of the lady to whom you refer, it was a matter of this
+being the seventh shop from the corner; and my own appearance was due
+to the idlest curiosity, inspired by enthusiastic descriptions of the
+Asolando's atmosphere and rumors of the cheapness of its food."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The reasons are quite ample," was her only comment, and her manner did
+not encourage further conversation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"May I ask," I persisted, "whether the Asolando's staff is permanent,
+and whether, if I return another day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I take it that you do not mean to be impertinent, so I will answer
+that my service here is limited to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
+On the other days Pippa is in the cash-booth.  My name at the Asolando
+is Francesca."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I had guessed it might be Lalage or Chloris," I ventured.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She shook her head gravely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Kindly write your name in the visitors' book at the door as you pass
+out."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was no ignoring this hint.  I thought she smiled as I left her.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+III
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Miss Hollister's summons lay on my desk the next morning and was of the
+briefest.  I was requested to call at Hopefield Manor at four o'clock
+the following afternoon, being Thursday.  A trap would meet me at
+Katonah, and it was suggested that I come prepared to spend the night,
+so that the condition of the flues might be discussed and any necessary
+changes planned during the evening.  The note, signed Octavia
+Hollister, was written in a flowing hand, on a wholly impeccable note
+sheet stamped Hopefield Manor, Katonah.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before taking the train I sought Wiggins by telephone at his office,
+and at the Hare and Tortoise, where he lodged, but without learning
+anything as to his whereabouts.  His office did not answer, but
+Wiggins's office had never been responsive to the telephone, so this
+was not significant.  The more I considered his conduct during the
+recital of my visit to the Asolando the more I wondered; and in spite
+of my wish to ignore utterly Jewett's revelations as to Wiggins's
+summer abroad, I was forced to the conclusion that Jewett had not lied.
+I had known Wiggins long, and this was the first time that I had ever
+been conscious of any withholding of confidence on his part; and on my
+own I had not merely confided all my hopes and aims to him, but I had
+leaned upon him often in my perplexities.  There was, indeed, a kind of
+boyish compact between us, that we should support each other through
+all difficulties.  This, as I remembered, dated back to our prep
+school-days and had been reinforced by a fearsome oath, inspired
+doubtless by some dark fiction that had captivated our youthful
+imaginations.  His failure to tell me of his summer abroad or of his
+interest in the Hollisters when I had afforded him so excellent an
+opening by my reference to the Asolando emphasized the seriousness of
+his plight.  His reserve hid, I knew, a diffident and sensitive nature,
+and it was wholly possible that if his affair with Cecilia Hollister
+had not prospered he had fled to his ranch there to wrestle in
+seclusion with his disappointment.  My mind was busy with such
+speculations as I sped toward Katonah, where I found the trap from
+Hopefield Manor awaiting me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's rather poor going over the hills; about five miles, sir," said
+the driver, as we set off.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This sort of thing was wholly usual in the nature of my vocation.  The
+flues in country houses seem much more willful and obdurate than those
+in town, a fact which I have frequently discussed with architects, and
+I had been met in just this way at many stations within a radius of
+fifty miles of New York, and carried to houses whose chimneys were
+provocative of wrath and indignation in their owners.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was the first week in October.  There was just zest enough in the
+air to make a top coat comfortable.  The team of blacks spoke well for
+Miss Hollister's stable, and the liveried driver kept them moving
+steadily, but eased the pace as we rose on the frequent slopes to the
+shoulders of pleasant hills.  The immediate neighborhood into which we
+were wending was unknown to me, though I saw familiar landmarks.  I am
+not one to quibble over the efforts of man to supplement the work of
+nature, so that I confess without shame that the Croton lakes, to my
+cockney eye, merge flawlessly into this landscape.  It is not for me to
+raise the cry of utilitarianism against these saucerfuls of blue water,
+merely because the fluid thus caught and held bubbles and sparkles
+later in the taps of the Manhattaners.  Early frosts had already
+wrought their miracle in the foliage, and the battle-banners of
+winter's vanguard flashed along the horizons.  I rejoiced that my
+business, vexatious enough in many ways, yet afforded me so charming an
+outing as this.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Presently we climbed a hill that shouldered its way well above its
+fellows and came out upon a broad ridge, where we entered at once a
+noble gateway set in an old stone wall, and struck off smartly along a
+fine bit of macadam.  The house, the driver informed me, was a quarter
+of a mile from the gate.  The way led through a wild woodland in which
+elms and maples predominated; and before this had grown monotonous we
+came abruptly upon an Italian garden, beyond which rose the house.  I
+knew it at once for one of Pepperton's sound performances; Pepperton is
+easily our best man in domestic Tudor, and the whole setting of
+Hopefield Manor, the sunken garden, the superb view, the billowing
+fields and woodlands beyond, all testified to a taste which no ignorant
+owner had thwarted.  The house was Tudor, but in no servile sense: it
+was also Pepperton.  I lifted my eyes with immediate professional
+interest to the chimney-pots on the roof.  It occurred to me on the
+instant that I had never before been called to retouch any of
+Pepperton's work.  Pep knew as much as I about flue-construction; I had
+an immense respect for Pep, and as my specializing in chimneys had been
+a subject of frequent chaffing between us, I anticipated with a chuckle
+the pleasure I should have later in telling him that at last one of his
+flues had required my services.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My good opinion of Miss Hollister did not diminish as I stepped within
+the broad hall.  Houses have their own manner of speech, and Hopefield
+Manor spoke to all the senses in accents of taste and refinement.  A
+servant took my bag and ushered me into a charming library.  A fire
+smouldered lazily in the great fireplace; there was, in the room, the
+faintest scent of burnt wood; but the smoke rose in the flue in a
+perfectly mannerly fashion, and on thrusting in my hand I felt a good
+draught of air.  I instinctively knelt on the hearth and peered up, but
+saw nothing unworkmanlike: Pepperton was not a fellow to leave obvious
+mistakes behind him.  But possibly this was not one of the recalcitrant
+fireplaces I had been called to inspect; and I rose and was continuing
+my enjoyment of the beautiful room, when I became conscious, by rather
+curious and mixed processes not wholly of the eye, that a young woman
+had drawn back the light portieres&mdash;they were dark brown, with borders
+of burnt orange&mdash;and stood gravely gazing at me.  She held the curtains
+apart&mdash;they made, indeed, a kind of frame for her; but as our eyes met
+she advanced at once and spoke my name.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-040"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-040.jpg" ALT="She held the curtains apart." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+She held the curtains apart.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"You are Mr. Ames.  My aunt expected you.  I regret to say that she is
+not in the house just now, but she will doubtless return for tea.  I am
+her niece.  Won't you sit down?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As she found a seat for herself, I made bold to survey her with some
+particularity.  She carried her fine height with beautiful dignity.
+She was a creature of grace, and it was a grace of strength, the
+suppleness and ease that mark our later outdoor American woman.  She
+could do her miles over these hills,&mdash;I was sure of that.  Her fine
+olive face, crowned with dark hair, verified the impression I had
+gathered from Jewett, that she was a woman of cultivation.  She had
+read the poets; Dante and Petrarch spoke from her eyes.  Cecilia was no
+bad name for her; she suggested heavenly harmonies!  And as for
+Jewett's story of Wiggins's infatuation, I was content: if this was the
+face that had shattered the frowning towers of Wiggins's Ilium and sent
+him to brood disconsolate upon his broad acres in Dakota, my heart went
+out to him, for his armor had been pierced by arrows worthy of its
+metal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was talking, meanwhile, of the day and its buoyant air and of the
+tapestries hung in the woodlands, in a voice deep with rare intimations
+of viol chords.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's very quiet here.  It doesn't seem possible that we are so near
+the city.  My aunt chose the place with care, and she made no mistake
+about it.  Yes; the house was built by Mr. Pepperton, but not for us.
+My aunt bought it of the estate of the gentleman who built it.  This
+will be her first winter here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She made no reference to the object of my visit, and I wondered if she
+knew just how I came there.  A man-servant wheeled in a portable
+tea-table and placed it beside a particular chair, lighted the lamp
+under the kettle, and silently departed.  And with the stage thus
+disposed Miss Hollister herself appeared.  She greeted me without
+surprise and much as she might have spoken to any guest in her house.
+I had sometimes been treated as though I were the agent of a
+decorator's shop, or a delinquent plumber, by the people whom I served;
+but Miss Hollister and her niece established me upon a plane that was
+wholly social.  I was made to feel that it was the most natural thing
+in the world for me to be there, having tea, with no business ahead of
+me but to be agreeable.  The fact that I had come to correct the
+distemper of their flues was utterly negligible.  I remembered with
+satisfaction that I had journeyed from town in a new business suit that
+made the best of my attenuated figure, and I will not deny that I felt
+at ease.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Hollister talked briskly as she made the tea.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was over at the kennels when you came.  I believe the kennel-master
+is a rascal, Cecilia.  I have no opinion of him whatever."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He was highly recommended," replied the niece.  "It's not his fault
+that the fox terriers were sick."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I dare say it is n't," said the old lady, measuring the tea; "but it's
+his fault that he whipped one of those Cuban hounds,&mdash;I 'm sure he
+whipped her.  The poor beast was afraid to crawl out when I called her
+this afternoon."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We were warned against those dogs, Aunt Octavia; but I must admit that
+they have lovely eyes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Cecilia's manner toward her aunt left nothing to be desired; it
+was wholly deferential and kind, and her dignity, I surmised, was equal
+to any emergency that might rise between them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you ever shoot behind traps?" demanded Miss Hollister abruptly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The question surprised me.  I did not shoot behind traps or anywhere
+else, for that matter; but it delighted me to find that her unusual
+interests, as she had touched upon them at the Asolando, were part of a
+consistent scheme of life.  She talked of her experiments with
+different guns and traps, her arms folded, her eyes reverting
+occasionally to the kettle.  It was all in the shells, she said.
+Before she had begun filling her own cartridges she had no end of
+trouble.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is not necessary for you to take tea if you don't care for it, Mr.
+Ames," she said, as I rose and handed the first cup to Cecilia.  "If
+you will touch the bell at your elbow you may have liquids of quite
+another sort.  It may interest you to know that this temperance wave
+that is sweeping the country does not interest me in the least.  Our
+great Americans of the old times were gentlemen who took their liquor
+with no cowardly fear of public censure.  You will find my sideboard
+well stocked after the fashion of old times; and I have with my own
+hand placed in your room a quart of Scotch given me at the distillery
+four years ago by its proprietor, Lord Mertondale.  A case of like
+quality is yours at any moment you choose to press the button at the
+head of your bed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are most generous, Miss Hollister.  Tea will suffice for the
+moment.  It is fitting that I should take it here, it having been a
+weakness for tea as well as curiosity and chance that threw me in your
+way at the Asolando."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That absurd, that preposterous hole in the wall!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She put down her cup and faced me, continuing: "Mr. Ames, I will not
+deny that if it had not been for General Glendenning's cordial
+indorsement of you, and the further fact that I had met your late
+father, I should not have invited you to my house on the occasion to
+which you refer.  My contempt for the Asolando and the things it stands
+for is beyond such language as a lady may use before the young."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I laughed at her earnestness; but on turning toward Miss Cecilia I saw
+that she was placidly stirring her cup.  It might be that one was not
+expected to manifest amusement in Miss Hollister's utterances; and I
+was anxious to adjust myself to the proper key in my intercourse, no
+matter how brief it might be, with this remarkable old lady.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In my embarrassment I rose and offered the bread and butter to Cecilia,
+who declined it.  The austerity of her rejection rather unnerved me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To think, that with all the opportunities for adventure that offer in
+this day and generation, any one should waste time on the idiotic
+worship of a lot of silly moulders of literary patisserie!  It is
+beyond me, Mr. Ames, and when I recall that your late father commanded
+a cavalry regiment in the Civil War, I fall back upon the privilege of
+my age to beg that you will hereafter give the Asolando a wide berth."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have no wish to become an habitué
+of the place.  And yet you will pardon me if I repeat that, but for it,
+I should not now be enjoying the hospitality of Hopefield Manor."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She lifted her head from her cup and bowed; but I was immediately
+interested in the fact that her niece was speaking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think Aunt Octavia is hard on the Asolando," she was saying.  "Aunt
+Octavia is interested in the revival of romance, and romance without
+poetry seems to me wholly impossible.  The Asolando makes no
+pretensions to be more than an incident in a real movement whose aim is
+the diffusion of poetic fire,&mdash;it is merely a shrine where the divine
+lamp is never allowed to fail or falter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And if, Cecilia Hollister, you think that sandwiches named for
+Browning's poems or macaroons dedicated to Walter Pater can assist
+foolish virgins in keeping their lamps filled, I give you the word of
+an old woman that you are in danger of a complete loss of your mind.
+The age is decadent, and I know no better way of restoring the race to
+its ancient vim and energy than by sending men back to the camp and
+field or to sail the high seas in new armadas.  The men of this age
+have become a lot of sordid shopkeepers, and to my moral sense the
+looting of cities is far more honorable than the creation of trusts and
+the manipulation of prices, though I cannot deny that but for my late
+father's zeal in destroying his competitors in the baby-buggy business
+we might not now be enjoying the delicate fragrance of caravan tea."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I continued to flounder in my anxiety to determine just how Miss
+Hollister wished to be taken.  She spoke with the utmost seriousness
+and with the earnestness of deep conviction.  If the aims of the
+Asolando were absurd, what might be said of the declarations of this
+old lady in favor of a return to the age of sword and buckler!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I again turned to Cecilia, thinking that I should find a twinkle in her
+eye that might solve the riddle and make easier my responses to her
+aunt's appeals.  Her reply did not help me greatly:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I assure you, Mr. Ames, that the Asolando is a very harmless place,
+and that as a matter of fact its aims are wholly consonant with those
+of Aunt Octavia.  I myself served there for a time, and those were
+among the most delightful days of my life."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you might still be handing about the Rossetti éclairs in that
+smothery little place if I had not rescued you from your bondage.  I
+assure you, Mr. Ames, that my niece is a perfectly healthy young woman,
+to whom all such rubbish is really abhorrent."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I expected Miss Cecilia to rouse at this; but she ignored her aunt's
+fling, saying merely,&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There are times when I miss the Asolando."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames," began Miss Octavia presently in her crisp, direct fashion,
+which had the effect of leading me, in my anxiety to appear ready with
+answers, to take a flattering view of my own courage and
+resourcefulness,&mdash;"Mr. Ames, are you equal to the feat of swimming a
+moat under a shattering fire from the castle?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have every reason to think I am, Miss Hollister," I replied modestly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And if a white hand waved to you from the grilled window of the lonely
+tower, would you ride on indifferently or pause and thunder at the
+gate?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"White hands have never waved to me, save occasionally when I have gone
+a-riding in the Sixth Avenue elevated, but it is my honest belief that
+my sword would promptly leave its scabbard if the hand ever waved from
+the ivied tower."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She nodded her pleasure in this avowal.  For a chimney-doctor I was
+doing well.  In fact, as I submitted to Miss Octavia's examination, I
+felt equal to charging a brigade single-handed.  Something about the
+woman made it possible and pleasant to be absurd.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If a king or an emperor of Europe should ask you to inspect his
+chimneys, would you be content to perform your service in the most
+expeditious and professional manner and depart with a nominal fee?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister.  On the other hand I should nurse the
+job for all it was worth, plunder the public treasury, explore the
+dungeons, make love to the princesses, and free the rightful heir to
+the throne from his cell beneath the bosom of the lake."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My friends at the Hare and Tortoise would have heard this avowal with
+some surprise, for no man's life had ever been tamer than mine.  I am
+by nature timid, and fall but a little short of being afraid of the
+dark.  Prayers for deliverance from battle, murder, and sudden death
+cannot be too strongly expressed for me.  My answer had, however,
+pleased Miss Octavia, and she clapped her hands with pleasure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cecilia," she cried, "something told me, that afternoon at the
+Asolando, that my belief in the potential seven was not ill-placed, and
+now you see that in introducing myself to Mr. Ames at the seventh table
+from the door, in the seventh shop from Fifth Avenue, I was led to a
+meeting with a gentleman I had been predestined to know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As we talked further, a servant appeared and laid fresh logs across the
+still-smouldering fire.  This I thought would suggest to Miss Hollister
+the professional character of my visit; but the fire kindled readily,
+the smoke rose freely in the flue; and Miss Hollister paid no attention
+to it other than to ask the man whether the fuel he had taken from a
+carved box at the right of the hearth was apple-wood from the upper
+orchard or cherry from a tree which, it appeared, she had felled
+herself.  It was apple-wood, the man informed her, and she continued
+talking.  The merits of chain-armor, I think it was, that held us for
+half an hour, Cecilia and I listening with respect to what, in my
+ignorance, seemed a remarkable fund of knowledge on this recondite
+subject.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We dine at seven, Mr. Ames, and you may amuse yourself as you like
+until that hour.  Cecilia, you may order dinner in the gun-room
+to-night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly, Aunt Octavia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once more I glanced at the girl, hoping that some glimmer in her eyes
+would set me right and establish a common understanding and sympathy
+between us; but she was moving out of the room at her aunt's side.  The
+man who had tended the fire met me in the hall and, conducting me to my
+room, suggested various offices that he was ready to perform for my
+comfort.  The house faced south, and my windows, midway of the east
+wing, afforded a fine view of the hills.  The room was large enough for
+a chamber of state, and its furniture was massive.  A four-poster
+invited to luxurious repose; half a dozen etchings by famous
+artists&mdash;Parrish and Van Elten among them&mdash;hung upon the walls; and on
+a table beside the bed stood a handsome decanter and glasses,
+reinforced by the quart of Scotch which Miss Hollister had recommended
+for my refreshment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My bag had been opened and my things put out, so that, there being more
+than an hour to pass before I need dress for dinner, I went below and
+explored the garden and wandered off along a winding path that stole
+with charming furtiveness toward a venerable orchard of gnarled apple
+trees.  From the height thus gained I looked down upon the house, and
+caught a glimpse beyond it of one of the chain of lakes, on which the
+westering sun glinted goldenly.  Thus seeing the house from a new
+angle, I was impressed as I had not been at first by its size: it was a
+huge establishment, and I thought with envy of Pepperton, to whom such
+ample commissions were not rare.  Pepperton, I recalled a little
+bitterly, had arrived; whereas I, who had enjoyed exactly his own
+training for the architect's profession, had failed at it and been
+obliged to turn my hand to the doctoring of chimneys.  But I am not a
+morbid person, and it is my way to pluck such joy as I may from the
+fleeting moment; and as I reflected upon the odd circumstance of my
+being there, my spirits rose.  Miss Hollister was beyond question a
+singular person, but her whims were amusing.  I felt that she was less
+cryptic than her niece, and the thought of Cecilia drove me back upon
+Jewett's story of Wiggins's interest in that quarter.  I resolved to
+write to Wiggins when I got back to town the next day and abuse him
+roundly for running off without so much as good-bye.  That, most
+emphatically, was not like dear old Wiggins!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had been sitting on a stone wall watching the shadows lengthen.  I
+rose now and followed the wall toward a highway along which wagons and
+an occasional motor-car had passed during my revery.  The sloping
+pasture was rough and frequently sent me along at a trot.  The wall
+that marked the boundary at the roadside was hidden by a tangle of
+raspberry bushes, and my foot turning on a stone concealed in the wild
+grasses, I fell clumsily and rolled a dozen yards into a tangle of the
+berry bushes.  As I picked myself up I heard voices in the road, but
+should have thought nothing of it, had I not seen through a break in
+the vines, and almost within reach of my hand, Cecilia Hollister
+talking earnestly to some one not yet disclosed.  She was hatless, but
+had flung a golf-cape over her shoulders.  The red scarlet lining of
+the hood turned up about her neck made an effective setting for her
+noble head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I can't tell you!  I can't help you!  I must n't even appear to
+give you any advantage.  I went into it with my eyes open, and I 'm in
+honor bound not to tell you anything.  You have said
+nothing&mdash;nothing,&mdash;remember that.  There is absolutely nothing between
+us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I must say everything!  I refuse to be blinded by these absurd
+restrictions, whatever they are.  It's not fair,&mdash;it's inviting me into
+a game where the cards are not all on the table.  I 've come to make an
+end of it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My hands had suffered by contact with the briars, and I had been
+ministering to them with my handkerchief; but I fell back upon the
+slope in my astonishment at this colloquy.  Cecilia Hollister I had
+seen plainly enough, though the man's back had been toward me; but
+anywhere on earth I should have known Wiggins's voice.  I protest that
+it is not my way to become an eavesdropper voluntarily, but to disclose
+myself now was impossible.  If it had not been Wiggins&mdash;but Wiggins
+would never have understood or forgiven; nor could I have explained
+plausibly to Cecilia Hollister that I had not followed her from the
+house to spy upon her.  I should have made the noise of an invading
+army if I had attempted to effect an exit by creeping out through the
+windrow of crisp leaves in which I lay; and to turn back and ascend the
+slope the way I had come would have been to advertise my presence to
+the figures in the road.  There seemed nothing for me but to keep still
+and hope that this discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley
+Wiggins would not be continued within earshot.  To my relief they moved
+a trifle farther on; but I still heard their voices.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-054"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-054.jpg" ALT="This discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley Wiggins." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+This discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley Wiggins.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"I cannot listen to you.  Now that I 'm committed I cannot honorably
+countenance you at all; and I can explain nothing.  I came here to meet
+you only to tell you this.  You must go&mdash;please!  And do not attempt to
+see me in this way again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was grateful that Wiggins's voice sank so low in his reply that I did
+not hear it; but I knew that he was pleading hard.  Then a motor
+flashed by, and when the whir of its passing had ceased, the voices
+were inaudible; but a moment later I heard a light quick step beyond
+the wall, and Cecilia passed hurriedly, her face turned toward the
+house.  The cape was drawn tightly about her shoulders, and she walked
+with her head bowed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I breathed a sigh of relief, and when I felt safe from detection
+climbed the slope.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pausing on the crest to survey the landscape, I saw a man, wearing a
+derby hat and a light top-coat, leaning against a fence that inclosed a
+pasture.  As I glanced in his direction he moved away hastily toward
+the road below.  The feeling of being watched is not agreeable, and I
+could not account for him.  As he passed out of sight, still another
+man appeared, emerging from a strip of woodland farther on.  Even
+through the evening haze I should have said that he was a gentleman.
+The two men apparently bore no relation to each other, though they were
+walking in the same direction, bound, I judged, for the highway below.
+I had an uncomfortable feeling that they had both been observing me,
+though for what purpose I could not imagine.  Then once more, just as I
+was about to enter the Italian garden from a fallow field that hung
+slightly above it, a third man appeared as mysteriously as though he
+had sprung from the ground, and ran at a sharp dog-trot along the
+fence, headed, like the others, for the road.  In the third instance
+the stranger undoubtedly took pains to hide his face, but he, too, was
+well dressed and wore a top-coat and a fedora hat of current style.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I did not know why these gentlemen were ranging the neighborhood or
+what object they had in view; but their several appearances had
+interested me, and I went on into the house well satisfied that events
+of an unusual character were likely to mark my visit to the home of
+Miss Octavia Hollister.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+IV
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia sat reading alone when I entered the library shortly before the
+dinner-hour.  She put down her book and we fell into fitful talk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I took a walk after tea.  I always feel that sunsets are best seen
+from the fields; you can't quite do them justice from windows," she
+began.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She seemed preoccupied, but this may have been the interpretation of my
+conscience, whose twinges reminded me unpleasantly of my precipitation
+into the briar bushes at the foot of the pasture, where I had witnessed
+her meeting with Wiggins.  My admiration gained new levels.  Her black
+evening gown became her; a band of velvet circled her throat,
+emphasizing its firm whiteness.  It seemed incredible that I had seen
+her so recently, in the filmy dusk, talking with so much earnestness to
+Hartley Wiggins.  It was my impression, gained from the few sentences I
+had overheard by the road, that she did not repulse him, but that some
+mysterious, difficult barrier kept them apart.  Where, I wondered, was
+Wiggins now, and what were to be the further incidents of this singular
+affair?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While we waited for Miss Hollister to appear, she continued to speak of
+her joy in the hills.  It is not every one who can admire a sunset with
+sincerity, but she conveyed the spirit of the phenomena that had
+attended the lowering of the bright targe of day in terms and tones
+that were delightfully natural and convincing.  And yet the far-away
+look in her eyes suggested inevitably the scene I had witnessed and the
+phrases I had caught by the roadside.  Wiggins was in her recollection
+of the glowing landscape,&mdash;I was confident of this; and poor Wiggins
+was even now wandering these hills, no doubt, brooding upon his
+troubles under the clear October stars.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dinner was announced the moment Miss Hollister entered, and I walked
+out between them.  Miss Octavia Hollister was a surprising person, but
+in nothing was she so delightfully wayward as in the gowns she wore.
+My ignorance of such matters is immeasurable, but I fancy that she
+designed her own raiment and that her ideas were thereupon carried out
+by a tailor of skill.  At the Asolando and when we had met at tea in
+her own house, she had worn the severest of tailored gowns, with short
+skirt and a coat into whose pockets she was fond of thrusting her
+hands.  To-night the material was lavender silk trimmed in white, but
+the skirt had not lengthened, and over a white silk waist she wore a
+kind of cut-away coat that matched the skirt.  An aigrette in her
+lovely white hair contributed a piquant note to the whole impression.
+As we passed down the hall she talked with great animation of the Hague
+Tribunal, just then holding a prominent place in the newspapers for
+some reason that has escaped me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The whole thing is absurd; perfectly absurd!  I know of nothing that
+would contribute more to human enjoyment than a real war between
+Germany and England.  The Hague idea is pure sentimentalism,&mdash;if
+sentimentalism can ever be said to be pure.  I will go further and say
+that I consider it positively immoral."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This new view of the matter left me stammering.  Cecilia, I saw, had no
+intention of helping me over these difficult hurdles that were
+constantly popping up in my conversations with her aunt.  This
+delightful old lady in lavender, the mistress of a house whose luxury
+and peace were antipodal to any hint of war, continued to baffle me.
+She had ordered dinner in the gun-room, but I thought this merely a
+turn of her humor; and I was taken aback when she led the way into a
+low, heavily raftered room, where electric sconces of an odd type were
+thrust at irregular intervals along the walls, which were otherwise
+hung with arms of many sorts in orderly combinations.  They were not
+the litter of antique shops, I saw in a hasty glance, but rifles and
+guns of the latest patterns, and beside the sideboard stood a gun-rack
+and a cabinet which I assumed contained still other and perhaps
+deadlier weapons.  At one end of the room, and just behind Miss
+Hollister, was a sunburst of swords, which gleamed with a kind of
+mockery behind her white head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The small round table was conventionally set, but this only added to
+the grimness of the encompassing arsenal.  A bowl of crimson roses in
+the centre of the snowy cloth would ordinarily have mitigated the
+effect of the grim walls; but I confess that the color reminded me a
+little too sombrely of the ugly business for which this steel had been
+designed.  But for the presence of Miss Cecilia, who was essentially
+typical of our twentieth-century American woman, I think I might
+readily have yielded to the illusion that I was the guest of some
+eccentric chatelaine who had invited me to dine with her in a bastion
+of her fortress before ordering me to some chamber of horrors for
+execution.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There seemed to be no reason why one of those keen blades on the wall
+might not find its way through my ribs between a highly satisfactory
+plate of <I>potage à la tortue</I> and a bit of sea-bass that would have
+honored any kitchen in the land.  No reference was made to the
+character of the room; I felt, in fact, that Cecilia rather pleaded
+with her eyes that I should make no reference to it.  And Miss
+Hollister remarked quite casually as though in comment upon my
+thoughts:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Consistency has buried its thousands and habit its tens of thousands.
+We should live, Mr. Ames, for the changes and chances of this troubled
+life.  Between an opera-box and a villa at Newport many of my best
+friends have perished."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have thought myself that Thoreau had the right idea,"&mdash;I began
+hopefully; but she raised her finger warningly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames, the mention of Henry David Thoreau is wholly distasteful to
+me.  A man who will deliberately choose to whittle lead-pencils for
+chipmunks and write a book about a moist sand-pile like Cape Cod
+arouses no sympathy in me.  And these well-meaning women who are
+forever gathering autumn leaves, or who tire you in spring by telling
+you they have found the first pussy-willow feathering, and who make all
+Nature odious by their general goo-gooings, bore me to death.  There is
+no such thing possible as the simple life.  I give you my word for it
+that it is only in the most complex existence that the spirit of man
+can thrive."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I am only a chimney-doctor; I have never been able to make any headway
+in discussing things æsthetic, sentimental or spiritual with persons of
+sound conviction in such matters.  A bishop with whom I once roamed the
+English cathedrals confessed to me his sincere belief that in the days
+of the inquisition the gridiron would have been my rightful portion.  I
+was fearful lest my hostess should suggest the mediæval church as a
+topic, and this I knew would be disastrous.  As an abbess she would, I
+fancied, have ruled with an iron hand.  But with startling abruptness
+she put down her fork, and bending her wonderfully direct gaze upon me,
+asked a question that caused me to strangle on a bit of asparagus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I imagine, Mr. Ames, that you are a member of some of the better clubs
+in town.  If by any chance you belong to the Hare and Tortoise,&mdash;the
+name of which has always pleased me,&mdash;do you by any chance happen to
+enjoy the acquaintance of Mr. Hartley Wiggins?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia lifted her head.  I saw that she had been as startled as I.  It
+crossed my mind that a denial of any acquaintance with Wiggins might
+best serve him in the circumstances; but I am not, I hope, without a
+sense of shame, and I responded promptly:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I know him well.  We are old friends.  I always see a good deal
+of him during the winter.  His summers are spent usually on his ranch
+in the west.  We dined together two days ago at the Hare and Tortoise,
+just before he left for the west."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You will pardon me if I say that it is wholly to his credit that he
+has forsworn the professions and identified himself with the honorable
+calling of the husbandman."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We met Mr. Wiggins while traveling abroad last summer," interposed
+Cecilia, meeting my eyes quite frankly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Met him!  Did you say met him, Cecilia?  On the contrary we found him
+waiting for us at the dock the morning we sailed," corrected Miss
+Hollister, "and we never lost him a day in three months of rapid
+travel.  I had never met him before, but I cannot deny that he made
+himself exceedingly agreeable.  If, as I suspected, he had deliberately
+planned to travel on the same steamer with my two nieces, I have only
+praise for his conduct, for in these days, Mr. Ames, it warms my heart
+to find young men showing something of the old chivalric ardor in their
+affairs of the heart."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I 'm sure Mr. Wiggins made himself very agreeable," remarked Cecilia
+colorlessly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For myself," retorted Miss Hollister, "I should speak even more
+strongly.  He repeatedly served us with tact and delicacy; and I recall
+with the greatest satisfaction his vigorous chastisement of our courier
+in Cologne, where that person was found to have treated us in the most
+treacherous manner.  He had, in fact, in collusion with an inn-keeper,
+connived at the loss of our baggage to delay our departure, even after
+I had pronounced the cathedral the greatest architectural monstrosity
+in Europe."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Aunt Octavia, you didn't really mean that!"  And Cecilia laughed
+for the first time.  Her color had risen, and her dark eyes lit with
+pleasure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I had formed so high an opinion of Mr. Wiggins," Miss Octavia
+continued, "that I learned with sincerest regret that his ancestors
+were Tories and took no part in the struggle for American independence.
+There are times when I seriously question the wisdom of the colonists
+in breaking with the mother country; but certainly no man of character
+in that day could have hesitated as to his proper course."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then, as though by intention, Miss Hollister dropped upon the smooth
+current of our talk a sentence that drove the color from Cecilia's
+face.  At once the girl was cold again, and I felt embarrassed and
+uncomfortable that a friend of mine had been brought into the
+conversation to my befuddlement.  The situation was trying, but in
+spite of this it grew steadily more interesting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah and Mr. Wiggins were the best of friends," was Miss
+Hollister's remark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia's eyes were on her plate; but her aunt went on in her blithest
+fashion:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You may not know that Hezekiah is another niece, Cecilia's sister.
+She was named, at my suggestion, for my father, there being no son in
+the family, and I trust that so unusual a name in a young girl does not
+strike you as indefensible."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On the contrary, it seems to me wholly refreshing and delightful.  As
+I recall the Sunday-school of my youth, Hezekiah was a monarch of great
+authority, whose animosity toward Sennacherib was justified in the
+fullest degree.  The very name bristles with spears, and is musical
+with the trumpets of Israel.  Nothing would make me happier than to
+meet the young lady who bears this illustrious name."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As to your knowledge of ancient history, Mr. Ames," began Miss
+Hollister, as she helped herself to the cheese,&mdash;sweets, I noted, were
+not included in the very ample meal I had enjoyed,&mdash;"it is clear that
+you were well taught in your youth.  I am not surprised, however, for I
+should have expected nothing less of a son of the late General Ames of
+Hartford.  As to meeting my niece Hezekiah, I fear that that is at
+present impossible.  While Cecilia remains with me, Hezekiah's duty is
+to her father, and I must say in all kindness that Hezekiah's ways,
+like those of Providence and the custom-house, are beyond my feeble
+understanding.  In a word, Mr. Ames, Hezekiah is different."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah," added Cecilia with feeling, "is a dear."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please don't bring sentimentalism to the table!" cried Miss Hollister.
+"Mr. Wiggins once informed me in a moment of forgetfulness,&mdash;it was at
+Fontainebleau, I remember, when Hezekiah persisted in reminding a
+one-armed French colonel who was hanging about that we named cities in
+America for Bismarck,&mdash;it was there at the inn, that Mr. Wiggins
+confided to me his belief that Hezekiah bears a strong resemblance to
+the common or domestic peach.  As a single peach at that place was
+charged in the bill at ten francs, the remark was ill-timed, to say the
+least.  But Mr. Wiggins was so contrite when I rebuked him, that I
+allowed him to pay for our luncheon,&mdash;no small matter, indeed, for
+Hezekiah's appetite is nothing if not robust."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The table-talk had yielded little light on the subject of Wiggins's
+predicament, whatever that might be; but these references to the absent
+Hezekiah had set a troop of interrogation points to dancing on the
+frontiers of my curiosity.  Miss Hollister had given so many turns to
+the conversation that I could reach no conclusion as to her feeling
+toward Wiggins or Hezekiah Hollister; and as for Cecilia, I was unable
+to determine whether she was a prisoner at Hopefield Manor or the
+willing and devoted companion of her aunt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In this bewildered state of mind, while we lingered over our coffee,
+the servant appeared with a card for each of the ladies.  I saw Cecilia
+start as she read the name.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Wiggins!  How remarkable that he should have appeared just as we
+were speaking of him," said Miss Hollister.  "Be sure the gentleman is
+comfortable in the library, James.  We shall be in at once.  Mr. Ames,
+you will of course be delighted to meet your friend here, and you will
+assist us in dispensing our meagre hospitality."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+V
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+There was no reason in the world why Hartley Wiggins should not call
+upon two ladies living in Westchester County, and I must say that he
+appeared to advantage in Miss Hollister's library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had got into his evening clothes somewhere, perhaps at a neighboring
+inn, or maybe at the house of a friend; for he could not possibly have
+motored into town and back since his interview with Cecilia in the
+highway.  He had impressed the clerk at the Hare and Tortoise with the
+idea that he had left New York for a long absence, and he had
+apparently camped at the gates of Hopefield to be near Cecilia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When he had paid his compliments to the ladies, he turned to me with an
+almost imperceptible lifting of the brows; but he was cordial enough.
+If he was surprised or disappointed at seeing me, his manner did not
+betray the feeling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Glad to see you, Ames.  Rather nice weather, this."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Even Dakota could n't do better," I affirmed with a grin; but he
+ignored the fling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is quite remarkable, Mr. Wiggins, that you should have appeared
+just when you did, for we had been speaking of you, and I had been
+telling Mr. Ames of our travels abroad and in particular of the
+thumping you very properly gave our courier at Cologne.  And I shall
+not deny that I mentioned also our brief discussion of the peach-crop
+at Fontainebleau."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia stirred restlessly; Wiggins shot a glance of inquiry in my
+direction; and I felt decidedly ill at ease.  Miss Hollister crossed to
+the fireplace and poked the logs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just what part Hezekiah Hollister played in the situation was beyond
+me.  If I had not witnessed Wiggins's clandestine meeting with Cecilia,
+matters would have been clearer to my comprehension; but his appearance
+at the house, after the colloquy I had overheard from the briar patch,
+was in itself inexplicable.  Cecilia was a woman, therefore to be
+wooed, and yet she had indicated by her words to him that the wooing,
+independently of her feeling and inclination, might not go forward with
+entire freedom.  Miss Hollister's singular references to Hezekiah&mdash;a
+person about whom my curiosity was now a good deal aroused&mdash;added to
+the mystery that enfolded the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Our American peaches are not what they were in my youth.  Cold storage
+destroys the flavor.  I have not tasted a decent peach for twenty
+years."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This was pretty tame, I admit; but I felt that I must say something.
+Responsive to Miss Hollister's energetic prodding, the flames in the
+fireplace leaped into the great throat of the chimney with a roar.  She
+turned, her back to the blaze, and looked upon her guests benignantly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If all your flues draw like that one, they are not seriously in need
+of doctoring," I remarked, feeling that flues were a safer topic than
+the peach-crop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Flues are nothing if not erratic," replied Miss Hollister.  The
+subject did not appear to interest her; nor had she, by the remotest
+suggestion, referred to the object of my coming.  I had sniffed vainly
+in the halls above and below for any trace of the stale smoke which
+usually greeted me at once on my arrival at the house of a client.  The
+air of Hopefield Manor was as sweet as that of a June meadow.  Wiggins
+remarked to me that I doubtless knew the Manor had been designed by
+Pepperton, whom we both knew well.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is Pep's masterpiece.  He need do nothing better to keep his grip
+at the top," he said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I consider it a great privilege to be permitted to visit a house
+designed by a dear friend and occupied by a lady peculiarly fitted to
+appreciate and adorn it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I thought rather well of this as I spoke the words; but neither Cecilia
+nor Wiggins rose to it as I hoped they might.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have a neat turn for the direct compliment," said Miss Hollister
+promptly.  "The house was built, you may not know, for a manufacturer
+of umbrellas, who died before he had occupied it, in circumstances I
+may later disclose to you; which accounts, Mr. Ames, for that figure of
+Cupid under a pink parasol on the drawing-room ceiling.  At the first
+opportunity I shall remove it, as baby Cupids are irreconcilable with
+the militant love-making I admire.  I consider umbrellas detestable,
+and never carry one when I can command a mackintosh."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When I 'm on the ranch I wear a slicker," said Wiggins.  "It's
+bullet-proof, and that I have found at times a decided advantage."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We discussed mackintoshes for at least ten minutes, with far more
+sprightliness than I had imagined the subject could evoke.  Then Miss
+Hollister, after a turn up and down the room, paused beside me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames," she said, "would you care to join me in a game of
+billiards?  I 'm not in my best form, but I think we might profitably
+knock the balls for half an hour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I acquiesced with alacrity.  I assumed it to be Miss Hollister's
+purpose to leave Cecilia and Wiggins alone.  I should be rendering
+Wiggins and Cecilia a service by withdrawing, and I was glad of a
+chance to escape.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To my infinite surprise they both protested, not in mere polite murmurs
+but with considerable vehemence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's quite cool to-night, and I don't believe you ought to use the
+billiard-room until the plumber has fixed the radiator," said Cecilia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And if you knew Mr. Ames's game I 'm sure you would n't care to waste
+time on him," piped Wiggins, whom I had frequently vanquished in
+billiard bouts at the Hare and Tortoise, where, I may say modestly, I
+had long been considered one of the most formidable of the club's
+players.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Both he and Cecilia had risen, and we stood, I remember, just before
+the hearth, during this exchange.  At this moment, a singular thing
+happened.  The fire that had been sweeping in a broad wave-like curve
+into the chimney was checked suddenly.  I had repeatedly marked the
+admirable draught, the facile grace of the flame as it rose and
+vanished.  The cessation of the draught was unmarked by any of those
+premonitory symptoms by which a fire usually gives warning of evil
+intentions.  The upward current of air had ceased utterly and without
+apparent cause.  We were all aware of a choking, a gasping in the deep
+flue, which could not be accounted for by any natural stoppage incident
+to chimneys&mdash;the dislodging of masonry, or a packing of soot.  The
+former was hardly possible and the house was not old enough to make the
+latter theory plausible.  From my survey of the flue on my arrival in
+the afternoon, I judged that this particular chimney had been little
+used.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The smoke now rolled out in billows and drove us back from the hearth.
+I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs, without,
+however, any hope of correcting a difficulty that lay patently in the
+upper regions of the flue itself.  The smoke, after a courageous effort
+to rise, encountered an obstruction of some sort and ebbed back upon
+the hearth and out into the room.  My efforts to stop the trouble by
+shifting the logs were futile, as I expected them to be, and I
+retreated quickly, making, I fear, no very gallant appearance as I
+mopped my face and eyes.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-076"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-076.jpg" ALT="I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Well," exclaimed Miss Hollister, who had rung for a servant to open
+the doors and windows, "this is certainly most extraordinary.  What
+solution do you offer, Mr. Ames?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The matter requires investigation.  I can't venture an opinion until I
+have made a thorough investigation.  The night is perfectly quiet and
+the wind is hardly responsible.  I think we had better abandon the room
+until I can solve this riddle in the morning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The prompt opening of the windows and doors caused the slow dispersion
+of the smoke, but the lights in the room still shone dimly as through a
+fog.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's beastly," ejaculated Wiggins, coughing.  "I did n't suppose
+Pepperton would put a flue like that into a house.  He ought to be
+shot."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is fortunate," said Miss Hollister, "that Mr. Ames is on the
+ground.  He now has a case that will test his most acute powers of
+diagnosis."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The logs that had burned so brightly before the chimney choked still
+held their flames stubbornly, and I had advised against pouring water
+upon them, fearing to crack the brick and stonework.  We were about to
+adjourn to the drawing-room; Miss Hollister and the others had in fact
+reached the door, leaving me alone before the hearth.  Then, as I stood
+half-blinded watching the smoke pour out into the room, and more
+puzzled than I had ever been before in any of my employments, the
+chimney, with a deep intake of breath, began drawing the smoke upward
+again; the flames caught and spread with renewed ardor; and when the
+trio still loitering in the hall returned in answer to my exclamation
+of surprise, the flue had recovered its composure and was behaving in a
+sane and normal manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is, I imagine, nothing pertaining to the life of man (unless it
+be rival climates, motor-cars or pianos) that so inspires incompetent,
+irrelevant and immaterial criticism as wayward fireplaces.  It is part
+of my business to listen respectfully to opinions, to receive with an
+appearance of credulity the theories of others; and those advanced in
+Miss Hollister's library were not below the average to which I was
+accustomed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A swallow undoubtedly fell into the chimney-pot and then got itself
+out again," suggested Cecilia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The logs must have been wet.  The sap had n't dried out yet," proposed
+Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The wood was as dry as tinder," averred Miss Hollister, not without
+irritation.  "And one swallow does not make a summer or a chimney
+smoke.  It must have been a changing current of air.  I was reading a
+book on ballooning the other day, and it is remarkable how the air
+currents change."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is quite possible, as the air cools rapidly after sunset at this
+season, and that is bound to have an effect on the quality and
+resistance of the atmosphere," I replied sagely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Perhaps," suggested Miss Hollister, with one of those flashes of
+animation that were so delightful in her, "perhaps it was a ghost!
+Will you tell us, Mr. Ames, whether in your experience you have ever
+known a chimney ghost?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As I had no opinion of my own as to what had caused the chimney's brief
+aberration, I was glad to follow Miss Hollister's lead.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have had several experiences with ghosts," I began, "though I should
+not like you to think that I profess any special genius for the
+analysis of psychical phenomena.  But there was a house at Shinnecock
+that was reputed to be haunted.  The living-room chimney behaved
+damnably.  The house was one of Buffington's.  Buffington, you know,
+was quite capable of building a house and omitting any stairway.  We
+used to say at the club that he ought to have specialized in
+fire-engine houses, where the men don't use stairways but slide down a
+pole.  Well, the living-room chimney in this particular house could n't
+be made to draw with a team of elephants, and it had also the
+reputation of being haunted.  Strange flutings of the weirdest and most
+distressing kind were often heard at night.  The owner gave up in
+despair and moved out, turning the house over to me.  After eliminating
+all other possibilities, I decided that the piping spook must be
+related to the disorder in the chimney.  It served two fireplaces, and
+I proceeded to knock the kinks out of it so it did n't tie knots in a
+plumb-line as at first; but, believe me, when it stopped smoking it
+still whistled, in the most fantastical fashion.  I was living in the
+house, with only the servants about, and for a week gave my whole
+thought to this flue.  The ghostly flutist was an amateur, but he tried
+his hand at every sort of tune, from 'Sally in our Alley' to the jewel
+song in Faust.  The whistling did n't begin till nearly midnight, and
+continued usually for about an hour.  I tried in every way to lure him
+into the open, and I fell downstairs one night as I crept about in the
+dark trying to trace the sound.  And to what palpable and mundane
+source do you suppose I traced that ghost?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never should guess," murmured Cecilia, "unless it was merely the
+weird whistling of the wind."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing so poetical, I'm sorry to confess.  It was the butler!  In his
+nightly cups his soul inclined to music, and being a timid soul,
+fearful of the cynical tongues of the other servants, he crawled into
+the ash-dump in the cellar, which communicated with the several
+fireplaces above, and there indulged himself gently upon the tuneful
+reed.  The night I caught him he was breathing the wild strains of
+Brunhilde's Battle-Cry into the tube, and it was shuddersome, I can
+tell you!  I took it upon myself to discharge him on the spot, and the
+grateful owner returned the next day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The presence of a ghost in this house would give me the greatest
+pleasure," declared Miss Hollister, who had listened intently to my
+recital.  "I should look upon a ghost's appearance at Hopefield Manor
+as a great compliment.  If any reputable, decent ghost should by any
+chance take up his residence in this house, I should give him every
+encouragement."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Hollister seemed to have forgotten the proposed game of billiards.
+The chimney's lawless demonstration had, in fact, given a new turn to
+the evening.  We discussed ghosts for half an hour, and then, without
+having enjoyed any opportunity for a single private word with Cecilia,
+Wiggins rose to leave.  He shook hands all around and bowed from the
+door.  It was in my mind to follow, making a pretext of walking with
+him to the station or of helping him find his car; but nothing in his
+good-night to me encouraged such attentions, and as I pondered, the
+outer door closed upon my irresolution.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the stroke of ten Miss Hollister rose and excused herself.  "We
+breakfast at eight, Mr. Ames.  I trust the hour does not conflict with
+your habits."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I assured her that the hour was wholly agreeable, and she gave me her
+hand with great dignity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When I turned toward Cecilia she had moved to a seat close by the
+hearth and was gazing dreamily into the fire, now a bed of glowing
+coals.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was odd," I remarked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You mean the chimney?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  It was quite unaccountable.  I confess that I never knew a
+chimney's mood to change so abruptly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sat silent for several minutes, and then she lifted her head and
+her eyes met mine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pardon me, Mr. Ames, but did my aunt ask you here to examine the
+chimneys?  I did n't quite understand.  We have been here only a week;
+the weather has been warm, and I believe this fire had not been lighted
+before to-day.  You will pardon my frankness, but I can't quite
+understand why my aunt invited you here if you came professionally.  I
+thought when you appeared this afternoon that you were a guest&mdash;nothing
+more&mdash;or less."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You had heard nothing of any trouble with the fireplaces?  Then I am
+in the dark as much as you.  As I understood it, I was called here to
+examine the flues; but now that I think of it, she did not say
+explicitly that her chimneys were behaving badly, though that was of
+course implied.  I naturally assumed that she summoned me here in my
+professional capacity.  I was a stranger to your aunt; she would hardly
+have invited me otherwise."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She turned again to the fire as though referring to it for counsel.
+Her perplexity was no greater than my own.  It was certainly an
+extraordinary experience to be invited to a strange house where my
+services had not been needed, and to find that an apparently sound
+chimney had begun to smoke at once as though in mockery of my presence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I imagine, however, that your aunt acts a good deal on impulse.  Her
+asking me here may have been only a whim."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please don't imagine that your coming has not been agreeable to me,"
+Cecilia protested.  "My aunt is quite capable of inviting a stranger to
+the house.  She met you, I believe, at the Asolando.  I hope you
+understand that it is only because I am in deep trouble, Mr. Ames,
+trouble of the gravest nature, that I have ventured to speak to you in
+this way of my aunt, for whom I have all respect and affection."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had never, I was sure, been lovelier than at this moment.  Her eyes
+filled, but she lifted her head proudly.  Whatever the trouble might be
+I was sorry for it on her own account; and if it involved Hartley
+Wiggins my sympathy went out to him also.  On an impulse I spoke of him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was surprised to meet Hartley Wiggins here.  He 's a dear friend of
+mine, you know.  I thought he had gone to his ranch.  He left the Hare
+and Tortoise very abruptly a few nights ago just after we had dined
+together.  He must be stopping somewhere in the neighborhood."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's quite possible.  And there's an inn, you know.  I fancy he drove
+over from there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hadn't thought of that; the Prescott Arms, I suppose you mean."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She nodded, but she was clearly not interested in me, and when I found
+myself failing dismally to divert her thoughts to cheerfuller channels,
+I rose and bade her good-night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The servant who had previously attended me appeared promptly when I
+reached my room, bearing a tray, with biscuits and a bottle of ale.  He
+gave me an envelope addressed in a hand I already knew as Miss
+Octavia's, and I opened and read:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The following I either detest or distrust, so kindly refrain from
+mentioning them while you are a guest of Hopefield Manor:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent" STYLE="margin-left: 5%">
+Automobiles.<BR>
+Mashed Potatoes.<BR>
+Whiskers.<BR>
+Chopin's Concerto in E Minor (op. 11).<BR>
+Bishop's Coadjutor.<BR>
+Limericks.<BR>
+Cats.<BR>
+<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;OCTAVIA HOLLISTER."<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+I absorbed this with a glass of ale.  There were seven items, I noted,
+and I had no serious quarrel with her attitude toward any of them; but
+just what these matters had to do with me or my presence in her house I
+could not determine.  She had referred to me in the note as a guest&mdash;I
+had noted that; and I did know, moreover, that Miss Octavia Hollister
+possessed a quaint and delicate humor; and I looked forward with the
+pleasantest anticipations to our further meetings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before I slept I threw up my window and stepped out upon a narrow
+balcony that afforded a capital view of the fields and woods to the
+east.  The night was fine, with the sky bright with stars and moon.  As
+my eyes dropped from the horizon to the near landscape, I saw a man
+perched on a knoll in the midst of a corn-field.  He stood as rigid as
+a sentry on duty, or like a forlorn commander, counting the spears of
+his tattered battalions.  I was not sure that he saw me, for the
+balcony was slightly shadowed, but at any rate, he was sharply outlined
+to my vision.  His derby hat and overcoat gave him an odd appearance as
+he stood brooding above the corn.  Then he vanished suddenly, though,
+as he retired toward the highway, I followed him for some time by the
+shaking and jerking of the corn-stalks.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I lay awake far into the night, considering the events of the day.  Of
+these the curious stoppage of the library chimney was the least
+interesting.  I doubted whether it would ever recur.  The love-affair
+of Hartley Wiggins was, however, a matter of importance to me, his
+friend, and I determined to make every effort to see him the next day
+and learn the exact status of his affair with Cecilia Hollister.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+VI
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+I DELIVER A MESSAGE
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+I was aroused at six o'clock the next morning by the sound of
+gun-shots, and springing out of bed I beheld, in an open pasture beyond
+the stable-yard, the indomitable Miss Hollister engaged in the pleasing
+pastime of breaking clay pigeons with a fowling-piece.  Her Swedish
+maid stood by with a formidable pad of paper, keeping score.  A boy
+pulled the trap for her, and she threw up her gun and blazed away with
+a practised hand.  Her small, slight, tense figure, awaiting the
+launching of the target, the quick up-bring of the gun as she sighted,
+and the pause, following the firing of the shot, in which she bent
+forward rigidly watching the result, were features of a picture which I
+would not have missed.  My eye could not follow the curving disc in its
+flight, but when the shot told, the bursting clay made a little patch
+of dust in the air that was plainly visible from where I sat.  Beyond
+the stable-roofs, on a broad stretch of pasture whose aftermath made a
+green field about her, and against a background of the more distant
+woods' tapestry, Miss Octavia Hollister was a figure to admire.  And I
+will write it down here and be done with it, that it has been my good
+fortune to know many delightful women, but I have never known one more
+interesting or charming than Miss Octavia Hollister.  The spirit of
+deathless youth was in her heart; and youth's gay pennants fluttered
+about her, as the reports of her gun fell cheerily upon the crisp
+morning air, a rebuke and a challenge to all indolent souls.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-088"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-088.jpg" ALT="She threw up her gun and blazed away with a practised hand." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+She threw up her gun and blazed away with a practised hand.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+I made myself presentable as quickly as possible and went forth to
+report to her.  She nodded pleasantly as I greeted her immediately
+after she had scored a capital shot.  A second gun was produced, and I
+saw that it was not without satisfaction that she observed my lack of
+prowess.  One out of five was the best I could do, whereas she smashed
+three with the greatest ease.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On alternate mornings, she informed me, she shot glass balls with a
+rifle, a sport which she declared to be superior to pigeon-shooting in
+the severity of its demand upon the nerve and eye.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If I had known you would be up so early I should have sent coffee to
+your room," she remarked as we walked toward the house.  "Very likely
+your lack of luck with the birds is attributable entirely to the
+impoverished state of your stomach."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Breakfast was served on a delightful sun-porch that I had not before
+seen.  Cecilia appeared promptly, having in fact been gathering fall
+flowers for some time, I judged, from the considerable armful of
+chrysanthemums, asters, dahlias and marigolds, which we found her
+arranging for the table.  She seemed in excellent spirits, and greeted
+us most amiably.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I heard the artillery booming and thought an army had descended.  It's
+a great regret to me, Mr. Ames, that I have never been able to make any
+headway at the traps.  I suffer from chronic and incurable gun-shyness.
+I 'm sorry archery has gone out.  I think I might have done better with
+the long bow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pinkle!" exclaimed Miss Hollister disdainfully.  "I cured myself of
+gun-shyness easily enough by having the gardener follow me about
+whenever I took my daily walks, firing a gun at irregular intervals
+just behind me.  I was threatened with deafness when I began, but the
+agitation of my tympanums by the explosions of my gun has corrected the
+difficulty.  I have mentioned my discovery of this remedy to a
+distinguished aurist, and he is preparing a paper on the subject&mdash;not,
+however, without my permission&mdash;which he expects to read shortly before
+one of the most learned societies in Europe.  Cecilia, the chops are
+overdone again; please remind me to speak to the cook about it.  If it
+were not that he is so expert in detecting spurious steam-mill
+corn-meal, which is constantly sold as a substitute for the Boydville
+water-ground article, I should discharge him for this.  An ill-broiled
+chop can do much to shake one's faith in human nature.  If I wanted to
+eat grilled patent leather I should order it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In spite of her sharp observations it was quite clear to me that Miss
+Hollister's was the gentlest and sweetest of natures.  I fully believed
+that her whims were the honest expression of a revolt against the
+tedious and conventional, and nothing in my later acquaintance
+disturbed this opinion.  It was her privilege to do as she liked, and
+if she preferred cracking clay saucers with a shot-gun to knitting or
+darning stockings or gossiping, it was no one's business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mail arrived and was placed by her plate before we left the table.
+She opened first a bulky envelope containing cuttings from a clipping
+bureau, and she mused aloud upon these as she read.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This persistent story of a sunken galleon off the Bolivian coast
+sounds plausible, but I fear it is the work of some bright young
+journalist.  Our minister in that benighted country does n't take any
+stock in it.  I had a cable from him yesterday.  If he had given the
+story credence I should have gone down at once with a steamer and crew
+of divers.  The imaginative young newspaper men continue romancing,
+however; and it costs me five cents a clipping."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She next opened a letter that roused her to vigorous declamation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cecilia," she began, "here is a letter from that Mrs. Stanford we met
+in Berne.  She encloses a card that indicates her wish to be called
+Mrs. Appleby now, having, I believe, spent a few months since our
+meeting in one of our American States where the marital tie readily
+evaporates, and shaken Stanford, whom I have heard spoken of in the
+highest terms by persons of character.  We live in an era of horseless
+carriages, wireless telegraphy, husbandless wives and wifeless
+husbands.  I have hit upon a formula which I am tempted to utilize
+hereafter when I meet husbandless women.  When they are introduced I
+shall ask:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+Shaken,<BR>
+Or taken?<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+signifying in the first instance a loss by way of Nevada, or, in the
+second, through the pearlier gates of that Paradise which is the hope
+of us all.  Mr. Ames, as the butler has gone to sleep in the pantry,
+you will kindly pass the salt."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had handed Cecilia a number of letters, which the girl opened and
+then to my surprise meekly turned over to her aunt.  Miss Hollister
+surveyed them critically.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought," she remarked, "that that young Henderson who was so
+attentive to you at Madrid was an impostor, and this note settles the
+matter.  He flirted outrageously with Hezekiah behind your back.  He
+asks if he may call upon you here.  If he were the nephew of Colonel
+Abner Henderson of Roanoke, as he represented himself to be, he would
+not ask if he might call upon you, but would have appeared at once in
+his proper person to pay his addresses.  An unchivalrous and wobbly
+character, who evidently expects you to make the advances.  But such
+are the youth of our time.  And besides, Cecilia, his stationery leaves
+much to be desired.  As for these other gentlemen we need not discuss
+them.  Their actions must speak for them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Hollister, having thus dismissed her niece's correspondents, rose
+and led the way to the library.  Cecilia seemed in no wise depressed by
+her aunt's fling at Mr. Henderson, whoever he might be, but threw the
+notes upon the flames that blazed merrily in the fireplace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I suggested immediately that as I had come to Hopefield Manor to
+inspect the flues I should now be about my business; but to my surprise
+Miss Hollister evinced no interest whatever in the matter.  Her tone
+and manner implied that the condition of her chimneys was wholly
+negligible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is no haste, Mr. Ames.  I have suffered all my life from the
+ill-considered and hurried work of professional men.  Even the
+clergy&mdash;and I have enjoyed the acquaintance of many&mdash;are quite reckless
+in giving opinions.  I once asked the Bishop of Waxahaxie&mdash;was it
+Waxahaxie, Cecilia, or Tallahassee?&mdash;well, it does n't matter
+anyhow&mdash;whether he honestly believed there are no women angels.  He
+replied with unusual frankness for one in holy orders that he did n't
+know, but added that he was sure there are angel women.  Just for that
+impertinence I cut in two my subscription to his cathedral
+building-fund.  When I ask an expert opinion of an educated person I
+don't intend to be put off with mere persiflage.  And to return to my
+chimneys, I beg that you give me the result of your most serious
+deliberations.  At this hour I ride; Cecilia, will you dress
+immediately and accompany me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She disappeared at once and I stared mutely after her.  I am by no
+means an idler, and this cool indifference to the value of my time
+would ordinarily have enraged me; but I believe I laughed, and when I
+turned to Cecilia I found her smiling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I 'm glad, Mr. Ames, that you are a person of humor.  My aunt's
+conduct verifies what I said to you last night&mdash;that the flues in this
+house have given us no trouble; that they have indeed had little chance
+to do so in the short time we have spent here.  It is true that this
+one acted queerly last night, and I have wondered about its temporary
+sulkiness a good deal.  It will be well, of course, for you to go over
+it, and all the others in the house.  It is no joke that my aunt is a
+believer in thoroughness, and one of these days, when she is ready to
+talk of chimneys, she will subject you to a most rigid examination."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One of these days?  Why, I have looked at the time-table, and it is my
+present intention to take the 12:03 into town.  I have appointments at
+my office for the afternoon.  I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I 'm a
+man of engagements, particularly at this season."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I remembered what Jewett had told me of Fortner, the painter, and his
+detention at Newport by Miss Octavia Hollister.  I had no intention of
+being immured in any such fashion, and I was about to protest further
+when Cecilia took a step toward me, and after a glance at the door
+spoke in a low tone and with great earnestness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames, I have every reason to believe that you are a gentleman, and
+in that confident belief I 'm going to ask a favor of you.  You have
+said that you know Mr. Hartley Wiggins well."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know no man better.  You might not have inferred it from his manner
+last night, but he was undoubtedly surprised and embarrassed by my
+presence, and did not act quite like himself."'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think I understand the cause of that.  If I should ask you to see
+him to-day and give him a message for me, could you do so?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will be an honor to serve you; and a very simple matter, as I
+should see him on my own account if he is still in the neighborhood."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He is doubtless at the Prescott Arms.  My message is a verbal one.
+Please urge him not to make any effort to see me, and not to call here
+again.  But at the same time, as the chimney smoked just as we were
+about to be left alone last night, I think&mdash;I think"&mdash;she hesitated a
+moment&mdash;"You may say that his interests have not been jeopardized by
+his temerity in calling."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In her pause before concluding this curious commission her eyes
+searched mine deeply, and I felt that she had not lightly entrusted me
+with this singular errand.  Her dark eyes held mine an instant after
+she had spoken; then she smiled, and her face showed relief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ask for anything you want.  Aunt Octavia despises motors, so there 's
+no car here, but you will find plenty of horses and traps.  Order
+whatever pleases you.  I shall expect to meet you at dinner if not at
+luncheon&mdash;and so"&mdash;she smiled again&mdash;"will Aunt Octavia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She nodded to me from the door, and I heard her running lightly
+upstairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Left to my own devices I rang the bell and ordered the library fire
+extinguished and the hearth cleaned.  This required a little time; but
+the house man obeyed me readily, and soon, clad in my professional
+overalls and jumper, I was going carefully over the flue whose behavior
+had been so unaccountable the previous night.  Guided by the servant I
+inspected the three fireplaces in the upper chambers that were served
+by flues in this chimney and finally dropped my torch and plumb-line
+from the chimney-pot.  Never in all my experience had I seen better
+flues; but remembering my ghost at Shinnecock, I had the ashes thrown
+out of the dump in the cellar and found the chute in perfect order.  I
+learned by inquiry that the other flues worked perfectly, but I
+nevertheless scrutinized them carefully.  My freedom of the house
+afforded an excellent opportunity for a study of its beautiful
+construction.  It was modern in every sense, with no dark, mysterious
+corners in which goblins might lurk.  I prowled about with increasing
+admiration for Pepperton, and with a deepening sense of my own failure
+in the art which he adorned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My professional labors were finished.  I was quite ready for Miss
+Hollister's most searching inquiries.  As for the library flue, I had
+decided that a little care in piling the logs in the hearth would
+obviate the possibility of any recurrence of the difficulty.  And I
+thereupon hurried to my room, and after a tub (my vocation encouraged
+frequent tubbing) chose from the stable a neat trap for one horse.
+Thus equipped I set out to find Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Prescott Arms is an inn that sprang into being with the advent of
+motoring.  The tourist is advised of his approach to it by signs swung
+at the crossways, and its plaster and timber walls are in plain sight
+from one of the excellent state roads.  Gasoline and other liquids are
+offered there; one may have tea or an ampler meal on short notice; and
+a few guests may be lodged in case of necessity.  I remembered it well,
+having several times found it a haven on motor-flights with friends.
+As I drove into the entrance I saw Wiggins pacing the long veranda.  He
+waved a hand and came out to meet me, and when I had rid myself of the
+trap he suggested that we take a walk.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-099"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-099.jpg" ALT="As I drove into the entrance." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+As I drove into the entrance.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+His manner was not cordial, and he wore the haggard look of a man on
+bad terms with his pillow.  I attributed his appearance to
+preoccupation with his love-affair.  When we had withdrawn a little way
+from the inn he turned on me sharply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well?" he demanded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well," I laughed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, you needn't take that tone about it!  Your being here is something
+that requires explanation; and your being <I>there</I>"&mdash;he flung out his
+arm toward Hopefield Manor&mdash;"your presence there is not a laughing
+matter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear Wiggins, I came here in a spirit of friendship, and you treat
+me like a pickpocket.  I must say that if you had not acted like a clam
+the other night at the club, but had told me what was in the wind, we
+might not be meeting now like ancient enemies instead of old and
+intimate friends."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He vouchsafed no reply, but threw himself down under a scarlet maple
+and began to whittle a stick, while I went on with my story.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I met Miss Octavia Hollister in the Asolando the day after our last
+dinner at the club.  I had dropped into the tea-room merely to look at
+the place again.  I had never seen her before in all my life.  She is a
+whimsical old lady&mdash;but a lady, you must admit that&mdash;and we exchanged
+cards.  On learning my occupation she at once declared that I must come
+up here to look at her chimneys.  She made an appointment by mail for
+yesterday afternoon.  It is not my fault that she treated me like a
+guest, or that she introduced me of necessity to her niece Cecilia.
+And now I have finished my work, and after I have made my report I
+shall probably not meet her again.  As for Miss Cecilia Hollister, I
+can only say, my dear Wiggins, that she is a rarely beautiful woman,
+and that if you wish to marry her you have my very best wishes for your
+success and happiness."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It struck me that you were pretty well established there," he blurted.
+"I confess that I took it for granted you were not there wholly on a
+professional errand; and I won't deny, Ames, that I was not pleased to
+see you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You honor me in assuming that I might aspire to the hand of so
+splendid a woman as Cecilia Hollister; but, my dear Wiggins, I tell you
+I never laid eyes on her until last night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you had been to the Asolando," he persisted, hacking away doggedly
+at his stick.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course I had.  I told you I had.  I told you the whole story.  But
+I did not see Cecilia Hollister there.  She was n't there!  I fancy
+that after you saw her there last spring and became infatuated with her
+and followed her to Europe instead of going to Dakota to harvest your
+blooming wheat&mdash;after that bit of history she never returned to the
+Asolando.  Your lack of frankness in all this has pained me.  And you
+left it for a gossiping chap like Jewett to tell me the whole story.
+And to cap your duplicity you sneaked out of the club the other night
+while Jewett was talking to me and let the club people think you were
+bound for your ranch.  I call it rather low down, Wiggins, after all
+the years we have known each other.  My slate is clean; how about
+yours?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He threw the stick at a sparrow whose chirp irritated him from a stone
+fence beyond us, and turned toward me a countenance on which dejection,
+humiliation, and chagrin were written large.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Damn it all!" he bellowed, "I believe I 'm losing my mind.  I don't
+know what I 'm doing.  That old woman up there is responsible for all
+this.  She 's as crazy as a March hare,&mdash;crazier!  And she 's made a
+prisoner of that girl.  I tell you Cecilia Hollister is the grandest
+girl in the world."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Go it, son!  Those descendants of Cæsar's legions at work in the road
+down there are pausing to listen.  Try to affect calmness if you don't
+feel it.  I agree to all you say of Miss Cecilia.  And please get it
+into your noddle that I have no intention of becoming your rival for
+her hand.  But I must beg of you also not to speak in such terms of her
+aunt.  She 's the most delightful woman I ever met."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mad, I tell you, quite mad!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wise,&mdash;with the most beautiful wisdom; you simply don't understand
+her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know all I want to about her.  If she were not insane she would not
+build a wall of mystery about her niece and keep me camping out here
+not knowing where I stand.  I tell you, Ames, that woman is a
+malevolent being; she 's perfectly fiendish."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is no way of answering a man in this humor save by laughter; and
+I laughed long and loud, to the consternation of the Italian
+road-laborers who were now swallowing their luncheons a short distance
+away from us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Wiggins sulked awhile and then addressed me seriously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I didn't tell you I was going abroad, because the situation made
+explanations difficult.  I could hardly tell you that I was about to
+race over Europe after a waitress I had seen in a tea-room.  You 're
+always so confoundedly suspicious.  It would have an odd sound even now
+if she were&mdash;well, if she were a waitress instead of what you know her
+to be.  And my animosity toward Miss Octavia Hollister is due to the
+fact that after I had been as courteous to her all summer long as I
+could, and thought myself tolerably established in her mind as a decent
+person and a gentleman, she suddenly shuts Cecilia up in that
+house,&mdash;bought it on purpose, I fancy,&mdash;and Cecilia herself is
+compelled to take on an air of mystery, warning me to keep away,
+suggesting the darkest possibilities, but giving me no hint whatever of
+the reason for her conduct."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let us confine ourselves to Miss Octavia for a moment.  While you were
+acting as cavalier to her party abroad she was friendly; then she
+suddenly changed.  Now there must be some explanation of that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, for one thing, she flew off at a tangent about my ancestors.  We
+were in Berlin on the Fourth of July and got to talking about the
+American revolution.  She asked me what my people had done for the
+patriotic cause.  The painful fact is that most of them were Tories;
+but my great-grandfather broke with his father and brothers, joined
+Washington's army, and fought through the whole business.  But to save
+the feelings of the rest of them, who went to England till it was all
+over, he changed his name.  There's no mention of him in the war
+records anywhere.  I've had experts working on it, but they can't find
+any trace of him.  He was greatly embittered by the estrangement from
+his people, and though he had a farm in this very neighborhood
+somewhere&mdash;I 've thought sometime I 'd look it up and try to get hold
+of it&mdash;he never mentioned his military experiences even to his own
+children.  Usually Miss Hollister changes front if you give her time.
+I've heard her say that we'd have been better off if we'd never broken
+with England; but she persists in prodding that weak place in my armor."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's very dark, Wiggy.  If she keeps it up you'll have to dig up
+your great-grandfather someway.  The spiritualists might call him on
+long distance.  But let us turn to Miss Cecilia.  I don't for a moment
+believe that she is a victim of ancestor worship.  The perambulator
+rampant adorns the Hollister shield to the exclusion of everything
+else.  From what you say Cecilia has not repelled you; on the other
+hand she has frankly given you to understand that you must not press
+your suit at this time for reasons she sees fit to withhold.  A little
+more patience, a little calm deliberation and less violent language,
+and in due course the girl is yours.  Now what do you fancy is the
+cause of Cecilia's abrupt change of attitude?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He refused to meet my eyes, but turned away as though to conceal an
+embarrassment whose cause I could not surmise.  When he spoke it was in
+a voice husky with emotion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Am I a cad?  Am I beneath the contempt of decent people?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's possible, Wiggy, that you are.  Go on with it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you know," he began diffidently, "Cecilia has a sister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I grinned, but his scowl brought me to myself again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  And her name is Hezekiah.  The name pleases me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She was with Miss Octavia in her gallop over Europe, so I saw a good
+deal of her necessarily.  She is younger than Cecilia; she's a good
+deal of a kid,&mdash;the sort that never grows up, you know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just like her aunt Octavia!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bah!  Don't mention that woman.  Hezekiah is a very pretty girl; and I
+suppose,&mdash;well, when you are thrown with a girl that way, seeing her
+constantly"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I clapped my hand on his knee as the light began to dawn upon me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You old rascal, you don't need to add a single word!  I dare say you
+are guilty.  I can see it in your eye.  After waiting till you reached
+years of discretion before beginning an attack upon womankind, you
+began mowing them down in platoons.  So they come running now that you
+'ve got a start.  Oh, Wiggy, and I believed you immune!  And you 're
+trying to drive 'em tandem."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The thing was funny, knowing Wiggins as I did, and I gave expression to
+my mirth; but his fierce demeanor quickly brought me back to the
+serious contemplation of his difficulty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That, you shameless wretch, would be a sufficient reason for Miss
+Octavia's aloofness,&mdash;your double-faced dealing with her nieces?  You
+confirm my impression that she is a wise woman.  And Cecilia, I take
+it, may be deeply embarrassed by her sister's infatuation for you.  You
+certainly have made a tangle of things, you heart-wrecker, you
+conscienceless deceiver!  But where, may I ask, does this Hezekiah keep
+herself?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, she's with her father.  They have a bungalow over the hills there,
+several miles from Hopefield Manor."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I hope you are no longer toying with her affections.  Of course
+you don't see her any more?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well," he mumbled, "I did see her this morning.  But I could n't help
+it.  It was the merest chance.  I met her in the road when I was out
+taking a walk.  She 's always turning up,&mdash;she's the most unaccountable
+young person."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose, Wiggy, that if you stand in the road and Miss Hezekiah
+Hollister strolls by on her way to market, you fancy that she is
+pursuing you.  As Miss Octavia has well said, this is not a chivalrous
+age.  I 'm deeply disappointed in you.  Your conduct and your attitude
+toward this trusting young girl are disgraceful."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He rose and flung up his arms despairingly.  It was much easier to
+laugh at Wiggins than to be angry at him; but I recalled the message
+which Cecilia had entrusted to me, and this, I thought, might give him
+some comfort.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Cecilia asked me this morning to say to you that you must not try
+to see her again; you must keep away from the house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This obviously increased his dejection.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But," I added, "I was to say that she thought nothing had yet occurred
+to interfere with your ambitions, as you were not permitted to see her
+alone last night.  The chimney, you may remember, began playing pranks
+just at the moment when Miss Hollister and I were about to adjourn to
+the billiard-room, so a tête-à-tête between you and Cecilia was
+impossible."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She told you to see me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She certainly did.  I confess that my message does n't seem luminous,
+but I have a feeling that she meant to be kind.  It may be that she is
+giving you time to disentangle yourself from the delectable Hezekiah's
+meshes.  I can't elucidate; I merely convey information.  But answer
+honestly if you can: has Cecilia ever by word or act refused you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," he replied grimly; "she 's never given me the chance!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He asked me to luncheon, and on the way back to the inn, after
+inquiring my plans for returning to town, he proposed that I delay my
+departure until the following day.  What he wanted, and he put it
+bluntly, was a friend at court, and as I had seemingly satisfied him of
+my entire good faith and of my devotion to his interests, he begged
+that I prolong my stay in Miss Hollister's house, giving as my excuse
+the condition of the chimneys of Hopefield Manor.  He brushed aside my
+plea of other engagements and appealed to our old friendship.  He was
+taking his troubles hard, and I felt that he really needed counsel and
+support in the involved state of his affairs.  I did not see how my
+continued presence under Miss Hollister's roof could materially assist
+him, and the thought of remaining there when there was no work to be
+done was repugnant to my sense of professional honor; but he was so
+persistent that I finally yielded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While we ate luncheon I sought by every means to divert his thoughts to
+other channels.  After we were seated in the dining-room four other men
+followed, exercising considerable care in placing themselves as far
+from one another as possible.  A few moments later a motor hummed into
+the driveway, and we heard its owner ordering his chauffeur to return
+to town and hold himself subject to telephone call.  This latest
+arrival appeared shortly in the dining-room, and surveying the rest of
+us with a disdainful air, sought a table in the remotest corner of the
+room.  Others appeared, until eight in all had entered.  The presence
+of these men at this hour, their air of aloofness, and the care they
+exercised in isolating themselves, interested me.  They appeared to be
+gentlemen; they were, indeed, suggestive of the ampler metropolitan
+world; and one of them was unmistakably a foreigner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While Wiggins appeared to ignore them, I was conscious that he reviewed
+the successive arrivals with every manifestation of contempt.  One of
+these glum gentlemen seemed familiar; I could not at once recall him,
+but something in his manner teased my memory for a moment before I
+placed him.  Then it dawned upon me that he was the third man I had met
+in the field overhanging the garden after my eavesdropping experience
+the day before.  I thought it as well, however, not to mention this
+fact, or to speak of the man I had seen so grimly posted in the midst
+of the cornfield.  I was an observer, a looker-on, at Hopefield, and my
+immediate business was the collecting of information.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Will you kindly tell me, Wiggy, who these strange gentlemen are and
+just what has brought them here at this hour?  They seem greatly
+preoccupied, and the last one, in particular, surveyed you with a
+murderous eye.  If we could be translated to some such inn as this in
+the environs of Paris, I should conclude that a duel was imminent and
+that these gentlemen were assembling to meet after their coffee
+to-morrow morning for an affair of honor."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know them; they are guests of the inn.  Most of them were more or
+less companions in our procession across Europe last summer.  The one
+in the tan suit is Henderson; you must have heard of him.  The short
+dark chap of atrabilous countenance is John Stewart Dick, who pretends
+to be a philosopher.  As for the others"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He dismissed them with a jerk of the head.  My wits struggled with his
+explanation.  It is my way to wish to reduce information to plain terms.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are these gentlemen, then, your rivals for the hand of Miss Cecilia
+Hollister?  If so, they are a solemn band of suitors, I must confess."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have hit it, Ames.  They are suitors, assembled from all parts of
+the world."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nice-looking fellows, except the chap with the monocle, who has just
+ordered rather more liquor than a gentleman should drink at this hour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is Lord Arrowood.  I have feared at times that Miss Octavia
+favored him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Possibly, but not likely.  But how long is this thing going to last?
+If you fellows are going to hang on here until Miss Cecilia Hollister
+has chosen one of you for her husband, I shudder for your nerves.  I
+imagine that any one of these gentlemen is likely to begin shooting
+across his plate at any minute.  Such a situation would become
+intolerable very quickly if I were in the game and forced to lodge
+here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hope," replied Wiggins with heat, "that you don't imagine these
+fellows can crowd me out!  I 've paid for a month's lodging in advance,
+and if you will stand by me I 'm going to win."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Spoken like a man, my dear Wiggins!  You may count on me to the sweet
+or bitter end, even if I pull down all the superb chimneys with which
+Pepperton adorned that house up yonder."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He silently clasped my hand.  A little later I telephoned from the inn
+to my office explaining my absence and instructing my assistant to
+visit several pressing clients; and I instructed the valet at the Hare
+and Tortoise to send me a week's supply of linen and an odd suit or two.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At about three o'clock I left Wiggins in first-rate spirits and set out
+on my return to Hopefield Manor.  I felt the eyes of the eight other
+suitors, who were scattered at intervals along the verandah, glued to
+my back as I drove out of the inn yard.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+VII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+A girl in a white sweater sat on a stone wall and munched a red apple;
+but this is to anticipate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had made a wrong turn on leaving the Prescott Arms, and I came out
+presently near Katonah village.  I got my bearings of a shopkeeper and
+started again for Hopefield Manor; but the mid-afternoon was warm, and
+the hills were steep, and as Miss Hollister's admirable cob showed
+signs of weariness, I drove into a fence-corner and loosened the mare's
+check.  On a sunny slope several hundred yards above the highway lay an
+orchard, advertised to the larcenous eye by the ruddiest of red apples.
+Not in many years had I robbed an orchard, and I felt irresistibly
+drawn toward the gnarled trees, which were still, in their old age,
+abundantly fruitful.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When I reached the orchard I found it quite isolated, with only fallow
+fields, seamed with stone fences, stretching on either hand.  A spring
+near by sent the slenderest of brooks flashing down the slope.  There
+was no house in sight anywhere, and the neglected orchard flaunted its
+bright fruit with pathetic bravado.  I drew down a bough and plucked my
+first apple, tasted, and found it good.  At my palate's first
+responsive titillation, something whizzed past my ear, and following
+the flight of the missile, I saw an apple of goodly size fall and roll
+away into the grass.  I had imagined myself utterly alone, and even
+now, as I looked guiltily around, no one was in sight.  The apple had
+passed my ear swiftly and at an angle quite un-Newtonian.  It had been
+fairly aimed at my head, and the law of gravitation did not account for
+it.  As I continued my scrutiny of the landscape, I was addressed by a
+voice whose accents were not objurgatory.  Rather, the tone was
+good-natured and indulgent, if not indeed a trifle patronizing.  The
+words were these:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+It was then that, lifting my eyes, I beheld, sitting lengthwise of the
+wall, with her feet drawn comfortably under her, a girl in a white
+sweater, bareheaded, munching an apple.  There was no question of
+identity: it was the girl whose head behind the cashier's grill of the
+Asolando had interested me on the occasion of my second visit to the
+tea-room.  In soliciting my attention by reciting a line of verse, she
+had merely followed the rule of the tea-room in like circumstances.
+The casting of the apple at my head possessed the virtue of novelty,
+but now that her shot was fired and her line spoken, she addressed
+herself again to her apple.  Her manner implied indifference; but her
+unconcern was that of a trout not wishing to discourage the fisherman,
+feigning a languid interest in a familiar fly dropped at its nose.
+While I tried to think of something to say, I pecked at my own apple,
+but kept an eye on her.  She concluded her repast calmly and flung away
+the core.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I mentioned soup," she remarked.  "The courses are mixed.  We have
+partaken of fruit.  Are you fish, flesh, fowl, or good red herring?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Daughter of Eve, I will be anything you like.  I 'm obliged for the
+apple, and I apologize for having entered Eden uninvited."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's not my Eden.  Nobody invited me.  But it's not too much to say
+that these apples are grand."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I 'm glad we 're both in the same boat.  I 'm a trespasser myself.  I
+don't even know the name of the owner.  But if you have had only one
+apple, two more are coming to you, if you follow Atalanta's precedent."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't follow precedents, and I 've forgotten the name of the boy who
+threw the apples in the race.  It does n't matter, though; nothing
+matters very much."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her hands clasped her knees.  Her skirt was short, and I was conscious
+that she wore tan shoes.  She continued to regard me with lazy
+curiosity.  She seemed younger than at the Asolando.  Not more than
+eighteen times had apples reddened on the bough in her lifetime!  She
+was even slenderer and more youthful in her sweater than in the snowy
+vestments of the Asolando.  Her hair which, in the glow of the lamp at
+Asolando cash-desk had been golden, was to-day burnished copper, and
+was brushed straight back from her forehead and tied with a black
+ribbon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I quite agree with your philosophy.  Nothing is of great importance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So it's not your orchard?" she asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The thought flatters me.  I own no lands nor ships at sea.  I 'm a
+chimney doctor, and if necessary I 'll apologize for it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You needn't submit testimonials; I take the swallows out of my own
+chimneys."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That requires a deft hand, and I 'm sure you 're considerate of the
+swallows."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You may come up here and sit on the wall if you care to.  I saw you
+driving in a trap.  I hope your horse is n't afraid of motors; motors
+speed scandalously on that road."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am not in the least worried about my horse.  It's borrowed.  As you
+remarked, this is a nice orchard.  I like it here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you are going to be silly, you will find me little inclined to
+nonsense."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Shall we talk of the Asolando?  I haven't been back since I saw you
+there.  And yet,&mdash;let me see, is n't this your day there?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She seemed greatly amused; and her laughter rose with a fountain-like
+spontaneity, and fell, a splash of musical sound, on the mellow air of
+the orchard.  She had changed her position as I joined her, sitting
+erect, and kicking her heels lazily against the wall.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Chimney Man, something terrible happened just after you left that
+afternoon.  I was bounced, fired; I lost my job."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Incredible!  I 'm sure it was not for any good cause.  I can testify
+that you were a model of attention; you were surpassingly discreet.
+You repelled me in the most delicate manner when I intimated that I
+should come often on the days that you made the change."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The sad part of it was that that was not only my last day but my
+first!  I had never been there before, except for a nibble now and then
+when I was in town.  But I could n't stand it.  It was like being in
+jail; in fact, I think jail would be preferable.  But I 'm glad I spent
+that one day there.  It proved what I have long believed, that I am a
+barbarian.  That poetry on the walls of the Asolando made me tired, not
+that it is n't good poetry, but that the walls of a tea-shop are no
+place for it.  I always suspect that people who like their poetry
+framed, and who have uplift mottoes stuck in mirrors where they can
+study them while they brush their hair in the morning, never really get
+any poetry inside of them.  You need a place like this for poetry,&mdash;an
+old orchard, with blue sky and a crumbly wall to sit on.  I tried the
+Asolando as a lark, really, not because I 'm deeply entertained by that
+sort of thing.  They dispensed with my company because I remarked to
+one of the silly girls who are making the Asolando their life-work that
+I thought the English Pre-Raphaelites had carried the dish-face rather
+too far.  The girl to whom I uttered this heresy was so shocked she
+dropped a tea-cup,&mdash;you know how brittle everything is in there,&mdash;and I
+came home.  You were really the only adventure I got out of my day
+there.  And I did n't find you entirely satisfactory."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you, Francesca, for these confidences.  And having lost your
+position you are now free to roam the hills and dream on orchard walls.
+Your scheme of life is to my liking.  I can see with half an eye that
+you were born for the open, and that the walls of no prison-house can
+ever hold you again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She nodded a dreamy acquiescence.  Then she turned two very brown eyes
+full upon me and demanded:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What is your name, please?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I mentioned it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you doctor chimneys?  That sounds very amusing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I 'm glad you like it.  Most people think it absurd."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What are you doing here?  There's not a chimney in sight."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I have a commission in the neighborhood.  Hopefield Manor; you may
+have heard of Miss Hollister's place."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course; every one knows of her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And now that I think of it, it was she about whom you asked in the
+Asolando that afternoon.  You wanted to know what she said about the
+tea-room."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I remember perfectly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was quiet for a moment, then she threw back her head and laughed
+that rare laugh of hers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You might let me into the joke."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It would n't mean anything to you.  I have a lot of private jokes that
+are for my own consumption."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your way of laughing is adorable.  I hope to hear more of it.  In the
+Asolando you repulsed me in a manner that won my admiration, but I
+venture to say now that, if you roam these pastures, I am the grass
+beneath your feet; and if yonder tuneful water be sacred to you, I sit
+beside the brook to learn its song."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You talk well, sir, but from your tone I fear you can't forget that we
+met first in the Asolando.  That day of my life is past, and I am by no
+means what you might call an Asolandad.  I don't seem to impress you
+with that fact.  I 'm a human being, not to be picked like a red apple,
+or trampled upon like grass, or listened to as though I were a foolish
+little brook.  I 'm greatly given to the highway, and I prefer macadam.
+I like asphalt pavements, too, for the matter of that.  I should love a
+motor, but lacking the coin I pedal a bicycle.  My wheel lies down
+there in the bushes.  You see, Mr. Chimney Man, I am a plain-spoken
+person and have no intention of deceiving you.  My name was Francesca
+for one day only.  It may interest you to know that my real name is
+Hezekiah."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I must have shouted it; she seemed startled by my violence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have pronounced it correctly," she remarked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you are Cecilia's sister and Miss Hollister's niece."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Guilty."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And you live?"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Over there somewhere, beyond that ridge," and she waved her hand
+vaguely toward the village and laughed again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pray tell me what this particular joke is: it must be immensely
+funny," I urged, struggling with these new facts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it's Aunt Octavia!  She will be the death of me yet!  You know the
+girl who waited on Aunt Octavia that afternoon took all that artistic
+nonsense as seriously as a funeral, and she told me after you left,
+with the greatest horror, that Aunt Octavia had asked for a cocktail!"
+That laugh rippled off again to carry joy along the planet-trails above
+us.  "But you know," she resumed, "that Aunt Octavia never drank a
+cocktail in her life,&mdash;and would n't!  She does n't know a cocktail
+from soothing syrup!  She pines for adventures.  She is just like a
+boarding-school girl who has read her first romance of the young
+American engineer in a South American republic, shooting the insurgents
+full of tortillas and marrying the president's dark-eyed daughter.  She
+reads pirate books and is crazy about buried chests and pieces of
+eight.  And they say I 'm just like her!  She is the most perfectly
+killing person in the world!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hezekiah laughed again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So this was the child whose devotion had rendered Wiggins so miserable,
+and the sister of whom Cecilia Hollister and her aunt had spoken so
+strangely.  I had not suspected it.  She was as unlike Cecilia as
+possible, and the difference lay in her independent spirit and bubbling
+humor.  Her individuality was more pronounced.  You took her, without
+debate, on her own ground; and though she had expressed a preference
+for macadam, she seemed related to the days when maidens sat on sunny
+walls and were not disappointed in their expectation that light-footed
+youths, or mayhap winged sons of the Olympians, would reward patient
+waiting.  But at the same time she struck the note of modernity.  Her
+flings at the Asolando were reassuring; she was a healthy-minded,
+vigorous young woman whose nature protested against affectation and
+pose.  She rebelled against closed doors, whether those of town or
+country.  I am myself much of a cockney, and not averse to asphalt and
+streets ablaze with electric banners.  My imagination sprang to meet
+this Hezekiah.  I had, in fact, a feeling that I had waited for her
+somewhere in some earlier incarnation.  She jumped down from the wall,
+shook three apples from a tree, and sustained them in the air with the
+deftness and certainty of practised <I>jonglerie</I>.  Her absorption was
+complete, and when she wearied of this sport, she flung the apples
+away, one after the other, with a boy's free swing of the arm.  Herrick
+would have delighted in her; Dobson would have spun her bright hair
+into a rondeau; but only Aldrich, with a twinkle in his eye, could have
+brought her up to date in a dozen chiming couplets.  I felt that no
+matter how much one admired and respected this Hezekiah one would never
+deal with her in the phrases of drawing-rooms.  Her charming
+inadvertences made this impossible; and it was the part of discretion
+to await her own initiative.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had gone on up to the crest of the orchard, and stood clearly
+limned against the sky, her hands thrust into the pockets of her
+sweater.  She appeared to be intent upon something that lay beyond, and
+half turned her head and summoned me by whistling.  I liked this better
+than the quotation method of address.  It was a clear shrill pipe, that
+whistle, and she emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm.
+When I stood beside her I was surprised to find that the site commanded
+a wide area, including the unmistakable roofs and chimneys of Hopefield
+Manor half a mile distant.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-125"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-125.jpg" ALT="She emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+She emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"You will see something funny down there in a minute.  They are out of
+sight now, but there 's a stile&mdash;the kind with steps, just beyond those
+trees.  It's in a path that leads from the Prescott Arms to Aunt
+Octavia's.  Look!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My eyes discovered the stile.  It was set in a wall that was, she told
+me, the boundary dividing Hopefield Manor from another estate nearer
+our position.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Suddenly a silk hat bobbed in the path beyond the stile; it rose as its
+owner mounted the steps; it paused an instant when the top of the stile
+was reached; then quickly descended, and came toward us, a black blot
+above a black coat.  I was about to ask her the meaning of this
+apparition when a second silk hat bobbed in the path and then rose like
+its predecessor, descending and keeping on its way until hidden from
+our sight by shrubbery.  A third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,
+eighth, and ninth followed.  Nine gentlemen in silk hats crossing a
+stile in a lonely pasture between woodlands; so much was plain to the
+eye from our vantage-ground; but I groped blindly for an explanation of
+this spectacle.  The bobbing hats and dark coats suggested wanderers
+from some dark Plutonian cave, bent upon mischief to the upper world.
+Their step was jaunty; they moved as though drilled to the same cadence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We waited a moment, expecting that another figure might join the
+strange procession, but nine was the correct count.  I looked down to
+find Hezekiah checking them off on the fingers of her slim brown hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Has there been a funeral and are they the returning pall-bearers?" I
+inquired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not yet," she replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her face showed amusement; the twitching of her lips encouraged hope
+that another of those delightful laughs was imminent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was positively weird," I said.  "It reminds me of a dream I used to
+have, when I was a boy, of a long line of Chinamen running along the
+top of a great wall,&mdash;an interminable procession.  I must have dreamed
+that dream a hundred times.  I could hear the pigtails of those fellows
+flapping against their backs as they trotted along, and the soft
+scraping of their sandals on the smooth surface of the wall.  But the
+pot hats are equally eerie and unaccountable to my dull
+twentieth-century senses.  Pray tell me the answer, Hezekiah."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, those are Cecilia's suitors.  They've been to Aunt Octavia's to
+tea.  They 're staying at the Prescott Arms probably."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They 're terribly formal.  I can't get rid of the impression of
+sombreness created by those fellows.  You 'd hardly expect them to
+tramp cross country in those duds.  Such grandeur should go on wheels."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, they are afraid of Aunt Octavia!  She won't allow a motor on her
+grounds; and I suppose they 're afraid they might break some other rule
+if they went on any kind of wheels.  She 's rather exacting, you know,
+my aunt Octavia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was at the Prescott for luncheon to-day, and I must have seen these
+gentlemen there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, <I>you</I> were at the Prescott?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Almost for the first time her manner betrayed surprise; but mischief
+danced in the brown eyes.  With Wiggins's confession as to the havoc he
+had played with Hezekiah's confiding heart fresh in my memory, I felt a
+delicacy about telling her that it was to see Wiggins that I had
+visited the inn.  But to my surprise she introduced the subject of
+Wiggins immediately, and with laughter struggling for one of those
+fountain-like splashes that were so beguiling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, Wiggy is staying there!  Do you know Wiggy?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Know Wiggy, Hezekiah?  I know no man better."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wiggy is no end of fun, isn't he?  I've heard him speak of you.  You
+are his friend the Chimney Man.  He was the last man over the stile.
+Did you notice that he lingered a moment longer at the top than the
+others?  From his being the ninth man I imagine that he was the last to
+leave the house, and he probably felt that this set him apart from the
+others.  Wiggy is nothing if not shy and retiring."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A heart-broken, love-lorn girl did not speak here.  She whistled softly
+to herself as we descended.  The air was cooling rapidly, and the west
+was hung in scarlet and purple and gold.  The horse neighed in the road
+below, and I knew that I must be on my way to the Manor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah," I said, when I had drawn her bicycle from its hiding-place,
+"you 'd better leave your wheel here and let me drive you home.  It's
+late and there 's frost in the air.  I imagine it's some distance to
+your house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you, Mr. Chimney Man; but it is much farther to Aunt Octavia's,
+for you have to make a long circuit around the hills.  And besides, as
+we met in the orchard, it would be altogether too commonplace a
+conclusion of our adventure for you to drive me home behind a mere
+horse.  But tell me this: what do you think of Wiggy's chances?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of winning your sister?  I should say from my knowledge of Wiggins
+that he is a man much given to staying in a game once the cards are
+shuffled."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She nodded, standing beside her wheel, her hands on the bars.  Her
+manner was contemplative; her eyes for a moment were deep, shadowless
+pools of reverie.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you think he knows the game?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There seemed to be something beneath the surface meaning of her words,
+but I answered:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wiggy's affairs have been few, and while he may not know the game in
+all its intricacies, he has a shrewd if rather slow mind, and besides,
+he has asked my help in the matter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One of these speak-for-yourself-John situations, then?  Well, I should
+say, Mr. Chimney Man, I should say"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She made ready for flight, looking ahead to be sure of a clear
+thoroughfare.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should say," she concluded, settling her skirts, "that that
+indicates considerable intelligence on Wiggy's part."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The tires rolled smoothly away; the gravel crunching, the pebbles
+popping.  The white sweater clasped a straight back snugly; then
+suddenly, as the wheels gained momentum, she bent low for a spurt, and
+her rapidly receding figure became a gray blur in the purple dusk.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+VIII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia was in the gayest spirits at dinner that night, and struck
+afield at once with one of her amusing dicta.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Human beings," she said, "may be divided into two groups,&mdash;interesting
+and uninteresting; but idiots abound in both classes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia and I discussed this with more or less gravity, until we had
+exhausted the possibilities, Miss Octavia following with apparent
+interest and setting us off at a new tangent when our enthusiasm
+lagged.  She referred in no way whatever to her chimneys, nor did she
+ask me how I had spent the day.  I felt the pleading of Cecilia's eyes
+that I should accept the situation as it stood, and having already
+agreed to Wiggins's suggestion that I abide in Miss Hollister's house
+as a spy,&mdash;for this was the ignoble fact,&mdash;I felt the threads of
+conspiracy binding me fast.  So far as my hostess was concerned, I was
+now less a guest than a member of the household.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The variety of subjects that Miss Octavia suggested was amazing.  From
+aeronautics to the negro question, from polar exploration to the
+political conditions in Bulgaria, she passed with the jauntiest
+insouciance and apparently with a considerable fund of information to
+support her positions.  She knew many people in all walks of life.  I
+remember that she spoke with the greatest freedom of the Governor of
+Indiana, whom she had met on a railway journey.  She quoted this
+gentleman's utterances with keenest zest.  His anecdotal range she
+declared to be the widest and raciest she had ever encountered in a
+considerable acquaintance with public characters.  She thought the
+Hoosier statesman eminently fitted by reason of his acute sense of
+humor for the office of president.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That man," said Miss Octavia, "was splendidly equipped for handling
+the most perplexing affairs of state.  It seemed absurd that his public
+services should be limited to the petty business of a commonwealth
+whose chief products are pawpaws, persimmons, and politics.  The
+governor told me that before his election he had been sorely beset by
+reformers.  They had teased him persistently to express his views on
+the most absurd questions.  They wanted him to promise all manner of
+things before they gave him their support.  And finally, to appease
+them, he answered that he would combine their questions in one and
+reply to all that, the earth being round, he would, if elected, do all
+in his power to make it square.  This he found to be perfectly
+satisfactory to the reformers.  Solomon was a mere tyro in wisdom
+compared with that man.  You would n't expect so much sagacity in one
+who, by his own frank confession, had been raised on fried meat, and
+who declared that if grand opera were attempted in his state he would
+suspend the writ of habeas corpus and call out the militia to suppress
+it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was not at all sure whether the governor whom she quoted with so
+great delight was an actual person or a myth upon whom Miss Octavia
+hung her own whimsicalities; but as if to rebuke my skepticism, she
+dwelt on this personage at considerable length, inviting my own and
+Cecilia's questions as to her knowledge of him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I didn't suppose," remarked Cecilia provocatively, "that Indiana was
+really a place that you could go to on trains, but a kind of imaginary
+kingdom like Eppenwelzen-Sarkeld or Grunewald or Zenda, or an extinct
+place in Asia where lions crouch upon the ruins in the moonlight."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Indiana," said Miss Octavia sternly, "is a commonwealth for which I
+have always had the greatest veneration, and which, in due course, I
+hope to visit.  In the early seventies my father, the late Hezekiah
+Hollister, invested a considerable part of his fortune in Indiana
+farm-mortgages.  On these investments the interest was paid with only
+the greatest reluctance and in the most fitful fashion.  This, I think,
+argues for a keen sense of humor in the Hoosier people.  Interest is
+something that I should never think of paying in any circumstances, as
+I have always considered it immoral.  My father, keenly enjoying the
+playfulness of the Hoosiers in this particular, saved himself from loss
+merely by raising the price of baby-cabs throughout the world, and gave
+the mortgages as a free gift to the Society for the Amelioration of the
+Condition of Good Indians.  All the good Indians being dead, the
+society had no expenses except officers' salaries, and as the Hoosiers
+gave up politics for a season and raised enough corn to pay their
+debts, the society became enormously rich."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As we rose from the table Miss Octavia declared that she must show me
+the pie-pantry.  I was now so accustomed to her ways that I should not
+have been in the least surprised if she had proposed opening a steel
+vault filled with a mummified Egyptian dynasty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The gentleman who built this house," she explained, "had already grown
+rich in the manufacture of the famous ribless umbrella before he
+acquired a second fortune from a nostrum warranted to cure dyspepsia.
+He was inordinately fond of pies, and in order that this form of pastry
+might never be absent from his home, he had a special pantry built to
+which he might adjourn at his pleasure without any fear of finding the
+cupboard bare."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She led the way through the butler's pantry and into a small cupboarded
+room adjoining the table-linen closet.  At her command the butler threw
+open the doors, and disclosed lines of shelves so arranged as to
+accommodate, in the most compact and orderly form imaginable, several
+dozens of pies.  These pastries, in the pans as they had come from the
+oven, peeped out invitingly.  Miss Octavia explained their presence in
+her usual impressive manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was one of the conditions of the sale of this house to me by the
+original owner's executors that the pie-vault should be kept filled at
+all times, whether I am in residence here or not.  He felt greatly
+indebted to pie for the success of the dyspepsia cure.  It had widened
+and steadily increased the market for the cure, and pie was to him a
+consecrated and sacred food.  It was his habit to eat a pie every night
+before retiring, and on the nightmares thus inspired he had planned the
+strategy of all his campaigns against dyspepsia.  The man had elements
+of greatness, and these shelves are a monument to his genius.  In order
+to keep perfect my title to this property it is necessary for me to
+maintain a pastry-cook, and as I do not myself care greatly for
+pie&mdash;though contrary to common experience I have found it a splendid
+antephialtic&mdash;the total output is distributed among the people of the
+neighborhood every second day.  The station agent at Bedford is a heavy
+consumer, and a retired physician at Mt. Kisco has a standing order for
+a dozen a week.  My niece Hezekiah, of whom you have heard me speak, is
+partial to a particular type of pie and one only.  It is the gooseberry
+that delights Hezekiah's palate, and under G in File 3, in the corner
+behind you, there is even now a gooseberry pie that I shall send to
+Hezekiah, who, for reasons I need not explain, does not now visit here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But the dyspepsia man&mdash;you speak of him as though he were dead."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your assumption is correct, Mr. Ames.  The builder of Hopefield died
+only a few weeks after he had established himself in this house.
+Having entered upon the enjoyment of his well-earned leisure, and made
+it unnecessary that he should ever go pieless to bed, he gave himself
+up for a fortnight to a mad indulgence in meringues, and died after
+great suffering, steadily refusing his own medicine to the end."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We still lingered in the pie-crypt after this diverting recital, while
+Miss Octavia entertained me with her views on pies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The soul-color of pies varies greatly, Mr. Ames.  It has always seemed
+to me that apple-pie stands for the homelier virtues of our
+civilization; it is substantial, nutritious and filling.  The custard
+and lemon varieties are feminine, and do not, perhaps for that reason,
+appeal to me.  Cherry-pie at its best is the last and final expression
+of the pie genus, and where cooks have been careful in eliminating the
+seeds, and the juice hasn't made sodden dough of the crust, a
+cherry-pie meets the soul's highest demands.  Grape and raisin-pie are
+on my cook's <I>index expurgatorius</I>; I consider them neither palatable
+nor respectable.  But rhubarb is the most odious pie of all, in my
+judgment.  It suggests the pharmacopoeia&mdash;only that and no thing more.
+You will pardon me for mentioning the matter, but one of my gardeners,
+a Swiss, crawled in here two nights ago and stole a rhubarb-pie, which,
+I rejoice to say, made him hideously ill.  The R's, you will notice,
+are placed near the floor and within easy reach of any larcenous hand.
+The ease of his approach was his undoing.  The pumpkin variety reaches
+almost the same lofty heights as the cherry.  When not over-dosed with
+spices, a pumpkin-pie conveys a sense of the October landscape that is
+the despair of the best painters.  In the gooseberry I find a certain
+raciness, or if I may use the expression, zip, that is highly
+stimulating.  Both qualities you will observe in Hezekiah if you come
+to know her well.  The thought of blackberry or raspberry-pie depresses
+me, but huckleberry buoys the spirit again.  The huckleberry seems to
+me to voice a protest, and unless managed with the greatest neatness
+and circumspection it is bound to stimulate the laundry business.  As
+any one who would eat a cooked strawberry would steal a sick baby's
+rattle, I need hardly say that the strawberry-pies, even in their
+season, shall have no place on these shelves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So it is the gooseberry that Miss Hezekiah prefers," I remarked with
+feigned carelessness, as we walked toward the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is, Mr. Ames; and I trust that your inquiry implies no reflection
+on Hezekiah's judgment."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quite the reverse, Miss Hollister.  It is not going too far to say
+that I have formed a high opinion of Miss Hezekiah, and that I should
+deal harshly with any one who ventured to criticise her in any
+particular."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Will you kindly inform me just when you made the acquaintance of my
+younger niece?  I should greatly dislike to believe you guilty of
+dissimulation, but when Hezekiah was mentioned in the gun-room last
+night your silence led me to assume that she was wholly unknown to you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She was, I assure you, at the dinner-hour last night; but I met her
+quite by chance this afternoon, in an orchard at no great distance from
+this house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I did not think it necessary to mention the Asolando, as Hezekiah
+herself had taken pains to avoid her aunt in the tea room.  It was
+clear that my words had interested Miss Octavia.  She paused in the
+hall, and bent her head in thought for a moment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"May I inquire whether she referred in any way to Mr. Wiggins in this
+interview?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She did, Miss Hollister," I replied; and I could not help smiling as I
+remembered Hezekiah's laughter at the mention of my friend.  My smile
+did not escape Miss Octavia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just how, may I ask, did she refer to Mr. Wiggins?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As though she thought him the funniest of human beings.  She laughed
+deliciously at the bare mention of his name."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was not your impression, then, that she was deeply enamored of him;
+that she was eating her heart out for him?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister.  She gave me quite a different idea."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You relieve me greatly.  Mr. Wiggins's sense of humor is the
+slightest, and I should not in the least fancy him for Hezekiah.  And
+besides, I am not yet ready to arrange a marriage for her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She laid the slightest stress on the final pronoun.  It was a fair
+inference, then, that Miss Cecilia's affairs were being "arranged;"
+when they had been determined, a husband would be found for Hezekiah.
+But had there ever existed before, anywhere in the Copernican system, a
+wealthy aunt so delightfully irresponsible, so vertiginous in her
+mental processes, so happily combining the maddest quixotism with the
+bold spirit of the Elizabethan mariners!  My faith in the real
+sweetness and kindliness of her nature was unshaken by her
+capriciousness.  I did not doubt that her intentions toward her nieces
+were the friendliest, no matter what strange devices she might employ
+to bend those young women to her purposes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She disappeared in the hall without excuse, and I entered the library
+to find Cecilia sitting alone by the fire.  She put aside a book she
+had been reading, and seeing that her aunt had not followed me, asked
+at once as to my visit to the inn.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I conveyed your message," I answered; "but you have seen Mr. Wiggins
+since, unless I am greatly mistaken."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; he called this afternoon.  We had several callers at the
+tea-hour.  I had rather expected you back."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The fact is," I replied, "that after I had taken luncheon at the
+Prescott Arms, I got lost among the hills, and while in the act of
+robbing an apple-orchard I came most unexpectedly upon your sister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The same; and oddly enough, I had met her before, though I did n't
+realize it was she until the meeting in the orchard.  It was in the
+Asolando that I saw her; she was at the cashier's wicket the afternoon
+I met your aunt there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She seemed puzzled for a moment; then her eyes brightened, and she
+laughed; but her laugh was not like Hezekiah's.  Cecilia's mirth had
+its own expression.  It was touched with a sweet gravity, and her
+laughter was such as one would expect from the Milo if that divine
+marble were to yield to mirth.  Cecilia grew upon me: there was magic
+in her loveliness; she was a finished product.  It seemed inconceivable
+that she and the fair-haired girl with whom I had exchanged banter in
+the upland orchard were daughters of one mother.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have given me information, Mr. Ames.  I did not know that Hezekiah
+had ever been connected with the Asolando."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it was only that one historic day.  She says the place was
+unbearable.  She jarred the holiest chords of the divine lyre by harsh
+comments on the Pre-Raphaelite profile.  One of the devotees was so
+shocked that she dropped a plate or something, and, to put it coarsely,
+Hezekiah got the bounce."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My description of Hezekiah's brief tenure of office at the Asolando
+seemed to amuse Cecilia greatly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is no one like my sister," she said; "there never was and there
+never will be any one half so charming.  Hezekiah is an original, who
+breaks all the rules and yet always sends the ball over the net.  And
+it is because she is so inexpressibly dear and precious that I am
+anxious that nothing shall ever hurt her,&mdash;nothing mar the sweet,
+beautiful child-spirit in her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was my turn to laugh now.  Cecilia's manifestation of maternal
+solicitude for Hezekiah seemed absurd.  For Hezekiah, in her way, was
+older; Hezekiah had raced with Diana and plucked arrows from her
+girdle; she had heard Homer at the roadside singing of Achilles' shield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah is reasonably safe, I should say, because she is so amazingly
+swift of foot and eye, and so nimble of speech.  She is not to be
+caught in a net or tripped with a word."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose that is so," remarked Cecilia soberly.  "You thought her
+happy when you met her to-day?  She did not strike you as being a girl
+with a wound in her heart?  She was n't particularly <I>triste</I>?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not more so than sunlight on rippled water or the song of the lark
+ascending."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course you made no reference to Mr. Wiggins?  If I had imagined you
+would meet her I should have"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She ended with an embarrassment that I now understood, and I broke in
+cheerfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We did mention him.  She asked me if I had seen him, and it was the
+thought of him that evoked her merriest laughter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She shook her head and sighed; then her manner changed abruptly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You delivered my message to Mr. Wiggins?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I did.  He is badly out of sorts and sees nothing clearly.  He is very
+bitter toward your aunt.  He thinks she has treated him outrageously."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aunt Octavia has done nothing of the kind," she replied with spirit.
+"Mr. Wiggins has no right to speak of Aunt Octavia save in terms of
+kindness.  If her wits are sharper than his, it is not her fault, that
+I can see!  But there are matters here that I do not understand, Mr.
+Ames.  I trust you, as my aunt evidently does, or I should not be
+talking to you as I am; and I am moved to ask a favor of you,&mdash;a favor
+of considerable weight in view of the fact that you are a professional
+man with doubtless many pressing calls upon your time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I bowed humbly before this compliment.  My time had been lightly
+appraised by Miss Octavia and again by Wiggins.  A long telegram from
+my assistant that reached me while I dressed for dinner had urged my
+immediate attendance upon my office.  Some of my best clients, now
+reopening their houses for the winter, were in desperate straits.  From
+the number of appeals for help reported by my assistant I judged that
+all the chimneys in the republic had grown obstreperous.  But Father
+Time learned early in his career that to women his scythe's edge has no
+terrors.  In this instance I must admit that if Cecilia Hollister
+wished to cut a few days out of my reasonable expectation of life it
+was not for me to plead sick chimneys as an excuse for declining to
+serve her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In fact, I had never found myself so close upon the heels of the
+adventure that we all crave as since making the acquaintance of the
+Hollisters.  Octavia Hollisters do not occur in the life of every young
+man, and both Cecilia and Hezekiah had taken strong hold upon my
+imagination.  Wiggins's place among the dramatis personæ would in
+itself have compelled my sympathetic attention; and the nine silk hats
+that I had seen bobbing over the stile still danced before my eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Hollister," I said, "my time is yours to command.  My office is
+well organized, and I am sure that my assistant is equal to any demands
+that may be made upon him.  Pray state in what manner I may serve you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am going far, I know, Mr. Ames, but I beg that you will not be in
+haste to leave my aunt's house.  She must have been strongly prejudiced
+in your favor, or she would not have asked you here on so short
+acquaintance.  I am confident that she has no thought of your leaving.
+She expressed her great liking for you at luncheon, and I am sure that
+she will see to it that you do not lack for entertainment.  I assume
+that you must have gathered from what Mr. Wiggins told you of my
+acquaintance with him the peculiar plight in which I am placed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I bowed.  If she groped in the dark and needed my help in finding the
+light, I was not the man to desert her.  I had dropped my plumb-line
+into too many dark chimneys not to feel the fascination of mystery.  As
+I expressed again my entire willingness to abide at Hopefield Manor as
+long as she wished, the footman announced Mr. Hartley Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We had hardly exchanged greetings before another man was announced, and
+then another.  I should say that it was at intervals of about three
+minutes that the sedate servant appeared in the curtained doorway and
+announced a caller, until nine had been admitted.  My spirits soared
+high as the gentlemen from the Prescott Arms appeared one after the
+other.  The earlier arrivals rose to greet the later ones,&mdash;and as they
+were all in evening clothes I experienced, as when I had seen the same
+gentlemen in their afternoon raiment crossing the stile, a sense of
+something fantastic and eerie in them.  There was nothing unusual about
+them, taken as individuals; collectively they were like life-size
+studies in black and white that had stepped from their frames for an
+evening's recreation.  Cecilia introduced me in the order of their
+arrival; and in the interest of brevity, and to avoid confusion, I
+tabulate them here, with a notation as to their residence and
+occupation, taking such data from the notebook in which, at subsequent
+dates, I set down the facts which are the basis of this chronicle.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+HARTLEY WIGGINS, Lawyer and Farmer; Hare and Tortoise Club, New York.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+LINNÆUS B. HENDERSON, Planter; Roanoke, Virginia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+CECIL HUGH, LORD ARROWOOD, no occupation; Arrowood, Hants, England.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DANIEL P. ORMSBY, Manufacturer of Knit Goods; Utica, New York.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+S. FORREST HUME, Lecturer on Scandinavian Literature, Occidental
+University; Long Trail, Oklahoma.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+JOHN STEWART DICK, Pragmatist; Omaha, Nebraska.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+PENDENNIS J. ARBUTHNOT, Banker and Horseman; Lexington, Kentucky.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+PERCIVAL B. SHALLENBERGER, Novelist and Small Fruits; Sycamore, Indiana.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+GEORGE W. GORSE, Capitalist; Redlands, California.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+We rose and stood in our several places when, a moment later, Miss
+Octavia entered.  She greeted the suitors graciously, and then, in her
+most charming manner, called one after the other to sit beside her on a
+long davenport, the time apportioned being weighed with nicety, so that
+none might feel himself slighted or preferred.  These interviews
+consumed more than half an hour, and the movement thus occasioned gave
+considerable animation to the scene.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It may seem ridiculous that nine gentlemen thus paying court to a young
+woman should call upon her at the same hour, but I must say that the
+gravity of the suitors and the entire sobriety of Cecilia did not
+affect me humorously.  Nor did I feel at all out of place in this
+strange company.  I found myself agreeably engaged for several minutes
+in discussing Ibsen with the Oklahoma professor, who proved to be a
+delightful fellow.  His experience of life was apparently wide, and he
+told me with an engaging frankness of his meeting with the Hollisters
+in France and of his pursuit of them over many weary parasangs the
+previous summer.  As no one had elected his courses in the university
+at the beginning of the fall term, he had been granted a leave of
+absence, and this accounted for his freedom to press his suit at
+Hopefield Manor at this season.  He was a big fellow, with clean-cut
+features, and bore himself with a manly determination that I found
+attractive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He alone, I may say, of the nine men who had thus appeared in Miss
+Octavia's library, met me in a cordial spirit.  Even Wiggins seemed not
+wholly pleased to find me there again, though he had asked me to
+remain.  The manner of the others expressed either disdain, suspicion,
+or fierce hostility, and Lord Arrowood, who was older than the others
+and a man well advanced toward middle age, glared at me so savagely
+with his pale blue eyes, that I should have laughed in his face in any
+other circumstances.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the last man rose from the davenport, Miss Octavia called me to
+her side.  She seemed contrite at having neglected me during the day,
+but assured me that later she hoped to place an entire day at my
+disposal.  As we talked, the nine suitors sat in a semicircle about
+Cecilia, while the group listened to an anecdotal exchange between
+Professor Hume and Henderson, the Virginia planter.  My opinion of
+Cecilia Hollister as a girl of high spirit, able to carry off any
+situation no matter how difficult, rose to new altitudes as I watched
+her.  If this strange wooing <I>en bloc</I> was not to her liking, she
+certainly made the best of it.  She capped Henderson's best story with
+a better one, in negro dialect, and no professional entertainer could
+have improved upon her recital.  As she finished we all joined in the
+general laugh, Lord Arrowood's guffaw booming out a trifle
+boisterously, when Miss Octavia quietly rose and excused herself.
+About five minutes later, when the company had plunged into another
+series of anecdotes, I suddenly became conscious that the fireplace,
+near which I sat, had all at once begun to act strangely.  Much in the
+manner of its performance the previous night, it abruptly gasped and
+choked; the smoke ballooned in a great swirl and then poured out into
+the room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After my examination of the flues in the morning, I had dismissed them
+from my mind, and this extraordinary behavior of the library fireplace
+astounded me.  It is not in reason that a perfectly normal fireplace,
+built in the most approved fashion, and with chimneys that rise into as
+clear an ether as October can bestow, could act so monstrously without
+the intervention of some malign agency.  We had discussed all the
+possibilities the previous night, and I was not anxious to hear further
+lay opinions.  The chimney's conduct was annoying, the more so that to
+my professional sense it was inexplicable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lord Arrowood had retreated discreetly toward the door, and the others
+had risen and stood close behind Cecilia, whose gaze was bent rather
+accusingly upon me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A dark thought had crossed my mind.  As our eyes met, I felt that she
+had read my suspicions and did not wholly reject them.  Henderson was
+valiantly poking the logs, while one or two of the other men gave him
+the benefit of their advice.  I crossed the hall to the drawing-room,
+but no one was there.  I went back to the billiard-room, but saw
+nothing of Miss Octavia.  Cecilia had rung for the footman, and I
+passed him in the hall on his way to answer her summons.  I stopped him
+with an inquiry on my lips; but I could not ask the question; even in
+my perplexity as to the cause of the chimney's remarkable performances
+I did not so far forget myself as to communicate my suspicion to a
+servant.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing, Thomas," I said; and the man passed on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was possible, of course, that Miss Octavia knew more than she cared
+to tell about the erratic ways of the library chimney, or she might
+indeed be the cause of its vagaries.  Sufficient time had elapsed after
+her retirement from the library to allow her to gain the roof and clap
+a stopper on the chimney-pot.  This did not however account for the
+fact that on the previous evening she had been present in the library
+when the same chimney had manifested a similar sulkiness.  I was still
+pondering these things when I heard loud laughter from the library, and
+on returning found the logs again blazing in the fireplace, from which
+the smoke rose demurely in the flue.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This fireplace is like a geyser, Mr. Ames," said Cecilia, "and spurts
+smoke at regular intervals.  As I remember, the clock on the stair was
+striking nine last night when the smoke poured out, and there&mdash;it is
+striking nine now!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She tossed her head slightly; and this was, I thought, in disdain of
+the suspicion that must still have shown itself a little stubbornly in
+my face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I withdrew again in a few minutes, and followed the great chimney's
+course upward.  Miss Octavia's apartments were at the front of the
+house, her sitting-room windows looking out upon the Italian garden.
+Her doors were closed, but I knew from my examination in the morning
+that the flue of her fireplace tapped the chimney that rose from the
+drawing-room, and had nothing whatever to do with the library chimney.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From the fourth floor I gained the roof, by the route followed on my
+inspection of the house in the morning.  The smoke from the library
+chimney was rising in the crisp, still air blithely.  I leaned upon the
+crenelations and looked off across the hills, enjoying the loveliness
+of the sky, in which the planets throbbed superbly.  There was nothing
+to be learned here, and I crept back to the trap-door through which I
+had come, made it fast, and continued on down to the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There, somewhat to my surprise, I found that in my absence all but Hume
+had taken their departure.  As I paused unseen in the doorway, I caught
+words that were clearly not intended for my ear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia sat by the long table near the fireplace; Hume stood before
+her, his arms folded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are kind; you do me great honor, Professor Hume, but under no
+circumstances can I become your wife."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I retreated hastily to the billiard-room, where I took a cue from the
+rack and amused myself for perhaps fifteen minutes, when, hearing the
+outer door close and knowing that Hume had departed with his congee, I
+returned to the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia sat where I had left her, and at first glance I thought she was
+reading; but she turned quickly as I crossed the room.  She held in her
+hand an oblong silver trinket not larger than a card-case.  A short
+pencil similar to those affixed to dance-cards was attached to it by a
+slight cord, and she had, I inferred, been making a notation of some
+kind on a leaf of the silver-bound booklet.  Even after she had looked
+up and smiled at me, her eyes sought the page before her; then she
+closed the covers and clasped the pretty toy in her hand.  As though to
+divert my attention she recurred at once to the chimney, in a vein of
+light irony.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You see," she said, "there is ample reason for your remaining here.
+You would hardly find anywhere else so interesting a test of your
+professional powers as Hopefield Manor offers.  The house is haunted
+beyond question, and I can see that you are not a man to leave two
+defenseless women to the mercy of a ghost who drops down chimneys at
+will."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I suffered her chaff for several minutes, then I asked point-blank:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pardon me, but have you the slightest idea that Miss Octavia is behind
+this?  It is not possible that she was responsible last night; but she
+was not on this floor a while ago when the smoke poured in here.  I
+should be glad to hear your opinion."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I saw that you suspected her before you left the room, Mr. Ames, and I
+must say that the idea is in no way creditable to you.  If you
+entertain such a suspicion you must supply a motive, and just what
+motive would you attribute to my Aunt Octavia in this instance?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her tone and manner piqued me, or I should not have answered as I did.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is possible," I said, "that some of these gentlemen who came here
+to-night were not to her liking, and it may have occurred to her to get
+rid of them by the obviously successful method of smoking them out."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She rose, still clasping the little silver-backed note-book, and looked
+me over with amusement in her face and eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are almost too ingenious, Mr. Ames.  I hope that by breakfast-time
+you will have some more plausible solution of the problem.  Good-night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And so, tightly clasping the little book, she left the room.  I
+followed her to the door, and at the turn of the stair she glanced down
+and nodded.  Her face, as it hung above me for an instant, seemed
+transfigured with happiness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But, as will appear, my adventures for the day were not concluded.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+IX
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+It was not yet ten o'clock, and I was dismayed at the thought of being
+left to my own devices in this big country-house, at an hour when the
+talk at the Hare and Tortoise usually became worth while.  I sat down
+and began to turn over the periodicals on the library table, but I was
+in no mood for reading.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The butler appeared and offered me drink, but the thought of drinking
+alone did not appeal to me.  I repelled the suggestion coldly; but
+after I had dropped my eyes to the English review I had taken up, I was
+conscious that he stood his ground.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Beg pardon, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hit's a bit hod about the chimney, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The professional man in me was at once alert.  The chimney's conduct
+was inexplicable enough, but I was in no humor to brook the theories of
+a stupid servant.  Still, he might know something, so I nodded for him
+to go on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He glanced over his shoulder and came a step nearer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They say in the village, sir, that the 'ouse is 'aunted."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Aunted, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Who say it, James?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The liveryman told the coachman, and the 'ousemaid got hit from a
+seamstress.  Hit's werry queer, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Rubbish, James.  I 'm amazed that a person of your station should
+listen to a liveryman's gossip.  There 's the chimney, it's working
+perfectly.  Some shift of air-currents causes it to puff a little smoke
+into this room occasionally, but those things are not related to the
+supernatural.  We 'll find some way of correcting it in a day or two."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Werry good, sir.  But begging pardon, the chimney hain't hall.  Hit
+walks, if I may so hexpress hit."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Walks?" I exclaimed, sitting up and throwing down my review.  "What
+walks?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You 'ear hit, sir, hin the walls.  Hit goes right through the solid
+brick, most hunaccountable."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You hear a mouse in the walls and think it's a ghost?  But you forget,
+James, that this is a new house,&mdash;only a year or so old,&mdash;and spooks
+don't frequent such places.  If it were an old place, it might be
+possible that the creaking of floors and the settling of walls would
+cause uneasiness in nervous people.  The ghost tradition usually rests
+on some ugly fact.  But here nothing of the kind is present."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he answered hoarsely.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-159"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-159.jpg" ALT="&quot;Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir,&quot; he answered hoarsely." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+&quot;Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir,&quot; he answered hoarsely.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+It flashed over me that this big stolid fellow was out of his head; but
+sane or mad he was clearly greatly disturbed.  It was best, I thought,
+on either hypothesis, to speak to him peremptorily, and I rose, the
+better to deal with the situation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What nonsense is this you have in your head?  You 're in the United
+States, and there are n't any majesty's soldiers to deal with.  You
+forget that you 're not in England now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But this 'ere country used to be Henglish, you may recall, sir.  The
+story the coachman got hin the village goes back to the hold times,
+sir, when the colonies was hin rebellion, if I may so call hit, sir,
+and 'is majesty's troops was puttin' down the rebellion hin these
+parts.  Some American rebels chased a British soldier from hover near
+White Plains to these 'ere woods as they was then, and they 'anged 'im,
+sir, right where this 'ere 'ouse stands, if I may make so free."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah!  This is a revolutionary relic, then?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You 'ave got hit, sir," he sputtered eagerly.  "They 'anged the man
+right 'ere where the 'ouse stands."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's not a bad story, James.  And what does your mistress say about
+it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, sir; hit's the talk hin the village that that's why she bought
+the place, sir.  She rather fancies ghosts and the like, as you may
+know, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Be careful what you say, James.  Miss Hollister is a noble and wise
+lady, and you do well to give her your best service."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We're all fond of 'er, sir, though she's a bit troubled hin the 'ead,
+if I may make so bold.  She says a good ghost is a hasset."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I did not at once catch 'asset' with an aspirate, but when he repeated
+it, I laughed in spite of myself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You 'd better go to bed, James.  And don't encourage talk among the
+other servants about this ghost.  I know something about the building
+of houses, and I 'll give these walls a good looking over.  Good-night."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was apparent that my interview had not cheered him greatly.  He
+turned at the door, to ask if I would put out the lights, and fear was
+so clearly written upon his big red face that I dismissed him sharply.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I made myself comfortable for an hour, smoking a cigar over an article
+on English politics, and while I read, a big log placidly burned itself
+to ashes.  I found the switch and snapped out the library lights.  When
+I had gained the second floor I turned off the lights in the hall
+below, and as I looked down the well to make sure I had turned the
+right key, the third floor lights suddenly died and I was left in
+darkness.  This was the least bit disconcerting.  I was quite sure that
+the upper lights had remained burning brightly after the darkening of
+the lower hall, so that it was hardly possible that the one switch had
+cut off both lights.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Standing by the rail that guarded the well, I peered upward, thinking
+that some one above me was manipulating another switch; but the silence
+was as complete as the blackness.  I was about to turn from the rail to
+the wall to find the switch, but at this moment, as my face was still
+lifted in the intentness with which I was listening, something brushed
+my cheek,&mdash;something soft of touch and swift of movement.  As I gripped
+the rail I felt this touch once, twice, thrice.  Then my hand sought
+the wall madly, and with so bad an aim that it was quite a minute
+before I found the switch-plate and snapped all the keys.  The stair,
+and the halls above and below me sprang into being again, and I stood
+blinking stupidly upward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though I was in a modern house thoroughly lighted by electricity, I
+cannot deny that this incident, following so quickly upon the butler's
+story, occasioned a moment's acute horripilation, accompanied by an
+uncomfortable tremor of the legs.  As already hinted, I lay no claim to
+great valor.  As for ghosts, I am half persuaded of their existence,
+and after witnessing a presentation of Hamlet, always feel that
+Shakespeare is as safe a guide in such matters as the destructive
+scientific critics.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were various plausible explanations of the failure of the lights.
+Some switch that I did not know of, perhaps in the third-floor hall,
+might have been turned; or the power house in the village might have
+been shifting dynamos.  Either solution of the riddle was credible.
+But the ghostly touch on my face could not be accounted for so readily.
+Leaving the lights on, I continued to the third floor, and examined the
+switch, and sought in other ways to explain these phenomena.  My
+composure returned more slowly than I care to confess, and I think it
+was probably in my mind that the ghost of King George's dead soldier
+might be lying in wait for me; but I saw and heard nothing.  The doors
+of the unused chambers on the third floor were closed, and I did not
+feel justified in trying them.  The servants were housed on this floor,
+at the rear of the house, and a door that cut off their quarters proved
+on examination to be tightly locked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The fourth floor was only a half-story, used for storage purposes.  The
+roof was gained, I recalled, by an iron ladder and a hatchway in a
+trunk-room.  I ran down to my room and found a candle, to be armed
+against any further fickleness of the lights, and set out for the
+fourth floor.  I had changed my coat, and with a couple of candles and
+a box of matches started for the roof.  My courage had risen now, and I
+was ready for any further adventure that the night might hold for me.
+Miss Hollister and Cecilia were both in their rooms, presumably asleep;
+the servants doubtless had their doors barred against ghostly visitors,
+and the house was mine to explore as I pleased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I think I was humming slightly as I mounted the stair, which, in
+keeping with the general luxuriousness that characterized the
+furnishing of the house, was thickly carpeted even to the fourth floor.
+I was slipping my hand along the rail, and mounting, I dare say, a
+little jauntily as I screwed my courage to an unfamiliar notch, when
+suddenly, midway of the first half, and just before I reached the turn
+where the stair broke, the lights failed again, with startling
+abruptness.  This was carrying the joke pretty far, and instantly I
+clapped my hand to my pocket for the box of safety-matches, dug it out,
+and then in my haste dropped the lid essential to ignition, and stooped
+to find it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The stair had narrowed on this flight, and as I sought with futile
+eagerness to regain the box-lid, I could have sworn that some one
+passed me.  Still half-stooping, I stretched out my arms and clasped
+empty air, and so suddenly had I thrown myself forward, that I lost my
+balance and rolled downward the space of half a dozen treads before I
+recovered myself.  I was badly scared and hardly less angry at having
+missed through my own clumsiness the joy of grappling with the ghost of
+one of King George's soldiers; but the matches having been lost in the
+pitch-darkness of the stair, I could get my bearings again only by
+clinging to the stair-rail until I found the second-floor switch.  I
+should say that two full minutes had passed between the loss of the
+matches and my flashing on of the lamps.  From top to bottom the lights
+shone brightly; but no one was visible and I heard no sound in any part
+of the house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As I began to analyze my sensations during the temporary eclipse of the
+lights, I was conscious of two things.  The being, human or other, that
+had passed me had been light of step and fleet of motion.  There had
+been something uncanny in the ease and speed of that passing.  I was
+without conviction as to its direction, whether up or down, though I
+inclined to the former notion for the reason that the employment of a
+concealed switch above seemed the more reasonable argument.  And a
+faint, an almost imperceptible scent, as of a flower, had seemed to be
+a part of the passing.  Mine is a sensitive nostril, and I was
+confident that it did not betray me in this.  The sensation stirred by
+that faintest of odors had been agreeable; there was nothing suggestive
+of grave-mold or cerecloth about it.  There was in fact something
+rather delightfully human and contemporaneous in this fellow that
+pleased and reassured me.  That scamp of a revolutionary British
+soldier, resenting as was his right the application of hemp to his
+precious neck, had still a grace in him, and a ghost who prowls
+undaunted about an electric-lighted house in this twentieth century,
+having his whim with the switches, cannot be an utterly bad fellow.  My
+respect for all who are doomed to walk the night rose as, leaving the
+lights on clear to the lower hall, I gathered up my matches and started
+again for the roof.  The trunk-room door opened readily, as on my
+morning inspection of the chimney-pots, but as I glanced up, I saw that
+the hatch was open.  Through the aperture shone the heavens, a square
+of stars, and bright with the moon's radiance.  Pocketing my matches, I
+ran nimbly up the ladder.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+X
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+I had been surprised to find the hatch open, but it is not too much to
+say that I was greatly astonished by what I saw on the moon-flooded
+roof.  There, midway of a flat area that lay between the two larger
+chimney-pots, two persons were intently engaged, not in ghostly
+promenading or posturing, or even in audible conversation, but in a
+spirited bout with foils!  The clicking and scraping of the steel
+testified unmistakably to the reality of their presence.  And I was
+grateful for those sounds!  It needed only silence to tumble me back
+down the trap with chattering teeth, but these were beyond question
+corporeal beings, albeit rendered weird and fantastical by the oddity
+of their playground and the soft effulgence of the moon.  The vigor of
+the onset and the skill of the antagonists held me spellbound.  I stood
+with head and shoulders thrust through the opening, staring at this
+unusual spectacle, and not sure but that after all my eyes were
+tricking me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"<I>Touché!</I>"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was a woman's voice, faint from breathlessness.  She threw off her
+mask and dropped her foil, and with a most human and feminine gesture
+put up her hands to adjust her hair.  It was Cecilia Hollister, in a
+short skirt and fencing coat!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her opponent was a man, and as he too flung off his mask I saw that he
+was a gentleman of years.  If Miss Cecilia Hollister chose to meet
+strange men on the roof of her aunt's house and practice the fencer's
+art with them, it was no affair of mine, and I was about to withdraw
+when the stranger swung round and saw me.  His sudden exclamation
+caused the girl to turn, and as a reasonable frankness has always
+seemed to me essential to a nice discretion, I crawled out on the roof.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Hollister, but if I had known you were here I
+should not have intruded.  The vagaries of the library chimney have
+been on my mind, and I was about to have another peep into yonder pot."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly against the
+inexplicable chimney in question, and still somewhat spent from her
+exercise.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-169"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-169.jpg" ALT="She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly against the inexplicable chimney." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly <BR>
+against the inexplicable chimney.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Father," she said, turning to the stranger who stood near, "this is
+Mr. Ames, who is Aunt Octavia's guest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The light of the gibbous moon enabled me to discern pretty clearly the
+form and features of Mr. Bassford Hollister.  And I find, in looking
+over my notes, that I accepted as a matter of course the singular
+meeting with my hostess's brother.  I had grown so used to the ways of
+the Hollisters I already knew, that the meeting with another member of
+the family at eleven o'clock at night on the roof of this remarkable
+house gave me no great shock of surprise.  He was tall, slender and
+dark, with fine eyes that suggested Cecilia's.  His close-trimmed beard
+was slightly gray: but he bore himself erect, and I had already seen
+that he was alert of arm and eye and nimble of foot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He put on his coat, which had been lying across one of the
+crenelations, and covered his head with a small soft hat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This will do for to-night, Cecilia.  You had the best of me.  We 'll
+try again another time.  I 'm glad you stopped us, Mr. Ames.  We 'd had
+enough."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He seemed in no wise disturbed by my appearance, nor in any haste to
+leave.  This meeting between the father and daughter, I reasoned, could
+hardly have been a matter of chance, and it must have been in Cecilia's
+mind that some sort of explanation would not be amiss.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Father and I have fenced together for years," she said.  "My sister
+Hezekiah does not care for the sport.  As you have already seen that my
+aunt Octavia is an unusual woman, given to many whims, I will not deny
+to you that at present my father is <I>persona non grata</I> in this house.
+I beg to assure you that nothing to his discredit or mine has
+contributed to that situation, nor can our meeting here to-night be
+construed as detrimental to him or to me.  In meeting my father in this
+way I have in a sense broken faith with my aunt Octavia, but I assure
+you, Mr. Ames, that it is only the natural affection for a daughter
+that led my father to seek me here in this clandestine fashion."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia had spoken steadily, but her voice broke as she concluded, and
+she walked quickly toward the hatchway.  Her father stepped before me
+to give her his hand through the opening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I withdrew to the edge of the roof while a few words passed between
+them that seemed to be on his part an expostulation and on hers an
+earnest denial and plea.  He passed her the foils and masks and she
+vanished; whereupon he addressed himself to me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I had learned from both my daughters of your presence in my sister's
+house, and I had expected to meet you, sooner or later.  This is a
+strange business, a strange business."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had drawn out a pipe, which he filled and lighted dexterously.  The
+flame of his match gave me better acquaintance with his face.  He
+leaned against the serrated roof-guard with the greatest composure, his
+hat tilted to one side, and drew his pipe to a glow.  I had not
+forgotten my encounter with the ghost on the stair, and as I waited for
+him to speak, I was trying to identify him with the mysterious agency
+that had tampered with the lights, and passed so ghostly a hand across
+my face in the stair-well.  I could hardly say that there had not been
+time for either Bassford Hollister or his daughter to have reached the
+roof after my experiences on the stair; and yet they had been engaged
+so earnestly at the moment of my appearance at the hatchway that it was
+improbable that either could have played ghost and flown to the roof
+before I reached it.  And eliminating the ghost altogether, I had yet
+to learn how Bassford Hollister had gained entrance to the house.  It
+seemed best to drop speculations and wait for him to declare himself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You must understand, Mr. Ames, that my daughters, both of them, are
+very dear to me.  It is the great grief of my life that owing to
+matters beyond my control I have been unable to care for them as I
+should like to do.  This being the case, I have been obliged to allow
+them to accept many favors from my only sister Octavia.  This in
+ordinary circumstances would not be repugnant to my pride; but my
+sister is a very unusual person.  She must do for my children in her
+own way, and while I was prepared, in agreeing that they should accept
+her bounty, for some whimsical manifestation of her eccentric
+character, I did not imagine that she would go so far as to shut me out
+from all knowledge of her plans for them.  That, Mr. Ames, is what has
+happened."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His voice rose and fell mournfully.  He puffed his pipe for a moment
+and continued:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cecilia, being the older, was to be launched first.  Hezekiah was to
+be cared for in due season.  Last summer Octavia took them both abroad.
+As you are aware, they are young women of unusual distinction of
+appearance and manner, and they attracted a great deal of attention.
+From what I hear, a troop of suitors followed them about.  That sort of
+thing would appeal to Octavia; to me it is most repellent, but I had
+already committed myself, agreeing that Octavia should manage in her
+own fashion.  There is now something forward here which I do not
+understand.  I have an idea that Octavia has contrived some
+preposterous scheme for choosing a husband for Cecilia that is in
+keeping with her odd fashion of transacting all her business.  I do not
+know its nature, and by the terms of her agreement Cecilia is not to
+disclose the method to be employed to me,&mdash;not even to me, her own
+father.  You must agree, Ames, that that is rather rubbing it in."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you don't assume that your daughter is not to be a free agent in
+the matter?  You don't believe that some unworthy and improper man is
+to be forced upon her?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That, sir, is exactly what I fear!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You will pardon me, but I cannot for a moment believe that Miss
+Hollister would risk her niece's happiness even to satisfy her own
+peculiar humor.  Your sister is a shrewd woman, and her heart, I am
+convinced, is the kindest.  Among the suitors now camped at the
+Prescott Arms there must be some one whom your daughter approves, and I
+see no reason why he should not ultimately be her choice.  Now that you
+have broached the matter, I make free to say that one of these suitors
+is an old friend of mine.  Hartley Wiggins by name, and that he is a
+man of the highest character and a gentleman in the strictest sense."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He had been listening to me with the greatest composure, but at the
+mention of Wiggins's name he started and nervously clutched my arm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That man may be all that you say," he cried chokingly, "but he has
+acted infamously toward both my daughters.  He is a rogue, and a most
+despicable fellow.  He has flirted outrageously with Hezekiah while at
+the same time pretending to be deeply interested in Cecilia.  I say to
+you in all candor that a man who will trifle with the affections of a
+child like Hezekiah is a villain, nothing less."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, my dear sir, is it not possible that you do him a great wrong?
+May it not be the other way round, that Hezekiah is trifling with
+Wiggins's affections?  He 's a splendid fellow, Hartley Wiggins, but he
+'s a little slow, that's all.  And between two superb young women like
+your daughters a man may be pardoned for doubts and hesitations; a case
+of being happy with either if t'other dear charmer were only away.  To
+put it quite concretely, I will say that in my own very slight
+acquaintance with these young women I feel the spell of both.  Your
+sister, I take it, is anxious not to show partiality for any of these
+men, and yet I dare say she probably feels kindly disposed toward
+Wiggins.  His worst crime seems to be that he chose Tory ancestors!
+The thing is bound to straighten itself out."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He tossed his head impatiently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Has it occurred to you that Octavia's interest in this Hartley Wiggins
+may be due to a trifling and immaterial fact?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing beyond his indubitable eligibility."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then let me tell you what I suspect.  Both his names contain seven
+letters.  My sister is slightly cracked as to the number seven.  I
+swear to you my belief that the fact that his names contain seven
+letters each is at the bottom of all this.  Incredible, my dear sir,
+but wholly possible!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then, such being the case, why does n't she show her hand openly?  If
+she believes that Wiggins with his septenary names is ordained by the
+seven original pleiades to marry your daughter Cecilia, I should think
+that by the same token she would have sought a man rejoicing in the
+noble name of Septimus.  You send conjecture far when once you
+entertain so absurd an idea."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You think my assumption unlikely?" he asked eagerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I certainly do, Mr. Hollister.  But I confess that I had never counted
+the letters in Wiggins's name before, and your suggestion is
+interesting.  And this whole idea of the potential seven in our affairs
+has possibilities.  If seven at all, why is n't it possible that your
+sister has Jacob in mind and the seven years he served for Rachel?  You
+may as well assume that, as Wiggins is specially favored in the number
+of letters in his singularly prosaic and unromantic name, it is Miss
+Hollister's plan to keep him dallying seven years."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He seized me by the arm and forced me back against the battlements,
+then stood off and eyed me fiercely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You speak of serving and of service!  Will you tell me just why you
+are here and what brings you into this affair!  My daughter Hezekiah is
+the frankest person alive, and she told me of her meetings with you and
+that you had been to the Asolando,&mdash;where she spent a day in the
+sheerest spirit of mischief.  That was the beginning of all our
+troubles, that damned hole with its insane confectionery and poetry.
+If Cecilia, in a misguided notion of earning her own living, had not
+gone there and worn an apron for a week before I dragged her out, she
+would never have met Wiggins.  And now will you kindly tell me just
+what you are doing in my sister's house, where I have to come like a
+thief in the night to see one of my own children?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This fierce deliverance touched me nearly: I doubted my ability to
+explain to one of these amazing Hollisters just how I came to be
+sojourning in the house of another of the family without any business
+that would bear scrutiny.  I hastened to declare my profession, and
+that I had been summoned by Miss Hollister to examine her chimneys.  I
+could not, however, tell him that until my arrival the chimneys had
+behaved themselves admirably!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You've admitted your friendship for this Wiggins person; that's
+enough," he said when I had concluded.  "I advise you to leave the
+house at once.  I tell you he 's got to be eliminated from the
+situation.  Understand, that I do not threaten you with violence, but I
+will not promise to abstain from visiting heavy punishment upon that
+fellow.  And you?  A chimney-doctor?  I am a man of considerable
+knowledge of the world, and I say to you very candidly that I don't
+believe there is any such profession."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then let me tell you," I replied, not without heat, "that I am a
+graduate in architecture, and that if you will do me the honor to
+consult a list of the alumni of the Institute of Technology, you will
+find that I was graduated there not without credit.  And as for
+remaining in this house, I beg to inform you, Mr. Hollister, that as I
+am your sister's guest and as she is perfectly competent to manage her
+own affairs, I shall stay here as long as it pleases her to ask me to
+remain.  And now, one other matter.  How did you gain this roof
+to-night, when by your own admission you are not on such terms with
+your sister as would justify you in entering it openly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The moonlight did not fail to convey the contempt in his face, but I
+thought he grinned as he answered quietly:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You don't seem to understand, young man, that you are entitled to no
+explanations from me.  If my sister has her sense of a joke, I assure
+you that I have mine.  I came here to see my daughter.  As I taught her
+to fence when she was ten years old and as she is particularly expert,
+and moreover, as in my present condition of poverty I have been obliged
+to forego the pleasure of metropolitan life and to give up my
+membership in the Fencers' Club, you can hardly deny my right to meet
+my own daughter for a brief bout anywhere I please.  You strike me as a
+singularly fresh young person.  It would be a positive grief to me to
+feel that my conduct had displeased you.  And now, as the night grows
+chill, I shall beg you to precede me into the house by the way you
+came."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But first," I persisted, "let me ask a question.  It is possible that
+you yourself have some preference among your daughter's several
+suitors, Mr. Hollister.  Would you object to telling me which one you
+would choose for Miss Cecilia?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Beyond question, the man for Cecilia, if I have any voice in the
+matter, is Lord Arrowood."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Arrowood!" I exclaimed.  "You surprise me greatly.  I saw him at the
+inn, and he seemed to me the most insignificant and uninteresting one
+of the lot."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That proves you a person of poor gifts of discernment, Mr. Ames;" and
+his tone and manner were quite reminiscent of his sister's ways; and
+his further explanation proved him even more worthily the brother of
+his sister.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As I was obliged," he began, "owing to an unfortunate physical
+handicap, to abandon my art, that of a marine painter, I have given my
+attention for a number of years to the study of the Irish situation.
+Between the various political parties of Great Britain, poor Ireland
+can never regain her ancient power.  But I see no reason why she should
+not become once more a free and independent nation.  I have gone deeply
+into Irish history, and I may modestly say that I probably know that
+history from the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion to the death of
+Gladstone better than any other living man.  I met Arrowood by chance
+in the highway yesterday, and I found that he holds exactly my ideas."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But Arrowood isn't an Irishman," I interjected; "neither, I should
+say, are you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's not to the point.  Neither was Napoleon a Frenchman strictly
+speaking; nor was Lafayette an American.  A friend of mine in Wall
+Street is ready, when the time is ripe, to finance the scheme by
+selling bonds to the multitudes of Irish office-holders throughout the
+United States,&mdash;most of whom are not unknown to the banks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I suppose you and Arrowood would sit jointly in the seat of the
+ancient kings in Dublin after you had effected your <I>coup</I>."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You lose your bet, Mr. Ames.  We have agreed that, as the mayors of
+Boston for many years have been Irishmen, and as they have, by their
+prowess in holding the natives in subordination, demonstrated the
+highest political sagacity, we could not do better than take one of
+these rulers of the old Puritan capital and place him on the Irish
+throne.  The keen humor of that move would so tickle all interested
+powers, that the investiture and coronation of the new ruler would be
+accomplished without firing a shot."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This certainly had the true Hollister touch!  Miss Octavia herself
+could not have devised a more delightful scheme.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And so," Mr. Bassford Hollister concluded, "I naturally incline toward
+Arrowood, though he is so poor that he was obliged to come over in the
+steerage to continue his wooing of my daughter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He let himself down into the dark trunk-room, waited for me
+courteously, and walked by my side to the stairway, both of us
+maintaining silence.  I was deeply curious to know how he had entered
+and whether he expected to go down the front way and out the main door.
+We kept together to the third-floor hall,&mdash;I could have sworn to that;
+then suddenly, just as we reached the stairway, out went the lights,
+and we were in utter darkness.  I smothered an exclamation, clutched my
+matches and struck a light, and as the stick flamed slowly, I looked
+about for Bassford Hollister; but he had vanished as suddenly and
+completely as though a trap had yawned beneath us and swallowed him.  I
+found the third-floor switch and it responded immediately, flooding the
+stair-well to the lower hall, but I neither saw nor heard anything more
+of Hollister.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Astounded by this performance, I continued on to the lower floor to
+have a look around, and there, calmly reading by the library table, sat
+Miss Octavia!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Late hours, Mr. Ames!" she cried.  "I supposed you had retired long
+ago."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was still the least bit ruffled by that last transaction on the
+stair, and I demanded a little curtly:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pardon my troubling you; but may I inquire, Miss Hollister, how long
+you have been sitting here?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The clock on the stair began to strike twelve, and she listened
+composedly to a few of the deep-toned strokes before replying.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just half an hour.  I thought some one knocked at my door about an
+hour ago.  The lights were on and I came down, saw a magazine that had
+escaped my eye before, and here you find me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Some one knocked at your door?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thought so.  You know, the servants have an idea that the place is
+haunted, and I thought that if I sat here the ghost might take it upon
+himself to walk.  I confess to a slight disappointment that it is only
+you who have appeared.  I suppose it was n't you who knocked at my
+door?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No," I replied, laughing a little at her manner, "not unless it was
+you who switched off the lights as I was coming down from the fourth
+floor.  I have been studying this chimney from the roof.  I know
+something of the ways of electric switches, and they don't usually move
+of their own accord."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your coming to this house has been the greatest joy to me, Mr. Ames.
+I should not have imagined, in a chance look at you, that you were
+psychical, and yet such is clearly the fact.  I assure you that I have
+not touched any switch since I left my room.  It was unnecessary, as I
+found the lights on.  And I acquit you of rapping, rapping at my
+chamber-door.  It gives me the greatest satisfaction to assume that the
+house is haunted, and at any time you find the ghost, I beg that you
+will lose no time in presenting me.  If the prowler is indeed one of
+King George's soldiers, hanged during the Revolution on the site of
+this house, I should like to have words with him.  I have just been
+reading an article on the political corruption in Philadelphia in this
+magazine.  It bears every evidence of truth, but if half of it is
+fiction I still feel that, as an American citizen, though denied the
+inalienable right of representation assured me in the Constitution, we
+owe that ghost an apology; for certainly nothing was gained by throwing
+off the British yoke, and that poor soldier died in a worthy cause."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She wore a remarkable lavender dressing-gown, and a night-cap such as I
+had never seen outside a museum.  As she concluded her speech, spoken
+in that curious lilting tone which, from the beginning, had left me in
+doubt as to the seriousness of all her statements, she rose and, still
+clasping her magazine, made me a courtesy and was soon mounting the
+stair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I heard her door close a minute later, and then, feeling that I had
+earned the right to repose, I went to my room and to bed.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XI
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+I PLAY TRUANT
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+I slept late, and on going down found the table set in the
+breakfast-room.  A pleasant inadvertence marked the choice of
+eating-places at Hopefield Manor; I was never quite sure where I should
+find a table spread.  No one was about, and I was seized with that mild
+form of panic familiar to the guest who finds himself late to a meal.
+As I paused uncertainly in the door, viewing the table, set, I noticed,
+for only one person, Miss Octavia entered briskly, her slight figure
+concealed by a prodigious gingham apron.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Good-morrow, merry gentleman," she began blithely.  "The most
+delightful thing has happened.  Without the slightest warning, without
+the faintest intimation of their dissatisfaction, the house-servants
+have departed, with the single exception of my personal maid, who,
+being a Swede and therefore singularly devoid of emotion, was unshaken
+by the ghost-rumors that have sent the rest of my staff scampering over
+the hills."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She lighted the coffee-machine lamp in her most tranquil fashion, and
+begged me to be seated.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have already breakfasted," she continued, "and Cecilia is even now
+preparing you an omelet with her own hand.  I beg to reassure you, as
+my guest, that the <I>émeute</I> of the servants causes me not the slightest
+annoyance.  From reading the comic papers you may have gained an
+impression that the loss of servants is a tragic business in any
+household, but nothing so petty can disturb me.  Cecilia is an
+excellent cook; and I myself shall not starve so long as I have
+strength to crack an egg or lift a stove-lid.  And besides, I still
+retain my early trust in Providence.  I do not doubt that before
+nightfall a corps of excellent servants will again be on duty here.
+Very likely they are even now bound for this place, coming from the wet
+coasts of Ireland, from Liverpool, from lonely villages in Scandinavia.
+The average woman would merely fret herself into a sanatorium if
+confronted with the problem I face this morning, but I hope you will
+testify in future to the fact that I faced this day in the cheeriest
+and most hopeful spirit."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not only shall I do so, Miss Hollister," I replied, trying to catch
+her own note, "but it will, throughout my life, give me the greatest
+satisfaction to set your cause aright.  To that extent let me be
+Horatio to your Hamlet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you, milord," she returned, with the utmost gravity.  "And may I
+say further that the incident gives the stamp of authenticity to my
+ghost?  I was obliged to pay those people double wages to lure them
+from the felicities of the city, and they must have been a good deal
+alarmed to have left so precipitately.  You must excuse me now, as it
+is necessary for me to do the pastry-cook's work this morning, that
+individual having fled with the rest, and it being incumbent on me, to
+maintain my fee-simple in this property, to make a dozen pies before
+high noon.  But first I must visit the stables, where I believe the
+coachman still lingers, having been prevented from joining the stampede
+of the house-servants by the painful twinges of gout."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With this she left me, and I began pecking at a grape-fruit.  It had
+been in my mind as I dressed that morning to play truant and visit the
+city.  It was almost imperative that I take a look at my office, and I
+had resolved upon a plan which would, I believed, give me the key to
+the ghost mystery.  If Pepperton had built that house he must know
+whether he had contrived any secret passages that would afford exits
+and entrances not apparent to the eye.  It would be an easy matter to
+run into the city, explain myself to my assistant, and get hold of
+Pepperton.  My mind was made up, and I had even consulted a time-table
+and chosen one of the express trains.  As I sat at the table absorbed
+in my plans for the day, my nerves received a sudden shock.  I had
+heard no one enter, yet a voice at my shoulder murmured casually:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Hast thou seen ghosts?  Hast thou at midnight heard"&mdash;<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+It was the voice of Hezekiah, I knew, before I faced her.  She wore a
+blue sailor-waist with a broad red ribbon tied under the collar, and a
+blue tam o' shanter capped her head.  She bore a tray that contained my
+omelet, a plate of toast, and other sundries incidental to a
+substantial breakfast, which she distributed deftly upon the table.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did you get here?" I blurted, my nerves still out of control.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The kitchen door, sir.  I had ridden into the garden, and seeing Aunt
+Octavia heading for the stables and Cecilia at the kitchen window, I
+pedaled boldly in.  Cecilia wanted to borrow my bicycle, and being a
+good little sister, I gave it to her.  She also said that you required
+food, so I told her to go and I would carry you your breakfast.  I
+shall skip myself in a minute.  You may draw your own coffee.  Mind the
+machine; it tips if you are n't careful."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She went to the window and peered out toward the stables.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"May I ask, Daughter of Kings, where your sister has gone so suddenly?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly.  She 's off for town to chase a cook and a few other people
+to run this hotel.  I heard at the post-office that the whole camp had
+deserted, so I ran over to see what was doing; and just for that I 've
+got to walk home."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But your aunt said that Providence would take care of the servant
+question; she expected a whole corps of ideal servants to come straying
+in during the day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hezekiah laughed.  (It is not right for any girl to be as pretty as
+Hezekiah, or to laugh as musically.)  She told me to sit down, and as I
+did so she passed the toast and helped herself to a slice into which
+she set her fine white teeth neatly, watching me with the merriest of
+twinkles in her brown eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cecilia has n't Aunt Octavia's confidence in Providence, so she 's
+taking a shot at the employment agencies.  She has left a note on the
+kitchen table to inform Aunt Octavia that she had forgotten an
+engagement with the dentist and has gone to catch the ten-eighteen."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That, Hezekiah, is a lie.  It isn't quite square to deceive your aunt
+that way," I remarked soberly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hezekiah laughed again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You absurdity!  Don't you know Aunt Octavia yet!  She will be
+perfectly overjoyed when she comes back and finds that note from
+Cecilia.  She likes disappearances, mysteries, and all that kind of
+thing.  But it is barely possible that you will have to wash the
+dishes.  I can't, you see, for I 'm not supposed to come on the
+reservation at all&mdash;not until Cecilia has found a husband.  Is n't it
+perfectly delicious?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"All of that, Daughter of Kings!  I think that as soon as I can regain
+confidence in my own sanity I shall like it myself.  But,"&mdash;and I
+watched her narrowly,&mdash;"you see, Hezekiah, there is really a ghost, you
+know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Once more that divine mirth in her bubbled mellowly.  She had walked
+guardedly to the window and turned swiftly with a mockery of fear in
+her face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aunt Octavia approaches, and I must be off.  But that ghost, Mr.
+Chimney-Man,&mdash;when you find him, please let me know.  There are a lot
+of things I want to ask some reliable ghost about the hereafter."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With this she fled, and I heard the front door close smartly after her.
+An instant later Miss Octavia appeared and asked solicitously how I
+liked my omelette.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The coachman has been telling me a capital ghost-story.  He believes
+them to be beneficent and declares that he will under no circumstances
+leave my employment."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sat down and folded her arms upon the table.  For the first time I
+believed that she was serious.  There was, in fact, a troubled look on
+her sweet, whimsical face.  It occurred to me that the loss of her
+servants was not really the slight matter she had previously made of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames, will you pardon me for asking you a question of the most
+intimate character?  It is only after much hesitation that I do so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I bowed encouragingly, my curiosity fully aroused.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You may ask me anything in the world, Miss Hollister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then I wish you would tell me whether,&mdash;I can't express the dislike I
+feel in doing this,&mdash;but can you tell me whether you have seen in the
+hands of my niece Cecilia a small&mdash;a very small, silver-backed
+note-book."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, I have," I answered, greatly surprised.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And may I ask whether,&mdash;and again I must plead my deep concern as an
+excuse for making such an inquiry,&mdash;whether you by any chance saw her
+making any notation in that book?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I recalled the silver-bound book perfectly, but had attached no
+importance to it; but if Cecilia's fortunes were so intimately related
+to it as Miss Hollister's manner implied, I felt that I must be careful
+of my answer.  I was trying to recall the precise moment at which I had
+entered the library the preceding evening after Hume's departure, and
+while I was intent upon this my silence must have been prolonged.  I
+felt obliged to make an answer of some sort, and yet I did not relish
+the thought of conveying information that might distress and embarrass
+a noble girl like Cecilia Hollister.  Something in my face must have
+conveyed a hint of this inner conflict to Miss Hollister, for she rose
+suddenly, holding up her hand as though to silence me.  She seemed
+deeply moved, and cried in agitation:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do not answer me!  The question was quite unfair,&mdash;quite unfair,&mdash;and
+yet I assure you that at the moment I made the inquiry, I felt
+justified."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She retreated toward the door as I rose; and then with her composure
+fully restored she courtesied gracefully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Luncheon here will be a buffet affair to-day, as I shall be engaged
+with matters of pastry.  I'm sure, however, that you will find
+employment until dinner-time, when my house will be fully in order
+again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I intended that this should be a busy day, so without making
+explanations I went to the stable, told the coachman I wished to be
+driven to the station, and was soon whizzing over the hills toward
+Katonah.  The coachman, an Irishman, introduced the subject of the
+ghost as soon as we were out of sight of the house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The ole lady's dipped; she's dipped, sir," he remarked leadingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's catching," I answered; "so you'd better forget it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He thereupon settled glumly to his driving.  As we crossed the bridge
+near where I had first encountered Hezekiah in the apple-orchard, I
+spied her trudging across a meadow, and she waved her hand gaily.
+Meadows and streams and stars!  Of such were Hezekiah's kingdom.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I wondered how Wiggins and the other gentlemen at the Prescott Arms
+were faring.  My question was partially answered a second later, as we
+passed the road that forked off to the inn.  On a stone by the roadside
+sat Lord Arrowood, desolately guarding a kit-bag and a suit-case.  He
+was dressed in a shabby Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and sucked a
+pipe.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-195"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-195.jpg" ALT="On a stone by the roadside sat Lord Arrowood." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+On a stone by the roadside sat Lord Arrowood.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+I bade the driver pause, and greeted the nobleman affably.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can I give you a lift?  You seem to be bound for the station, and I'm
+taking a train myself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, thanks," he replied sharply.  "They're a lot of
+bounders,&mdash;bounders, I say!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah!  Of whom do you speak, Lord Arrowood?" I asked glancing at my
+watch.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those scoundrels at the inn.  They have thrown me out.  Thrown me
+out&mdash;me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hard lines, for a fact; but if you are interested in trains"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I refuse to leave the county!" he shouted.  "If they think they're
+going to get rid of me they're mistaken.  Bounders, I say, bounders!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He uttered this opprobrious term with great bitterness, and crossed his
+legs, as though to emphasize his permanence upon the boulder.  Patience
+on a monument is not more eternally planted.  He seemed in no mood for
+conversation, so I sped on, with no time to lose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I gained the step of the chair-car attached to the ten-eighteen with
+some loss of dignity, the porter yanking me aboard under the
+conductor's scornful eye.  The Katonah passengers were still in the
+aisle, and as I surveyed them I saw Cecilia take a seat in the middle
+of the car.  She was just unfolding a newspaper when I moved to a seat
+behind her and bade her good-morning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The look she gave me in turning round had in it something of Hezekiah's
+quizzical humor.  This interested me, because I had not previously seen
+any but the most superficial resemblance between the sisters.  Her
+cheeks were aglow from her sprint on the wheel.  The short skirt and
+the shirt waist are the true vesture of emancipated woman.  Cecilia
+Hollister, whose apparel at home had struck me as rather formal, seemed
+this morning quite a new being.  She drew a folded veil from the pocket
+of her jacket, removed her hat, and pinned the veil to it.  She kept
+the hat in her lap, however, and went on talking.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We are both truants.  You must have breakfasted in a hurry to have
+caught this train."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not at all.  I enjoyed a brief conversation with your sister, and
+after she had gone, your aunt came back and lingered for a moment."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She told you, I suppose, that Providence would look after the servant
+question."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She did, just that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Providence is hardly equal to getting enough servants to run
+that place, so I'm going to assist Providence a little."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You become the vicaress of Providence?  I admire your spirit."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's mere self-preservation.  Aunt Octavia would have me chained to
+the kitchen if I did n't do something about it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had permitted me to settle with the conductor, and when I had
+completed this transaction I found that she had drawn from her purse
+the little silver booklet about which Miss Octavia had inquired so
+anxiously.  She held this close to her eyes, so that I had a clear view
+of the silver backs, on one of which "C.H." was engraved in neat
+script.  The subjoined pencil she held poised ready for use, touching
+the tip of it absent-mindedly to her tongue.  She raised her eyes with
+the far-away look still in them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Can you tell me how to spell Arrowood,&mdash;is it one or two w's?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One, I think the noble lord uses."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She seemed to write the name, and I saw her counting on her fingers,
+touching them lightly on the open page of the book.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then she dropped it into her purse, which she thrust back carefully
+into her pocket.  She sighed, and was silent for a moment.  We were
+passing a series of huge signs built like a barricade along the right
+of way, and on one of these I observed with fresh interest an
+advertisement whose counterpart I had seen often about New York, but
+without ever observing it attentively.  It drew a laugh from me now.
+It represented an infant in a perambulator, behind which stood the
+effigy of a capped and aproned nurse.  A legend was inscribed on the
+board to this effect:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+HUSH!  Baby's asleep.<BR>
+It's a HOLLISTER PERAMBULATOR!<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"If it's a Hollister," I remarked as a second of these flew by the
+window, "it's perfect."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, those things!" she exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was n't referring to the perambulator necessarily.  Anything that's
+Hollister must be good."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We're out of the business, except that Aunt Octavia gets a dollar for
+every one that's made; but the trust keeps the name."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The trust could hardly change your name.  You will have to do that
+yourself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You've been talking to Hezekiah.  That's the way people always talk to
+her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's certainly not the way I've been talking to you; but we've run
+away from school, and I'm disposed to make the most of it.  Our
+conversation at your aunt's has been so high up in the air, that it's
+pleasant to come down to earth and tune it to the less strenuous note
+of a twentieth-century railway journey."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That, Mr. Ames, may depend upon the point of view."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you will make it yours, won't you?  You see, I've always dreamed
+of adventures, but since I met your aunt in the Asolando they've been
+coming a little too fast.  There's that ghost business.  Now I 'm going
+to catch that ghost to-night, if it's the last thing I do!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I'm not the ghost, and neither is my father, if that's what's in
+your mind.  Tell me just what you have seen and heard."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I gave her the story in detail, and my recital seemed to amuse her
+greatly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You thought it was Aunt Octavia herself at first, then you thought I
+was the spook, and now you are not fully persuaded that it is not my
+father.  I will take you into my confidence this far&mdash;that I don't know
+how father got into the house last night.  He wrote a note asking me to
+meet him on the roof and bring the foils.  That was not unlike him, as
+he is the dearest father in the world, and his whims are just as jolly
+in their way as Aunt Octavia's.  I was sure that Aunt Octavia had
+retired for the night, so I changed my dress and carried the foils up
+through the trunk-room.  I had hardly reached there before my father
+appeared.  The whole situation&mdash;my being there and all that&mdash;has
+distressed father a great deal; so I let you see me cry a little.  I
+promise never to do it again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mirth brightened the eyes she turned upon me now.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You think," she asked, "that those lights could n't have winked out
+twice by themselves while you were on the stairway."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am positive of it.  And somebody&mdash;a being of some sort&mdash;passed me on
+the stairway.  It might imaginably have been you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I tell you positively it was not."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then it might have been your father.  A man who can enter a house at
+will might easily play any manner of other tricks.  His disappearance
+after I had gone down into the house with him was just as mysterious as
+the ghost."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was natural for father not to want you to know how he got in; the
+motive for that would be the fact that he is not supposed to see me or
+communicate with me in any way.  But you 've got to get a
+ghost-<I>motif</I>."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I think I have one," I said.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then all the rest is easy.  To whom does this ghost-<I>motif</I> lead you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I need hardly say; for it must have occurred to you that there is one
+member of the Hollister family we have n't mentioned in this
+connection."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you mean Hezekiah"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"None other!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The surprise in her face was not feigned,&mdash;I was confident of
+this,&mdash;and the questions evoked by my answer at once danced in her eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If Hezekiah should be caught in the house just now we should all pay
+dearly for her rashness.  Believe me, this is true.  Some day you may
+know the whys and wherefores; at present no one may know.  There is
+this, however,&mdash;if Hezekiah or my father should be found at Hopefield
+Manor, anywhere on the premises, while I am there, the consequences
+would be disastrous,&mdash;more so than I dare tell you.  But why should
+Hezekiah wish to prowl about there at night,&mdash;to assume for a moment
+that she is doing it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her manner was wholly earnest.  It was plain that she had entered into
+some sort of a compact with her aunt, and no doubt the arrangement was
+in the characteristic whimsical vein of which I had enjoyed personal
+experience.  I did not wish to press Cecilia for explanations she might
+not be free to make, but I ventured a suggestion or two.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah may be entering the house and playing ghost for amusement,
+merely in a spirit of childish rebellion against the interdiction that
+forbids her the house.  That is quite plausible, Hezekiah being the
+spirited young person we know her to be.  And it may amuse her, too, to
+plug the chimneys at a time when her sister is enjoying the visits of
+suitors.  Without quite realizing that such was her animus, she may be
+the least,&mdash;the very least bit jealous!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia flushed and her eyes flashed indignantly.  She bent toward me
+eagerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please do not say such a thing!  You must not even think it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She may be a little forlorn, alone in your father's house over the
+hills at times when you are surrounded by admirers, and it is my
+assumption from what I have learned in one way and another of your
+flight abroad last summer, that some of these gentlemen now established
+at the Prescott Arms are known to her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, all of them, certainly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And Hartley Wiggins among the rest?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That, Mr. Ames, is most unkind," she declared earnestly.  "She has
+told me that she was not in the least interested in Mr. Wiggins."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And she told me the same thing, but I do not feel sure of it!  But
+what if she is!  You are not really interested in him yourself!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the library at Hopefield Manor I should not have thought of speaking
+to Cecilia Hollister in any such fashion; but the flying train gave
+wings to my daring.  I was surprised at my own temerity, and more
+surprised that she did not seem to resent my new manner of speech.  She
+did not, however, vouchsafe any reply to my statement, but changed the
+subject abruptly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My description of the ghost had taken considerable time, and we were
+now running through the tunnels and would soon be at the end of our
+journey.  She put on her hat and veil without making it necessary for
+us to discontinue our talk.  A certain languor that had marked her at
+her aunt's vanished.  There was a clearer light in her eye, and as I
+helped her into her coat I felt that here was a woman to whose high
+qualities I had done scant justice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I count on finishing my errand and taking the two-seven," she remarked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's a short time to allow yourself.  I've heard that it's a dreary
+business chasing the employment agencies."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not if you know where not to go.  If you 'll get me a machine of some
+sort I 'll be off at once."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I fear I shan't conclude my own business so soon; but if you will
+honor me at luncheon?"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This last was at the door of a taxicab I had found for her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sorry, Mr. Ames, but it's out of the question.  I hope to see you at
+dinner to-night.  And please"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes, Miss Hollister"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please remember that you are Aunt Octavia's guest, and don't annoy her
+by failing to appear at dinner.  You know you have n't fixed that
+chimney yet!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her smile left me well in the air; I stood staring after the very
+commonplace cab as it rolled away with her, my mind a whirling chaos of
+emotion.  The crowd jostled me impatiently; for other people, not
+breathing celestial ether from an hour of Cecilia Hollister's society,
+were bent upon the day's business.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I set off at once for Pepperton's office, where I learned that the
+architect was out of town; but his chief clerk greeted me courteously.
+I told him frankly that I wanted to look at the plans of Hopefield
+Manor to enable me to learn the exact lines of the chimneys.  He
+confessed surprise that they were causing trouble, and expressed regret
+that they were not in the office.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Hollister sent for them this morning, and I have just given them
+to a young woman who bore a note from her.  Ordinarily I should not
+have let them go, but the note was peremptory, and Miss Hollister is a
+friend of Mr. Pepperton's, you know, and a person I'm sure he would not
+refuse.  We're at work now on plans for a cathedral she proposes
+building for the Bishop of Manila."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was not surprised that Octavia Hollister should be building
+cathedrals in the Orient,&mdash;I was beyond that,&mdash;but I was taken aback to
+find that she had anticipated me in my rush for the plans of her house.
+Clearly, I was dealing with a woman who was not only immensely amusing
+but exceedingly shrewd as well.  Could it be possible after all that
+she was herself playing ghost merely for her own entertainment!  She
+was capable of it; but I had satisfied myself that she could not have
+performed the tricks of which I had been the victim the night previous
+unless she possessed some rare vanishing power like that of the East
+Indian mystics.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"May I ask who came for the plans?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I judged the young woman to be a maid, or perhaps she was Miss
+Hollister's secretary."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had given little heed during my short stay at Hopefield Manor to Miss
+Hollister's personal attendant.  I had passed her in the halls once or
+twice, a young woman of twenty-five, I should say, fair-haired and
+blue-eyed.  She might herself be the ghost, now that I thought of it;
+but this seemed the most unlikely hypothesis possible,&mdash;and there was
+no difficulty in accounting for her flight to town, for there were many
+horses and vehicles in the Hopefield stable, and trains were frequent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If there is anything further, Mr. Ames"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I roused myself to find the chief clerk regarding me impatiently, and I
+thanked him and hurried away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At my own office my assistant pounced upon me wrathfully.  He was half
+wild over the pressure of vexatious business, and had just been
+engaging in a long-distance conversation with a country gentleman at
+Lenox which had left him in bad temper.  I was explaining to him the
+seriousness of my errands at Hopefield, rather unconvincingly I fear,
+and the fact that I must return at once, when the office-boy entered my
+private room to say that three gentlemen wished to see me immediately.
+They had submitted cards, but had refused to state the nature of their
+business.  It was with a distinct sensation of surprise that I read the
+names respectively of Percival B. Shallenberger, Daniel P. Ormsby, and
+John Stewart Dick.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Show the gentlemen in," I said promptly, greatly to the disgust of my
+assistant, who retired to deal with several clients whom I had passed
+in the reception-room fiercely walking the floor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had imagined all the suitors established at the Prescott Arms.  As
+the three appeared clad in light automobiling coats, I could not
+forbear a smile at their grim appearance.  Shallenberger, the novelist,
+and Ormsby, the knit-goods manufacturer, were big men; Dick was much
+shorter, though of compact and sturdy build.  They growled surlily in
+response to my greeting, and Ormsby closed the door behind them.  Dick
+seemed to be the designated spokesman, and he advanced to the desk
+behind which I sat, with a stride and manner that advertised his
+belligerent frame of mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames," he began, "we have come here to speak for ourselves and
+certain other gentlemen who are staying for a time at the Prescott
+Arms."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gentlemen of the committee, welcome to our office," I replied, greatly
+amused by his ferocity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My tone caused the others to draw in defensively behind him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We want you to understand that your conduct in accompanying a lady
+that I shall not name to the city is an act we cannot pass in silence.
+Your conduct in going to Hopefield Manor was in itself an affront to
+us, but your behavior this morning passes all bounds.  We have come,
+sir, to demand an explanation!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At a glance this was a situation I dare not take seriously.  In any
+circumstances the fact that these men had followed me to my office to
+rebuke me for accompanying Cecilia Hollister to town was absurd.  This
+young Mr. Dick was absurd in himself.  His gray cap had twisted itself
+oddly to the side of his head, and a bang of black hair lay at a
+piratical angle across his forehead.  Behind him Ormsby, the knit-goods
+man, tugged at a brown moustache; Shallenberger's blue eyes snapped
+wrathfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Dick," I said soberly, "I have heard of you as the original
+pragmatist of Nebraska, and as I am a mere ignorant chimney-doctor, to
+whom the later philosophical meaning of that term is only so much punk,
+I must identify you with that more obvious meaning of the word which is
+within my grasp.  Mr. Dick, and gentlemen of the committee, you are
+meddlesome persons!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Meddlesome!" cried Dick, heatedly, and leaning toward me across my
+desk, "do I correctly understand, sir, that you mean to insult us?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing could be further from my purpose.  But I cannot permit you to
+imagine that I'm going to allow you to beard me in my office and
+criticise my conduct in regard to Miss Cecilia Hollister or anybody
+else.  As a philosopher from the fertile corn-lands of Nebraska, I
+salute you with admiration; as a critic of my ways and manners, I show
+you the door!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This I did a bit jauntily, and I had a feeling that I was playing my
+part well.  But the young man before me seemed to swell with the rage
+that surged within him.  He broke out furiously, beating the air with
+his fist.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You not only insult this committee, but you speak with intentional
+disrespect of my native state, and of the great philosophical school of
+which I am a disciple.  Am I right?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are eminently right, Mr. Dick.  Neither the corn, the
+philosophical schools, nor the packing-house statistics of your native
+Omaha interest me a particle.  So far as I am personally concerned you
+may go back to your wigwam on the tawny Missouri as soon as you please."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then," he broke forth explosively, "then, sir, by Minerva's pale brow,
+and by all the gods at once, I brand you"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Put the brand on hot, little one!  Make it a good strong curse while
+you're about it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He choked with rage for a moment; then he controlled himself with
+painful effort.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My personal grievances must wait," continued Dick, brokenly, "but
+speaking for the committee I wish to say that your attentions to the
+young lady whom you have dared, sir, to name, are obnoxious to us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing less than that!" added Shallenberger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We will not stand for it," growled Ormsby's heavy bass.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Shallenberger," I replied evenly, "as a member of the great
+Hoosier school of novelists I have the most profound respect for your
+talents.  My office-boy is dead to the world for weeks after the
+appearance of a novel from your pen.  But your interference in my
+private affairs is beyond all reason.  And as for you, Mr. Ormsby, I
+dare say your knit-goods are worthy of the fame of the pent-up Utica
+from which you come.  But to you and all of you, I bid defiance.  I
+return to Hopefield Manor by the four-fourteen express."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I rose and bowed coldly in dismissal; but the trio stood their ground
+stubbornly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I tell you, sir, our organization is complete!" declared Dick.  "We
+signed a gentleman's agreement only last night, for the express purpose
+of excluding you, and you cannot enter as a competitor.  You are only
+an outsider, and we don't intend to have you interfering with our
+affairs."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"By the pink left ear of Venus!" I blurted, "is it a trust?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You put it coarsely, Mr. Ames, but"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A suitors' trust?  Then if I read the newspapers correctly, your
+organization is against public policy and in contravention of the
+anti-trust law.  But may I inquire why, if you have perfected a
+combination of Miss Hollister's suitors, I found Lord Arrowood this
+morning sitting on a stone by the roadside, evidently in the greatest
+dejection.  Can it be possible that an insurgent has crept into your
+organization and incurred the displeasure of the regulars?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We ruled him out," Shallenberger burst forth, "because he was a
+foreigner and not entitled to a place among free-born Americans!  That
+is one reason; and for another, the colors of his half-hose were an
+offense to me, personally."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And for another reason," interposed Ormsby, "he had no money with
+which to pay his board at the Prescott Arms.  For this just cause the
+landlord ejected him shortly after breakfast this morning."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then there is already a rift in the lute!" I returned.  "No trust of
+suitors is stronger than its weakest link.  By the bloody footprints of
+our forefathers on the snows of Valley Forge, I stand for the right of
+the American girl to choose where she will.  You may perch on the hills
+about Hopefield Manor, and besiege Cecilia Hollister till the end of
+time, but my hand is raised against your unrighteous compact, and I am
+in the fight to stay!  Go back to the Prescott Arms, gentlemen, and
+assure your associates in this hideous compact of my most distinguished
+consideration and tell them to go to the devil."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+I had gone to the St. Parvenu Hotel to call upon a Washington lady who
+had been making life a burden to my assistant, and on coming out into
+Fifth Avenue shortly after one, bethought me of the Asolando Tea-Room.
+My interview with the committee of the suitors had driven from my mind
+practically every consideration and every interest not centred in
+Hopefield Manor.  My thoughts turned gratefully to the Asolando, where
+only a few days ago I had been precipitated into the strangest
+adventures my eventless life had known.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A strange face was visible at the cashier's desk as I entered the
+tea-room.  I passed on, finding the place quite full, but I took it as
+a good omen that the seventh table from the right was unoccupied, and I
+hastily appropriated it.  A waitress appeared promptly, murmuring,&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"There are no birds in last year's nest,"&mdash;<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+and recommended a Locker-Lampson sandwich, whose contents the girl told
+me were secret, but it proved to be wholly palatable.  As I drank my
+tea and ate the sandwich I surveyed the decorated menu card with
+interest, and found pleasurable excitement in discovering an item
+directing attention to "Pickles <I>à la</I> Hezekiah, 15 cents."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The delightful Hezekiah must, then, have impressed herself upon the
+<I>deus ex machina</I> of the Asolando on her brief day there, thus to have
+won this recognition.  And further on I noted, among the desserts,
+<I>Pêche Cécilie</I>, with even greater interest and satisfaction.  Miss
+Hollister's nieces were among ten thousand young women, and it was
+quite believable that their brief tenure of office in the tea-room had
+fixed them permanently in the heart of the unknown proprietor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl at the cash-desk was reading, her head bent as demurely as
+Hezekiah's had been on that memorable afternoon; but I did not care for
+the stranger's profile.  I tried to fancy Cecilia in cap and apron
+serving these tables, but my imagination was not equal to the task.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia occupied my mind now.  The visit of the furious suitors to my
+office had stirred in me thoughts and aspirations that had never known
+harborage in my breast before.  The presumption of those fellows had
+exceeded anything I had known in my contact with human kind, and
+instead of frightening me away from Hopefield Manor, they had called my
+own attention to the strategic importance of my present position as a
+guest in Miss Octavia's house.  Here was a siege of suitors indeed; but
+I was resolved to make the most of my position within the barricade.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As these thoughts ran through my mind, I was finishing my <I>Pêche
+Cécilie</I> (I spurn all sweets ordinarily), when I became interested in
+the unusual conduct of a young woman who had entered the front door
+briskly and walked with a business-like air to the cashier's desk.  The
+girl within the wicket rose promptly, opened the screen, and without
+parley of any sort, emptied the contents of her till into the visitor's
+reticule.  With a nod and a smile and a moment's careless survey of the
+room, the girl departed, swinging the reticule in her hand.  A long
+roll she carried under her arm confirmed my identification.  It was
+Miss Octavia Hollister's Swedish maid; and the roll, beyond
+peradventure, contained the plans she had obtained at Pepperton's
+office.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The girl was well-featured, neat of figure, and becomingly gowned, and
+as I watched her leave the shop the lightness of her step, something
+smooth and flowing in her movements, interested me.  I did not know
+what business she had to be robbing the Asolando money-drawer, but it
+was altogether possible that she was the Hopefield ghost!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the whole, when I had finally torn myself away from my
+assistant,&mdash;who made no attempt to conceal his doubts as to my
+sanity,&mdash;and had settled myself in the four-fourteen express with the
+afternoon papers, I was fully satisfied with the day's adventures.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+I had told the coachman in the morning not to trouble to meet me on my
+return, and I engaged the village liveryman to drive me to the house
+for hire.  As we approached Hopefield I saw the Napoleonic figure of
+John Stewart Dick in the roadway.  He had evidently been waiting for
+me.  He held up his hand with the superb, impersonal scorn of a Fifth
+Avenue policeman, and the driver checked his horse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I gave you warning," he said impressively.  "If you return to the
+house the consequences will be upon your own head."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thank you," I replied courteously.  "You lay yourself open to the
+severest penalties of the law in attempting to intimidate me.  I have
+enlisted for the whole campaign.  Sick chimneys require my immediate
+professional attention.  If my bark sink, 't is to another sea.  Be
+good, dear child, let those who will be clever; and kindly omit
+flowers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the driver slapped his reins, Dick sprang out of the way, muttering
+words that proved the shallowness of his philosophic temper.  The
+liveryman expressed his disapproval of the pragmatist in profane terms
+as we entered the grounds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's a heap o' talk in the village," he observed.  "They do say the
+old lady 's cracked, if I may so speak of her; and that there's ghosts
+in the house.  And the conduct of the gentlemen at the Prescott is most
+remarkable.  The word 's passed that they're all dippy about the young
+Miss Hollister that lives with her aunt.  I reckon all rich people are
+a bit cracked.  It appears to go with the money.  Mr. Bassford
+Hollister,&mdash;he's the old lady's brother,&mdash;he's just as bad as any of
+'em.  I've drove in these parts fifteen year, and I 've worked a heap
+for the rich, but I never seen nothin' like the Hollisters.  They say
+Mr. Bassford is about broke now.  Had his share of the baby-wagon money
+and blew it in, and now the old lady's marryin' off the girls and he
+gets no money out of her if he takes a hand in that game.  She's doin'
+it to suit herself.  That Bassford is always up to somethin' queer.
+Yesterday he sat in the village street countin' the number of people he
+saw chewin' gum.  Hung around the school-house watchin' the children to
+see how many had their jaws goin'.  Takin' notes just like the census
+man and tax assessor.  Told our doctor in the village he was figurin'
+the amount of horse-power the American people put into gum-chewing
+every year, and expects to find some way of usin' it to run machinery.
+It's harmless, Doc says.  He calls it just the Hollister idiosyncrasy,
+if that's the word.  But I reckon it's idiotsyncrasy all right.  I wish
+you good luck of your place, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He evidently believed me to be some sort of upper servant, and this
+added to my joy of the day.  With my good humor augmented by the
+interview, I entered the house.  A strange footman admitted me, and I
+went to my room at once without meeting any one else.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The man followed me with a penciled note, signed with Cecilia's
+initials, requesting my presence below as soon as possible, as she
+wished to see me before dinner.  The thought that she wished to see me
+at any time filled me with elation; and her few lines scratched on a
+correspondence card were a pleasing addendum to our conversation of the
+morning.  I only wondered whether I should find her the sober, reserved
+young woman of our earlier acquaintance, or whether she would choose to
+renew the good comradeship of our talk on the train.  The finding of my
+assistant's telegraphed resignation on my dressing-table, to take
+effect in January, had not the slightest effect upon the lofty minarets
+in which my fancy now found lodgment.  It pleased me to believe that
+fighting blood still pulsed in the last of the house of Ames, and that
+I had hurled defiance at the organized band of suitors that guarded the
+Hopefield gates and picketed the surrounding hills.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My question as to which Cecilia I should find in the library was
+quickly answered.  Her frank smile, the candor of her eyes, confessed a
+new tie between us; we were becoming conspirators within the main
+conspiracy, whatever its character might be.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As to Providence and the cook&mdash;what luck?" I asked.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I managed that very easily.  I ran into some friends who were
+going abroad for the winter.  They have a staff of unusual servants,
+and were anxious to keep them together until their return.  I promptly
+engaged them all, and they are even now installed.  I came up on the
+train with them, and as they are unusually intelligent and biddable,
+they agreed to stray in in a casual and desultory way through the
+afternoon.  Aunt Octavia really believed, or pretended she did, which
+is just as good, that Providence had sent them, and was delighted.  The
+laundress&mdash;the last to appear&mdash;has just arrived, and Aunt Octavia is in
+fine humor.  She did n't even ask me how I came off in my encounter at
+the dentist's.  She had filled the pie-pantry and had a good time while
+I was gone."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I have had an adventure of my own," I remarked, after expressing
+my relief that she had solved the servant difficulty with so much ease.
+"A committee of gentlemen waited on me in my office on a matter of
+grave importance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She lifted her brows, and folded her hands upon her knees&mdash;it was a
+pretty way she had.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Was it the freedom of the city, or some high recognition of your
+professional ability, Mr. Ames?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, far more exciting!  Three gentlemen, representing the suitors'
+trust now maintaining headquarters at the Prescott Arms, warned me
+solemnly to keep off the grass.  In other words, I am not to interfere
+with their designs upon the heart of Miss Cecilia Hollister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She flung open a fan, held it at arm's length, and scrutinized the
+daffodils that were traced upon it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So they dared you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So they dared me.  And I took the dare."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her eyes met mine gravely, but behind her pretty <I>moue</I> a smile lurked
+delightfully.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-221"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-221.jpg" ALT="Her eyes met mine gravely." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+Her eyes met mine gravely.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"If I should tell you now it would be flirting, which is a sin."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I had imagined, Mr. Ames, that that sort of thing came easy to you.
+But if it's sinful, of course"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you do not rule me out!  You will give me a chance"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My earnestness caused her manner to change suddenly.  Her beautiful
+gravity came like a swift falling of starlit twilight.  I had never
+been so happy as at this moment.  Preposterous as were the
+circumstances of my presence in the house, the juxtaposition of Cecilia
+Hollister gave me unalloyed delight.  The animosity of the gentlemen at
+the Prescott Arms&mdash;an animosity which the interview in my office had
+doubtless intensified&mdash;quickened my satisfaction in thus being within
+the walls that guarded the lady of their adoration.  She had not
+answered me, and I felt my heart pounding in the silence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I want to serve you, now, hereafter, and always," I added.  "These men
+can have no claim upon you greater than that of any other man who
+dares!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, none whatever," she replied firmly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And the mystery, the whole story, is in the little silver book!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She started, flushed, and then laughter visited her lips and eyes.  The
+book was not in her hands nor in sight anywhere, but I felt that I was
+on the right track, and that the little trinket had to do with her
+plight and her compact with her aunt.  Best of all, the fact that I had
+chanced upon this clue gave her happiness.  There was no debating that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You had best have a care, Mr. Ames.  You have spoken words that would
+be treasonable if they came from me, and I must not countenance them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you will tolerate from me words that you would not permit another
+to speak?  Do I go too far?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She bent her head to one side,&mdash;with the slightest inclination, as of a
+rose touched by a vagrant wind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If I could only half believe in you," she said, "you might really
+serve me.  So those gentlemen warned you away!  Their presumption is
+certainly astounding."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They know nothing of the silver book!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They know less than you do,&mdash;and you have a good deal to learn, you
+know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am dull enough, but I have no ambition but to read the riddle of the
+sibyl's leaves.  That and the laying of the ghost are my immediate
+business.  As for the gentlemen at the Prescott, including my old
+friend Hartley Wiggins, I am not in the least afraid of them.  My hand
+is raised against them.  If it's a case of the test of Ulysses over
+again, I 'm as likely as any of them to bend the bow."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I thought this well spoken, but she seemed amused, though without
+unkindness, by the earnestness of my speech.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If your wit is equal to your valor, you may go far.  But"&mdash;and she
+turned her eyes full upon me&mdash;"we must play the game according to the
+rules."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And as for Hartley Wiggins"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sat up very straight, and the sudden disdain in her face startled
+me.  I had forgotten my eavesdropping in the clump of raspberries on
+the day of my arrival.  Certainly Wiggins had been decidedly in the
+race then, and my heart thumped in resentment as I recalled her own
+message, all compact of encouragement, which I had borne to Wiggins at
+the Prescott Arms.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I will tell you something, Mr. Ames.  This afternoon, as I drove from
+the station, I came round by the lake, merely to cool my eyes on the
+water, and I saw Mr. Wiggins and my sister seated on a wall in an old
+orchard.  They were so busily engaged that they did not see me.  At
+least he did not; but I think Hezekiah did."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah," I answered, relieved by the nature of her disclosure, which
+could not but prejudice Wiggins' case, "Hezekiah is fond of orchards.
+I dare say this was the same one in which I had a charming talk with
+her myself.  Doubtless she was amusing herself with Wiggins just as she
+did with me.  She finds the genus homo entertaining."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She is the dearest girl in the world,&mdash;the sweetest, the loveliest,
+the brightest.  Mr. Wiggins has treated her outrageously.  He has taken
+advantage of her youth and susceptible nature."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"His punishment is sure," I answered complacently.  "Hezekiah laughed
+when I mentioned his name.  And you frown to-day at the thought of him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aunt Octavia is coming," she remarked, feigning at once a careless
+air; but I was content that she let my remark pass unchallenged.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia's entrances were always effective.  She appeared to-night
+charmingly gowned, but the bright twinkle in her eyes made it clear
+that no matter of dress could affect her humor or spirit.  She greeted
+me, as she always did, as though our acquaintance were a matter of
+years rather than of days.  I even imagined that she seemed pleased to
+find me back again.  She asked no questions as to my day's occupations,
+but as we went in to dinner sallied forth cheerfully upon a description
+of her own activities.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"After I had baked my required quota of pies this morning, I sought
+recreation at the traps.  The stable-boy who has been pulling the
+string for me having struck-work, it most providentially happened that
+I espied Lord Arrowood hanging on the edge of the maple tangle beyond
+the barn.  I summoned him at once and put him to work managing the
+traps for me, finding him most efficient.  He seemed extremely
+despondent, and after I had satisfied myself that two out of three was
+not an impossible record for one of my years, I brought him to the
+house and made tea for him.  I left the room for a moment&mdash;I had taken
+him into the kitchen where, during the incumbency of the regular cook I
+hardly dare venture myself, and he made himself comfortable quite near
+the range.  The pies on which I had been engaged all morning lay
+cooling near him.  I had composed twenty-nine pies,&mdash;I am an excellent
+mathematician, and I could not have been mistaken in the count.  What
+was my amazement to find, after his lordship's departure, that one pie
+was missing!  The pan in which it was baked I discerned later, jammed
+into a barrel of excellent Minnesota flour.  My absence from the room
+was the briefest; his lordship must indeed be a prestidigitateur to
+have made way with the pie so expeditiously."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"His lordship was doubtless hungry," I suggested.  "Even nobility must
+eat.  I passed Lord Arrowood in the highway early this morning, sitting
+upon a stone, with sundry items of hand-baggage reposing beside him.  I
+have rarely seen any one so depressed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He belongs to an ancient house," remarked Miss Octavia.  "He is
+descended from either Hengist or Horsa,&mdash;I forget which, but it does
+not greatly matter.  The missing pie, I may add, was an effect in
+Westchester pippin; and as our American experiment in self-government
+bores him, I take it as significant that he chanced upon food that is
+the veritable sacrament of democracy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Now that the little matter of the servants has been adjusted, we must
+have a care lest the newly-arrived phalanx, which Providence so kindly
+sent to you to-day, is not stampeded by any further manifestations of
+the troubled spirit of the unfortunate Briton who was hanged on the
+site of this house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames," replied Miss Octavia impressively, "that matter is entirely
+in your hands."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But if I could see the plans of this house, I should be better able to
+grapple with his ghostship."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had thrown this out in the hope of eliciting some remark from her
+touching the Swedish maid's visit to Pepperton's office; but Miss
+Octavia met my gaze unflinchingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are a clever man, Mr. Ames, and I have every confidence that you
+will not only solve the mystery of the library chimney but find the
+ghost that switched off the lights on the stair last night.  I prefer
+that you should accomplish these feats without any help from the plans.
+I myself have no suggestions.  I am gratified that you are meeting the
+emergencies that have risen here with so much determination, but it is
+what I should expect of the son of Arnold Ames of Hartford.
+Opportunity is all that any of us need to find ourselves truly great,
+and if, in the ordinary course of our lives, the gate does not open
+freely, we are justified in picking the lock.  When I determined to
+seek adventures in my old age, I resolved that I should miss no chance,
+and that I should be prepared for any beckoning of the hand of fate.
+An odd fancy struck me at the beginning of my new life that Boston
+would some day be the starting-point of some interesting experience.
+This has not yet developed, but in order that I may be prepared for
+anything that may occur I keep a blue-silk umbrella constantly checked
+at the Parker House.  The presence of the little brass check in my
+purse is a constant reminder that Boston may one day call me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A discussion of the Parker House umbrella followed, Cecilia and I
+joining, and it proved so fruitful a topic that it carried us to our
+coffee.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Coffee-making, in a machine she had herself contrived, was always
+attended with rites that required deliberation, and while she performed
+them Miss Hollister continued to amuse us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You may not know," she remarked, in one of her charming irrelevant
+outbursts, "that the most important furniture transactions effected in
+this country are those negotiated daily by the head-waiters of the
+Fifth Avenue restaurants.  Such is, I assure you, the fact.  These
+gentlemen, who have attained front rank among our predatory rich, allow
+no one to dine at the inns they dominate who does not first purchase a
+table and chairs at a profit of at least two hundred per cent over the
+original Grand Rapids cost, the furniture thus purchased reverting in
+every case to the party of the first part after the purchasers have
+eaten to their satisfaction.  The Fifth Avenue head-waiters are not
+only the most absolute autocrats of our time, but the most acute
+students of human nature among us.  The sale of the tables by the lords
+of the dining-rooms is alone worth a fortune every season at our
+fashionable victualing houses and, in addition, the humbler members of
+the minor orders of waiters, who merely fetch and carry, are obliged to
+share their gratuities with their august chiefs."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The system is iniquitous," I declared.  "It's enough to pay two prices
+for the food without buying the hotel furniture."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The system, Mr. Ames, is wholly admirable, if you will pardon me for
+expressing a difference of opinion.  We cannot do less than admire the
+austere genius before which mere plutocrats and men of affairs meekly
+bow.  In making my own investments I would rather have the advice of
+Alphonse at the Hotel Pallida than that of the president of the
+strongest trust company on Manhattan Island.  The varying size of the
+sums he receives for the dining-room furniture is the best possible
+indication of the condition of the market.  When a citizen of Pittsburg
+will pay no more than one hundred dollars for the use of a table to eat
+from at the Pallida you may be sure that a panic impends.  By the way,
+I proposed to Alphonse last winter the organization of a limited
+company of leading head-waiters to control the waiting industry of
+Fifth Avenue.  It was my idea that some special forms of torture might
+be devised for calculating persons&mdash;usually readers of New York letters
+in provincial newspapers&mdash;who think a waiter entitled to only ten per
+cent of the bill, and this could best be managed by an arrangement
+between the five or six magnates who control the more gilded and
+imposing refectories.  I suggested the placing of a special mark in the
+hats of the ten-per-cent fiends, so that wherever they dine the symbol
+of their indiscreet frugalities would be apparent to the initiated eye.
+It is another of my notions that the head-waiter and his humble slave
+should present a formal bill for their services, while the hotel or
+restaurant should merely be tipped.  In this way the more important
+service would receive its due consideration.  The sole office of the
+proprietor is to provide the head-waiter a place in which to follow his
+profession.  Alphonse is impressed with my ideas, and has even offered
+to make me a director of the company."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose that you won the regard of Alphonse, the magnificent, only
+by the most princely tips through many years of acquaintance, Miss
+Hollister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On the other hand, Mr. Ames, I never gave him a cent in my life; but
+last Christmas, in recognition of his friendliness in warning me
+against an alligator-pear salad, at a moment when that vegetable was at
+the turn of the season, I knit him a pair of blue worsted bed-room
+slippers, which he received with the liveliest expressions of delight."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Three suitors were announced at this moment, and I slipped away without
+excuses, while Miss Octavia and Cecilia adjourned to the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The ghost, I had sworn, should not baffle me another night.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap13"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XIII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+As I crossed the second-floor hall, I passed the Swedish maid, walking
+toward Miss Octavia's room.  I was somewhat annoyed to find, on looking
+over my shoulder to make sure of her destination, that she, too, had
+paused, her hand on Miss Octavia's door, and was watching me with
+interest.  She vanished immediately; but to throw her off the track I
+went to my own room, closed the door noisily, and then came out quickly
+and ran up to the third floor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Bassford Hollister's mysterious exit had lingered in my mind as the
+most curious incident of the eventful Friday night.  Having been
+baffled in my effort to get hold of the architect's plans, my thought
+now was to await in the upper part of the house a repetition of the
+various phenomena that had so puzzled me.  By the process of exclusion
+I had eliminated nearly every plausible theory, but if the ghost
+manifested himself with any sort of periodicity (and the hour of the
+chimney's queer behavior had been nine) I was now prepared to meet him
+in the regions he had chosen for his exploits.  When it is remembered
+that I had always been most timorous, not at all anxious to shine in
+any heroic performances, it will be understood that the atmosphere of
+Hopefield Manor was exerting a stimulating effect upon my courage.  Or,
+more likely, my inherent cowardice had been brought into subjection by
+my curiosity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had a pretty accurate knowledge by this time of the position and
+function of all the electric switches between the lower hall and the
+fourth floor, but I tested them as I ascended, glancing down now and
+then to make sure I was not observed.  From the sound of voices in the
+library I judged that most of Cecilia's suitors must now have arrived,
+and so much the better, I argued; for with Miss Octavia and her niece
+fully occupied, I could the better carry on my ghost-hunt above stairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At a quarter before nine I switched off the lights on the third and
+fourth floors, and established myself at the head of the stairway, and
+quite near the trunk-room door.  This door I had opened, as I fancied
+that if Bassford Hollister were at the bottom of the business, he would
+probably wish to find his way to the roof again.  So far as I was able
+to manage it, the stage was in readiness for the entrance of the
+goblin.  And I may record my impression, that as we wait for a
+visitation of this sort, it is with a degree of credence in things
+supernatural, to which we would not ordinarily confess.  In spite of
+ourselves we expect something to appear, something unearthly,
+impalpable, and unresponsive to those tests we apply to the known and
+understood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The clock below struck nine upon these meditations, and almost upon the
+last stroke I heard a sound that set my nerves tingling.  I crouched in
+the dark waiting.  Some one was coming toward me, but from where?  The
+bottom of a well at midnight was not blacker than the fourth floor, but
+the switch lay ready to my hand, and my pockets were stuffed with
+matches of the sort that light anywhere.  The stairways were all
+carpeted, as I have said, and yet some one was ascending bare treads,
+lightly, and with delays that suggested a furtive purpose.  Meanwhile,
+as a background for this unreality, murmurs of talk and occasional
+laughter rose from the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This concealed stairway, wherever it was, could not be of interminable
+length, and I had counted, I think, fifteen steps of that strange
+ascent when it ceased.  I heard a fumbling as of some one seeking a
+latch, and suddenly a light current of air swept by me, but its clean
+fresh quality was not in itself disturbing.  I stooped and struck a
+match smartly on the carpet and at the same time clicked the switch.  I
+should say that not more than ten seconds passed from the moment the
+soft rush of air had first advertised the opening of a passage near me
+until the hall was flooded with the glow of the electric lamps
+overhead.  My match had also performed its office, but finding the
+electric current behaving itself normally, I blew it out.  What I saw
+now interested me immensely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the solid wall, near the stair, and almost directly opposite the
+trunk-room, a narrow door had swung outward,&mdash;a neat contrivance, so
+light in its construction that it still swayed on its concealed hinges
+from the touch of the hand that had released it.  How it had opened or
+what had become of the prowler who had unlatched it remained to be
+discovered.  It seemed impossible that whoever or whatever had climbed
+the hidden stairway had descended, nor had I been conscious of a
+ghostly passing as on the previous night.  I had only my senses to
+apply to this problem, and their efficiency was minimized for a moment
+by fear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The opening in the wall engaged my attention at once, and I was
+steadied by the thought that here was a practical matter susceptible of
+investigation.  I stepped within the door and lighted a candle; and
+just as the wick caught fire, click went a switch somewhere, and out
+went the hall lamps.  But having, so to speak, put my foot to the
+mysterious stair I would not turn back, and I continued on down the
+steps.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Great was my astonishment to find that I had apparently stepped from a
+new into an old house.  The stair treads were worn by long use, the
+plaster walls that inclosed them were battered and cracked, and I
+seemed to have plunged from the glory of Hopefield into some dim lost
+passage of a domicile of another era, that lay within or beneath the
+walls of the Manor.  As I slowly descended, holding high my candle, I
+recalled, not without a qualm, the story of the British soldier whom
+tradition or superstition linked to the site of Miss Hollister's
+property.  This stairway might certainly have been built in the early
+days of the republic, and it refuted my disdain of the ghost-myth on
+the theory that new houses are inhospitable to spirits.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the foot of the stair I found two rooms, one on either side of a
+small hall, and these, also, were clearly part of an old house that
+seemed to be somehow merged into the Hollister mansion.  I remembered
+now that the mansion stood wedged against a rough spur of rock, and
+that the front and rear entrances were upon different levels, and it
+was conceivable that the back part of the mansion might inclose these
+rooms of an earlier house that had occupied the same site; why they
+should have been retained was beyond me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Through the carefully-preserved windows, many-paned and quaint, of
+these hidden rooms, the infolding walls of the new house were blank and
+black.  An odd thing indeed, that Pepperton should have lent himself to
+the preservation of a commonplace and thoroughly uninteresting relic,
+for beyond doubt he must have countenanced it; and Miss Hollister's
+prompt removal of the plans from the architect's office became more
+enigmatical than ever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One door only remained in this shell of the old house, and I hastened
+to fling it open, still lighting my way with a candle.  Before me lay
+the coal cellar, at which I had merely glanced on the morning after my
+installation at Hopefield.  I now began to get my bearings.  I
+remembered two iron lids in the cemented surface of an area on the east
+side of the house where fuel was deposited, and mounting a few steps
+that were of recent construction, and had evidently been built to
+afford communication between the remnant of the old house and the
+subterranean portion of the new, I found to my relief and satisfaction
+beneath one of these openings a short ladder, through which the court
+might be reached.  Here, then, the manner of ghostly ingress was
+illustrated by perfectly plausible means.  The lid of the coal-hole was
+entirely withdrawn, and a bar of moonlight lay brightening upon a pile
+of anthracite at the foot of the ladder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The ghost I believed to be still in the upper halls of the house, and
+now that I was in a position to watch the ladder by which he had
+entered I felt confident that I had cut off his retreat.  I was
+surveying the cellar, when I heard faint sounds in a new direction.
+Far away under the house, and remote from the secret steps, some one
+was moving toward me, and rapidly, too!  The ghost that I believed to
+have disappeared into the fourth-floor hall must then have changed the
+line of his retreat and descended by one of the regular stairways.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I blew out my candle and stood with my back to the wall of the long
+corridor on which opened the various store-rooms, the heating plant,
+laundry and other accessories of the modern house.  My ghost was coming
+in haste,&mdash;a haste that did not harmonize with the stately tread of the
+spooks of popular superstition.  A slower pace and I should doubtless
+have fled before him; but quick light steps echoed in the dark
+corridor, and I gathered courage from the thought that ghosts create
+echoes no more than they cast shadows.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the steps drew nearer I prepared myself to spring upon him.  I must
+unconsciously have taken a step, for he paused suddenly, stood still
+for a moment, then turned and scampered back the way he had come.
+After him I went as fast as I could run.  The cement-paved corridor was
+four or five feet wide, and I plunged through the dark at my best
+speed.  At the end of the corridor I was pretty certain of my quarry,
+and I made ready to grapple with him.  Then as I plunged into the wall
+my hands touched a man's face and for a moment clutched the collar of
+his coat.  He had been waiting for me to strike the wall, and as he
+slipped out of my grasp he ran back toward the coal cellar.  I had
+struck the wall with a force that knocked the wind out of me, but I got
+myself together with the loss of only an instant and renewed pursuit.
+I had no fear but that, if he attempted to reach the open by means of
+the coal-hole, I should catch him on the ladder, and I sprinted for all
+I was worth to make sure of him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My fleeting grasp of the man's collar and the agility with which he had
+slipped from my clasp had settled the ghost question, and I had now
+resolved the intruder into a common thief.  As we neared the coal
+cellar I increased my pace, and felt myself gaining on him; though in
+the dark I saw nothing until I glimpsed the faint light from the
+coal-hole.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It had evidently occurred to him by this time that if he tried to climb
+the ladder I could easily pull him down by the legs; and when he
+reached the cross hall, he turned quickly and dived through the opening
+into the hidden chambers.  I lost no time in following, but the fellow
+put up a good race, and as I reached the old stairway he was mounting
+it two steps at a time, as I judged from the sound.  I had hoped to
+catch and dispose of him without alarming the house, but it seemed
+inevitable now that the chase would end in such fashion as to arouse
+the company assembled in the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I heard him stumble and fall headlong at the door above; then he shot
+off into the still darkened hall, and when I had gained the top I lost
+track of him for a moment.  I paused and was about to strike a match,
+when he resumed his flight, and I was forced to grapple with the fact
+that some one else was pursuing him.  I held my match unstruck upon
+this new disclosure, and stepped back within the concealed door and
+waited.  Up and down the hall, two persons were running, and when they
+reached the ends of the corridor I heard hands touch the wall and the
+sound of dodging, and then almost instantly the two runners flashed by
+me again.  The hall was so dark that I saw nothing, but as the runners
+passed the door I felt the rush of air caused by their flight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Three or four times this had happened, and then, still without having
+made a light, I thrust out my foot at the next return of the unseen
+runners.  Some one tripped and fell headlong, and I promptly flung
+myself upon him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My prisoner's resistance engaged my best attention a moment, but when I
+had sat upon his legs and got hold of his struggling hands, some one
+stole softly by me.  My prisoner, too, heard and was attentive.  Not
+only did I experience the same sensation as on the previous night, of a
+passing near by, but I was conscious of the same faint perfume, as of a
+flower-scent half-caught in a garden at night, that had added to my
+mystification before.  Then without the slightest warning the lights
+flashed on, and a door closed somewhere, but it was not the hidden one
+leading down into the remnant of the old house, for my prisoner's head
+and shoulders lay across its threshold.  He sighed deeply, bringing my
+dazed wits back to him, and I found myself gazing into the blinking
+eyes of Lord Arrowood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bounders, I say, bounders!" he gasped.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In the circumstances, Lord Arrowood, I should not call names.  Will
+you tell me what you mean by running through this house in this
+fashion?  Stand up and give an account of yourself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I helped him to his feet and bent over the stair-rail leading down to
+the third floor.  Evidently our strange transactions beneath and above
+had not disturbed the assembled suitors and their hostesses; but in
+common decency Lord Arrowood must be disposed of promptly; there was no
+doubt about that.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was an ass to try it," muttered his lordship, pulling his tie into
+shape.  "And now I want to get out.  I want to go away from here."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was tugging at the belt of his Norfolk coat, and something between
+it and his waistcoat evidently gave him concern.  It did not seem
+possible that he was really a thief, with chattels concealed on his
+person, but he continued to smooth his jacket anxiously, meanwhile
+eyeing me apprehensively.  He puffed hard from his recent game of
+hide-and-seek, and his face was wet with perspiration.  Our
+conversation was carried on in half-whispers.  He was so crestfallen
+that if it had n't been for the necessity of maintaining silence I
+should have laughed outright.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Out with it, my lord.  What have you stuck in your coat?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They're bounders, all the rest of 'em," he asserted doggedly, "but I
+believe you to be a gentleman."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thank you, Lord Arrowood, for this mark of confidence; but you have
+led me a hot chase through this house, and it is clear that you have
+something tucked under your coat that you have seized feloniously.
+We're standing here in the light, and our voices may at any moment
+attract Miss Hollister and the others in the library.  Open your coat!
+I declare that even if you have lifted a bit of the Hollister plate I
+will let you go.  My lord, if you please, stand and unfold yourself!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Reluctantly, shamefacedly, and still breathing hard from his late
+exertions, Lord Arrowood of Arrowood, Hants, England, obeyed me.  There
+were five buttons to the close-fitting jacket, and the loosening of
+every succeeding one seemed to give him pain.  Then with his head
+slightly lifted as though in disdain of me, he held out for my
+observation a pie, in the pan in which it had been baked!  The top
+crust was browned to a nicety; its edges were crimped neatly; and in
+spite of the fact that I had so lately dined sumptuously at Miss
+Hollister's hospitable board, at sight of this alluring pastry I
+experienced the sharp twinges of aroused appetite.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-244"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-244.jpg" ALT="He held out for my observation a pie." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+He held out for my observation a pie.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Now you have it, and I hope you are satisfied," said Lord Arrowood.
+"Kindly allow me to retire by the way I came."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"First," I replied, sobered by the gravity of his manner, "it would
+interest me as a student of character to know just what species of pie
+lured you to this burglarious deed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have reason to think," he answered, with tears in his eyes, "that it
+is a gooseberry.  I was damned hungry, if you must know the truth, and
+having sampled the old lady's pies this morning, and had nothing to eat
+since, I saw the coal-hole open and ladder beneath, and the rest of it
+was easy.  If you and the other chap had n't chased me all over the
+estate, I 'd have been off with my pie and no harm done.  The old lady
+'s insane, you know, and has no manner of use for pies.  The house is
+haunted in the bargain.  When you had about winded me down in the
+cellar and cut me off from the ladder and chased me up here, the ghost
+took a hand, and if you had n't tripped me and sat on me the spirits
+would certainly have nailed me.  O Lord, what a night!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's your impression then that when you got up here somebody else
+broke into the game."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quite that, only I should say some<I>thing</I>, not some<I>body</I>.  It was a
+lighter step than yours.  It had its hand on me once; but I could n't
+touch it.  Damn me," he concluded hoarsely, "it was n't there to touch!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are sure you speak the truth when you say that the coal-hole was
+open and that you found the ladder there when you came?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No manner of doubt of it.  As I have already said, I believe you to be
+a gentleman, and between gentlemen certain confidences may pass that
+would n't be possible between a gentleman and those <I>canaille</I> down
+there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He jerked his head scornfully to indicate the suitors below.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I bowed with such dignity as is possible in addressing a nobleman whom
+you have just caught in the act of lifting a gooseberry-pie from a
+lady's pantry,&mdash;a pie which you hold perforce in your hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The fact is that I was without the price of food; and to repeat, I was
+beastly hungry."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Poverty and hunger, my lord, are pardonable sins.  And I dare say that
+Miss Hollister would be highly pleased to know that a gentleman of your
+high position&mdash;she told me herself that you were descended from the
+Jutish chiefs&mdash;had paid so high a compliment to the excellence of her
+pastry.  Your only error, as I view the matter, lies in the fact that
+you have laid felonious hands upon a gooseberry-pie.  All gooseberry
+pastries are sacred to Hezekiah.  My impressions of Hezekiah are the
+pleasantest, and I cannot allow you to intervene between her and the
+pie I hold in my hands.  If you will accompany me below, I will
+undertake to gain access to the pie vault, return this pie to its
+proper place, and hand you, at the foot of the ladder, an apple-pie in
+place of it.  I dare say it never will be missed; but from what I know
+of Hezekiah, any trifling with her appetite would be a crime indictable
+at common law."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His lordship seemed reassured, and we were about to descend by the
+concealed stair when he arrested me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames, you are a gentleman, and possess a generous heart.  We
+understand each other perfectly.  And as I have every reason to believe
+that my suit is hopeless, I ask the loan of five dollars until I can
+confer with my friend the British consul at New York.  I shall sail at
+once for England."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was moved to pity by his humility.  A man who, finding himself
+reduced to larceny by hunger, and being unable to win the woman of his
+choice, meekly yields to the inevitable, is not a fair mark for
+contumely.  He stepped down before me into the dark stairway, and I
+closed the door after me and followed him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I found my way to the pie pantry without difficulty, returned the
+gooseberry-pie to its proper shelf, chose an apple-pie and gave it,
+with a five-dollar note, to Lord Arrowood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the bottom of the ladder he pressed my hand feelingly, and expressed
+his gratitude in terms that would have touched a harder heart than mine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then having closed the coal-hole and hidden the ladder under a pile of
+wood, I resumed my pursuit of the ghost.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap14"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XIV
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+LADY'S SLIPPER
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+I lighted my way with a candle through the lost chambers of the old
+house, up the hidden stairway, and out into the fourth-floor hall
+again.  The old stair, I found on closer observation, reached only from
+the second to the fourth floor, and below this had been pieced with
+lumber carefully preserved from the earlier house.  There was nothing
+so strange after all about the hidden stairway, though I was convinced
+that this had been no idea of Pepperton's, but that he had merely
+obeyed the orders of his eccentric client, the umbrella and
+dyspepsia-cure millionaire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had no sooner let myself through the secret door into the upper hall
+than I was aware of a disturbance in the library below.  I heard
+exclamations from the men, and as I ran down toward the third floor
+Miss Octavia's voice rose above the tumult.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We must have patience, gentlemen.  Chimneys are subject to moods just
+like human beings; and we are fortunate in having in the house a
+gentleman who is an expert in such matters.  I do not doubt that Mr.
+Ames even now has his hand upon the chimney's pulse, and that he will
+soon solve this perplexing problem."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you wait for that man to mend your chimney you will wait until
+doomsday."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+So spake John Stewart Dick, taking his vengeance of me with my client
+and hostess.  I might have forgiven him; but I could not forgive
+Hartley Wiggins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He does n't know any more about chimneys than the man in the moon," my
+old friend was saying, between coughs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And then quite unmistakably I smelt smoke, and bending further over the
+rail and peering down the stair-well I saw smoke pouring from the
+library into the hall.  It seemed to be in greater volume to-night than
+at previous manifestations.  A gray-blue cloud was filling the lower
+hall and rising toward me.  I ran quickly to the third floor, to the
+chamber whose fireplace was served by the library chimney.  The lights
+in the third-floor hall winked out as I opened the door,&mdash;I heard a
+step behind me somewhere; but I did not trouble about this.  The switch
+inside the unused guest-chamber responded readily to my touch, and on
+kneeling by the hearth I found it cold, as I had expected.  There was
+absolutely no way of choking the library flue at this point, for, as I
+had established earlier, all the fireplaces in this chimney had their
+independent flues.  Pepperton would never have built them otherwise,
+and no one but a skilled mason could have tapped the library flue here
+or higher up, and the work could not have been done without much noise
+and labor.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The hall outside was still dark, and I did not try the switch.  The
+pursuit was better carried on in darkness, and I had by this time
+become accustomed to rapid locomotion through unlighted passages.  I
+leaned over the stair-well and heard exclamations of surprise at the
+sudden cessation of the smoke, which had evidently abated as abruptly
+as it had begun.  The windows and doors had been opened, and the
+company had returned to the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quite extraordinary.  Really quite remarkable!" they were saying
+below.  I heard Cecilia's light laughter as the odd ways of the chimney
+were discussed.  And as I stood thus peering down and listening, the
+Swedish maid's blonde head appeared below me, bending over the
+well-rail on the second floor.  She too was taking note of affairs in
+the library, and as I watched her she lifted her head and her eyes met
+mine.  Then, while we still stared at each other, the second-floor
+lights went out with familiar abruptness, and as I craned my neck to
+peer into the blackness above me I experienced once more that ghostly
+passing as of some light, unearthly thing across my face.  I reached
+for it wildly with my hands, but it seemed to be caught away from me;
+and then as I fought the air madly, it brushed my cheek again.  I have
+no words to describe the strange effect of that touch.  I felt my scalp
+creep and cold chills ran down my spine.  It seemingly came from above,
+and it was not like a hand, unless a hand of wonderful lightness!
+Certainly no human arm could reach down the stair-well to where I
+stood.  And in that touch to-night there was something akin to a
+gentle, lingering caress as it swept slowly across my face and eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I waited for its recurrence a moment, but it came no more.  Then on a
+sudden prompting I stole swiftly to the fourth floor, lighted my
+candle, and gazed about.  I thought it well to let the electric light
+alone, for my ghost had once too often plunged me into darkness at
+critical moments, and a candle in my hands was not subject to his
+trickery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The hall was perfectly quiet.  The door leading down the hidden stair
+was invisible, and I had not yet learned how it might be opened from
+the hall, though Mr. Bassford Hollister had undoubtedly left the house
+by this means after my interview with him on the roof.  And reminded of
+the roof, I opened the trunk-room door and peered in.  The candle-light
+slowly crept into its dark corners, and looking up I marked the
+presence of the trap-door secure in the opening.  As I stood on the
+threshold of the trunk-piled room, my hand on the knob and the candle
+thrust well before me, I heard a slight furtive movement to my left and
+behind the door.  I was quite satisfied now that I was about to solve
+some of the mysteries of the night, and to make sure I was
+unobserved&mdash;for having gone so far alone I wanted no partners in my
+investigations&mdash;I listened to the murmur of talk below for a moment,
+then cautiously advanced my candle further into the room.  I was not
+yet so valiant, even after all my night-prowlings and explorations of
+hidden chambers, but that I thrust the light in well ahead of me and
+bent my wrist so that the candle's rays might dispel the last shadow
+that lurked behind the door before I suffered my eyes to look upon the
+goblin.  I took one step and then cautiously another, until the whole
+of the trunk-room was well within range of my vision.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And there, seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a dozen
+foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-255"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-255.jpg" ALT="Seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a dozen foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!" BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+Seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels <BR>
+of a dozen foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+As I recall it she was very much at her ease.  She sat on one foot and
+the other beat the trunk lightly.  She was bareheaded, and the
+candle-light was making acquaintance with the gold in her hair.  She
+wore her white sweater, as on that day in the orchard; and with much
+gravity, as our eyes met, she thrust a hand into its pocket and drew
+out a cracker.  I was not half so surprised at finding her there as I
+was at her manner now that she was caught.  She seemed neither
+distressed, astonished nor afraid.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Miss Hezekiah," I said, "I half suspected you all along."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wise Chimney-Man!  You were a little slow about it though."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was indeed.  You gave me a run for my money."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She finished her cracker at the third bite, slapped her hands together
+to free them of possible crumbs, and was about to speak, when she
+jumped lightly from the trunk, bent her head toward the door, and then
+stepped back again and faced me imperturbably.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And now that you've found me, Mr. Chimney-Man, the joke's on you after
+all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She laid her hand on the door and swung it nearly shut.  I had heard
+what she had heard: Miss Octavia was coming upstairs!  She had
+exchanged a few words with the Swedish maid on the second-floor
+landing, and Hezekiah's quick ear had heard her.  But Hezekiah's
+equanimity was disconcerting: even with her aunt close at hand she
+showed not the slightest alarm.  She resumed her seat on the trunk, and
+her heel thumped it tranquilly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The joke's on you, Mr. Chimney-Man, because now that you 've caught me
+playing tricks you've got to get me out of trouble."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What if I don't?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, nothing," she answered indifferently, looking me squarely in the
+eye.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But your aunt would make no end of a row; and you would cause your
+sister to lose out with Miss Octavia.  As I understand it, you 're
+pledged to keep off the reservation.  It was part of the family
+agreement."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I'm here, Chimney-pot, so what are you going to do about it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames!  If you are ghost-hunting in this part of the house"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was Miss Octavia's voice.  She was seeking me, and would no doubt
+find me.  The sequestration of Hezekiah became now an urgent and
+delicate matter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You caught me," said Hezekiah, calmly, "and now you've got to get me
+out; and I wish you good luck!  And besides, I lost one of my shoes
+somewhere, and you've got to find that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In proof of her statement she submitted a shoeless, brown-stockinged
+foot for my observation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The one I lost was like this," and Hezekiah thrust forth a neat tan
+pump, rather the worse for wear.  "I was on the second floor a bit
+ago," she began, "and lost my slipper."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In what mischief, pray?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames," called Miss Octavia, her voice close at hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wanted to see something in Cecilia's room; so I opened her door and
+walked in, that's all," Hezekiah replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wicked Hezekiah!  Coming into the house is bad enough in all the
+circumstances.  Entering your sister's room is a grievous sin."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If, Mr. Ames, you are still seeking an explanation of that chimney's
+behavior"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was Miss Octavia, now just outside the door.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't leave that trunk, Hezekiah," I whispered.  "I'll do the best I
+can."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia met me smilingly as I faced her in the hall.  She had
+switched on the lights, and my candle burned yellowly in the white
+electric glow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia held something in her hand.  It required no second glance
+to tell me that she had found Hezekiah's slipper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames," she began, "as you have absented yourself from the library
+all evening, I assume that you have been busy studying my chimneys and
+seeking for the ghost of that British soldier who was so wantonly slain
+upon the site of this house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am glad to say that not only is your surmise correct, Miss
+Hollister, but that I have made great progress in both directions."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you mean to say that you have really found traces of the ghost?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not only that, Miss Hollister, but I have met the ghost face to
+face,&mdash;even more, I have had speech with him!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her face brightened, her eyes flashed.  It was plain that she was
+immensely pleased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And are you able to say, from your encounter, that he is in fact a
+British subject, uneasily haunting this house in America long after the
+Declaration of Independence and Washington's Farewell Address have
+passed into literature?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have never spoken a truer word, Miss Hollister.  The ghost with
+whom or which I have had speech is still a loyal subject of the King of
+England.  But by means which I am not at liberty to disclose, I have
+persuaded him not to visit this house again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then," said Miss Hollister, "I cannot do less than express my
+gratitude; though I regret that you did not first allow me to meet him.
+Still, I dare say that we shall find his bones buried somewhere beneath
+my foundations.  Please assure me that such is your expectation."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was leading me into deep water, but I had skirted the coasts of
+truth so far; and with Hezekiah on my hands I felt that it was
+necessary to satisfy Miss Hollister in every particular.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To-morrow, Miss Hollister, I shall take pleasure in showing you
+certain hidden chambers in this house which I venture to say will
+afford you great pleasure.  I have to-night discovered a link between
+the mansion as you know it and an earlier house whose timbers may
+indeed hide the bones of that British soldier."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And as for the chimney?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And as for the chimney, I give you my word as a professional man that
+it will never annoy you again, and I therefore beg that you dismiss the
+subject from your mind."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I saw that she was about to recur to the shoe she held in her hand and
+at which she glanced frequently with a quizzical expression.  This,
+clearly, was an issue that must be met promptly, and I knew of no
+better way than by lying.  Hezekiah herself had plainly stated, on the
+morning of that long, eventful day, when she walked into the
+breakfast-room in her aunt's absence and explained Cecilia's trip to
+town, that it was perfectly fair to dissimulate in making explanations
+to Miss Hollister; that, in fact, Miss Octavia enjoyed nothing better
+than the injection of fiction into the affairs of the matter-of-fact
+day.  Here, then, was my opportunity.  Hezekiah had thrown the
+responsibility of contriving her safe exit upon my hands.  No doubt,
+while I held the door against her aunt, that remarkable young woman was
+coolly sitting on the trunk within, eating another cracker and awaiting
+my experiments in the gentle art of lying.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Hollister," I began boldly, "the slipper you hold in your hand
+belongs to me, and if you have no immediate use for it I beg that you
+allow me to relieve you of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is yours, Mr. Ames?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A lifting of the brows, a widening of the eyes, denoted Miss Octavia's
+polite surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Beyond any question it is my property," I asserted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your words interest me greatly, Mr. Ames.  As you know, the grim hard
+life of the twentieth century palls upon me, and I am deeply interested
+in everything that pertains to adventure and romance.  Tell me more, if
+you are free to do so, of this slipper which I now return to you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I received Hezekiah's worn little pump into my hands as though it were
+an object of high consecration, and with a gravity which I hope matched
+Miss Octavia's own.  I was, I think, by this time completely
+hollisterized, if I may coin the word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As I am nothing if not frank, Miss Hollister, I will confess to you
+that this shoe came into my possession in a very curious way.  One day
+last spring I was in Boston, having been called there on professional
+business.  In the evening, I left my hotel for a walk, crossed the
+Common, took a turn through the Public Garden, where many devoted
+lovers adorned the benches, and then strolled aimlessly along Beacon
+Street."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I know that historic thoroughfare well," interrupted Miss Hollister,
+"as my friend Miss Prudence Biddeford has lived there for half a
+century, and once, while I was staying in her house, she gave me her
+recipe for Boston brown bread, thereby placing me greatly in her debt."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then, being acquainted with the neighborhood and its sublimated social
+atmosphere, you will be interested in the experience I am about to
+describe," I continued, reassured by Miss Octavia's sympathetic
+attention to my recital.  "I was passing a house which I have not since
+been able to identify exactly, though I have several times revisited
+Boston in the hope of doing so, when suddenly and without any warning
+whatever this slipper dropped at my feet.  All the houses in the
+neighborhood seemed deserted, with windows and doors tightly boarded,
+and my closest scrutiny failed to discover any opening from which that
+slipper might have been flung.  The region is so decorous, and acts of
+violence are so foreign to its dignity and repose, that I could scarce
+believe that I held that bit of tan leather in my hand.  Nor did its
+unaccountable precipitation into the street seem the act of a
+housemaid, nor could I believe that a nursery governess had thus sought
+diversion from the roof above.  I hesitated for a moment not knowing
+how to meet this emergency; then I boldly attacked the bell of the
+house from which I believed the slipper to have proceeded.  I rang
+until a policeman, whose speech was fragrant of the Irish coasts, bade
+me desist, informing me that the family had only the previous day left
+for the shore.  The house he assured me was utterly vacant.  That, Miss
+Hollister, is all there is of the story.  But ever since I have carried
+that slipper with me.  It was in my pocket to-night as I traversed the
+upper halls of your house, seeking the ghost of that British soldier,
+and I had just discovered my loss when I heard you calling.  In
+returning it you have conferred upon me the greatest imaginable favor.
+I have faith that sometime, somewhere, I shall find the owner of that
+slipper.  Would you not infer, from its diminutive size, and the fine,
+suggestive delicacy of its outlines that the owner is a person of
+aristocratic lineage and of breeding?  I will confess that nothing is
+nearer my heart than the hope that one day I shall meet the young
+lady&mdash;I am sure she must be young&mdash;who wore that slipper and dropped it
+as it seemed from the clouds, at my feet there in sedate Beacon Street,
+that most solemn of residential sanctuaries."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames," began Miss Hollister instantly, with an assumed severity
+that her smile belied, "I cannot recall that my niece Hezekiah ever
+visited in Beacon Street; yet I dare say that if she had done so and a
+young man of your pleasing appearance had passed beneath her window,
+one of her slippers might very easily have become detached from
+Hezekiah's foot and fallen with a nice calculation directly in front of
+you.  But now, Mr. Ames, will you kindly carry your candle into that
+trunk-room?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And I had been pluming myself upon the completeness of my
+hollisterization!  There was nothing for me but to obey, and my heart
+sank as my imagination pictured Hezekiah's discomfiture when we should
+find her seated on the huge trunk behind the door.  And that stockinged
+foot already called in appealing accents to the shoe I held in my hand!
+The foundations of the world shook as I remembered the compact by which
+Hezekiah was excluded from the house, and realized what the impending
+discovery would mean to Cecilia, her father, and the wayward Hezekiah,
+too!  But I was in for it.  Miss Octavia indicated by an imperious nod
+that I was to precede her into the trunk-room, and I strode before her
+with my candle held high.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the sprites of mystery were still abroad at Hopefield.  The room
+was unoccupied save for the trunks.  Hezekiah had vanished.  Instead of
+sitting there to await the coming of her aunt, she had silently
+departed, without leaving a trace.  Miss Hollister glanced up at the
+trap-door in the ceiling, and so did I.  It was closed, but I did not
+doubt that Hezekiah had crawled through it and taken herself to the
+roof.  Miss Octavia would probably order me at once to the battlements;
+but worse was to come.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames," she said, "will you kindly lift the lid of that largest
+trunk."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had not thought of this, and I shuddered at the possibilities.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She indicated the trunk upon which Hezekiah had sat and nibbled her
+cracker not more than ten minutes before.  Could it be possible that
+when I lifted the cover that golden head would be found beneath?  My
+life has known no blacker moment than that in which I flung back the
+lid of that trunk.  I averted my eyes in dread of the impending
+disclosure and held the candle close.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But the trunk was empty, incredibly empty!  My courage rose again, and
+I glanced at Miss Octavia triumphantly.  I even jerked out the trays to
+allay any lingering suspicion.  Why had I ever doubted Hezekiah?  Who
+was she, the golden-haired daughter of kings, to be caught in a trunk?
+She had slipped up the ladder while I talked to her aunt and was even
+now hiding on the roof; but it was not for me to make so treasonable a
+suggestion.  Miss Octavia might press the matter further if she liked,
+but I would not help her to trap Hezekiah.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Hollister did not, to my surprise and relief, suggest an
+inspection of the roof.  She nodded her head gravely and passed out
+into the hall.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames, if I implied a moment ago that I doubted your story of the
+dropping of that tan pump from a Beacon Street roof or window, I now
+tender you my sincerest apologies."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She put out her hand, smiling charmingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pray return to the occupations which were engaging you when I
+interrupted you.  You have never stood higher in my regard than at this
+moment.  To-morrow you may tell me all you please of the ghost and the
+mysteries of this house, and I dare say we shall find the bones of that
+British soldier somewhere beneath the foundations.  As for that
+trifling bit of leather you hold in your hand, it's rather passé for
+Beacon Street.  The next time you tell that story I suggest that you
+play your game of drop the slipper from a window in Rittenhouse Square,
+Philadelphia.  Still, as I always keep an umbrella in the check-room of
+the Parker House, I would not have you imagine that I look upon Boston
+as an unlikely scene for romance.  The last time I was there a Mormon
+missionary pressed a tract upon me in the subway, and I can't deny that
+I found it immensely interesting."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap15"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XV
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Hezekiah on the roof was safe for a time.  Miss Octavia's gentle
+rejection of my Beacon Street anecdote and her intimation that Hezekiah
+had been an unbilled participant in the comedy of the ghost had been
+disquieting, and in my relief at her abandonment of the search I
+loitered on downstairs with my hostess.  I wished to impress her with
+the idea that I was without urgent business.  Hezekiah would, beyond
+doubt, amuse herself after her own fashion on the roof until I was
+ready to release her.  As I had quietly locked the trunk-room door and
+carried the key in my pocket I was reasonably sure of this.  Humility
+is best acquired through tribulation, and as Hezekiah sat among the
+chimney-crocks nursing one stockinged foot and waiting for me to turn
+up with her lost slipper, it would do her no harm to nibble the bitter
+fruit of repentance with another biscuit.  I should find her much less
+sure of herself when I saw fit to seek her on the roof.  It was a
+pretty comedy we were playing, but it was best that she should not too
+complacently take all the curtains.  Hezekiah's naughtiness had been
+diverting up to a point now reached and passed, but the time had
+arrived for remonstrance, admonition, discipline.  And it should be my
+grateful task to point out the error of her ways and urge her into
+safer avenues of conduct.  Such were my reflections as I attended Miss
+Octavia in her descent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The memoranda of my adventures at Hopefield Manor fall under two
+general headings.  On the one hand was the ghost and the library
+chimney; on the other the extraordinary gathering of Cecilia's suitors.
+As I followed at Miss Octavia's side, she seemed to have dismissed the
+ghost and the fractious chimney from her mind; her humor changed
+completely.  As in the morning when, unaccountably abandoning her
+habitual high-flown speech, she had asked me about Cecilia's silver
+note-book, she seemed troubled; and when we had reached the second
+floor she paused and lost herself in unwonted preoccupation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Let us sit here a moment," she said, indicating a long davenport in
+the broad hall.  For the first time her manner betrayed weariness.  She
+laid her hand quietly on my arm and looked at me fixedly.  "Arnold,"
+she said,&mdash;"you will let me call you Arnold, won't you?" she added
+plaintively, and never in my life had I been so touched by anything so
+sweet and gentle and kind,&mdash;"Arnold, if an old woman like me should do
+a very foolish thing in following her own whims and then find that she
+had probably committed herself to a course likely to cause unhappiness,
+what would you advise her to do about it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Hollister," I answered, "if you trusted Providence this morning
+to send you a corps of servants when yours had been most unfortunately
+scattered by ghosts or rumors of ghosts, why will you not continue to
+have confidence that your affairs will always be directed by agencies
+equally alert and beneficent?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She flashed upon me that rare wonderful smile of hers; she looked me in
+the eyes quizzically with her head bent slightly to one side; but for
+once her usual readiness seemed to have forsaken her.  Could it be
+possible that she was losing faith in her own play-world, and that the
+tuneful trumpets of adventure and romance which she had set vibrating
+on her own key jarred dully in her ears?  It passed swiftly through my
+mind that it was incumbent on me to win her back to complete belief in
+the potency of the oracles that had called to her old age.  She had
+dipped her paddle into bright waters and had splashed up all manner of
+gay imaginings, and what disasters awaited her now if she beached her
+argosy and found no gold at the end of the rainbow!  It occurred to me,
+prosaic man and chimney-doctor that I was, that no one should be
+disappointed who has heard the dream-gods calling at twilight, or
+wakened to the chanting of the capstan-song, or heard the timbers
+creaking in the stout old caravel of romance as it wallows in the seas
+that wash the happy isles.  I had not crawled through so many chimneys
+but that I still believed that dreams come true, not because they will
+but because they must!  And in the case of Miss Octavia Hollister I
+felt a great responsibility; for what irremediable loss might not
+result to a world too little given these days to dreaming, if she, who
+at sixty had turned her heart trustfully to adventure, should find only
+sorrow and disappointment?  The thing must not be!  I was feeling the
+least bit elated over my success in solving the riddle of the ghost,
+and I knew that the hidden chambers and stair would delight her when I
+revealed them on the morrow; so I quite honestly sought to restore her
+to the joy of life.  I felt that she was waiting for me to speak
+further, and I plunged ahead.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Our meeting in the Asolando was the most interesting thing that ever
+happened to me, Miss Hollister.  I was rapidly becoming hopelessly
+cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears as to
+the promise of life held out to us in the nursery, where, indeed, all
+education should begin and end.  Your appearance at the Asolando that
+afternoon was well-timed to save me from death in a world that was
+rapidly losing for me all its illusion and witchery.  But now that you
+have so readily won me back to the true faith, I beg of you do not
+yourself revert to the dreary workaday world from which you rescued me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had never in my life spoken more sincerely.  I had never been so
+happy as since I knew her, and I was pleading for myself as well as for
+her&mdash;there where, from her own doorstep and in her own garden, one who
+listened attentively might hear the faint roar of trains bound toward
+the teeming city along iron highways.  It was with relief that I saw my
+words had struck home.  She touched my hand lightly; then she took it
+in both her own.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You really believe that; you are not merely trying to please me?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was never half so much in earnest!  Please go on in the way you have
+begun.  And have no fear that the charts will mislead you, or that the
+seas will grind your bark on hidden shoals.  Shipwreck, you know, is
+one of the greatest joys of our adventures,&mdash;we have to be wrecked
+first before we find the island of the treasure-chests."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She sighed softly, but I felt that her spirits were rising.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But those men down there?  How shall I manage that?" she asked eagerly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I snapped my fingers.  We must get back into the air again.  And it was
+remarkable how readily my long-untried wings bore me upward.  The
+earth, after all, does not bind us so fast!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know the game; but I have found out a lot of things without
+being told, so tell me nothing!  Remember that I have something quite
+remarkable, startling even, to show you to-morrow.  I have even
+overcome, you know, the obstacle you placed in the way of my
+discoveries by sending in ahead of me this morning for the plans of the
+house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I watched her narrowly, but she was in no wise discomfited.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I burned them the moment Hilda brought them back," she laughed.
+"I had faith in you, and I wanted you to manage it all for yourself.  I
+rather guessed that you would go to Pepperton.  That was when I still
+believed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you must go on believing.  Make-believing is the main cornerstone
+and the keystone of the arch of the happy life."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are sure you are not mocking a foolish old woman?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are the wisest woman I ever knew!" I asserted, and my heart was in
+the words.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I believe you have persuaded me; but Cecilia"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was again at the point of loosening her hold upon the cord that
+linked her shallop to Ariel's isle, but my own youth was resurgent in
+me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I rose hastily, the better to break the current of her thought.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those men down there!  They are in the hands of a higher fate than we
+control.  I don't know the game"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But if"&mdash;she broke in.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But if you gave away the secret, explained it to me, you would throw
+me back into my darkest chimney to hope no more.  Leave it to me; trust
+me; lean upon me!  I assure you that all will be well."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She bent her head and yielded herself to reverie for a moment.  Then
+she sprang to her feet in that indescribably light, graceful way that
+erased at least fifty of her years from the reckoning, and was herself
+again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Arnold Ames," she said, laughing a little but gazing up at me with
+unmistakable confidence and liking in her eyes, "we will go through
+with this to the end.  And whether that slipper really fell at your
+feet in Beacon Street or in the even less likely precincts of
+Rittenhouse Square, or under the windows of the Spanish Embassy in
+Washington, I believe that you are my good knight, and that you will
+see me safely through this singular adventure."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+And I, Arnold Ames, but lately a student of chimneys, bent and kissed
+Miss Octavia's hand.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-274"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-274.jpg" ALT="And I bent and kissed Miss Octavia's hand." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+And I bent and kissed Miss Octavia's hand.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+She led the way to the library, where I thought it well to appear for a
+moment, and I was heartily glad that I did so.  It was joy enough for
+any man that he should have earned such glances of hatred and suspicion
+as the suitors bent upon me.  There they were, some standing, some
+seated, about Cecilia.  I bowed low from the door, feeling that to
+offer my hand to these gentlemen in their present temper would be too
+severe a strain upon their manners.  As Miss Octavia appeared, several
+of them advanced courteously and engaged her in conversation.  She
+found a seat and called the others to her, on the plea that she wished
+to ask them their opinion touching some matter,&mdash;I believe it was a
+late rumor that Andree, who had gone ballooning to discover the
+Hyperboreans, had been heard of somewhere.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia appeared distrait, and I wondered what new turn her affairs had
+taken.  She rose as I crossed the room, and from her manner I judged
+that she welcomed this chance of addressing me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have scorned the library to-night.  Has there been trouble?  Is
+Aunt Octavia alarmed about anything?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was sure that this inquiry covered some ulterior question.  Hartley
+Wiggins, listening with a bored air to Miss Octavia's discussion of
+Andree's fate, glanced in our direction with manifest displeasure in
+our propinquity.  Cecilia Hollister was a beautiful, charming woman of
+the world, but I felt her spell less to-night.  It may be that the
+presence of Hezekiah's slipper in my inside coat-pocket, pressing
+rather insistently against my ribs, acted as a counter-irritant.  I
+certainly could not imagine myself possessed of one of Cecilia's
+slippers!  If I had tried my fictitious Beacon Street episode on
+Cecilia, she would undoubtedly have expressed her scorn of me.  The
+hollisteritis germ, that had heretofore infected me only
+intermittently, was now exerting its full tonic power.  In trying to
+hold Miss Octavia to her covenants with the lords of romance, I had
+strengthened my own confidence in their bold emprise.  The gravity with
+which the suitors gave heed to Miss Octavia's ideas on arctic
+ballooning touched my humor.  Cecilia had but to state her perplexity
+and I would interest myself promptly in her business.  If I had been
+asked that night to enlist in the most hopeless causes I should have
+done so without a quibble, and died cheerfully under any barricade.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Our time was short; at any moment the suitors might cease covertly
+glaring at me, drift away from Miss Octavia, and interpose themselves
+between me and the girl on whom they had set their collective hearts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are in difficulty, Miss Cecilia," I said; "please tell me in what
+way I may serve you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't know why I should appeal to you"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No reason is necessary.  I have told you before that you need only to
+command me.  We may be interrupted at any moment.  Pray go on."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have lost an article of the greatest value to me.  It has been taken
+from my room."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a moment only I read distrust and suspicion in her eyes as it
+occurred to her that I had access to every part of the house; but my
+manner seemed to restore her confidence.  And she could not have
+forgotten that her own father had met her secretly on the roof of a
+house that was denied him, and that I was perfectly cognizant of the
+fact.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am sure you can be of assistance," she said.  "There's something
+behind this ghost-story; some one has been in and about the house; you
+believe that?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  There has really been a sort of ghost, you know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She shrugged her shoulders.  Cecilia had no patience with ghosts, and
+we were losing time.  My conversation with Cecilia was annoying
+Wiggins, as was plain from his nervousness.  Wiggins's courtesy was
+unfailing, but there are points at which the restraints of civilization
+snap.  Cecilia realized that time passed and that she had not stated
+her difficulty.  She now lowered her voice and spoke with great
+earnestness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I went to my room for a moment, while Aunt Octavia was above, with you
+I suppose, just after the chimney gave another of its strange
+demonstrations.  I remembered that I had left my little silver-bound
+book, that I usually carry with me, on my dressing-room table.  It
+contains a memorandum of great importance to me.  It positively cannot
+be duplicated.  I am sure it was there when I came down to dinner.  But
+it was not on my dressing-table or anywhere to be found."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You may be mistaken as to where you left it.  You would not be
+absolutely positive that you left it on the dressing-table?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is not the slightest question about it.  I had been looking at
+it just before dinner.  I had sent you a note, you know, immediately
+after you came back, and hurried down to see you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes.  I recall that.  You were in the library when I came down.  And I
+think I remember having seen the little trinket,&mdash;slightly smaller than
+a card-case, silver-backed and only a few leaves.  You had it in your
+hand the other night when I came in after Mr. Hume had left."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She flushed slightly at this, but readily acquiesced in my description.
+Miss Octavia's inquiry as to whether I had seen the book came back to
+me; and no less clearly her withdrawal of her question almost the
+moment she had spoken it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I felt the sudden impingement of Hezekiah's slipper upon my own
+conscience, if I may so state the matter.  Hezekiah, playing ghost, had
+confessed to me that she had visited Cecilia's room.  Hezekiah, amusing
+herself with the library chimney and frightening the servants by
+stealing into the forbidden house through the coal-hole, was a culprit
+to be scolded and forgiven; but what of Hezekiah mischievously filching
+an article of real value to her sister!  I did not like this turn of
+affairs.  I must get back to the roof, find Hezekiah, and compel her to
+return the silver book.  Only by tactfully managing this could I serve
+well all the members of the house of Hollister.  But first I must leave
+Cecilia with a tranquil mind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thank you for confiding this matter to me, Miss Hollister.  Please
+do not attach suspicion to any one until I have seen you again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But if you should be unable to restore"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I assure you that the book is not lost.  It has been mislaid, that's
+all.  I shall return it to you at breakfast.  I give you my word."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you really mean it?" she faltered.  "Please keep this from Aunt
+Octavia!  I can't tell you how important it is that she be kept in
+ignorance of my loss.  The consequences, if she knew, might be very
+distressing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I could not for the life of me see what great importance could attach
+to those few leaves of paper in their silver case, but if Miss Octavia
+and Hezekiah were interested in it as well as Cecilia, it must have a
+significance wholly unrelated to its intrinsic value.  It is the way of
+professional detectives to suggest impossible theories merely to
+conceal their own plans and intentions, and as I had reached a point
+where my tongue was astonishingly glib in subterfuge and evasion, I
+suggested that it might perhaps have been one of the new servants, or
+indeed the Swedish maid.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We will look into the matter, Miss Hollister.  At breakfast I shall
+have something to report.  Meanwhile silence is the word!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia was carrying the invincible John Stewart Dick away to the
+billiard-room.  He glared at me murderously as he trailed glumly after
+the lady of the manor.  The others were crowding about Cecilia again,
+and I yielded to them willingly.  As I sauntered toward the door Ormsby
+detained me a moment.  His manner was arrogant and he hissed rather
+than spoke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm directed to command your presence at the Prescott Arms to-morrow
+at twelve o'clock.  The business is important."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I regret, my dear brother, that I shall be unable to sit with you at
+that hour in committee of the whole, and for two reasons.  The first is
+that I am paired with Lord Arrowood.  You refused to take him into your
+base compact, and allowed him to be thrown out of the inn for not
+paying his bill.  The act was deficient in generosity and gallantry."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then I suppose you would think it a fine thing for such a pauper to
+marry a woman like that,&mdash;like that, I say?" and he jerked his head
+toward Cecilia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I consider a lord of Arrowood as good as the proprietor of a
+knitting-mill any day, if you press me for an opinion," I replied
+amiably.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And this from a chimney-sweep?" he sneered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You flatter me, my dear sir.  I've renounced soot and become a
+gentleman adventurer merely to prevent a type that long illumined
+popular fiction from becoming extinct.  I advise you to fill the void
+existing in the heavy-villain class; believe me, your talents would
+carry you far.  Study Dumas and forget the wool-market, and you will
+lead a happier life.  My second reason for declining to meet you at the
+Arms at twelve to-morrow is merely that the hour is inconvenient.  I
+assume that you mean to urge luncheon upon me, and I never eat before
+one.  My doctor has warned me to avoid early luncheons if I would
+preserve my figure, of which you may well believe me justly proud."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're a coward, that's all there is to that.  I dare you to come!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, as I think of it I 'd rather be dared than invited.  If I find
+it quite convenient I shall drop in.  But you need n't keep the waffles
+hot for me.  Good evening."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It did not seem possible that I, the timid, uncombative and unathletic,
+had thus cavalierly addressed a dignified gentleman in a white
+waistcoat who was perfectly capable of knocking me down with a slap in
+the face.  Valor, I aver, is only another of the offsprings of
+necessity.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap16"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XVI
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+JACK O' LANTERN
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+I hurried back to the trunk-room and had soon gained the roof.  The
+moon was harassed by flying clouds that obscured it fitfully, and a
+keen wind swept the hills.  I crept over the several levels of roof
+thinking that any moment I should come upon Hezekiah; I searched a
+second time, peering behind chimney-pots, and into dark angles; but to
+my disappointment and chagrin my young lady of the single slipper was
+nowhere in sight.  I found, however, lying near the library chimney, a
+trunk-tray that required no explanation.  With this Hezekiah had
+blocked the flue, and I smiled as I pictured her tip-toeing to reach
+the chimney-crock, and dropping the tray across the top.  How gleefully
+she must have chuckled as she waited for the flue to fill and send the
+smoke ebbing back into the library, to the discomfiture of her aunt and
+sister and the suitors gathered about the hearth!  The spirit of
+mischief never whispered into a prettier ear a trick better calculated
+to cause confusion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had thought Hezekiah secure when I locked the trunk-room door, but I
+had not counted upon the versatility and resourcefulness of that young
+person.  I dropped to the second roof-level and inspected the
+down-spouts, but it was incredible that she had sought the earth by
+this means.  I swung myself to a third level, and after much groping
+for my bearings, decided that an athletic girl of Hezekiah's
+venturesome disposition might, if she set no great store by her neck,
+clamber off the kitchen-roof by means of a tall maple whose branches
+now raspingly called attention to their slight contact with the house.
+It was here that the walls of Hopefield thrust themselves into the
+shoulder of a rough rocky knoll, and it was perfectly clear now that
+the chambers of the earlier house around which the mansion had been
+built were neatly enfolded by the walls on the east side.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As the moon cruised into a patch of clear sky something white fluttered
+from a maple limb, and I bent and pulled it free.  I took counsel of a
+match behind the kitchen chimney, and found that it was a handkerchief
+that had been knotted to the tip of the bough.  No one but Hezekiah
+would have thought of marking her trail in this fashion.  I held it to
+my face, and that faint perfume that had been a mystifying
+accompaniment of the passing of the mansion ghost became nothing more
+unreal than the orris in Hezekiah's handkerchief-case.  The wind
+whipped the bit of linen spitefully in my hands.  I reasoned that if
+Hezekiah the inexplicable had not meant for me to know the manner of
+her exit she need not have left this plain hint behind; but the swaying
+maple bough did not tempt me.  I hurried back across the roof to secure
+the trunk-tray, resolved to dispose of it, seek the open, and find the
+errant Hezekiah if she still lingered in the neighborhood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I looked off across the windy landscape before descending, and as my
+eyes ranged the dark I caught the glimmer of a light, as of a lantern
+borne in the hand, in the meadow beyond the garden.  It paused, and was
+swung back and forth by its unseen bearer.  It shed a curious yellow
+light and not the white flame of the common lantern; and now it rose a
+trifle higher and slowly resolved itself into a weird fantastic face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Three minutes later I was out of the house, using the backstairs to
+avoid the company in the library, and had crossed the garden and
+crawled through the hedge.  As I rose to my feet a voice greeted me
+cheerfully,&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well done, Chimney-Man!  You were a little slow hitting the trail, but
+you do pretty well, considering.  How did you manage with Aunt Octavia
+about that slipper?  I had a narrow escape in the second-floor hall,
+when I came out of Cecilia's room.  I must have lowered a record
+getting upstairs.  And one shoe is n't a bit comfortable.  Allow me to
+relieve you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here's your slipper.  You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"For losing my slipper?  I thought Cinderella had made that
+respectable."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She placed her hand on my shoulder, lifted her foot, and drew the pump
+on with a single tug.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, what did Aunt Octavia say?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, she had thoughts too dark to express.  You probably heard what we
+said.  It was she who found the slipper!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hezekiah laughed.  The wind caught up that laugh and whisked it away
+jealously.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She found it and carried it to you, Chimney-Man, and I skipped just as
+you began that beautiful story about finding it in Beacon Street.
+Hurry and tell me how you got me out of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How did you know I would try to explain it?  You did a perfectly
+foolhardy thing in roaming the house that way, scaring Lord Arrowood
+nearly to death, to say nothing of me.  Why should I help you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, you're a man and I was just a little girl who had lost her
+slipper," she replied.  "I was sure you would fix it up."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I like your nerve, Hezekiah!  I had to lie horribly to explain
+the slipper, and Miss Octavia did n't swallow more than half my yarn."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, well, if it was a good story, Aunt Octavia would n't mind.  She'd
+have minded, though, if you had n't tried to get me out of it.  That's
+the way with Aunt Octavia.  I hope you made a romantic tale of it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I can't say that it would place me among the great masters of fiction,
+Hezekiah, but as lies go I think it had merit.  And I 'll improve if I
+stay here much longer."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, you'll stay all right.  Aunt Octavia has no intention of letting
+you go.  When she left the Asolando that afternoon she met you, she had
+her plans all made for kidnapping you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She did n't tell you so, did she?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; because I have n't seen her and I'm not supposed to see her, you
+know, until Cecilia is all fixed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Married?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Um," replied Hezekiah.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She drew from behind a boulder by which we stood a pumpkin of portable
+size, which I surmised had been carved into the most hideous of jack o'
+lanterns by the shrewd hand of Hezekiah.  I took it from her with the
+excuse of relieving her, but really to turn the light of the fearsome
+thing more directly upon her.  The wind blew her hair about her face;
+hers was an elfish face to-night.  With a pleasant tingling I met her
+eyes.  The light of a jack o' lantern is not of the earth earthy.  Even
+when you know perfectly well that it's only a candle stuck in a
+pumpkin, you are not fully satisfied of its mundane character.  In its
+glow one becomes a conspirator, ready for treason, stratagems and
+spoils.  More concretely, in these moments a small archipelago of
+freckles revealed itself about Hezekiah's nose and caused my heart to
+palpitate strangely.  Her sun-browned cheek was perilously near.  I
+hoped that she would bend forever over the lantern, so that I might not
+lose the tiny shadows of her lashes, or, again, the laughter of her
+brown eyes as she glanced up to ask my judgment as to the security of
+the candle.  She viewed her handiwork with feigned solicitude, the tip
+of her tongue showing between her lips.  Then the mirth in her bubbled
+out, and she drew away and clapped her hands together like a child.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come!" she cried.  "If you are good and won't begin preaching about my
+sins, I'll show you the funniest thing you ever saw in your life."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In my joy of seeing her I was neglecting Cecilia's commission.  Very
+likely Hezekiah had forgotten all about her theft; hers, I reasoned,
+was a nature that delighted in the nearest pleasure.  I would follow
+her jack o' lantern round the world for the chance of seeing the fun
+brighten in her brown eyes, but I had made a promise to Cecilia and I
+meant to fulfill it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She led me now across the meadow, over a stone wall, up a steep slope,
+and by devious ways through a strip of woodland.  I bore the jack o'
+lantern,&mdash;she had bidden me do it, with some notion, I did not
+question, of making me <I>particeps criminis</I> in whatever mischief was
+afoot.  Dignified conduct in a man of twenty-eight, in his best evening
+clothes, carrying a jack o' lantern over stone walls, under clumps of
+briar, and through woods whose boughs clawed the night wildly!  The
+moon lost and found under the flying scud was in keeping with the
+general irresponsibility of a world ruled by Hezekiah.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She swung along ahead of me with the greatest ease and certainty.
+Occasionally she flung some word back at me or whistled a few bars of a
+tune, and when I slipped and nearly fell on a smooth slope she laughed
+mockingly and bade me not lose the pumpkin.  Once, when a boy, I stole
+a watermelon and bore it a mile to the rendezvous of my pirate band
+camped at a riverside; but carrying a pumpkin, even a hollow one, is
+attended with manifold discomforts.  It would help, I reflected, to
+know just what I was lugging it for, but Hezekiah vouchsafed nothing.
+When I threatened to drop the grinning gargoyle she laughed and told me
+to trot along and not be silly; and a moment later she stopped and
+demanded that I repeat fully the story I had told her aunt of the
+finding of the slipper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are better than I thought you were, Chimney-Man!" she declared,
+when I had concluded and added her aunt's comment.  "You may be sure
+that tickled Aunt Octavia.  You can lie almost as well as an architect.
+Aunt Octavia says architects are better liars than dress-makers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was my weakness for the truth that caused me to abandon
+architecture.  For heaven's sake, what are you up to?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had kept little account of the direction of our flight, and I was
+surprised that we had now reached the stile over which I had watched
+the passing of the suitors on the afternoon of my meeting with Hezekiah
+in the orchard.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is the appointed place," she remarked, taking the pumpkin from me
+and dropping down on the far side of the stile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah, I've trotted across most of Westchester County after you,
+and my arm is paralyzed from carrying that pumpkin.  I must know what
+you're up to right here, or I'll go home.  Besides, there's a mist
+falling and you'll be soaked.  What do you suppose your father thinks
+of your absence at this time of night?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, he'll never forgive me for not letting him in on this.  This is
+the grandest thing I ever thought of.  Sit on this step and gently
+incline your ear toward the house.  It's about time those gentlemen
+were leaving Cecilia, and they'll be galloping for their inn in a
+minute, and then"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hezekiah whistled the rest of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While we waited, she bade me reset the candle and snuff the wick, which
+I did of necessity with my fingers.  Sitting on a stile with a pretty
+girl is an experience that has been commended by the balladists, but
+surely this felicity loses nothing where the night is fine.  When you
+get used to sitting in a drizzle in your dress-suit, while your
+shirt-bosom assumes the consistency of a gum shoe and your collar glues
+itself odiously to your neck, I dare say the ordeal may be borne
+cheerfully, but my expressions of discomfort seemed only to amuse
+Hezekiah.  While we waited for I knew not what, I tried once or twice
+to revert to the silver note-book, but without success.  Hezekiah was a
+mistress of the art of evasion with her tongue as well as her feet!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wait till the evening performance is over and I'll talk about that.
+'Sh!  Quiet!  Crawl over there out of the way, and when I say run, beat
+it for the road."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These last phrases were uttered in a whisper, her face close to my ear.
+She gave me a little push, and I withdrew a few yards and waited.  The
+ground, I may say, was wet, and the drizzle had become a monotonous
+autumn rain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face as she held
+its illumined countenance toward her, crouching on the stile-steps.  I
+heard now what her keener ear had caught earlier&mdash;the tramp of feet
+along the path.  The suitors were returning to the inn, and the voices
+of one or two of them reached me.  One&mdash;I thought it was Ormsby&mdash;was
+execrating the weather.  They were stepping along briskly, and my
+remembrance of their retreat over this same stile through the amber
+evening dusk was so vivid that I knew just how they would appear if a
+light suddenly fell upon the path.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-293"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-293.jpg" ALT="The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+The nature of Hezekiah's undertaking suddenly dawned upon me.  No one
+but Hezekiah could ever have devised anything so preposterous, so
+utterly lawless; but in spite of myself I waited in breathless
+eagerness for the outcome.  I could not have interfered now, if I had
+wished to do so, without betraying her and involving myself in a
+predicament that could not redound to my credit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nearer and nearer came the patter of feet, and I heard, for I could not
+see, the scraping of Hezekiah's slipper,&mdash;a wet little shoe by now!&mdash;as
+she crept higher on our side of the stile.  The first suitor groped
+blindly for the steps, slipped on the wet plank, growled, and rose to
+try again.  That growl marked for me the leader of the van.  Hartley
+Wiggins, beyond a doubt, and in no good humor, I guessed!  The others,
+I judged, had trodden upon one another's heels at the moment Wiggins
+stumbled.  Thus let us imagine their approach&mdash;six gentlemen in top
+hats headed for a stile on a chilly night of rain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was at this strategic moment that Hezekiah pushed into the middle of
+the stile-platform, its grinning face turned toward the advancing
+suitors, the jack o' lantern her hand had fashioned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I marked its position by its faint glow an instant, but an instant
+only.  The world reeled for a moment before the sharp cry of a man in
+fear.  It cut the dark like a lash, and close upon it the second man
+yelled, in a different key, but no less in accents of terror.  The
+first arrival had flung himself back, and so close upon him pressed the
+others and so unexpected was the halt, that the nine men seemed to have
+flung themselves together and to be struggling to escape from the
+hideous thing that had interposed itself in their path.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+All was over in a moment.  In the midst of the panic the lantern winked
+out, and instantly Hezekiah was beside me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Skip!" she commanded in a whisper; and catching my hand she led me off
+at a brisk run.  When we had gone a dozen rods she paused.  We heard
+voices from the stile, where the gentlemen were still engaged in
+disentangling themselves; and then the planks boomed to their steps as
+they crossed.  They talked loudly among themselves discussing the cause
+of their discomfiture.  The lantern, I may add, had been knocked off
+the stile by the thoughtful Hezekiah when she blew out the light.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A moment more and all sounds of the suitors had died away.  I stood
+alone with Hezekiah in the midst of a meadow.  She was breathing hard.
+Suddenly she threw up her head, struck her hands together, and stamped
+her foot upon the wet sod.  I had waited for an outburst of laughter
+now that we were safely out of the way, but I had reasoned without my
+Hezekiah.  Her mood was not the mood of mirth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, Hezekiah," I said when I had got my wind, "you pulled off your
+joke, but you don't seem to be enjoying it.  What's the matter?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, that Hartley Wiggins!  I might have known it!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Known what?" I asked, pricking up my ears.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That he would be afraid of a pumpkin with a candle inside of it.  Did
+you hear that yell?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Anybody would have yelled," I suggested.  "I think I should have
+dropped dead if you'd tried it on me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, you would n't," she asserted with unexpected flattery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't be deceived, Hezekiah; I should have been scared to death if
+that thing had popped up in front of me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't believe it.  I gave you a worse test than that.  When I
+switched off the lights and swung a feather duster down the stair-well
+by a string and tickled your face you did n't make a noise like a
+circus calliope scaring horses in Main Street, Podunk.  But that
+Wiggins man!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's a friend of mine and as brave as a lion.  Out in Dakota the
+sheriff used to get him to go in and quiet things when the boys were
+shooting up the town."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Maybe; but he shied at a pumpkin and can be no true knight of mine.
+Cecilia may have him.  I always suspected that he was n't the real
+thing.  Why, he's even afraid of Aunt Octavia!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, I rather think <I>we 'd</I> better be!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I wanted to laugh, but I did not dare.  I was not prepared for the
+humor in which the panic of the suitors had left her.  I did not quite
+make out&mdash;and I am uncertain to this day&mdash;whether she had really wished
+to test the courage of her sister's lovers or whether she had yielded
+to a mischievous impulse in carrying the jack o' lantern to the stile
+and thrusting it before those serious-minded gentlemen as they returned
+from Hopefield.  In any event Hartley Wiggins was out of it so far as
+she, Hezekiah, was concerned.  She trudged doggedly across the field
+until we came presently to the highway.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My wheel's in the weeds somewhere; please pull it out for me.  I'm
+going home."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But not alone; I can't let you do that, Hezekiah."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, cheer up!" she laughed, aroused by my lugubrious tone.  "And
+here's something you asked me for.  Don't drop it.  It's Cecilia's
+memorandum-book.  Give it back to her, and be sure no one sees it, and
+you need n't look into it yourself.  And we've got to have a talk about
+it and Cecilia.  Let me see.  There's an iron bridge across an arm of
+that little lake over there, and just beyond it a big fallen tree.
+To-morrow at nine o'clock I'll be there.  I've got to tell you
+something, Chimney-Man, without really telling you.  You'll be there,
+won't you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll be there if I'm alive, Hezekiah."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had found the wheel and lighted the lamp.  She scouted my suggestion
+that I find a horse and drive her home.  The lighting of the lamp
+required time owing to the wind and rain; but when its thin ribbon of
+light fell clearly upon the road, she seized the handle-bars and was
+ready to mount without ado.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She gave me her hand,&mdash;it was a cold, wet little hand, but there was a
+good friendly grip in it.  This was the first time I had touched
+Hezekiah's hand, and I mention it because as I write I feel again the
+pressure of her slim cold fingers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Sorry you spoiled your clothes, but it was in a good cause.  And you
+'re a nice boy, Chimney-Man!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She shot away into the darkness, and the lamp's glow on the road
+vanished in an instant; but before I lost her quite, her cheery whistle
+blew back to me reassuringly.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap17"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XVII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+SEVEN GOLD REEDS
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+I woke the next morning to the banging of Miss Octavia's fowling-piece.
+In spite of the crowding incidents of the day and night I had slept
+soundly, and save for a stiffness of the legs I was none the worse for
+my wetting.  The service of the house was perfect, and in response to
+my ring a man appeared who declared himself competent to knock my dress
+clothes into shape again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I should hardly have believed that so much history had been made in a
+night, if it had not been for certain indubitable evidence: Cecilia's
+silver note-book; Hezekiah's handkerchief, which I had forgotten to
+return to her; and a patch of tallow grease from the jack o' lantern
+that had attached itself firmly to my coat-cuff.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia met me at the foot of the stairs, looking rather worn, I
+thought.  We were safe from interruption a moment longer, as her aunt's
+gun was still booming, and I followed her to the library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please don't tell me you have failed," she cried tearfully.  "That
+little book means so much, so very much to us all!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Here it is, Miss Hollister," I said, placing it in her hand without
+parley.  "I beg to assure you that I return it just as you saw it last.
+Please satisfy yourself that it has not been tampered with in any way.
+I have not opened it; and it has not left my hand since I recovered it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She had almost snatched it from me, and she turned slightly away and
+ran hurriedly over the leaves.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In her relief she laughed happily; and with one of her charming,
+graceful gestures she gave me her hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I thank you, Mr. Ames; thank you! thank you!  You have rendered me the
+greatest service.  And I hope you were able to do so without serious
+inconvenience to yourself."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On the other hand it was the smallest matter, and instead of being a
+trouble I found the greatest pleasure in recovering it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I stood with my hands thrust carelessly into my trousers pockets,
+rocking slightly upon my heels to convey a sense of the unimportance of
+my service.  It was a manner I had cultivated to meet the surprise and
+gratitude of my clients when I had brought a seemingly incurable flue
+into a state of subjection.  I think I may have appeared a little
+bored, as though I had accomplished a feat that was rather unworthy of
+my powers.  A doctor who prescribes the wrong pill and finds to his
+amazement that it cures the patient, might improve upon that manner,
+but not greatly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You naturally wonder, Miss Hollister, how I found this trinket so
+readily.  And in order that you may not suspect perfectly innocent
+persons, I will tell you exactly how I came by it.  It was your belief
+that you had left it on your dressing-table.  But as a memorandum-book
+of any character pertains to a writing-desk rather than to a
+dressing-table, my interest centred at once upon such writing-table as
+you doubtless have in your room."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There is a writing-desk, in the corner by the window, but"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, you are about to repeat your belief that you left the book on the
+dressing-table and that it could not have moved to the desk.  May I ask
+whether you did not, just before you came down to dinner, scribble me a
+line asking for an interview?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why, yes; I remember that perfectly."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You wrote in some haste, as indicated by the handwriting in your
+message.  It is possible that you wrote and destroyed one note, or
+perhaps two, before you had expressed yourself exactly to your liking.
+We are all of us, with any sort of feeling for style, prone to just
+such rejections."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is possible that I did," she replied, coloring slightly.  "I was
+extremely anxious to see you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Very well, then; is it not possible that in throwing the rejected
+correspondence cards into the waste-paper basket that stands beside
+your desk,&mdash;there is such a basket, is there not?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes," she replied breathlessly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it not possible, then, that that little booklet, hardly heavier
+than paper itself, may have been brushed off without your seeing it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is possible; I must admit that it is possible; but"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is on that 'but' that any theory implicating another hand must
+break.  What I have indicated is exactly what must have happened.  To
+the nice care that characterizes the house-keeping of this
+establishment we must now turn.  I find that when I go to my own room
+after dinner it is always in perfect order,&mdash;pens restored to the rack
+on my writing-table, brushes laid straight on the dressing-table, and
+so on.  The well-trained maid who cares for your room, seeing scraps of
+paper in the basket by your desk, naturally carried it off.  When I
+accepted your commission last night I went directly to the cellar,
+sought the bin into which waste paper is thrown, and found among old
+envelopes and other litter this small trinket, which but for my
+promptness might have been lost forever."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It does n't seem possible," she faltered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh," I laughed easily, "possible or impossible, you could not on the
+witness-stand swear that the book had not dropped into the waste-paper
+basket precisely as I have described."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No, I suppose I couldn't," she answered slowly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My powers of mendacity were improving; but her relief at holding the
+book again in her hand was so great that she would probably have
+believed anything.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You see," she said, clasping the book tight, "this was given me for a
+particular purpose and it contains a memorandum of greatest importance.
+And I was in a panic when I found that it was gone, for my recollection
+of certain items I had recorded here was confused, and there was no
+possible way of setting myself straight.  Now all is clear again.  I
+feel that I make poor acknowledgment of your service; but if, at any
+time"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pray think no more of it," I replied; and at this moment Miss
+Hollister appeared and called us to breakfast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If it is perfectly agreeable to you, Arnold, I will hear the story of
+the finding of the ghost at four o'clock, or just before tea.  I have
+sent a telegram to Mr. Pepperton asking him to be present.  He 's at
+his country home in Redding and can very easily motor down.  As no
+motors are allowed on my premises he shall be met at the gate with a
+trap."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have sent for Pepperton!" I exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is exactly what I have done, and as he knows that I never accept
+apologies under any circumstances, he will not disappoint me.  In
+addition to reprimanding him for not telling me of the secret passage
+in this house, I have another matter that concerns you, Arnold, which I
+wish to lay before him.  The new cook that Providence sent to my
+kitchen yesterday is the best we have had, Cecilia, and I beg that you
+both indulge yourselves in a second helping of country scrambled eggs."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia made no further allusion to the incidents of the night,
+but went on turning over her mail.  I have neglected to say that her
+library contained a most remarkable array of books in praise of man's
+fortitude and daring.  I have learned later that these had been
+assembled for her by a distinguished scholar, and many of them were
+rare editions.  A "Karlamagnus Saga" elbowed Malory and the "Reali di
+Francia;" and Roland's horn challenged in all languages.  She greatly
+admired and had often visited the Chateau de Luynes, and had a
+portfolio filled with water-color and pen-and-ink drawings of it.  Such
+books as Viollet-le-Duc's "Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français" I
+constantly found lying spread open on the library table.  She read
+German and French readily, and declared her purpose to attack old
+French that she might pursue certain obscure <I>chansons de geste</I> which,
+an Oxford professor had told her, were not susceptible of adequate
+translation.  Why should one read the news of the day when the news of
+all time was available!  Magazines and reviews she tolerated, but no
+newspaper was as good as Froissart.  She therefore read newspapers only
+through a clipping bureau, which sent her items bearing upon her own
+peculiar interests.  By some error the story of a heavy embezzlement in
+a city bank had that day crept in among a number of cuttings relating
+to a ship that had been found somewhere off the Chilean coast with all
+sails set and everything in perfect order, but with not a soul on
+board.  She expressed her bitterest contempt for men in responsible
+positions who betrayed their trusts: highway robbery she thought a much
+nobler crime, as the robber dignified his act by exposing himself to
+personal danger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"In our day, Arnold," she said, placing her knife and fork carefully on
+her plate, "in our day the ten commandments have lost their moral
+significance and retain, I fear, only a very slight literary interest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She reminded Cecilia of an appointment to ride that morning; in the
+early afternoon she was to install a new kennel-master; and otherwise
+there was a full day ahead of her.  It was a cheerful breakfast table.
+A letter from my assistant confirming his telegraphed resignation did
+not disturb me; Miss Octavia showed no further signs of abandoning her
+quest of the golden coasts of youth, and Cecilia, having recovered her
+notebook, faced the new day cheerfully.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A little later I met Miss Hollister in the hall dressed for her ride.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Arnold, you may ride whenever you like.  I may have forgotten to
+mention it.  What have you on hand this morning?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"An appointment with a lady," I replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you are about to meet the owner of that Beacon Street slipper I
+wish you good luck."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was drawing on her gauntlets, and turned away to hide a smile, I
+thought; then she tapped me lightly with her riding-crop.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Cecilia's silver note-book was missing last night.  She told me of her
+loss with tears.  She has it again this morning.  Did you restore it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was my good fortune to do so."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then allow me to add my thanks to hers.  You are an unusually
+practical person, Arnold Ames, as well as the possessor of an
+imagination that pleases me.  You are becoming more and more essential
+to me.  Cecilia approaches, and I cannot say more at this time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When they had ridden out of the porte-cochère I set off across the
+fields to keep my tryst with Hezekiah.  The air had been washed sweet
+and clean by the rain of the night, and sky was never bluer.  I was
+surprised at my own increasing detachment from the world.  Nothing that
+had happened before the Asolando mattered greatly; my meeting with Miss
+Octavia Hollister had marked a climacteric from which all events must
+now be reckoned.  I had embarked with high hope in a profession to
+which I had been drawn from youth, had failed utterly to find clients,
+and had therefore taken up the doctoring of flues, a vocation whose
+honors are few and dubious, and in which I felt it to be damning praise
+that I was called the best in America.  My days at Hopefield were the
+happiest of my life.  Few as they had been, they had changed my gray
+bleak course into a path bright with promise.  The world had been too
+much with me, and I had escaped from it as completely as though I had
+stepped upon another planet "where all is possible and all unknown."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I reached the fallen tree that Hezekiah had appointed as our
+trysting-place a little ahead of time, and indulged in pleasant
+speculations while I waited.  I was looking toward the hills expecting
+her to come skimming along the highway on her bicycle, when a splash
+caused me to turn to the lake.  Dull of me not to have known that
+Hezekiah would contrive a new entrance for a scene so charmingly set as
+this!  She had stolen upon me in a light skiff, and laughed to see how
+her silent approach startled me.  She dropped one oar and used the
+other as a paddle, driving the boat with a sure hand through the reeds
+into the bank.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"'Tis morning and the days are long!"<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such was Hezekiah's greeting as she jumped ashore.  She wore a dark
+green skirt and coat, and a narrow four-in-hand cravat tied under a
+flannel collar that clasped her throat snugly.  A boy's felt hat, with
+the brim pinned up in front, covered her head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You seem none the worse for your wetting, Hezekiah.  You must have
+been soaked."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So must you, Chimneys, but you look as fit as I feel, and I never felt
+better.  Did they catch you crawling in last night?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I did n't see a soul.  You know I'm an old member of the family now.
+Nobody was ever as nice to me as your Aunt Octavia."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"How about Cecilia?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Having found her silver note-book and given it back to her before
+breakfast, I may say that our relations are altogether cordial."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you in love with her&mdash;yet?" asked Hezekiah, carelessly, tossing a
+pebble into the lake.  The "yet" was so timed that it splashed with the
+pebble.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; not&mdash;yet," I replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will come," said Hezekiah a little ruefully, casting a pebble
+farther upon the crinkled water.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You mean, Hezekiah, that men always fall in love with your sister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She nodded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, she's a good deal of a girl."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Beautiful and no end cultivated.  They all go crazy about her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You mean Hartley Wiggins and his fellow-bandits at the Prescott Arms."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; and lots of others."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And sometimes, Hezekiah, it has seemed to you that she got all the
+admiration, and that you did n't get your share.  So when her suitors
+began a siege of the castle whose gates were locked against you, you
+plugged the chimney with a trunk-tray, and played at being ghost and
+otherwise sought to terrify your sister's lovers."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's not nice, Chimneys.  You mean that I'm jealous."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No.  I don't mean that you are jealous now: I throw it into the remote
+and irrevocable past.  You were jealous.  You don't care so much now.
+And I hope you will care less!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is being impertinent.  If you talk that way I shall call you Mr.
+Ames and go home!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You can't do that, Hezekiah."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should like to know why not?  If you say I 'm jealous of Cecilia
+now, or that I ever was, I shall be very, very angry.  For it's not
+true."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No.  You see things very differently now.  You told me only last night
+that Cecilia might have Hartley Wiggins.  Assuming that she wants him!
+And you and he have been good friends, have n't you?  You had good
+times on the other side.  And while Cecilia was in town assisting
+Providence in finding your aunt a cook, you went walking with him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I did, I did!" mocked Hezekiah.  "And why do you suppose I did?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Because Wiggy's the best of fellows; a solid, substantial citizen, who
+raises wheat to make bread out of."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And angel food and ginger cookies," added Hezekiah, feeling absently
+in the pockets of her coat.  "No, Chimneys, you 're a nice boy and you
+don't yell like a wild man when a feather-duster hits you in the dark;
+but there are some things you don't know yet."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am here to grow wise at the feet of Hezekiah, Daughter of Kings.
+Open the book of wisdom and teach me the alphabet, but don't be sad if
+I balk at the grammar."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I never knew all the alphabet myself," said Hezekiah dolefully; then
+she laughed abruptly.  "I was bounced from two convents and no end of
+Hudson River and Fifth Avenue education shops."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The brutality of that, Hezekiah, wrings my heart!  Yet you are the
+best teacher I ever had, and I thought I was educated when I met you.
+But I had only been to school, which is different.  Not until the first
+time our eyes met, not until that supreme moment"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Ames," Hezekiah interrupted, in the happiest possible imitation of
+Miss Octavia's manner, "if you think that, because I am a poor lone
+girl who knows nothing of the great, wide world, I am a fair mark for
+your cajolery, I assure you that you were never more mistaken in your
+life!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You ought n't to mimic your aunt.  It is n't respectful; and besides
+you have something to tell me.  What's all this rumpus about Cecilia's
+silver memorandum-book?  Suppose we discuss that and get through with
+it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were sitting on the fallen tree, which lay partly in the lake, and
+Hezekiah leaned over and broke off a number of reeds from the thicket
+at the water's edge.  Out of her pocket she drew a small penknife and
+trimmed them uniformly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You see," she began, biting her lip in the earnestness of her labor,
+"I'm going to tell you something, and yet I 'm not going to tell you.
+So far as you and I have gone you 've been tolerably satisfactory.  If
+I did n't think you had some wits in your head I should n't have
+bothered with you at all.  That's frank, is n't it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It certainly is.  But I'm terribly fussed for fear I may not be equal
+to this new ordeal."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you fail we shall never meet again; that's all there is to that.
+Now listen real hard.  You know something about it already, but not the
+main point.  Aunt Octavia got father to consent to let her marry us
+off&mdash;Cecilia and me.  Cecilia, being older, came first.  I was to keep
+out of the way, and father and I were not to come to Aunt Octavia's new
+house up there or meddle in any way.  While we were abroad I was
+treated as a little girl, and not as a grown-up at all.  But you see I
+'m really nineteen, and some of Cecilia's suitors were nice to me when
+we were traveling.  They were nice to me on Cecilia's account, you
+know."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course.  You're so hard to look at, it must have been painful to
+them to be nice to you,&mdash;almost like taking poison!  Go on, Hezekiah!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You need n't interrupt me like that.  Well, as part of the
+understanding, and Cecilia agreed to it,&mdash;she thought she had to for
+papa's sake,&mdash;she was to marry a particular man.  Do you understand me,
+a particular man?  Aunt Octavia gave her the little note-book&mdash;she
+bought it at a shop in Paris at the time Cecilia consented to the
+plan&mdash;and she was to keep a sort of diary, so that she'd know when the
+right man turned up.  Now we will drop the note-book for a minute; only
+I'll say that Cecilia was to keep the book all to herself and not show
+it to any one, not even to Aunt Octavia, you know, until the right man
+had asked Cecilia to marry him.  Now who do you suppose, Mr. Ames, that
+man is?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I watched her hands as they deftly cut and fashioned the dry reeds.
+The air grew warm as the sun climbed to the zenith, and Hezekiah flung
+aside her coat.  The breeze caught the ends of her tie and snapped them
+behind her.  She was wholly absorbed in her task, and no boy could have
+managed a pocket-knife better.  The first reed she made a trifle longer
+than her hand; the succeeding ones she trimmed to graduated lessening
+lengths, till seven in all had been cut, and then she notched them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Seven," she murmured, laying them neatly in order on her knee.  "I
+remember the right number by a poem I read the other day in an old
+magazine."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She reached down and plucked several long leaves of tough grass with
+which she began to bind the reeds together, repeating,&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Seven gold reeds grew tall and slim,<BR>
+Close by the river's beaded brim.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"Syrnix the naiad flitted past:<BR>
+Pan, the goat-hoofed, followed fast.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"It will be easier," said Hezekiah, "if you hold the pipes while I tie
+them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I found this propinquity wholly agreeable.  It was pleasant to sit on a
+log beside Hezekiah.  It seemed no far cry to the storied Mediterranean
+and Pan and dryads and naiads, as Hezekiah bound her reeds to the music
+of couplets.  There was no self-consciousness in her recitation; she
+seemed to be telling me of something that she had seen herself an hour
+ago.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"He spread his arms to clasp her there<BR>
+Just as she vanished into air.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+"And to his bosom warm and rough<BR>
+Drew the gold reeds close enough.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"I don't remember the rest," she broke off.  "But there!  That's a pipe
+fit for any shepherd."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She put it to her lips and blew.  I shall not pretend that the result
+was melodious: she whistled much better without the reeds; but the
+sight of her, sitting on the fallen tree beside the lake, beating time
+with her foot, her head thrown back, her eyes half-closed in a mockery
+of rapture at the shrill, wheezy uncertainties and ineptitudes she
+evoked, thrilled me with new and wonderful longings.  A heart, a spirit
+like hers would never grow old!  She was next of kin to all the
+elusive, fugitive company of the elf-world.  And on such a pipe as she
+had strung together beside that pond, to this day Sicilian shepherd
+boys whistle themselves into tune with Theocritus!
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-316"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-316.jpg" ALT="She put it to her lips and blew." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+She put it to her lips and blew.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Take it," she said; "I can't tell you more than I have; and yet it is
+all there, Chimneys.  Read the riddle of the reeds if you can."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I took the pipe and turned it over carefully in my hands; but I fear my
+thoughts were rather of the hands that had fashioned it, the fingers
+that had danced nimbly upon the stops.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There are seven reeds,&mdash;seven," she affirmed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She amused herself by skipping pebbles over the surface of the water
+while I pondered.  And I deliberated long, for one did not like to
+blunder before Hezekiah!  Then I jumped up and called to her.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"One, two, three, four, five, six&mdash;seven!  Not until the seventh man
+offers himself shall Cecilia have a husband!  Is that the answer?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For a moment Hezekiah watched the widening ripples made by the casting
+of her last pebble; then she came back and resumed her seat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have done well, Chimney Man; and now I 'll not make you guess any
+more, though I found it all out for myself.  When Aunt Octavia gave
+that memorandum-book to Cecilia, I knew it must have something to do
+with the seventh man.  You know I love all Aunt Octavia's nonsense
+because it's the kind of foolishness I like myself, and the idea of a
+pretty little note-book to write down proposals in was precisely the
+sort of thing that would have occurred to my aunt.  And it was in the
+bargain, too, that she herself should not in any way interfere, or try
+to influence the course of events: it should be the seventh suitor,
+willy-nilly.  And I suspect she's been a little scared too."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She has indeed!  She was almost ready to throw the whole scheme over
+last night.  Your naughtiness had got on her nerves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You missed the target that time: Aunt Octavia loves my naughtiness,
+and I think she has really been afraid Sir Pumpkin Wiggins would catch
+me.  Now I did n't roam my aunt's house just for fun.  I was doing my
+best to keep Cecilia from getting into some scrape about that
+seventh-suitor plan.  I found out by chance how to get into Hopefield,
+and about the hidden stairway and the old rooms tucked away there.
+Papa really discovered that.  A carpenter in Katonah who worked on the
+house helped to build papa's bungalow, and he told us how that ruin
+came to be there.  That dyspepsia-cure man, who also immortalized
+himself by inventing the ribless umbrella, was very superstitious.  He
+believed that if he built an entirely new house he would die.  So he
+had his architect build around and retain those two rooms and that
+stairway of a house that had been on the ground almost since the
+Revolution.  Mr. Pepperton, the architect, humored him, but hid the
+remains of the relic as far out of sight as possible."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Trust Pep for that!  And he did it neatly!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Yes; but it did n't save the umbrella-man; he died anyhow; or maybe
+his pies killed him.  Papa was so curious about it that he took me with
+him one night just before Aunt Octavia moved here, and he and I found
+the rooms and the stair and the secret spring by which, if you know
+just where to poke the wall in the fourth-floor hall, you can disappear
+as mysteriously as you please."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But how on earth did you darken the halls so easily?  You nearly gave
+me heart-disease doing that!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, that was a mere matter of a young lady in haste!  When I found how
+easily I could pass you on the stair it became a fascinating game, and
+it was no end of fun to see just how long it would take you to catch
+me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wish, Hezekiah, that you would stay caught!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Be very, very careful, sir!  We're talking business now.  There's
+another ordeal for you before you dare become sentimental."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then hasten; let us be after it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Things are in a serious predicament, I can tell you.  I was frightened
+when I looked into that note-book,&mdash;I did n't like to do that, but I
+had to assist Providence a little.  Five men have already got their
+quietus."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then why don't they clear out, and stop their nonsense?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it's their pride, I suppose; and every man probably thinks that
+when Cecilia has seen a little more of him in particular, in contrast
+with the others, he will win her favor.  They 're afraid of one
+another, those men; that's the reason they've been herding together so
+close since that first day you came.  Mr. Wiggins was taking it for
+granted that he was the whole thing&mdash;just like the man!&mdash;and those
+others forced him to join in some sort of arrangement by which they
+were to hang together.  These calls in a bunch came from that, as
+though any one of them would n't take advantage of the others if he saw
+a chance!  Some of this I got from Wiggy himself, the rest I just
+guessed."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But you may not know that they sent a delegation after me into town,
+to warn me off the grass."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That was Mr. Dick.  He never saw me when Cecilia was around.  And he
+was terribly snippy sometimes, and supercilious; but I'm going to get
+even with him.  I've about underlined him for number six," she
+concluded, with the manner of a queen who, about to give her chief
+executioner his orders for the day, glances calmly over the list of
+victims.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's a good idea; Dick is insufferable; I hope you have n't counted
+wrong."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As we were saying, about the note-book," she resumed, "the fifth man
+has already been respectfully declined.  The dates of the proposals are
+written in the note-book; so I learned from the book that Mr. Ormsby,
+Mr. Arbuthnot, and Mr. Gorse had proposed on the steamer.  Professor
+Hume, as you know, tried his luck at Hopefield; and Lord Arrowood must
+have stopped Cecilia as she was riding to the station on my bicycle
+yesterday morning.  His goose is cooked."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"His gooseberry pie was cooked, but I took it away from him.  No pie
+sacred to Hezekiah can be confiscated by an indigent lord so long as I
+keep my present health and spirits.  It's the close season for lords in
+Westchester County; I potted the last one.  By the way, he thought you
+were a real ghost when you were playing tag with him in the dark."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He stopped to tell papa good-bye and spoke very highly of you; papa
+and you are the only gentlemen he met in America.  But now we come to
+Mr. Wiggins."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We do; and why in the name of all that is beautiful and good has n't
+he tried his luck?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Because, knowing Cecilia's admiration for him," replied Hezekiah
+demurely, "I have kept him so diverted that he has n't been able to
+bring himself to the scratch."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She examined the palm of her hand critically to allow me time to grasp
+this.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You did n't want him to blunder in as the first, fourth, or sixth man?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hezekiah gravely nodded her pretty head.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And while you were engaged in this sisterly labor, Cecilia has been
+afraid that you were seriously interested in him!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is like Cecilia.  She's fine, and would n't cause me trouble for
+anything;" and there was no doubt of Hezekiah's sincerity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But now that I see the light and understand all this, how can we make
+sure that Wiggy will be on the spot at the right moment?  While we sit
+here, he may be the sixth man!  There's my friend, the eminent thinker
+from Nebraska; he's likely to kneel before Cecilia at any moment, and
+Henderson and Shallenberger are not asleep."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That's all true; and you've got to fix it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're leaving the fate of Wiggins and your sister in my hands?
+That's a heavy responsibility, Hezekiah.  I might take care of Wiggy by
+asking Cecilia to marry me, being careful to have him appear
+johnny-on-the-spot when I had been duly declined."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Um, I should n't take any chances if I were you," she replied,
+feigning to look at an imaginary bird in a tree-top; "for if you had
+counted wrong and were really the seventh man, she would have to accept
+you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hezekiah!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I really did n't mean what you thought I meant.  We don't need to
+discuss it any more.  That's the ordeal I've arranged for you," she
+answered, and set her lips sternly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But, my dear Hezekiah, by what means can this be effected?  I don't
+dare tell him the combination he's playing against or sit on him until
+his hour strikes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly not; you must n't tell him or anybody else.  You know the
+plan; but you're not supposed to; and nobody must know I've meddled.
+Meanwhile, Cecilia must expose herself to proposals at all times.  Aunt
+Octavia's heart would be broken if she thought Providence had been
+tampered with.  She likes Wiggy well enough, except that his ancestors
+were all Tories and he can't be a son of the Revolution."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Too bad; it was very careless of him not to do better about his
+ancestors; but he can't change that now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, you've behaved with considerable intelligence so far, and now
+with your friend's fate in your hands you will need to use great
+judgment and tact in all that follows.  I wash my hands of the whole
+business."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She rose quickly and pointed to her coat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Drop it into the boat for me, Chimneys.  We meet in funny places,
+don't we?  Papa expects me for luncheon, and I must row back and get my
+bicycle.  You?  No, you can't go along; you've got a lot of thinking to
+do, and you'd better be doing it."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap18"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XVIII
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+A few minutes later, as I swung along the highway toward the Prescott
+Arms, I saw Cecilia Hollister riding toward me at a lively gallop.  She
+crossed the bridge without checking her horse, and then, with a hurried
+glance over her shoulder, she pointed with her crop to a by-way that
+led deviously into a strip of forest and vanished.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I hurried after her, and found her waiting for me in a quiet lane.  She
+had dismounted and seemed greatly disturbed as I addressed her.  Her
+horse, a superb Estabrook thoroughbred, had evidently been pushed hard.
+Cecilia had taken off her hat, and was giving a touch to the wayward
+strands of hair that had been shaken loose in her flight.  The color
+glowed in her dark cheeks, and her eyes were bright with excitement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hadn't expected to meet you; I thought you rode off with your aunt
+toward Mt. Kisco."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We did; but on our way home Aunt Octavia stopped to call on a friend,
+and as I did n't feel in a mood for visits this morning I rode on
+alone."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She spoke further of her aunt's friend, of whom I had never heard
+before, to calm herself before touching upon the cause of her wild ride
+or her wish to speak to me.  She pinned on her hat and drew on her
+riding-gloves while I helped to make conversation, and soon regained
+her composure.  The haste with which she had withdrawn into the wood,
+and the imperative wave of her crop by which she had bidden me follow
+her, indicated that something of importance had happened and that she
+wished to confide in me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was walking my horse in the road beyond Bedford, just after I left
+Aunt Octavia, when who should ride up beside me but Mr. Wiggins.  He
+had evidently been following me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She expected me to express surprise; and with the information that
+Hezekiah had just imparted fresh in my mind I dare say she was not
+disappointed in the effect of her words.  I was thinking rapidly and
+fearfully.  If my friend had sought her in the highway and offered
+himself in some fresh accession of ardor, he might even now be a
+rejected and hopeless man; but I was unwilling to believe that this had
+happened.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hartley is fond of riding, and nothing could be more natural than for
+him to have his horse sent out from town."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it's natural enough," she cried; "but I was greatly taken aback
+when he rode up beside me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"An old friend joining you in the highway, on a bright October morning!
+I can't for the life of me see anything surprising or alarming in that,
+Miss Hollister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But only yesterday, you remember I told you I had seen him walking
+with my sister."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's perfectly easy to talk to Hezekiah!  It seems to me that that
+only shows a friendly attitude toward all the family.  Let us deal with
+facts if I am to help you.  I understand perfectly that Hartley Wiggins
+wishes to marry you; and that being the case I see no reason why he
+should n't be courteous to your sister.  I 've always heard that it's
+the proper thing to be polite to the sisters, cousins, and aunts of
+one's prospective wife.  I know of no more delightful occupation than
+listening to Hezekiah.  Just now, for an hour or so, I have been
+enjoying her conversation myself.  Nothing could be more refreshing or
+stimulating.  She is an unusual young woman, and most amazingly wise."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have seen Hezekiah this morning!" she exclaimed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have indeed.  I hope I may say that she and I are becoming good
+friends.  I am learning to understand her; though, believe me, I don't
+speak boastingly.  However, this morning we got on famously together.
+But won't you continue and tell me what happened in the road when
+Hartley rode up beside you?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, nothing happened; really nothing!  Nothing could have happened,
+for the excellent reason that I ran away from him.  It was n't what he
+did or said; it was the fear of what he might say!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If it had been Mr. Dick who had joined you in exactly the same way in
+the highway, you would not have minded in the least, Miss Hollister.
+Is n't that the truth?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Her hand that had rested on the pommel of her saddle dropped to her
+side, and she stood erect, her eyes wide with wonder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What do you mean?" she gasped.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I mean exactly what I have said; that if it had been that strutting
+young philosopher from the West you would&mdash;well, you would have allowed
+him to say what was in his mind, no matter whether it had been his
+latest thought on Kantianism, the weather, or his admiration for
+yourself.  Am I not right?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I wonder, I wonder"&mdash;she faltered, drawing away, the better to observe
+me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You wonder how much I know!  To relieve your mind without parleying
+further, I will say to you that I know everything."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then Aunt Octavia must have told you; and that seems incredible.  It
+was distinctly understood"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your aunt told me nothing.  Not by words did any one tell me."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not by words?" she asked, eyeing me wonderingly and clearly fearing
+that I might be playing some trick upon her.  "Then can it be that
+Hezekiah&mdash;but no!  Hezekiah does n't know!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Trust Hezekiah for not telling secrets," I answered evasively.  "Give
+me credit for some imagination.  The air of Hopefield is stimulating,
+and in the few days I have spent in your aunt's house I have learned
+much that I never dreamed of before.  I am not at all the person you
+greeted with so much courtesy in the library when I arrived there, a
+chimney-doctor and an ignorant person, a few afternoons ago,&mdash;called,
+as I thought, to prescribe for flues that proved to be in admirable
+condition, but really summoned by higher powers to assist the fates in
+the proper and orderly performance of their duties to several members
+of the house of Hollister,&mdash;yourself among them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't understand it; you are wholly inexplicable."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am the simplest and least guileful of beings, I assure you.  Yet I
+have done some things here not in the slightest way related to chimney
+doctoring; and something else I expect to do for which I believe you
+will thank me through all the years of your life."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah, if you really know, that is possible!" she sighed wearily.  "I am
+very tired of it all.  I was very foolish ever to have agreed to Aunt
+Octavia's plan.  You have seen those men,&mdash;any one of them might, you
+know"&mdash;  And she shrugged her shoulders impatiently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Any one of them might be the seventh man!  There, you see I do know!
+And I mean to help you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She was immensely relieved; there was no question of that.  Gratitude
+shone in her eyes; and then, as I marvelled at their beautiful dark
+depths, fear suddenly possessed them.  The change in her was startling.
+Several motors had swept by in the outer road while we talked; they
+were faintly visible through the trees; and just now we both heard a
+horse and caught a fleeting glimpse of Hartley Wiggins, riding slowly
+with bowed head toward the inn.  Cecilia's horse flung up his head, but
+she clapped her hands upon his nostrils and held them there to prevent
+his whinnying until that figure of despair had passed out of hearing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was smitten with sorrow for Hartley Wiggins.  I could put myself in
+his place and imagine his feelings as he rode like a defeated general
+back to the inn, there to face the other suitors after the humiliating
+experience which Cecilia Hollister had just described.  In his
+ignorance of the cause of her eagerness to escape from him, he no doubt
+believed that he had all unconsciously made himself intolerable to her.
+It was plain that that glimpse of him had touched Cecilia's pity; if I
+had doubted the sincerity of her regard for him before, I spurned the
+thought now.  I was anxious to requicken hope in her,&mdash;an odd office
+for me to assume when in my own affairs I had always yielded my sword
+readily to the blue devils!  Yet during my short stay at Hopefield I
+had already found it possible to restore Miss Octavia's confidence in
+her own chosen destiny, and in this delicate love-affair between
+Cecilia Hollister and my best friend I proffered counsel and sympathy
+with an assurance that astonished me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have told you enough, Miss Hollister, to make it clear that I am in
+a position to help you.  Believe me, I have no other business before me
+but to complete the service I have undertaken."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But there is always"&mdash;she began, then ceased abruptly, and lifted her
+head proudly&mdash;"there is always Mr. Wiggins's attitude toward my sister.
+Not for anything in the world would I cause her the slightest
+unhappiness.  You must see that, now that you know her."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I laughed aloud.  Cecilia's concern for Hezekiah's happiness was so
+absurd that I could not restrain my mirth for a moment.  Displeasure
+showed promptly in Cecilia's face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am sorry if you doubt my sincerity, Mr. Ames.  I will put the matter
+directly, to make sure I have not been misunderstood heretofore, and
+say that if Hezekiah is interested in Hartley Wiggins and cares for him
+in the least,&mdash;you know she is young and susceptible,&mdash;I shall take
+care that he never sees me again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pardon me, but maybe you don't quite understand Hezekiah!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it possible, then, that you do?" she inquired coldly.  "I imagine
+your opportunities for seeing her have not been numerous."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, it is n't so much a matter of seeing her, when you've read of
+her all your life and dreamed about her.  She's in every fairy story
+that ever was written; she dances through the mythologies of all races.
+Hers is the kingdom of the pure in heart.  Her mind is like a beautiful
+bright meadow by the sea, and her thoughts the dipping of swallow-wings
+on lightly swaying grasses."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia's manner changed, and she smiled.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You seem to have an attack of something; it looks serious.  You have
+n't known her long enough to find out so much!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Longer than you would believe.  She and I sat on the shore together
+when Ulysses sailed by; we were among those present at the sack of
+Troy; we heard Roland's ivory trumpet at Roncesvalles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Such words from you amaze me.  I didn't imagine there was so much
+romance in chimneys."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They are full of it!  Commend me to an open fire, with a flue that
+knows its business, and a dream or two!  I 've renounced my profession.
+I shall hereafter offer myself as adviser to persons in need of
+illusions; we 'd all be poets if we dared!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I helped her into the saddle, and she looked down at me with amusement
+in her eyes.  My praise of Hezekiah had pleased her, and I felt, as
+when we journeyed together into town, her kindly, human qualities.  The
+perplexities and embarrassments resulting from her compact with her
+aunt had doubtless checked the natural flow of her spirits.  She talked
+on buoyantly, though I was eager to be off, to avert the catastrophe
+that only her flight had prevented and which Wiggins might at any
+moment precipitate.  She gathered up her reins.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are not coming home for luncheon?  Then I shall see you at four.
+I hope the hiding-place of the ghost will prove interesting.  Aunt
+Octavia has built her hopes high, and I may add that she has expressed
+the greatest admiration of you to me.  On her ride this morning she
+declared that great things are in store for you.  I hope so, too, Mr.
+Ames."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She gave me her hand and rode away, and before I had reached the
+highway she was across the bridge and galloping rapidly homeward.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The inn was a mile distant, and I set off at a brisk pace, turning over
+in my mind various projects for controlling the characters now upon the
+stage in such manner that Wiggins should become the seventh man.
+Cecilia could not always run away from him without violating the terms
+of her aunt's stipulation; and it was unlikely that she would attempt
+further to guide or thwart the pointing finger of fate.  I relied
+little upon any arrangement effected among the suitors to stand
+together.  Hume had already found a chance to speak.  Lord Arrowood had
+bitten the dust and turned his face homeward, and Wiggins had been near
+the brink only that morning.  It was unlikely that any of the active
+candidates remaining would stumble upon the key to the situation, which
+Hezekiah had given into my keeping.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was well on toward two o'clock when I approached the inn.  Before
+long the suitors would depart for their afternoon call at the Manor,
+which was an established event of the day.  Just as I was about to
+enter the gate I was arrested by an imperious voice calling, and John
+Stewart Dick came running toward me.  He had evidently been expecting
+me, and I paused, thinking him about to renew his attack upon me.  To
+my surprise he greeted me cordially, even offering his hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You thought you would come after all.  Well, I'm glad you did.  I've
+decided that there should be peace between us."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In stature he was the shortest of the suitors, but what he lacked in
+height was compensated for by a tremendous dignity.  A dark Napoleonic
+lock lay across his forehead, and his clear-cut profile otherwise
+suggested the Corsican, the resemblance being, I wickedly assumed, one
+that the philosopher encouraged.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have several times addressed me, Mr. Ames, in a spirit of
+contumely which I have hesitated to punish by the chastisement you
+deserve; but I am willing to let bygones be bygones."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His changed tone put me on guard, but it was impossible for me to take
+him seriously.  In spite of the fact that he was a vigorous muscular
+young fellow who could have threshed me without trouble, I could not
+resist the impulse he always roused in me to address him in language
+any self-respecting man would resent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Chant the <I>dies iræ</I> with considerable <I>allegro</I>, Plato, for I am
+hungry and would fain pay for food at the adjacent inn."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I will overlook the coarseness of your humor," he rejoined haughtily.
+"My own time is as valuable as yours.  You have sneered at my
+attainments as a philosopher; but I will pass that for the present.  I
+am disposed to treat you magnanimously.  You have an excellent opinion
+of yourself; you have come here as an intruder upon the rights of those
+of us who followed Cecilia Hollister across Europe and home to America;
+but in spite of this I waive my rights in your favor.  I had intended
+to offer myself to Miss Hollister this afternoon, with every hope of
+success, but I yield to you.  My only request is that you inform me at
+once when you have learned her decision."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He clapped on his cap and folded his arms, clearly satisfied with the
+expressions of surprise to which my feelings betrayed me.  Could it be
+possible that he had guessed the truth, perhaps by deductive processes
+of which I was ignorant?  Whether he had reasoned from some remark
+thrown out by Miss Octavia as to the influence of seven in the affairs
+of life and her application of that fateful principle to the choice of
+a husband for Cecilia, I could not guess, but assuming that he had
+caught that clue, he might readily enough have managed the rest.
+Having crossed on the steamer with the suitor host, a man of his
+intelligence might readily enough have kept track of the vanquished.
+In any case he had hit upon me as a likely victim, and on the plea of
+generously waiting till I had tried my luck he hoped to thrust me
+forward as the sixth suitor, and immediately thereafter project himself
+as the inevitable seventh man.  The whole situation was rendered
+perilously complex by the knowledge that, unaided, he had possessed
+himself of so much dangerous information.  I must not, however, allow
+him to see what I suspected.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My dear professor, there's an ancient warning against the Greeks
+bearing gifts.  You must give me time to inspect the horse."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Are you questioning my good faith?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Be it far from me!  I'm a good deal tickled though by your genial
+assumption that if I offered myself to this lady I should be declined
+with thanks.  You have fretted yourself into a state of mind that bodes
+ill for American philosophy."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He was again belligerent.  It may have occurred to him that I might
+know as much as he, but at any rate he grinned; it was a saturnine grin
+I did not like.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm starving to death at the door of an inn, and you must excuse me.
+Have you seen Hartley Wiggins lately?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have, indeed!  He's taken to lonely horseback rides; he's off
+somewhere now.  He has n't the stamina for a contest like this.  One by
+one the autumn leaves are falling," he added, with special intention,
+"and I have given you your chance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thanks, light-bringing Socrates from the lands of the Ogalallas!  For
+so much courtesy I shall take pleasure in reading all your posthumous
+works.  Let us cease being absurd."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He laid his hand on my arm and lowered his tone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Don't be an ass.  If you and I both know what's underneath all this
+mystery we might come to an understanding."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I don't follow you.  Please make a light, like a man about to have an
+idea."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You mean that you don't understand?"  He eyed me doubtfully, uncertain
+whether I knew or not.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have implied that I am incapable of understanding; suppose we let
+it go at that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With this I left him and entered the low-raftered office&mdash;it was really
+a pleasant lounging-room, unspoiled by the usual hotel-office
+paraphernalia.  Dick had followed close behind, and as I paused,
+hearing voices raised angrily in the dining-room beyond, I turned to
+him for an explanation.  As the suitors had been the only guests of the
+inn since their advent, having stipulated that the proprietor should
+exclude other applicants for meals or lodging, I attributed the
+commotion to strife in their own ranks.  Dick nodded sullenly and bade
+me keep on.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You 'd better take a look at those fellows.  I 've quit them&mdash;quite
+out of it; remember that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The dining-room door was slightly ajar, and I flung it open.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ormsby, Shallenberger, Henderson, Hume, Gorse, and Arbuthnot had been
+engaged with cards at a round table in an alcove, but some dispute
+having apparently risen, they stood in their places engaged in
+acrimonious debate.  As near as I could determine, some one of them&mdash;I
+think it was Ormsby&mdash;wished to abandon the game, which had been
+undertaken to determine in what order they should be permitted to pay
+visits to Hopefield in future, the calls <I>en masse</I> having grown
+intolerable.  They were so absorbed in their argument that they failed
+to note my appearance, and I stood unobserved within the door.  The
+dialogue between the card-players was swift and hot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's no good, I tell you!" cried Ormsby.  "There's no fairness in this
+unless all take their chances together!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You ought to have thought of that before we began.  This was your
+scheme, but because the cards are running against you, you want to
+quit.  I say we'll go on!"  This from Henderson, who struck the table
+sharply as he concluded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You knew Wiggins and Dick were n't going in when we started, and you
+are not likely to get them in now.  Your anxiety to cut the rest of us
+out by any means seems to have unsettled your mind," shouted Gorse.  "I
+say let's drop this and stand to our original agreement that no man
+speak till the end of the fortnight."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"After that whole scheme has been torn to pieces like paper!  There's
+been nothing fair in this business from the start!  We ought to have
+kept Arrowood here and held together.  And we ought to have got rid of
+that Ames fellow&mdash;he did n't belong in this at all; and instead of
+protecting ourselves against outsiders we have sat here like a lot of
+fools while he's been making himself agreeable there in the
+house&mdash;right there in the house!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ormsby's voice rose to a disagreeable squeak as he closed with this
+indictment of me.  Hume fidgeted uneasily, and met my eye so warily
+that I wondered whether he suspected that I knew of his breach of faith
+with the other suitors.  Much dallying with Scandinavian literature had
+not lightened his heart, and there was nothing in Ibsen to which he
+could refer his present plight.  Shallenberger seemed to be the only
+one of the group who had not lost his senses.  He was in the farther
+corner of the alcove, out of sight from the door, but I heard him
+distinctly as he addressed the other suitors with rising anger.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We're acting like cads, and cads of the most contemptible sort!  I
+only agreed to this game to satisfy Ormsby.  The idea of our sitting
+here to draw cards to determine the order in which we shall offer
+ourselves to the noblest and most beautiful woman in the world would be
+coarse and vulgar if it were not so ridiculous!  The men who had their
+chance on the steamer or after we came here&mdash;and I don't pretend to
+know who they are&mdash;ought in decency to have left the field.  We seem to
+have forgotten that we pretend to be gentlemen; or, far less
+pardonable, that we pay court to a lady.  Damn you all!  I refuse to
+have anything more to do with you, and if you try to interfere with my
+affairs in any way I'll smash your heads collectively or separately as
+you prefer!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My interest in this colloquy had led me further into the room, and
+hearing my step they all turned and faced me.  Dick had continued at my
+side, but the black looks they sent our way were intended, I thought,
+rather for me.  Shallenberger, having taken himself out of the tangle,
+leaned against the wall and filled his pipe with unconcern.  My
+appearance roused Ormsby to a fresh outburst.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're responsible!  If you had n't forced yourself upon the ladies at
+Hopefield there would n't have been any of this trouble!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're only an impostor anyhow.  You went to the house to fix a
+chimney, and seem to think you 're engaged to spend the rest of your
+natural life there!" protested Henderson, twisting the ends of his
+moustache.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then they dropped me and assailed Dick.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We'd like to know what you expect to gain by dropping out!  You got
+cold feet mighty sudden!" bellowed Ormsby.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Gorse and Henderson paid similar tributes to the apostate, whose
+melancholy grin only deepened.  Shallenberger was pacing the floor
+slowly and puffing his pipe.  Hume and Arbuthnot growled occasionally,
+but shared, I thought, Shallenberger's changed feeling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My silence had been effective up to this time, but I was afraid to risk
+it longer.  Dick, I imagined, had kept close to me for fear of missing
+any part of the altercation he knew my appearance would provoke.  The
+more vociferous suitors had howled themselves hoarse and glared at me
+while I considered the situation.  Henderson rallied for a final shot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"A good horsewhipping is what you deserve," he cried, leveling his
+finger at me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gentlemen," I began, not without inward quaking, "you have spoken loud
+naughty words to me, and in reply I must say that your vocal efforts
+suggest only the melodies of the braying jackass, and that your
+manners, to speak mildly, are susceptible of considerable improvement."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You leave this neighborhood within an hour!" boomed Ormsby; and in his
+efforts to free himself from his chair it fell backward with a crash
+that echoed through the long room.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then summon the coroner by telephone, for I shall not be taken alive,"
+I answered quietly, trying to recall my youthful delight in Porthos,
+Athos, and Aramis.  "I should dislike to change the mild color-scheme
+of this pleasant dining-room, but as sure as you lay hands on me, these
+walls will become a playground for any corpuscles you carry in your
+loathsome persons."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come along, let us put him out," Henderson was saying in an aside to
+Ormsby.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You were playing a game here for a stake not yours for the winning," I
+continued.  "Now I suggest that you shuffle the pack,&mdash;you three, who
+are so full of valor,&mdash;shuffle the pack, I say, and draw for the jack
+of clubs.  Whoever is the fortunate man I shall take pleasure in
+pitching through yonder very charming casement."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Agreed!" cried Henderson, and the three flung themselves into their
+chairs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The alacrity of their consent had unnerved me for a moment.
+D'Artagnan, I was sure, would have fought them all, but I consoled
+myself, as the cards rattled on the bare table, with the reflection
+that, considering the fact that I had never in my life laid violent
+hands on a fellow-being, I was conducting myself with admirable
+assurance.  My weight has always hung well within one hundred and
+thirty, and physicians have told me that I was incapable of taking on
+flesh or muscle.  Any one of these men could easily toss me through the
+window I had indicated as a means of their own exit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Shallenberger caught my eye and indicated with a slight jerk of the
+head that I had better run before it was too late.  The painstaking
+care with which Henderson had fallen upon the cards was disquieting, to
+put it mildly.  Dick nudged me in the ribs and offered to hold my coat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will not be necessary," I replied carelessly.  "Tender your
+services to the other gentlemen."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I felt the cold sweat gathering on my brow.  The three had begun to
+draw cards, and I heard them slap the bits of pasteboard smartly upon
+the table as they lifted them from the deck and, finding the jack of
+clubs still undrawn, waited the next turn.  I had no idea that a pack
+of cards would dissolve so readily by the drawing process, and my
+memory ceased trying to recall the adventures of D'Artagnan and hovered
+with ominous persistence about the mad don of La Mancha.  I cannot say
+now whether I stood my ground out of sheer physical inability to run or
+from an accession of courage due to the remembrance of my success in
+detecting the Hopefield ghost.  In any case I affected coolness as I
+waited, even throwing out my arms to "shoot" my cuffs once or twice,
+and yawning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Come, gentlemen, hurry: let us not waste time here," I exclaimed
+impatiently.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If Ormsby turns up the card you're a dead man," Dick was muttering
+gloomily.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"They're all alike to me," I replied loudly.  "Mr. Ormsby is very
+beautiful; I shall hope not to disfigure him permanently;" but as I
+spoke my tongue was a wobbly dry clapper in my mouth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was bending over now, watching the three men pick up the cards, and
+once, when I misread the jack of spades for the jack of clubs, a
+shudder passed over me.  They were down to the last card, and Ormsby's
+hand was on it.  I recall that a group of steins on a shelf over
+Henderson's head seemed to be dancing wildly.  Then I looked at the
+floor to steady myself, and hope leaped within me, for there, by
+Ormsby's foot,&mdash;a large and heavy one,&mdash;lay an upturned card, the jack
+of clubs, whose lone symbol magnified itself enormously in my amazed
+eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At this moment, I became conscious that something had occurred to
+distract the attention of the other men, who were staring at some one
+who had entered noiselessly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gentlemen, you seem immensely interested in the turn of those cards.
+I am glad to have arrived at the critical moment.  Mr. Ormsby, will you
+kindly lift the remaining card from the table?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia stood beside me.  She was dressed in a dark brown
+riding-habit; the feather in her fedora hat emphasized her usual brisk
+air.  She swung her riding-crop lightly in her hand, and bent over the
+table with the deepest interest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ormsby turned up the card.  It was the ten of diamonds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gentlemen," I cried, pointing to the card, "what trick is this?  Can
+it be possible that you have been trifling with me in a fashion for
+which men have died the world over by sword and pistol!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Kindly explain, Arnold, the nature of this difficulty," Miss Octavia
+commanded.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Simply this, Miss Hollister, if I must answer; I had offered to fight
+these three gentlemen in order.  It was agreed that the man who drew
+the jack of clubs from the pack with which they had been playing should
+be my first victim.  They have shuffled their own cards and have drawn
+the whole pack and there is no jack of clubs in the pack!  The only
+possible explanation is one to which I hesitate to apply the obvious
+plain Saxon terms."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It dropped out, that's all!  You don't dare pretend that we threw out
+the jack to avoid drawing it!" protested Ormsby, though I saw from the
+glances the trio exchanged that they suspected one another.  Ormsby and
+Gorse bent down to look for the missing card, but before they found it
+I stepped forward and drove my fist upon the table with all the power I
+could put into the blow.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Stop!" I cried.  "I gave you every opportunity to stand up and take a
+trouncing, but I need hardly say that after this contemptible knavery I
+refuse to soil my hands on you!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you insinuate"&mdash;began Henderson, jumping to his feet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Gentlemen," said Miss Hollister, lifting the riding-crop, "it is
+perfectly clear to me that Mr. Ames has gone as far as any gentleman
+need go in protecting his honor.  I do not offer myself as an
+arbitrator here, but I advise my young friend that nothing further is
+required of him in this deplorable affair."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of
+cards that lay on the table as they had been stacked when drawn.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-348"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-348.jpg" ALT="With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of cards." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of cards.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"Arnold," she said, with indescribable dignity, "will you kindly attend
+me to my horse?"
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap19"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XIX
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+A stable-boy held Miss Octavia's horse at the inn-door.  Her face, her
+figure, her voice expressed outraged dignity as she tested the
+saddle-girth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You need never tell me what had happened to provoke your wrath, for
+that is none of my affair; but I wish to say that your conduct and
+bearing won my highest approval.  They had undoubtedly hidden the jack
+of clubs to avoid the drubbing you would have administered to the
+unfortunate man who would have drawn that card if it had been in the
+pack."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I was not in the slightest danger at any time, Miss Hollister," I
+protested.  "By one of those tricks of fate to which you and I are
+becoming so accustomed, the card had fallen to the floor unnoticed.  If
+you had not arrived so opportunely the lost jack would have been
+discovered, the cards reshuffled, and very likely Mr. Ormsby would have
+been dusting the inn-floor with me at this very minute."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I refuse to believe any such thing," declared Miss Octavia, who had
+mounted and continued speaking from the saddle.  "Your perfect
+confidence was admirable, and I shudder to think of the terrible
+punishment you would have given them.  I do not particularly dislike
+Mr. Ormsby, though the possibility of Cecilia marrying him has troubled
+me not a little as I have recalled the unromantic aspect of Utica as
+seen from the car-windows; but it is much to your credit that you
+defied them all and brought them to the fighting-point, and then, by a
+stroke of cleverness it pleased me to witness, placed them
+irretrievably in the wrong."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If Miss Octavia wished to view my performances in this flattering light
+it seemed unnecessary and unkind to object.  Now that I was in the open
+again with a whole skin I was not averse to the victor's crown; I would
+even wear it tilted slightly over one ear.  Birds have been killed by
+shots that missed the real target; bunker sands are rich in gutta
+percha and good intentions.  I was a fraud, but a cheerful one.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It was only a pleasant incident of the day's work, Miss Hollister.
+I'm going to engage a squire and take to the open road as soon as all
+this is over."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"As soon as all what is over!" she demanded, eyeing me keenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, the work I've undertaken to do here.  I flatter myself that I have
+made some progress; but within twenty-four hours I dare say that we
+shall have seen the end."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your words are not wholly luminous, Arnold."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is much better that it should be so.  You have trusted me so far,
+and I have no intention of failing you now.  If I say that the crisis
+is near at hand in a certain matter that interests you greatly, you
+will understand that I am not striking ignorantly in the dark."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you know what I suspect you know, Arnold Ames, you are even
+shrewder than I thought you, and you had already taken a high place in
+my regard.  The curtains of the windows just behind you have shown
+considerable agitation since we have been speaking, not due, I think,
+to the wind, as there is no air stirring.  Those gentlemen you have
+just vanquished are timidly watching you.  Your daring and prowess have
+greatly alarmed them.  You may be sure they will think twice before
+provoking your wrath again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I devoutly hope they will," I replied, glancing carelessly over my
+shoulder, and catching a glimpse of Henderson as he drew hastily out of
+sight.  "But will you tell me just how you came to visit the inn at
+this particular hour?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing could be simpler.  I had luncheon at the house of a friend on
+whom I called.  Cecilia had left me to continue her ride alone, and on
+my way home I thought I would ride by the Prescott Arms to see how the
+guests were faring.  You see,"&mdash;she paused and gave a twitch to her hat
+to prolong my suspense,&mdash;"you see, I own the Prescott Arms!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With this she rode away, and not caring to risk a further meeting with
+the angry suitors from whom Miss Octavia had rescued me by so narrow a
+margin, I set off across the fields toward Hopefield.  From the stile I
+saw Miss Octavia in the highway half a mile distant, sending her horse
+along at a spirited canter.  I reached the house without further
+adventures, was served with a cold luncheon in my room, and by the time
+I had changed my clothes Miss Octavia sent me word that Pepperton had
+arrived.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia and the architect were conversing earnestly when I reached
+the library; and from the abruptness with which they ceased on my
+entrance I imagined that I had been the subject of their talk.
+Pepperton is not only one of the finest architects America has
+produced, but one of the jolliest of fellows.  He grasped my hand
+cordially and pointed to the fireplace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"So you've at last found one of my jobs to overhaul, have you!  You
+must n't let this get out on me, old man; it would shatter my
+reputation!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Please observe that the flue is drawing splendidly now," I answered.
+"A ghost had been strolling up and down the chimney, but now that I
+have found his lair he will not trouble Miss Hollister's fireplaces
+again."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have waited for your arrival, Mr. Pepperton, that we might have the
+benefit of your knowledge of the house in following the trail of this
+ghost which Arnold has discovered.  But we must give Arnold credit for
+effecting the discovery alone and unaided.  I destroyed the plans I
+obtained from your office so that Arnold might be fully tested as to
+his capacity for managing the most difficult situations."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When Miss Octavia first referred to me as Arnold, Pepperton raised his
+brows a trifle; the second time he glanced at me laughingly.  He seemed
+greatly amused by Miss Octavia's seriousness, but her amiable attitude
+toward me clearly puzzled him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It takes a good man to uncover a thing I try to hide.  I said nothing
+to you, Miss Hollister, about the retention within the walls of this
+house of parts of an old one that formerly occupied the site, for the
+reason that I thought you might refuse to buy the estate.  The
+gentleman for whom I built Hopefield was superstitious, as many men of
+advanced years are, as to the building of a new house, and as the site
+he chose is one of the finest in the county he compelled me to
+construct this house&mdash;which is the most satisfactory I have built&mdash;in
+such manner enough of the old should be kept intact to soothe his
+superstitious soul with the idea that he had merely altered an old
+house, not built a new one.  As it is the architect's business to yield
+to such caprices I obeyed him strictly.  So there are two rooms of an
+old farmhouse hidden under the east wing, and it amused me, once I had
+got into it, to preserve part of the old stairway, and connect the
+retained chambers with the upper hall of this house.  I had to patch
+the original stair, which was only one flight, with discarded lumber
+from the old house, but I flatter myself that I managed it neatly.  I
+even saved the old nails to avert the wrath of the evil spirits.  When
+the umbrella and dyspepsia-cure man died,&mdash;for he did die, as you
+know,&mdash;I believed the secret had died with him, as he was very
+sensitive about his superstitions.  Most of the laborers on that part
+of the job were brought from a long distance, and I supposed they never
+really knew just what we were doing.  I might have known, though, that
+if a fellow as clever as Ames got to pecking at the house the trick
+would be discovered.  But the chimney, old man,&mdash;what on earth was the
+matter with it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It will never happen again, and I promised the ghost never to tell how
+it was done."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You were quite right in doing that, Arnold,&mdash;a ghost's secrets should
+be sacred; but let us now proceed to the hidden chambers," said Miss
+Hollister, rising without further ado.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She summoned Cecilia, to whom we explained matters briefly, and at
+Pepperton's suggestion the four of us went directly to the fourth
+floor, so that Miss Octavia might see the whole contrivance in the most
+effective manner possible.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My awkward pen falters in the attempt to convey any idea of Miss
+Octavia's delight in Pepperton's revelation; she kept repeating her
+admiration of his genius, and her praise of my cleverness, which, to
+protect Hezekiah, I was forced to accept meekly.  When in broad
+daylight Pepperton found and pressed the spring in the upper hall and
+the hidden door opened, with a slowness that indicated a realization of
+its own dramatic value, Miss Octavia cried out gleefully, like a child
+that witnesses the manipulation of a new and wonderful toy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"To think, Cecilia, that I should never have known of this if that
+chimney had not smoked!"&mdash;a remark that caused Pepperton to glance at
+me curiously.  He knew as well as I did that with ordinary care every
+flue in that house would have drawn splendidly.  "Beyond any question,"
+Miss Octavia kept asserting, "beneath the chambers of the old house
+down there we shall find the bones of that British soldier who perished
+here; or it is even possible that a chest of hidden treasure is
+concealed beneath the floor.  What do you yourself suspect, Mr.
+Pepperton?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were lighting candles preparatory to stepping down into the dark
+stairway, and Pepperton was plainly hard put to keep from laughing.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have told you all I know about
+the rooms down there.  I 'm not very strong in the ghost-faith; and our
+friend the umbrella-man never dreamed of such a thing, I assure you,
+not even after he had satisfied his fierce craving for pie."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia followed Pepperton slowly, pausing frequently to hold her
+candle close to the stair-walls, whose rough surfaces confirmed all
+that Pepperton had said of the preservation of the old timbers.  I had
+brought a handful of candles, and when we had reached the dark rooms
+beneath, I lighted these and set them up in the black corners of the
+old rooms, in which, Miss Octavia remarked, not even the wall paper had
+been disturbed.  The exit into the coal-cellar, and concealed openings
+left for ventilation which had escaped me before, were now pointed out
+by the architect, who kept laughing at the huge joke of it all.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Cecilia murmured her surprise repeatedly as we continued the
+examination; nothing quite like this had ever happened in the world
+before, but even as we walked through those hidden rooms my thoughts
+reverted to the crisis so near at hand in her affairs.  I had pledged
+myself to her service, but I saw no way yet of assuring the proper
+sequence of proposals.  The ultimate seventh must be Wiggins; but how
+could I manage the penultimate sixth!  Cecilia's own apparent freedom
+from care on this tour of inspection deepened my sense of
+responsibility to all concerned.  Dick might by now have persuaded some
+one of the others at the inn to offer himself, thus closing the gap,
+and I had determined that the Westerner should not outwit me.  It was
+some consolation to know that while Cecilia was in these lost rooms in
+my company, she was safe from Dick's machinations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My thoughts were, however, given a new direction by Miss Octavia.  She
+had been scrutinizing the floor closely, asking us all to bring our
+candles to bear upon it, that she might search thoroughly for any signs
+of a trapdoor beneath which the bones of the British soldier might
+repose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You can't tell me," she averred in her own peculiar vein, "that a
+house as old as this has been preserved merely to divert calamity from
+a superstitious gentleman engaged in the manufacture of ribless
+umbrellas and a dyspepsia cure."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia Hollister was a woman to be humored; we all knew this; but
+I realized with a pang that she was about to be disappointed.  I had
+expected her to forget the British soldier in the perfectly tangible
+joy of secret springs and ghostly chambers; and if I had foreseen her
+persistence in clinging to the tradition of the ill-fated Briton I
+should have taken the trouble to hide a few bones under the flooring.
+Miss Octavia had brought a stick from the coal-room, and was thumping
+the floor with it even while Pepperton tried to discourage her further
+investigations.  We were all ranged about her with our candles, and
+these, with the others I had thrust into the corners, lighted the room
+well.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm afraid you've seen the whole of it, Miss Hollister," said
+Pepperton.  "The old house was built after the Revolution, I judge, but
+your British soldier was probably left hanging to a tree and never
+buried at all."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Pepperton," she replied, holding the candle so close to the
+architect that he blinked, "it would be far from me to question your
+knowledge of history, but I should not be at all surprised if the
+builder of this old house had fought on the seas with John Paul Jones,
+and had buried beneath these walls the very sea-chest that had been his
+companion on many eventful voyages."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pepperton gasped at the absurdity of this, and then suppressed his
+mirth with difficulty.  Cecilia faintly expostulated; but I knew Miss
+Octavia would not be dissuaded, and I thought it as well to facilitate
+her search and be done with it.  A sailor with rings in his ears and a
+cutlass dangling at his side might have come home from the wars and
+established himself on a farm in Westchester County and even buried his
+sea-chest under the floor of his house, but in all likelihood he never
+had.  It was not my office, however, to advise Miss Octavia Hollister
+in such matters.  Pepperton had changed his tune and seemed anxious to
+follow my lead.  To him she was an eccentric old woman, whose wealth
+alone gained her indulgence in such preposterous obsessions as this;
+but my own feelings were those of regret that she must so quickly be
+disillusioned.  To me she had become an incarnation of the play-spirit
+that never grows old, and there may have risen in me an honest belief
+that what this unusual woman sought she would somehow find.  Once or
+twice when the uneven worn flooring had boomed hollowly under her stick
+I had knelt promptly to examine the planks, and had thus disposed of
+several false alarms.  Pepperton feigned interest for a time, but was
+becoming bored.  Cecilia studied the quaint pattern of the wall paper,
+which she said ought to be reproduced, as nothing in contemporaneous
+designs equaled it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia had been over the floors of the two rooms twice, and was
+about to desist.  Her less frequent appeals to the rest of us for
+confirmation of some suspected change in the responses to her thumping
+indicated disappointment.  She made her last stand in the corner of the
+smaller room, and as we all stood holding our lights, we were conscious
+that the dull monotonous thump suddenly changed its tone.  We all
+noticed it at the same instant, and exchanged glances of surprise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you hear that, gentlemen?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She subdued her gratification in the rebuking glance she gave us.  Calm
+and unhurried, she rested a moment on her stick, with the candle's soft
+glow about her, a smile ineffably sweet on her face.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The timbers may have rotted away underneath.  We did n't raise these
+floors," said Pepperton; but we both dropped to our knees and brought
+all the candle-light to bear upon the flooring.  Dust and mortar,
+shaken loose in the destruction of the house, filled the cracks.
+Pepperton, deeply absorbed, continued to sound the corner with his
+knuckles.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It really looks as though these boards had been cut for some purpose,"
+he said, whipping out his knife.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I ran to the kindling-room and found a hatchet, and when I returned he
+had dug the dirt out of the edges of the floor-planks.  Silence held us
+all as I set to prying up the boards.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I beg of you to exercise the greatest care, gentlemen.  If bones are
+interred here we must do them no sacrilege," warned Miss Octavia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By this time we all, I think, began to believe that the flooring might
+really have been cut in this corner of the old room to permit the
+hiding of something.  The room had grown hot, and Cecilia opened the
+cellar-windows outside to admit air.  The old planks clung stubbornly
+their joists, but after I had loosened one, the others came up quickly
+and the smell of dry earth filled the room.  Pepperton had, at Miss
+Octavia's direction, brought a chisel and crowbar from the tool-room in
+the cellar, and he stood ready with these when I tore up the last
+board, disclosing an oblong space about five feet long and slightly
+over three feet wide.  It was possible that this was the whole story,
+but Pepperton began driving the bar vigorously into the close-packed
+soil.  As he loosened the earth I scooped it out, and we soon had
+penetrated about six inches beneath the surface.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were all excited now.  The edge of the bar struck repeatedly against
+something that resisted sharply.  It might have been a root, but when
+Pepperton shifted the point of attack the same booming sound answered
+to the prodding.  Pepperton now thought it might be only an empty cask
+or a box of no interest whatever; but Miss Octavia, hovering close with
+a candle, encouraged us to go on, and was fertile in suggestions as to
+the most expeditious manner of resurrecting whatever might be buried
+there.  We were pretty well satisfied from the soundings that the
+hidden object was somewhat shorter and narrower than the hole itself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Quite naturally so," observed Miss Octavia, "for a man who buries a
+treasure has to allow himself room for getting at it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We worked on silently, Pepperton loosening the soil with the bar while
+I shoveled it out.  In half an hour we had revealed a long flat wooden
+surface, which to our anxious imaginations was the lid of some sort of
+box.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's sound red cedar," pronounced Pepperton, examining the wood where
+the tools had splintered it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course it's cedar," replied Miss Octavia, bending down to it.  "I
+knew it would be cedar.  It always is!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We paused to laugh at her confident tone, and Cecilia suggested that as
+there was still a good deal to do before we could free the box, we
+should send for some of the servants to complete the work.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I would n't take a thousand dollars for my chance at this," Pepperton
+answered; and we fell to again.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It must have been nearly six o'clock when we dragged out into that
+candle-lighted chamber a stout, well-fashioned box.  The earth clung to
+its sides jealously, and it was bound with strips of brass that shone
+brightly where the scraping of our tools had burnished it.  We pried
+off the heavy lock with a good deal of difficulty, and when it was free
+Miss Octavia asserted her right to the treasure-trove with much
+calmness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I should never forgive myself if I allowed this opportunity to pass;
+you must permit me to have the first look."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly, Miss Hollister; if it had n't been for you this chest would
+have remained hidden to the end of all time," Pepperton replied.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We gathered close about her as she knelt beside the box.  My hand shook
+as I held my candle, and I think Miss Octavia was the only one in the
+room who showed no nervousness.  Cecilia sighed deeply several times,
+and Pepperton mopped his face with his handkerchief.  The lid did not
+yield as readily as we had expected, and it was necessary to resort to
+the hatchet and chisel again; but we were careful that it should be
+Miss Octavia's hand that finally raised the lid.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We all exclaimed in various keys as the light fell upon the open chest.
+The musty odor of old garments greeted us at once.  The box was well
+filled, and its contents were neatly arranged.  Miss Octavia first
+lifted out the remnants of a military uniform that lay on top.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-366"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-366.jpg" ALT="Miss Octavia first lifted out the remnants of a military uniform that lay on top." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+Miss Octavia first lifted out the remnants <BR>
+of a military uniform that lay on top.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+"It's his ragged regimentals!" cried Cecilia, as we unfolded an
+officer's coat of blue and buff, sadly decrepit and faded; "and he was
+not a British soldier at all, but an American patriot."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Time and service had dealt even more harshly with an American flag on
+which the thirteen white stars floated dimly on the dull blue field.
+It had been bound tightly about a packet of papers which Miss Octavia
+asked Pepperton to examine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"These are commissions appointing a certain Adoniram Caldwell to
+various positions in the Continental Army.  Adoniram had the right
+stuff in him; here he's discharged as a private to become an ensign;
+rose from ensign to colonel, and seems to have been in most of the big
+doings.  'For gallantry in the recent engagement at Stony Point, on
+recommendation of General Anthony Wayne'&mdash;by Jove, that does rather
+carry you back!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Half a dozen of these documents traced Adoniram Caldwell's career to
+the end of the Revolution and his retirement from the military service
+with the rank of colonel.  A sealed letter attached to these
+commissions next held our attention.  The ends were dovetailed in the
+old style before the day of envelopes, and evidently care had been
+taken in folding and sealing it.  The superscription, in a round bold
+hand, without flourishes, read: "To Whom It May Concern."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I suppose it concerns us as much as anybody," remarked Miss Octavia.
+"What do you say, gentlemen; shall we open it?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We all demanded breathlessly that she break the seal, and we were soon
+bending over her with our lights.  The ink had blurred and in spots
+rust had obliterated the writing:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"Hartley Wiggins!" we gasped; and I felt Cecilia's hand clasp my arm.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia continued reading, and as she was obliged to pause often
+and refer illegible lines to the rest of us, I have copied the
+following from the letter itself, with only slight changes of
+punctuation and spelling.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell, having
+now resumed my proper name, and being about to marry, and having begun
+the construction of a habitation for myself wherein to end my days,
+truthfully set forth these matters:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My father, Hiram Wiggins of Rhode Island, having supported the
+royalist cause in our late war for Independence, and angered by my
+friendliness to the patriots, and he, with ... brothers and sister
+having returned to England after the evacuation of Boston, I joined the
+Continental troops under General Putnam on Long Island, in July, 1776,
+serving in various commands thereafter, to the best of my ability, to
+the end....  My father has now returned to Rhode Island, and has, I
+learn, been making inquiries touching my whereabouts and condition, so
+that I have every hope that we may become reconciled.  Yet as my
+services to the Country were against his wishes and caused so much
+harshness and heartache, and being now come into a part of the country
+where I am unknown, I am decided to resume my rightful name, that my
+wife and children may bear it and in the hope that I may myself yet add
+to it some honor....
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nor shall my wife or any children that may be born to me, know from me
+... (<I>badly blurred</I>.)  Yet not caring to destroy my sword, which I
+bore with some credit, nor these testimonials of respect and confidence
+I received as Adoniram Caldwell at various times and from various
+personages of renown, both civilians and in the military service, I
+place them under my house now building, where I hope in God's care to
+end my days in peace.  I would in like case make like choice again."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Ten lines following this were wholly illegible, but just before the
+date (June 17, 1789), and the signature, which was written large, was
+this:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+"God preserve these American states that they endure in unity and
+concord forever!"
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+We had all been moved by the reading of this long-lost letter, and Miss
+Octavia's voice had faltered several times.  As I turned to Cecilia
+once or twice during the recital of the dead patriot's message, I saw
+tears brimming her eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. Wiggins once told me that his great-grandfather had lived
+somewhere in Westchester County, but I fancy he had no idea that
+Hopefield was the identical spot," remarked Miss Octavia.  "It seems
+incredible, and yet I dare say the hand of fate is in it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, it's so wonderful; so beyond belief!" cried Cecilia, reverently
+folding the letter, which, I observed, she retained in her own hands.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's wonderful," added Miss Octavia promptly, taking the sword, which
+Pepperton had with difficulty drawn from its battered scabbard, "that
+even a discerning woman like me could have been so mistaken.  I recall
+with humility that last Fourth of July, at Berlin, I reprimanded Mr.
+Wiggins severely because his family had not been represented in the war
+for American Independence.  By the irony of circumstances it becomes my
+duty to present to him the very sword that his admirable
+great-grandfather bore in that momentous struggle.  I shall, with his
+permission, place a bronze tablet on the outer wall of this house to
+preserve the patriot's memory."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Several copies of New York newspapers, half a dozen French gold coins,
+the miniature of a woman's face, which we assumed to be that of Roger
+Wiggins's mother or sister, were briefly examined; then by Miss
+Octavia's orders we carefully returned everything to the chest.
+Several packets of letters we did not open.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Arnold," she said when we had closed the chest, "will you and Mr.
+Pepperton kindly carry that box to my room?  No servant's hand shall
+touch it; and I shall myself give it to Mr. Wiggins at the earliest
+opportunity."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We had lost track of time in those hidden rooms, preserved by the whim
+of one man that the secret of another might be discovered, and found
+with surprise, after the chest had been carried to Miss Octavia's
+apartments, that it was after seven o'clock.  We had been in the hidden
+rooms for more than three hours.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We shall have much to talk about to-night, and I fancy we are all a
+good deal shaken.  It's not often we receive a letter from a dead man,
+so we shall admit no callers to-night unless, indeed, Mr. Wiggins
+should chance to come," announced Miss Octavia.  "The next time Hartley
+Wiggins visits this house he shall come as a conquering hero."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hope so," replied Cecilia brokenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were still at dinner when the cards of Dick and the other suitors I
+had last seen at the Prescott Arms were brought in; but Wiggins made no
+sign, and I wondered.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap20"></A>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+XX
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+The man who looked after my needs handed me a note the next morning
+which added fresh hazards to Cecilia's already perilous plight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Left with the gardener before six o'clock by a boy from the village.
+Said it was most confidential, sir."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I waited till he had left the room before opening it.  A square white
+envelope addressed to Arnold Ames, Esq., Hopefield Manor, told me
+nothing, and the handwriting was inscrutable.  It slanted slightly
+upward; the small letters were half-printed and quaintly shaded.  If a
+woman's, she had scorned the rail-fence models of the boarding-schools;
+if a man's&mdash;but I knew its gender well enough!  The white note sheet
+within was unadorned, and the same pen had traced compactly, within the
+widest possible margins, the following:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+GOOSEBERRY BUNGALOW,<BR>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Before Breakfast.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR CHIMNEYS:&mdash;Pep stopped here yesterday to see B.H.  He and C. old
+pals.  Watch him.  Where's Wig?  H.H.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+The initials were superfluous, and yet the sight of them pleased me
+mightily.  In her semi-printing she curved the pillars of the H's like
+parentheses, so that they bore an amusing resemblance to four men
+striding forward against a storm.  The report of a chief of scouts
+smuggled through the enemy's lines could not have improved on her
+billet for succinctness, and the information conveyed was startling
+enough.  We had been dealing with a company of suitors outside the
+barricade; now came warning of the presence of a strange knight within
+the gates who greatly multiplied the perils of the situation.  The
+compact between the suitors at the inn was a thing of the past, and I
+now expected them to exercise all the ingenuity of which desperate
+lovers are capable in pressing their claims.  The fact that both
+Wiggins and Pepperton were old friends of mine did not make my task
+easier.  I not only felt it incumbent on me to prevent Dick, the holder
+of the clue, from taking advantage of it, but knowing Cecilia's own
+attitude of mind and heart toward Wiggins I wished to save Pepperton
+the pain of rejection if it could be done.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But what did Hezekiah mean by the question with which she ended her
+note?  If Wiggins, smarting under Cecilia's treatment of him the day
+before, had quit the field, here was a pretty how-d 'ye-do f Miss
+Octavia's refusal to countenance telephones made it necessary for me to
+leave Hopefield to learn what had become of Wiggins, and I realized
+that I must act promptly if I saved the day for him.  His conduct first
+and last had been spiritless, and I was out of patience with him.  It
+seemed impossible to formulate any plan amidst these multiplying
+uncertainties.  If Wiggins had decamped, Dick knew it and would lay his
+plans accordingly.  I felt that it was base ingratitude on Wiggins's
+part to ask me to watch his interests while he went roaming
+indifferently over the country.  One or two consoling reflections
+remained, however: Dick believed me to be a suitor for Cecilia's hand,
+and this doubtless caused him considerable uneasiness; and he did not
+know that Pepperton, whose acquaintance with Cecilia antedated the
+European flight, had to be reckoned with.  I wished Pepperton had kept
+out of it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Breakfast that morning was interminably long.  Miss Octavia was never
+more thoroughly amusing, never more drolly inadvertent.  She attacked
+Pepperton for all the evils in American architecture, and in particular
+took him to task for some house he had built at Newport which she
+pronounced the most hideous pile of marble on American soil.  From her
+packet of newspaper-cuttings she drew a letter her brother Bassford had
+written to the "Sun,"&mdash;the writing of letters to newspapers was, it
+seemed, one of his weaknesses,&mdash;protesting against the quality of the
+music ground from the New York hurdy-gurdies.  The selections were
+execrable; the fierce tempo at which the instruments were driven had
+caused an alarming increase in insanity, in proof of which he adduced
+statistics.  He demanded municipal censorship, and volunteered to sit
+on the proposed commission of critics without pay.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That is just like brother Bassford!  When I begin speaking to him
+again I shall point out the error of his ways.  I always miss the
+hurdy-gurdies when I 'm in the country, and I believe I shall buy one
+and have it play me to sleep at night.  The faster the tempo the
+sweeter the slumber.  I should certainly do so," she concluded, with
+that indefinable smile that always left one wondering, "if it were not
+that my new laundress is a graduate of the Sandusky-Ottumwa
+Conservatory of Music, and I fear the toreador's song on wheels might
+be painful to one of her taste and temperament."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When we left the table at about half-past ten Miss Octavia insisted
+that we must visit the kennels.  A friend had just sent her a fine
+Airedale, and she wished to make sure the kennel-master was treating
+the dog properly.  Later we were all to ride.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I made haste to excuse myself, saying that personal matters required
+attention.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Certainly, Arnold, you shall do as you like.  Mr. Pepperton is a
+difficult bird to catch, so we hope for you at luncheon, and of course
+we expect you for dinner."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pepperton looked at me inquiringly.  I judged that he had known Miss
+Octavia a good many years; the tone of their intercourse was intimate;
+and yet he plainly was at a loss to understand just how I came to be so
+thoroughly established in her good graces.  I confess that as I glance
+back over these pages it looks odd to me!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As I paced the hall waiting for a horse to be saddled, Pepperton led me
+out on the terrace above the garden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm bursting with a great secret, old man.  I'm going to be married."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'm going to be married."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I grasped a chair to support myself.  This was almost too much.  Could
+it be possible that Hezekiah had miscalculated the list of rejections
+in the silver-bound book, or that Cecilia herself had been deceived?
+Pepperton misread my agitation, and with a hearty laugh clapped me on
+the shoulder.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, I'm not intruding on your preserves, old man!  Cecilia is the
+second finest girl in the world, that's all.  I'm engaged to Miss
+Gaylord, of Stockbridge.  I 'm telling a few old friends, in advance of
+the formal announcement to be made next week at a dance the Gaylords
+are giving."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I crushed his hand in both my own, and seeing that he misconstrued the
+fervor of my emotion I hastened to set myself right.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You're a lucky dog as usual, Pep.  But you don't understand about
+Cecilia Hollister.  It's not I; I 'm not in the running at all; but
+Hartley Wiggins is!  I'm here trying to help him score."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What's this?  You're here to represent Wiggy?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Well, he did n't exactly send me here, but when I came I found that
+Wiggy was n't playing the game with quite the necessary zipology.
+There's more required than appears,&mdash;a little of the dash and snap of
+the old adventures,&mdash;the ready tongue, the eager, thirsty sword!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pepperton pursed his lips and looked me over carefully with a twinkle
+in his eye.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You are contributing those elements!  You are octaviaized, is that
+it?"  Pepperton laughed until the tears came.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I prefer hollisterized as the broader term.  Brother Bassford has it
+too, and there's always Hezekiah!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah!  Hezekiah the unpredictable!  I knew there was a skirt fluttering
+somewhere.  I saw her yesterday; stopped to see Bassford, who's a good
+old chap.  Hezekiah of the teasing eyes was whitewashing the
+chicken-coop, and Michael Angelo could n't have done it better."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pep," I said, lowering my voice, "if you love me, keep close to
+Cecilia all day.  You're an engaged man and in practice.  Give an
+imitation of devotion.  Keep her out of doors; keep male human beings
+away from her.  Don't fail me in this.  I 've got to pull off the
+greatest coup of my life to-day.  There's a band of outlaws hanging
+round here who will propose to Cecilia the first chance they get&mdash;and
+they must NOT.  Wig 's got to speak before night or lose out forever.
+No; not a word of explanation; you've got to take my word for it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll be the goat; go ahead, but build a fire under Wiggins; I can't
+stay here forever."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pepperton's engagement smoothed out one wrinkle, and I felt sure that I
+could trust him as an ally.  The groom was holding my horse in the
+porte-cochère, and I mounted and rode away to the Prescott Arms.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I found Ormsby, Shallenberger, Arbuthnot, Henderson, Hume, and Gorse
+glumly sitting in a semicircle before the hall fireplace.  Deepest
+gloom pervaded the inn.  I have rarely seen melancholy so darkly
+stamped upon the human countenance.  They turned indifferently and
+glared as they recognized me.  Shallenberger alone rose and greeted me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hope there is no bad news," he said chokingly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Bad news?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I mean Miss Hollister&mdash;Miss Cecilia.  We were all deeply grieved last
+night to hear of her sudden illness; there's always something so
+terrible in the very name of diphtheria."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My wits had been so sharpened by my late adventures that I readily
+accounted for these false tidings.  Dick was absent; Dick alone would
+have been equal to this diabolical plot for keeping his rival suitors
+away from Hopefield.  The despair in those faces taxed my gravity
+severely.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It is extremely sad, but the first diagnosis was erroneous," I
+answered.  "I think it more likely to prove to be chicken-pox when the
+truth is known."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not diphtheria?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No immediate danger of diphtheria, I assure you," I replied; "though
+of course, with winter coming on and all that, one must be prepared for
+the worst."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+While he repeated this to the others, I sought the clerk, who promptly
+handed me a note which Wiggins had left late the previous afternoon, to
+be delivered in case I called.  He had gone to spend a day or two with
+Orton, the playwright, who was at his country house, in the hills
+beyond Mt. Kisco, rehearsing a new piece, in which a friend of
+Hartley's was to star.  I gained the telephone-booth in one jump, and
+in five minutes I was bawling wildly into Orton's ear.  I had known him
+well in the Hare and Tortoise, and he answered my demand for Wiggins
+with the heart-breaking news that Hartley had ridden off with some
+other guests in the house&mdash;Orton did n't know where.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I threw them out; I've got to rewrite my third act; I don't care
+whether they ever come back," boomed Orton's voice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If you don't send Wiggins back to me at Hopefield as fast as he can
+get there, my third act is ruined."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Tell Wiggins to come back on the run; tell him the world's coming to
+an end any minute."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll be glad to get rid of him," snapped Orton, in the harried tone of
+a man whose third act has wilted in rehearsal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As I came perspiring out of the telephone-booth I found the suitors
+engaged in eager but subdued debate by the hearth.  They could hardly
+have heard my bleatings over the telephone, but they were greatly
+concerned about something.  Shallenberger, who was apparently the only
+one willing to approach me, followed me to the veranda.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Those fellows in there don't understand this.  Dick told us all last
+night, after we had called at the house and been refused admittance,
+that Miss Cecilia was ill with diphtheria.  I remember that it was Dick
+who rang the bell and gave our cards to the footman.  It was quite
+singular, you know, our being turned away, unless something had been
+wrong."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I bowed gravely.  They had been turned away for the very simple reason
+that, after unearthing Adoniram Caldwell's effects in the secret rooms
+of her house, Miss Octavia had not cared to be troubled with suitors.
+The haughty Nebraskan had drawn upon his imagination for the rest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"And I understood you to say a moment ago that Miss Hollister's malady
+is not diphtheria, but chicken-pox?"  Shallenberger persisted with
+almost laughable trepidation.  "These gentlemen, I regret to say, go so
+far as to doubt your word."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That, Mr. Shallenberger, is their privilege.  But it seems to me that
+when I merely tried to mitigate the terrible news imparted by Dick, you
+are rank ingrates for questioning my far less doubtful story.  Anything
+between you gentlemen and Mr. Dick is, of course, none of my affair,
+for whether considered as a set, group or bunch I am done with the
+whole lot of you.  Farewell!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I decided as I rode away that nothing was to be gained by going in
+search of Wiggins.  Orton had purposely made his house difficult of
+access, and the roads in that neighborhood are many and devious.  Orton
+had banished his guests that he might tinker his play in peace, and
+knowing his temper, I was sure that Wiggins and the rest of them would
+keep out of his way till the pangs of hunger drove them back.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had ridden half a mile toward Hopefield, when I espied a woman riding
+rapidly toward me, and as she drew nearer I identified her as Hezekiah,
+mounted on a horse I recognized as one of the best in Miss Octavia's
+stables.  Hezekiah rode astride, as a woman should, her bicycle skirt
+serving well as a habit.  She rode as a boy rides who loves freedom and
+quickened pulses and the rush of wind across his face.  She was
+hatless, for which the sun and I were both grateful.  The big bow at
+the back of her head turned the dial back to sixteen.
+</P>
+
+<A NAME="img-383"></A>
+<CENTER>
+<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-383.jpg" ALT="I espied a woman riding rapidly toward me." BORDER="2">
+<H4 CLASS="h4center">
+I espied a woman riding rapidly toward me.
+</H4>
+</CENTER>
+
+<P>
+She drew rein and fished what seemed to be salted almonds from her
+sweater pocket.  She filliped one of these into the air, and caught it
+in her mouth with a lazy toss of the head that showed the firm contour
+of her lovely throat.  I had never seen her more self-possessed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Do you care much for this horse?" she asked, carelessly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"It's a good horse; I fancy Miss Octavia thinks so herself.  There are
+places, Hezekiah, where they hang people for horse-stealing."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Thought I might need one to-day, so I borrowed him,&mdash;through the back
+way to the old red barn.  The coachman is an ancient chum, and Aunt
+Octavia would never mind even if she knew.  And she will know all
+right!  Anyhow, my rear tire had been patched once too often, and there
+is a satisfaction in a horse!  Where's our sensitive and impressionable
+Wiggy?  Saw him riding over toward Kisco yesterday P.M. with chin on
+his chest,&mdash;dreadful riding form."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Wiggins is at Orton's,&mdash;the playwright's, you know.  I've telephoned
+him to hustle back, but he's out of our reach somewhere.  I could n't
+speak to him direct; had to leave a message for him."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just like Wiggy to die on the last lap.  What did you make out of
+brother Pepperton?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Your note scared me,&mdash;thanks so much for your note,&mdash;but he's all
+right.  Engaged to another girl."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Ah," she sighed, "it's comforting that Cecilia could n't keep them all
+going all the time."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We rode along together, our horses in a walk, and I told her everything
+I knew of the condition of affairs, including a true account of my
+experiences at the inn the day before and of the finding of the old
+chest belonging to Wiggins's great-grandfather,&mdash;her brown eyes opened
+wide at this,&mdash;concluding with the diphtheria stratagem and Dick's
+menace to Cecilia's happiness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He's really a bright little boy.  Coming home on the steamer he gave
+me a post-graduate course in pragmatism that I've found helpful in
+keeping house for papa.  It's too bad we have to lay a trap for Mr.
+Dick."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Is it? Just how are we to manage that, Hezekiah?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh, that will be easy enough.  He's pretty desperate, and since the
+compact between the suitors has gone to pieces he knows he will have to
+show his hand pretty soon.  He thinks you are wild about Cecilia.  He
+lays great stress on his thinking powers, and he probably argues that
+you are bound to pop pretty soon.  It's just as well he thinks so, but
+we must finish this up to-day; I'll be a nervous wreck if we don't
+close the books to-night.  There's your friend Dick now."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She indicated a high point in the main road, where it crossed the ridge
+from which she had shown me&mdash;it seemed, oh, very long ago!&mdash;the
+procession of suitors crossing the stile.  Dick, mounted, was gazing
+off across the fields toward Hopefield.  Man and horse were so distant
+as to create the illusion of an equestrian statue on a high pedestal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Napoleon before Waterloo," I suggested.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"He does look like Napoleon, doesn't he?" she laughed.  "He's a bit
+fussed to-day.  He knows that Wiggy 's not at the inn, and that you are
+up to something, and to little Mr. Dick the architect probably looks
+like one of those mysterious knights you read about, who suddenly
+appears at the tournament all canned in an ice-cream freezer, with a
+tin pail over his head.  Mr. Pepperton's presence no doubt worries him,
+as I don't think they ever met.  Cecilia and Mr. Pepperton are
+riding&mdash;I dodged them just before I struck you, walking their horses in
+the most loverlike fashion in a lane over yonder; but if Mr. Pepperton
+is really engaged it's all right, though if I were the other girl I
+think I'd be anxious."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Pep's playing the game, that's all.  What are you going to do now?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She glanced at the sun; I fancy that it was with such a scanning of the
+heavens that her sisters a thousand years before had noted the time.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This is my pie-day.  There's undoubtedly a gooseberry-pie waiting for
+me at the bungalow, and papa will expect me for luncheon.  I 'd ask you
+to come too, only you 'll have all you can do to keep Mr. Dick from
+persuading somebody to be the sixth man, so he can slip in as number
+seven.  If we get through to-day all right, you may come for luncheon
+to-morrow, maybe.  Papa told me he liked you; he said you were very
+decent that night you met him on the roof of Aunt Octavia's house."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"My compliments to your father.  I hope to be able to persuade him to
+extend his paternal arm to include me.  Aunt Octavia must be my aunt,
+too!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Really!" cried Hezekiah, with indescribable mockery; and she wheeled
+her horse and was gone like the wind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Luncheon at Hopefield passed without incident; and afterward Cecilia
+retired to help her aunt with her correspondence, while Pepperton and I
+lounged about the house and smoked.  I told him of my ineffectual
+efforts to reach Wiggins, and he volunteered to find a motor and search
+for him; but I pointed out the futility of this, and renewed my appeal
+that he stay on guard at Hopefield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At about three o'clock Cecilia reappeared.  Her color was high and her
+eyes were unusually brilliant.  I knew that she fully realized that the
+crisis was near, but she asked no questions and her manner reassured me
+of her confidence.  We idled on the stone terrace above the
+frost-smitten garden, which in its ruin still satisfied the eye with
+color.  I had purposely drawn some chairs to a corner well screened by
+vines, so that I could note the approach of any visitors who came cross
+country by way of the stile.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We were hardly seated before Dick entered the garden, followed
+immediately by the six other suitors I had last seen at the inn.  They
+ranged themselves on a stone bench facing the house at the end of one
+of the paths.  They wore sack coats and hats in a variety of styles, so
+that they did not present quite the bizarre effect produced by their
+frock coats and silk tiles.  They surveyed the house sadly, bowed their
+heads upon their sticks, and seemed to have come to stay.  The siege,
+then, had become a practical matter!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Why don't the gentlemen come in?" asked Cecilia, peering through the
+vines.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Hush!  There's a rumor that you are terribly ill; they've come merely
+to pay their tribute of respect by waiting in the garden.  You had
+better go quietly into the house.  The shock of seeing you in your
+usual health might be too much for them."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"But I can't!  I must be accessible at all times," she cried, looking
+helplessly from me to Pepperton, who was all at sea for an explanation.
+"If that impression is abroad, I shall appear at once."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then you and Pepperton must patrol the terrace here; you are lovers
+for all I know.  Ignore them utterly in your absorption with one
+another.  If any one approaches you, Pepperton, ask Miss Hollister to
+marry you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Me!" gasped Pepperton.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"No; it can't be done that way," Cecilia interposed.  "Mr. Pepperton
+has told me of his engagement.  I can't be party to a fraud, a trick.
+I can't countenance it at all.  It would ruin everything!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Then stay right here; pace back and forth, and I'll manage the rest.
+I don't for the life of me know how, but I'll do it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As Cecilia and Pepperton stepped from behind the screen of vines, the
+men on the benches lifted their heads; then I heard murmurs of
+amazement and chagrin, and caught a fleeting glimpse of Dick tearing
+through the hedge with his late companions tumbling after in fierce
+pursuit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I ran to the stable and found a horse, feeling that I must be in a
+position to move rapidly if I saw Wiggins approaching.  If Dick eluded
+his wrathful pursuers he would be on the lookout somewhere, awaiting
+his own time, and if he saw Wiggins rushing madly for the house, he
+might yet circumvent us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I satisfied myself that Cecilia and Pepperton were still plainly
+visible from the garden, and I knew that for the time she was safe.  I
+gained the high point in the road from which Hezekiah and I had
+observed Dick on guard at noon, and waited.  Remembering the fine
+figure the philosopher had made against the sky, I dismounted and
+rested by a stone wall where I could watch with less risk of being seen
+from a distance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I at once saw matters that interested me immensely.  Dick had thrown
+off the other suitors, and was rapidly crossing the fields toward
+Hopefield.  When I caught sight of him, he was just leaving the orchard
+where Hezekiah and I had held our memorable interview.  A long stretch
+of rough pasture lay before him, and he settled down to a quick trot.
+He took several fences without lessening his gait, crossed the stile
+like a flash a little later, and was out of sight.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As I turned to my horse I heard the swift patter of hoofs, and saw a
+man and woman galloping furiously toward me.  They were rapidly nearing
+the ridge, and their horses were springing over the firm white road in
+prodigious leaps.  Wiggins had got my message; Hezekiah had met him in
+the road and was urging him on!  Here indeed was a situation to stir
+the heart, and the blood sang in my ears as I watched them.  I waved my
+arm as they checked their horses for the long climb.  The riders had
+lost their hats in their mad race, and Wiggins's horse was nearly done
+for.  As they came still nearer, I saw that Wiggins had taken fire at
+last.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Orton said some one was killed,&mdash;who&mdash;what&mdash;who"&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I just picked him up five minutes ago; he doesn't know anything," said
+Hezekiah; "and you dare n't tell him&mdash;remember the rules!  What's
+doing?" she inquired coolly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She bade Wiggins exchange horses with her, and while he was readjusting
+the saddle-girths I explained to Hezekiah the situation at Hopefield
+and told her of Dick's scamper across the fields.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"There's no use fooling with this thing any more.  I'll take Wiggy to
+the house and lock him up until I 've been numbered six,&mdash;it's safest."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Not much it isn't.  I don't intend that Cecilia shall have the
+pleasure of refusing you."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'd like to know why not.  It's only to fill the gap."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Oh!" said Hezekiah, "that would be an embarrassment to me all the rest
+of my life.  Listen carefully.  Take Wiggy in by the back way, and give
+him a picture-book to look at.  Leave Cecilia alone on the terrace when
+you're all ready, and see what happens.  If Dick's on his way to the
+house he's going to do something, and he must feel the edge of my
+displeasure.  I owe him a few on general principles."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"What does all this mean?  You say there 's nothing wrong at the
+house?" began Wiggins as we left Hezekiah and started toward Hopefield.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Nothing whatever the matter; everything perfectly all right; but
+you've got to keep mum now and do what I tell you.  I've worked hard
+for you, old man, and when it's all over I'm going to send you a bill
+for professional services.  Come!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I urged my horse to his utmost, and Wiggins rode steadily beside me.
+The fright Orton had given him had done my friend good, and I felt that
+I was dealing with a live man at last.  Our speed did not permit
+conversation, but feeling that Wiggins was entitled to some further
+assurance, I waited until we were climbing our last hill to add a word.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I'll tell you all about this after we have a good-night cigar
+to-night.  You know I told you I was going to help, and if nothing goes
+wrong and Hezekiah does n't fail, you will see the world with new eyes
+before you sleep."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We rode direct to the stable, and I took Wiggins to my room by the back
+stairs and bade him help himself to my raiment.  He was perfectly
+tractable, and I was glad to see that he trusted implicitly to my
+guidance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I met Miss Octavia in the lower hall.  She was just in from the
+kennels.  Her new Airedale was a perfect specimen of the breed, she
+declared, and she announced her intention of exhibiting him at all the
+reputable bench shows in America.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I hope, Arnold, that you have not been without entertainment to-day."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Miss Hollister, the three musketeers were fat monks asleep under the
+sunny wall of a monastery compared with me!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I am glad you are not bored.  By the way, if you should by any chance
+see Hezekiah, you will kindly intimate to her that if she returns that
+Estabrook mare she borrowed this morning in reasonably good condition,
+I will overlook her indiscretion in taking it from the stable without
+permission."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She did not wait for a reply, but continued on to her room, and I went
+direct to the terrace.  Cecilia and Pepperton were just going into the
+house to look up a book or piece of music which they had been
+discussing.  Cecilia was making herself interesting, as she so well
+knew how to do, and she seemed in no wise anxious.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"We had forgotten tea," she said.  "Aunt Octavia has just ordered it."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"She and Mr. Pepperton may have their tea.  I believe the air outside
+will do you good for a little longer,&mdash;so if you don't mind, Pepperton,
+Miss Hollister will resume her promenade alone."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pep has told me since that he thought me quite mad that afternoon.  I
+bade Cecilia patrol the long terrace slowly.  She turned up the collar
+of the covert coat and obeyed, laughing a little nervously but asking
+no questions.  The scene could not have been more charmingly set.  The
+great house loomed darkly behind her; beneath lay the garden, over
+which the dusk was stealing goldenly.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+She paused suddenly as I watched from the window, and I stepped out to
+see what had attracted her attention.  There into the garden from its
+farther entrance filed the six suitors who had previously come to sit
+beneath the windows of their stricken lady!  Having failed to visit
+their wrath upon the perfidious Dick they had changed their clothes and
+returned to Hopefield.  If Hezekiah had not expressly commanded me not
+to become the sixth man, I should have offered myself on the spot, and
+waited only until Cecilia had made the inevitable answer before
+summoning Wiggins to end the whole affair.  Such, however, was not to
+be the order of events.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The procession, headed by Ormsby, was within a few yards of the
+terrace.  Cecilia, apparently unconscious of their proximity, continued
+her promenade.  In a moment she must recognize them, ask them into the
+house, give them tea, and otherwise destroy my hope of securing her
+happiness before the day's end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A chorus of yelps and barks, as of dogs suddenly released, greeted my
+ear.  The oncoming suitors heard it too, and the line wobbled
+uncertainly.  Then round the house swept mastiffs, hounds, terriers,&mdash;a
+collection of prize-winners such as few kennels ever boasted, loping
+gayly in unwonted freedom toward unknown and forbidden pastures.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The vanguard of fox-terriers leaped down into the garden, with the rest
+of the pack at their heels.  Happy dogs, to find grown men ready for a
+gambol!  Six coat-tails streamed from the hips of six gentlemen in a
+hurry.  Several battered hats mixed with geraniums were retained later
+as spoils of war by the gardener.  That garden had been built for
+repose and contemplative amblings, not for panic and flight.  The
+disorder was superior in picturesqueness to that which attended the
+pumpkin stampede; at least it struck me at the moment as funnier; and I
+have never since been able to attend a day wedding without appearing
+idiotic&mdash;the procession of ushers suggests possibilities that are too
+much for me.  Four of the suitors found one of the proper exits into
+the road; two leaped the box-hedge on the other side without shaking a
+leaf.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I ran round the house, stumbling through the rear-guard of the truant
+canines, and passing the kennel-master, who had rallied the stable men
+and was in hot pursuit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Somebody turned 'em out&mdash;turned 'em out!" he shouted, and swept
+profanely by.  The gate of the kennel-yard stood open.  A familiar
+figure, running low, paused, and then sprinted nimbly along the paddock
+fence.  A white sweater was distinguishable for a moment on a stone
+wall, then it followed a pair of enchanted heels into oblivion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Time had been passing swiftly, and the shadows were deepening.  I
+retraced my steps toward the terrace, hearing the cries of pursued and
+pursuers growing fainter.  I had not yet gained a position from which I
+could see Cecilia, when a man appeared some distance ahead of me,
+walking guardedly in one of the garden-plots.  He came uncertainly,
+pausing to glance about, yet evidently led toward the terrace by a
+definite purpose.  All may be fair in love and war, but I confess to a
+feeling of pity for John Stewart Dick as I watched him slowly advancing
+to his fate.  He was going boldly now, and I felt a sudden liking for
+him; nor can I believe that he was other than a manly fellow with sound
+brains and a good heart.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I reasoned, as I marked his approach to the terrace, that he had been
+loitering in the neighborhood, probably watching Cecilia and Pepperton,
+and when the architect retired, he had assumed that the sixth man had
+spoken.  The appearance of his former comrades of the inn had doubtless
+disturbed him as it had me; then, thanks to the resourceful Hezekiah,
+they had been routed and the coast was clear.  I think it likely that
+the sight of Cecilia sombrely pacing the terrace in the darkening
+shadows was too much for his philosophic poise, or like the rest of us
+who were actors in that comedy, he may have felt that any end was
+better than the doubts and uncertainties that beset us.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I watched him draw nearer to Cecilia as I have watched deer go down to
+a lake to drink.  He would speak now; I was confident of it; and I
+stole round to the side entrance and sent word to Wiggins to go to the
+drawing-room and wait for me.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia and Pepperton still lingered over their tea-cups.  The row
+made by the fugitives from her kennels had not, it seemed, penetrated
+to the library, and Miss Octavia bade me join the talk, which had to
+do, I remember, with some project for a national hall of fame that had
+incurred her characteristic displeasure.  A hall of immortal rascals in
+pillories she thought far likelier to please the masses.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In fifteen minutes I saw Cecilia crossing the hall.  She stopped where
+I could see her quite plainly, and thrust her hand into the pocket of
+her coat.  Out flashed the silver note-book.  She made a swift notation
+with the pencil that now, I knew, wrote the fate of the sixth man.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I went out and spoke to her, and walked beside her to the drawing-room
+door, where Hartley Wiggins was waiting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Miss Octavia had risen when I returned to the library, and it was time
+to dress for dinner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Just a moment, Miss Hollister.  Something of great interest is about
+to occur;" and I made excuses for detaining her for perhaps five
+minutes,&mdash;not more.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You have never yet deceived me, Arnold Ames, and such is my confidence
+in you that if you tell me that something interesting will soon occur,
+I have no reason to doubt you.  It is worth remembering, however, that
+fowl is not improved by prolonged roasting."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I heard Wiggins laugh in the hall, and Miss Octavia raised her head.
+Then Cecilia came into the room, and walked directly to her aunt.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Aunt Octavia, here is the little silver notebook you gave me in Paris;
+I have just written Mr. Wiggins's name in it,  and as I have no further
+use for the book, I return it with my love and thanks."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Without a word, Miss Octavia turned to the wall and pressed the button
+twice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"William," she said as the butler appeared, "you may serve Oriana '97,
+and be careful not to freeze it to death; and the hour for dinner is
+changed to eight.  Arnold, you may yourself drive to Gooseberry
+Bungalow for my brother and niece.  They dine with me to-night."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P>
+Hezekiah and I built our bungalow in the orchard where on that October
+afternoon I found her munching a red apple on the stone wall.  She is
+the most scrupulous of housewives, and only now took me to task for
+scattering the hearth with fragments of the notes from which this
+narrative has been written.  She has just been reading these last
+pages, with meditative brown eyes, and not without occasionally
+reaching for the pen and retouching some sentence in which, she says,
+soot from my chimney-doctoring days has clogged the ink.  Cecilia and
+Wiggins live at Hopefield across the fields.  Miss Octavia insisted on
+this, for the reason that the sword of Hartley's great-grandfather,
+found in the chest under the old house, gives him inalienable rights to
+the premises.  Miss Octavia and her brother Bassford are traveling
+abroad and enjoying those mild adventures to which they are both
+temperamentally inclined.  As Miss Octavia carried with her the Parker
+House umbrella-check I am confident of her early return.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My name is joined to Pepperton's on his office-door.  Pepperton
+proposed this arrangement, with so many assurances of faith in me that
+I could not refuse him; but I knew well enough that Miss Octavia had
+first put it into his head.  So while I have called myself a
+chimney-doctor in these pages, I am again an architect, and the new
+cathedral now rising at Waxahaxie is, let me modestly note, the work of
+my hand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You ought to say something more about the Asolando," Hezekiah has just
+murmured at my shoulder.  "Everybody will ask whether we ever went back
+there."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Of course we go back there, Hezekiah, every time you come to town and
+can get hold of me.  Will that be enough?"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You'd better explain that Aunt Octavia started the tea-room and still
+owns it, and makes money out of it, though she rarely goes there, but
+sends Freda the maid to collect the profits.  And it won't do any harm
+to say that when she met you there that day, she decided at once that
+you would be a proper husband for me.  Any one who reads your book will
+want to know that."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hezekiah is always right; so here endeth the chronicle.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t4">
+The Riverside Press
+<BR>
+CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
+<BR>
+U . S . A
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<HR>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap21"></A>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+THE RIGHT STUFF
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+By IAN HAY
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Those who love the companionship of people of fine fibre, and to whom
+a sense of humor has not been denied, will make no mistake in seeking
+the society open to them in 'The Right Stuff.'"&mdash;<I>New York Times</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Hay resembles Barrie, and, like Barrie, he will grow in many
+ways."&mdash;<I>Cleveland Leader</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"A compelling tribute to the homely genuineness and sterling worth of
+Scottish character."&mdash;<I>St. Louis Post Dispatch</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Mr. Hay has written a story which is pure story and is a delight from
+beginning to end."&mdash;<I>San Francisco Argonaut</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"It would be hard, indeed, to find a more winning book."&mdash;<I>New Orleans
+Times-Democrat</I>.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+With frontispiece by James Montgomery Flagg.  12mo.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+$1.20 net.  Postage 10 cents.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%">
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+THE TWISTED FOOT
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+By HENRY MILNER RIDEOUT
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Henry Milner Rideout has written several good stories of Oriental
+mystery, but none of them approach in excellence 'The Twisted
+Foot.'"&mdash;<I>Cleveland Plain Dealer</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"The story is fascinating and full of the witchery of the
+East."&mdash;<I>Congregationalist</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Its persuasiveness of action, its alluring color and high heart
+courage, make it one of the striking romances of the time."&mdash;<I>New York
+American</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"The whole story glows with the local life and color."&mdash;<I>New York
+Times</I>.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+With seven full-page illustrations by G. C. Widney.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+12mo.  $1.20 net.  Postage 11 cents.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%">
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+THE PROFESSIONAL AUNT
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+By MARY C. E. WEMYSS
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"One of the most delightful stories that has ever crossed the
+water."&mdash;<I>Louisville Courier-Journal</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"The legitimate successor of 'Helen's Babies.'"&mdash;<I>Clara Louise Burnham</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"A classic in the literature of childhood."&mdash;<I>San Francisco Chronicle</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Mrs. Wemyss is a formidable rival to E. Nesbit, who hitherto has stood
+practically alone as a charmingly humorous interpreter of child
+life."&mdash;<I>Chicago Inter-Ocean</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"A charming, witty, tender book."&mdash;<I>Kate Douglas Wiggin</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"It is a sunny, warm-hearted humorous story, that leaves the reader
+with a sense of time well spent in its perusal."&mdash;<I>Brooklyn Eagle</I>.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+16mo.  $1.00 net.  Postage 10 cents.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%">
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+FARMING IT
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+By HENRY A. SHUTE
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"There is nothing funnier in Mark Twain."&mdash;<I>Grand Rapids Herald</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Every man and woman who lives, or ever has lived, in the country will
+appreciate the situations described....  They are funny enough to
+disturb the calm of the most serious countenance."&mdash;<I>Boston Globe</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Includes more fun than is concealed in all his other books taken
+together."&mdash;<I>Living Age</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"The book is extraordinarily frank ... spicy and
+enlivening."&mdash;<I>Baltimore News</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"A wholesome and invigorating sort of book....  A real story of real
+life cheerfully narrated."&mdash;<I>New York Times</I>.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+Fully illustrated by Reginald B. Birch
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+12mo.  $1.20 net.  Postage 12 cents
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%">
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+OLD HARBOR
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+By WILLIAM JOHN HOPKINS
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"A charming picture of an old New England sea-port....  It is a book to
+close reluctantly with the hope of soon opening another volume by the
+same author."&mdash;<I>New York Times</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"A tale to chuckle over....  It is not often that a reader has an
+opportunity in the pages of a book to come in touch with such a group
+of genial and lovable people."&mdash;<I>Minneapolis Journal</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"A cheerful, amusing story of old-fashioned people....  The author is a
+genuine humorist."&mdash;<I>Boston Transcript</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"A story conceived in the same spirit as 'The Clammer,' filled with the
+same philosophy, displaying the same keen insight."&mdash;<I>Brooklyn Eagle</I>.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+Square crown 8vo.  $1.25 net.  Postage 14 cents
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%">
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+THE BREAKING IN OF A YACHTSMAN'S WIFE
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+By MARY HEATON VORSE
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Clever!  Sparkling!  Full of quaint humor and crisp description!
+Altogether a book which will not disappoint the reader.  It is
+'different,' and that is one great merit in a book."&mdash;<I>Brooklyn Eagle</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"It will puzzle holiday makers to find a better vacation book than
+this.  Those who go up and down the Sound in yachts will find it
+especially pleasing; it will appeal to those who are fond of human
+nature studies; may be recommended even more decidedly to the serious
+than to the young and frivolous; a tonic to depression and an antidote
+to gloom."&mdash;<I>N. Y. Times</I>.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+"Charming, with its salt, sea-slangy flavor, its double love thread,
+and its pleasant chapters dealing with Long Island Sound, the
+Mediterranean, Massachusetts Bay and Venetian lagoons."&mdash;<I>Chicago
+Record-Herald</I>.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t3">
+Illustrated by Reginald Birch.  12mo, $1.50
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<P CLASS="t2">
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+<BR>
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Siege of the Seven Suitors, by 
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+</pre>
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+</BODY>
+
+</HTML>
+
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+Project Gutenberg's The Siege of the Seven Suitors, by Meredith Nicholson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Siege of the Seven Suitors
+
+Author: Meredith Nicholson
+
+Illustrator: C. Coles Phillips
+             Reginald Birch
+
+Release Date: April 24, 2011 [EBook #35942]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Al Haines
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Frontispiece: "Hezekiah"]
+
+
+
+
+
+The Siege of
+
+The Seven Suitors
+
+
+BY
+
+MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE HOUSE OF A THOUSAND CANDLES," ETC.
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED BY C. COLES PHILLIPS
+
+AND REGINALD BIRCH
+
+
+
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+1910
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY MEREDITH NICHOLSON
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+_Published October 1910_
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+THE HONORABLE THOMAS R. MARSHALL
+
+MY DEAR GOVERNOR:--It was ordered by the franchises of destiny that you
+become the chief executive of a state in which the telling of tales
+brightened the hunter's camp-fire and cheered the lonely pioneer's
+cabin before our people learned the uses of ink; and the supreme
+fitness of this lies in the fact that you are yourself the best of
+story-tellers and entitled, for your excellence in this particular, as
+well as for weightier reasons, to sit at the head of the table in that
+commonwealth to which we are both bound by many and dear ties.
+
+The morning brings to your mail-box so many demands, necessitating the
+most varied and delicate balancings and adjustments, that I serve you
+ill in adding to your burdens the little packet that contains this
+tale.  Pray consider, however, that I have hidden it discreetly beneath
+a pile of documents touching nearly the state's business; or that I
+hastily serve it upon you in the highway, an unsanctioned writ from
+that high court of letters in which I am the least valiant among the
+bailiffs.
+
+Sincerely yours,
+  M. N.
+
+MACKINAC ISLAND,
+  _August_ 10, 1910.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+     I. MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED
+    II. THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE
+   III. I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH
+    IV. WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM
+     V. THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY
+    VI. I DELIVER A MESSAGE
+   VII. NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE
+  VIII. CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+    IX. I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST
+     X. MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES
+    XI. I PLAY TRUANT
+   XII. THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES
+  XIII. I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS
+   XIV. LADY'S SLIPPER
+    XV. LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+   XVI. JACK O' LANTERN
+  XVII. SEVEN GOLD REEDS
+ XVIII. TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS
+   XIX. THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL
+    XX. HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM
+
+
+
+
+THE SIEGE OF THE SEVEN SUITORS
+
+
+
+I
+
+MY FRIEND WIGGINS IS INTRODUCED
+
+I dined with Hartley Wiggins at the Hare and Tortoise on an evening in
+October, not very long ago.  It may be well to explain that the Hare
+and Tortoise is the smallest and most select of clubs, whose windows
+afford a pleasant view of Gramercy Park.  The club is comparatively
+young, and it is our joke that we are so far all tortoises, creeping
+through our several professions without aid from any hare.  I hasten to
+explain that I am a chimney doctor.  Wiggins is a lawyer; at least I
+have seen his name in a list of graduates of the Harvard Law School,
+and he has an office down-town where I have occasionally found him
+sedately playing solitaire while he waited for some one to take him out
+to luncheon.  He spends his summers on a South Dakota ranch, from which
+he derives a considerable income.  When tough steaks are served from
+the club grill, we always attribute them to the cattle on Wiggins's
+hills.  Or if the lamb is ancient, we declare it to be of Wiggins's
+shepherding.  It is the way of our humor to hold Wiggins responsible
+for things.  His good nature is usually equal to the worst we can do to
+him.  He is the kind of fellow that one instinctively indicts without
+hearing testimony.  We all know perfectly well that Wiggins's ranch is
+a wheat ranch.
+
+Wiggins is an athlete, and his summers in the West and persistent
+training during the winter in town keep him in fine condition.  As I
+faced him to-night in our favorite corner of the Hare and Tortoise
+dining-room, the physical man was fit enough; but I saw at once that he
+was glum and dispirited.  He had through many years honored me with his
+confidence, and I felt that to-night, after we got well started, I
+should hear what was on his mind.  I hoped to cheer him with the story
+of a visit I had by chance paid that afternoon to the Asolando
+Tea-Room; for though Wiggins is a most practical person, I imagined
+that he would be diverted by my description of a place which, I felt
+sure, nothing could tempt him to visit.  I shall never forget the look
+he gave me when I remarked, at about his third spoonful of soup:
+
+"By the way, I dropped into an odd place this afternoon.  Burne-Jones
+buns, maccaroons, and all that sort of thing.  They call it the
+Asolando."
+
+I was ambling on, expecting to sharpen his curiosity gradually as I
+recited the joys of the tea-room; but at "Asolando" his spoon dropped,
+and he stared at me blankly.  It should be known that Wiggins is not a
+man whose composure is lightly shaken.  The waiter who served us
+glanced at him in surprise, a fact which I mention merely to confirm my
+assertion that the dropping of a spoon into his soup was an
+extraordinary occurrence in Wiggins's life.  Wiggins was a proper
+person.  On the ranch, twenty miles from a railroad, he always dressed
+for dinner.
+
+"The Asolando," I repeated, to break the spell of his blank stare.
+"Know the place?"
+
+He recovered in a moment, but he surveyed me quizzically before
+replying.
+
+"Of course I have heard of the Asolando, but I thought you did n't go
+in for that sort of thing.  It's a trifle girlish, you know."
+
+"That's hardly against it!  I found the girlishness altogether
+attractive."
+
+"You always were tolerably susceptible, but broiled butterflies and
+moth-wings souffle seem to me rather pale food for a man in your
+vigorous health."
+
+"They must have discriminated in your favor; I saw no such things,
+though to be sure I was afraid to quibble over the waitress's
+suggestions.  May I ask when you were there?"
+
+"Oh, I dropped in quite accidentally one day last spring.  I saw the
+sign, and remembered that somebody had spoken of the place, and I was
+tired, and it was a long way to the club, and"--
+
+Dissimulation is not an art as Wiggins attempts to practice it at
+times.  He is by nature the most straightforward of mortals.  It was
+clear that he was withholding something, and I resolved to get to the
+bottom of it.
+
+"I don't think the Asolando is a place that would attract either of us,
+and yet the viands are good as such stuff goes, and the gentle
+hand-maidens are restful to the eye,--Pippa, Francesca, Gloria, and the
+rest of 'em."
+
+Wiggins pried open his artichoke with the care of a botanist.  He had
+regained his composure, but I saw that the subject interested him.
+
+"You were there this afternoon?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes, my first and only appearance."
+
+"And this is Monday."
+
+"The calendar has said it."
+
+"So you settled your bill with Pippa!  I believe this was her day."
+
+"Then you really do know the inner workings of the Asolando," I
+continued; "I thought you would show your hand presently.  Then it is
+perhaps Gloria, Beatrice or Francesca who minds the till on Tuesdays,
+Thursdays and Saturdays, alternating with Pippa, who took my coin
+to-day.  It's a pretty idea.  It has the delicacy of an arrangement by
+Whistler or the charm of a line in Rossetti.  So you have seen the
+blessed damozel at the cash-desk."
+
+"On the contrary I was never there on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday,
+and I therefore passed no coin to Francesca, Gloria or Beatrice.  My
+only visit was on a day last May, and my recollection of the system is
+doubtless imperfect."
+
+"Then beyond doubt I saw Pippa.  She makes the change on Monday,
+Wednesday and Friday.  Her eyelashes are a trifle too long for the
+world's peace."
+
+"I dare say.  I have n't your charming knack, Ames, of picking up
+acquaintances, so you must n't expect me to form life-long friendships
+with young women at cash-desks.  I suppose it did n't occur to you that
+those young women who tend till and serve the tables in there are
+persons of education and taste.  The Asolando is not a common hashery.
+I sometimes fear that so much crawling through chimneys is clouding
+your intellect.  It ought to have been clear even to your smoky
+chimney-pot that those girls in there are not the kind you can ask to
+meet you by the old mill at the fall of dewy eve, or who write notes to
+popular romantic actors.  There's not a girl in that place who has n't
+a social position as good as yours or mine.  The Asolando's a kind of
+fad, you know, Ames; it's not a tavern within the meaning of the
+inn-keepers' act, where common swine are fed for profit.  The servants
+serve for love of the cause; it's a sort of cult.  But I suppose you
+are incapable of grasping it.  There was always something sordid in
+you, and I'm pained to find that you're getting worse."
+
+Wiggins had, before now, occasionally taken this attitude toward me,
+and it was always with a view to obscuring some real issue between us.
+He requires patience; it is a mistake to attempt to crowd him; but give
+him rope and he will twist his own halter.
+
+We sparred further without result.  I had suggested a topic that had
+clearly some painful association for my friend.  He drank his coffee
+gloomily and lighted a cigar much blacker than the one I knew to be his
+favorite in the Hare and Tortoise humidor.  He excused himself shortly,
+and I had a glimpse of him later, in the writing-room, engaged upon
+letters, a fact in itself disquieting, for Wiggins never wrote letters,
+and it was he who had favored making the Hare and Tortoise writing-room
+into a den for pipe-smokers.  The epistolary habit, he maintained, was
+one that should be discouraged.
+
+I was moodily turning over the evening newspapers when Jewett turned
+up.  Jewett always knows everything.  I shall not call him a gossip,
+but he comes as near deserving the name as a man dares who lectures on
+the Renaissance before clubs and boarding-schools.  Jewett knows his
+Botticelli, but his knowledge of his contemporaries is equally exact.
+He dropped the ball into the green of my immediate interest with a neat
+approach-shot.
+
+"Too bad about old Wiggy," he remarked with his preluding sigh.
+
+"What's the matter with Wiggins?" I demanded.
+
+"Ah!  He has n't told you?  Thought he told you everything."
+
+This was meant for a stinger, and I felt the bite of it.
+
+"You do me too much honor.  Wiggins is not a man to throw around his
+confidences."
+
+"And I rather fancy that his love-affairs in particular are locked in
+his bosom."
+
+Jewett was a master of the art of suggestion; he took an unnecessarily
+long time to light a cigar so that his words might sink deep into my
+consciousness.
+
+"Saw her once last spring.  Got a sight draft from the Bank of Eros.
+Followed her across the multitudinous sea.  Bang!"
+
+"But Wiggy has n't been abroad.  Wiggy was on his Dakota ranch all
+summer.  He's all tanned from the sun, just as he is every fall," I
+persisted.
+
+"Wrote you from out there, did he?  Sent you picture-postals showing
+him herding his cattle, or whatever the beasts are?  Kept in touch with
+you all the time, did he?  I tell you his fine color is due to
+Switzerland, not Dakota."
+
+"Wiggins is n't a letter-writer, nor the sort of person who wants to
+paper your house with picture-postals.  His not writing does n't mean
+that he was n't on his ranch," I replied, annoyed by Jewett's manner.
+
+"Never dropped you before, though, I wager," he chirruped.  "I tell you
+he saw Miss Cecilia Hollister at the Asolando tea-shop: just a glimpse;
+but almost immediately he went abroad in pursuit of her.  The
+chevalier--that's her aunt Octavia--was along and another niece.  My
+sister saw the bunch of them in Geneva, where the chevalier was
+breaking records.  A whole troop of suitors followed them everywhere.
+My sister knows the girl--Cecilia--and she's known Wiggy all her life.
+She's just home and told me about it last night.  She thinks the
+chevalier has some absurd scheme for marrying off the girl.  It's all
+very queer, our Wiggy being mixed up in it."
+
+"Don't be absurd, Jewett.  There's nothing unusual in a man being in
+love; that's one fashion that does n't change much.  I venture to say
+that Wiggins will prove a formidable suitor.  Wiggins is a gentleman,
+and the girl would be lucky to get him."
+
+"Quite right, my dear Ames; but alas! there are others.  The
+competition is encouraged by the aunt, the veteran chevalier.  My
+sister says the chevalier seems to favor the suit of a Nebraska
+philosopher who rejoices in the melodious name of Dick."
+
+Jewett was playing me for all his story was worth, and enjoying himself
+immensely.
+
+"For Heaven's sake, go on!"
+
+"Nice girl, this Cecilia.  You know the Hollisters,--oodles of money in
+the family.  The chevalier's father scored big in
+baby-buggies--responsible for the modern sleep-inducing perambulators;
+sold out to a trust.  The father of Wiggins's inamorata had started in
+to be a marine painter.  A founder of this club, come to think of it,
+but dropped out long ago.  You have heard of him--Bassford Hollister.
+Funny thing his having to give up art.  Great gifts for the marine, but
+never could overcome tendency to seasickness.  Honest!  Every time he
+painted a wave it upset him horribly.  The doctors could n't help him.
+Next tried his hand at the big gulches down-town.  There was a chance
+there to hit off the metropolitan sky-line and become immortal by doing
+it first; but a new trouble developed.  Doing the high buildings made
+him dizzy!  Honest!  He was good, too, and would have made a place, but
+he had to cut it out.  He was so torn up over his two failures that he
+blew in his share of the perambulator money in riotous living.  Lost
+his wife into the bargain, and has settled down to a peaceful life up
+in Westchester County in one of these cute little bungalows the
+real-estate operators build for you if you pay a dollar down for a
+picture of an acre lot."
+
+"And the daughter?"
+
+"Well, Bassford Hollister has two daughters.  It's the older one that
+has stolen Wiggins's heart away.  She's Cecilia, you know.  Very
+literary and that sort of thing, and pushed tea and cookies at the
+Asolando when that idiocy was opened.  Wiggins saw her there last
+spring.  Miss Hollister, the aunt,--whom I 'm fond of calling the
+chevalier,--picked up her nieces about that time and hauled them off to
+Europe, and Wiggins scampered after them.  I don't know what they did
+to Wiggy, but you see how he acts.  I rather imagine that the chevalier
+did n't smile on his suit.  She's a holy terror, that woman, with an
+international reputation for doing weird and most unaccountable things.
+She draws a sort of royalty on all the baby-buggies in creation; it
+amounts to a birth-tax, in contravention of the free guarantees of the
+Constitution.  The people will rise against it some day.
+
+"She's plausible enough, but she's the past mistress of ulterior
+motive.  She got Fortner, the mural painter, up to a place she used to
+have at Newport a few years ago, ostensibly to do a frieze or
+something, and she made him teach her to fire a gun.  You know Fortner,
+with his artistic ideals!  And he did n't know any more about guns than
+a flea.  It was droll, decidedly droll.  But she kept him there a
+month,--wouldn't let him off the reservation; but she paid him his fee
+just the same, though he never painted a stroke.  When he got back to
+town, he was a wreck.  It was just like being in jail.  I warn you to
+let her alone.  If you should undertake to fix her flues she's likely
+to put you to work digging potatoes.  She's no end of a case."
+
+"Well, Wiggins is a good fellow, one of the very best," I remarked, as
+I absorbed these revelations, "and it is n't the girl's aunt he wants
+to marry."
+
+"He's a capital fellow," affirmed Jewett, "and that's why it's a sin
+this had to happen to him.  There's no telling where this affair may
+lead him.  There's something queer in the wind, all right.  The
+chevalier has brother Bassford where he can't whimper; I rather fancy
+he feeds from her hand.  His girls have n't any prospects except
+through the chevalier.  Nice girls, so I'm told; but between the father
+with his vertiginous tendencies and a lunatic aunt who holds the family
+money-bags, I don't see much ahead of them.  Miss Cecilia Hollister is
+living with her aunt; it's a sort of compulsory sequestration; she has
+to do it whether she wants to or not.  I rather fancy it's to keep her
+away from Wiggins."
+
+"And the other sister; where does she come in?"
+
+"Not important, I fancy.  Rumor is silent touching her.  In fact I 've
+never heard anything of her.  But this Cecilia is no end handsome and
+proud.  Poor old Wiggy!"
+
+I was already ashamed of myself for having encouraged Jewett to discuss
+Wiggins's affairs, and was about to leave him, when he snorted, in a
+disagreeable way he had, at some joke that had occurred to him, and he
+continued chuckling to himself to attract my attention.  My frown did
+not dismay him.
+
+[Illustration: He continued chuckling to himself to attract my
+attention.]
+
+"I knew there was something," he was saying, "about Miss Cecilia's
+younger sister, and I've just recalled it.  The girl has a most
+extraordinary name, quite the most remarkable you ever heard."
+
+He laughed until he was purple in the face.  I did not imagine that any
+name known to feminine nomenclature could be so humorous.
+
+"Hezekiah!  Bang!  That's the little sister's name.  Bassford Hollister
+had been saving that name for a son, who never appeared, to do honor to
+old Hezekiah, the perambulator-chap.  So they named the girl for her
+grand-dad.  Bang!  One of the apostles, Hezekiah!"
+
+I waited for his mirth to wear itself out, and then rose, to terminate
+the interview with an adequate dramatic dismissal.
+
+"You poor pagan," I remarked, with such irony as I could command; "it's
+too bad you insist on revealing the abysmal depths of your ignorance:
+Hezekiah was not an apostle, but a mighty king before the day of
+apostles."
+
+I left him blinking, and unconvinced as to Hezekiah's proper place in
+history.
+
+Wiggins, I learned at the office, had, within half an hour, left the
+club hurriedly in a cab, taking a trunk with him.  He had mentioned no
+mail-address to the clerk.
+
+And this was very unlike Wiggins.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE BEGINNING OF MY ADVENTURE
+
+Wiggins's strange conduct and Jewett's dark hints so disturbed me that
+the very next afternoon I again sought the Asolando Tea-Room, feeling
+that in its atmosphere I might best weigh the few facts I possessed
+touching my friend's love-affairs.
+
+Those who care for details in these matters may be interested to know
+that the Asolando is tucked away among print-shops and exclusive
+haberdashers, a stone's throw from Fifth Avenue.  The Asolando Tea-Room
+has a history of its own, but it is not the office of this chronicler
+to record it.  Weightier matters are ahead of us; and it must suffice
+that the Asolando is sacred to wooers of the flute of Pan, secession
+photographers, and confident believers in an early revival of the
+poetic drama.  One of my friends, who has probably done more to
+popularize Nietzsche than any other American, had frequently urged me
+to visit the Asolando, where, he declared, the daintiest imaginable
+luncheons could be obtained at nominal prices; but I should not have
+paid this second visit had it not been for Jewett's history.
+
+It was common gossip in studios where I loafed between my professional
+engagements, that the monthly deficit at the Asolando was cared for by
+a retired banker whose weakness is sonnet-sequences.  As to the truth
+of this I have no opinion.  It will suffice if I convey in the fewest
+possible lines a suggestion of the tranquillity, the charming cloistral
+peace of the little room, with its Arts and Crafts chairs and tables,
+its racks of books, its portraits of Browning, Rossetti, Burne-Jones
+and kindred spirits; nor should I fail to mention the delightful
+inadvertence with which neatly framed excerpts from the bright page of
+British song are scattered along the walls.  Nowhere else, many had
+averred, was one so likely to learn of the latest Celtic poet, or of a
+newly-discovered Keats letter; and lest injustice be done in these
+suggestions to the substantial scholarly attainments of the habitues, I
+must record that it was over a cup of tea in the Asolando that Bennett
+made the first notes for his revolutionary essay on the Sapphic
+fragments in a dog-eared text still treasured among the Room's
+memorabilia.
+
+I chose a table, sat down, and suggested (one does not order at the
+Asolando) a few articles from the card an attendant handed me.
+
+"We 're out of the Paracelsus ginger-cookies," she replied, "but I
+recommend a Ruskin sandwich with our own special chocolate.  The
+whipped cream is unusually fine to-day."
+
+She eyed me with a severity to which I was not accustomed, and I
+acquiesced without parley in her suggestion.  Before leaving me she
+placed on my table the latest minor poet, in green and gold.
+
+It was nearly three o'clock, and there were few customers in the
+Asolando.  At the next table two women were engaged in conversation in
+the subdued tones the place compelled.  I surmised from the amount and
+variety of their impedimenta and their abstracted air, peculiar to
+those who partake of lobster salad with an eye on the 4.18, that they
+were suburbanites.  One of them drew from her net shopping-bag several
+sheets of robin's-egg blue note-paper and began to read.  By the jingle
+of the rhymes and the flow of the rhythm it was clear even to my
+ignorant lay mind that her offering was a _chant-royale_.  When she had
+concluded her reading her friend silently pressed her hand, and after a
+subdued debate for possession of the check, they took their departure,
+bound, I surmised, for some muse-haunted Lesbos among the hills of New
+Jersey.
+
+I was now alone in the Asolando.  The attending deities in their snowy
+gowns had vanished behind the screen at the rear of the room; the food
+and drink with which I had been promptly served proved excellent; even
+the minor poet in green and gold had held my attention, though
+imitations of Coventry Patmore's odes bore me as a rule.  Near the
+street, half-concealed behind a mosque-like grill, sat the cashier,
+reading.  A bundle of joss-sticks in a green jar beside this young
+woman sent a thin smoke into the air.  Her head was bent above her book
+in quiet attention; the light from an electric lamp made a glow of her
+golden hair.  She was an incident of the general picture, a part of a
+scene that contained no jarring note.  A man who could devise, in the
+heart of the great city, a place so instinct with repose, so lulling to
+all the senses, was not less than a public benefactor, and I resolved
+on the spot to purchase and read, at any sacrifice, the
+sonnet-sequences of the reputed angel of the Asolando.
+
+It was at this moment that the adventure--for it shall have no meaner
+name--actually began.  My eyes were still enjoying the Rossetti-like
+vision in the cashier's tiny booth, when a figure suddenly darkened the
+street door just beyond her.  The girl lifted her head.  On the instant
+the lamp-key clicked as she extinguished her light, and the aureoled
+head ceased to be.  And coming toward me down the shop I beheld a lady,
+a lady of years, who passed the cashier's desk with her eyes intent
+upon the room's inner recesses.  Her gown, of a new fashionable gray,
+was of the severest tailor cut.  Her hat was a modified fedora, gray
+like the gown, and adorned with a single gray feather.  She was short,
+slight, erect, and moved with a quick bird-like motion, pausing and
+glancing at the vacant tables that lay between me and the door.  Her
+air of abstraction became her, and she merged pleasantly into the
+color-scheme of the room.  As her glance ranged the wall I thought that
+she searched for some favorite flower of song among the framed
+quotations, but I saw now that her gaze was bent too low for this.  She
+appeared to be engaged in a calculation of some sort, and she raised a
+lorgnette to assist her in counting the tables.  The cashier passed
+behind her unseen and vanished.  I heard the newcomer reciting:--
+
+"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven;" and at seven her eyes rested
+upon me with a look that mingled surprise and annoyance.  She took a
+step toward me, and I started to rise, but she said quickly:--
+
+"I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh table."
+
+[Illustration: "I beg your pardon, but this seems to be the seventh
+table."]
+
+"Now that you call my attention to it," I remarked, gaining my feet, "I
+am bound to concede the point.  If by any chance I am intruding"--
+
+"Not in the least.  On the other hand I beg that you remain where you
+are;" and without further ado she sank into a chair opposite my own.
+
+I tinkled a tiny crystal bell that was among the table-furnishings, and
+a waitress appeared and handed the lady who had thus introduced herself
+to my acquaintance a copy of the tiny card on which the articles of
+refreshment offered by the Asolando were indicated within a border of
+hand-painted field daisies.
+
+"Never mind that," said the lady in gray, ignoring the card.  "You may
+bring me a caviare sandwich and a cocktail,--a pink
+one--providing,--providing,"--and she held the waitress with her
+eye,--"you have the imported caviare and your bar-keeper knows the
+proper frappe of the spirit-lifter I have named."
+
+"Pardon me, madam," replied the waitress icily, "but you have mistaken
+the place.  The Asolando serves nothing stronger than the pure water of
+its own fount of Castalia; intoxicants are not permitted here."
+
+"Intoxicants!" repeated the old lady with asperity.  "Do I look like a
+person given to intoxication?  I dare say your Castalia water is
+nothing but Croton whose flavor has been destroyed by distillation.
+You may bring me the sandwich I have mentioned and with it a pot of
+tea.  Yes, thank you; lemon with the tea."
+
+As the girl vanished with the light tread that marked the service of
+the place, I again made as to rise, but the old lady lifted her hand
+with a delaying gesture.
+
+"Pray remain.  It is not unlikely that we have friends and ideas in
+common, and as you were seated at the seventh table it is possible that
+some ordering of fate has brought us together."
+
+She took from me, in the hand which she had now ungloved, the copy of
+my minor poet, glanced at it scornfully, and tossed it upon the floor
+with every mark of disdain.
+
+"What species of mental disorder does this place represent?" she
+demanded.
+
+"It is sacred to the fine arts, apparently; an endowed tea-room, where
+persons of artistic ideals may come to refresh body and soul.  Such at
+least seems to be the programme.  This is only my second visit, but I
+have long heard it spoken of by artists, poets, and others of my
+friends."
+
+"I am sixty-two years old, young man, and I beg to inform you that I
+consider the Asolando the most preposterous thing I have ever heard of
+in this most preposterous city.  And from a casual glimpse of you I
+feel justified in saying that a man in your apparent physical health
+might be in better business than frequenting, in mid-afternoon, a shop
+that seems to be a remarkably stupid expression of twentieth-century
+anaemia."
+
+"Attendance here is not compulsory," I remarked defensively.
+
+"If you imply that I must have sought the place voluntarily, let me
+correct your false impression immediately.  I dropped in here for the
+excellent reason that this shop is the seventh in numerical progression
+from Fifth Avenue."
+
+"You were not guided by any feeling of interest, then, but rather by
+superstition?"
+
+"That remark is unworthy of a man of your apparent intelligence.  I was
+born on the seventh of November, and all the great events of my life
+have occurred on the seventh of the month.  If you were to suggest that
+I am of an adventurous or romantic nature, I should readily acquiesce;
+but the sevens in my life have been so potent an influence in all my
+affairs that my belief in that numeral has become almost a religious
+faith; and if you have been a reader of Scripture you will understand
+that one does not become a pagan in ascribing to seven all manner of
+subtle influences."
+
+I was relieved to find that she accepted the tea and sandwiches the
+waitress had brought without parley.  It is with shame I confess that
+in the first moments of my encounter I believed her capable of
+quarreling with a waitress; but she thanked the girl pleasantly,
+lifting her head with a smile that illumined her face attractively.
+Her demand for a cocktail had not been wholly convincing as to her
+sincerity, and I wondered whether she were not playing a part of some
+kind.  She suggested pleasant and wholesome things--tiny gardens with
+neat borders of box and primly-ordered beds of spicy, old-fashioned
+pinks before the day of carnations, and the verbenas, heliotrope, and
+honeysuckle we associate with our grandmothers' taste in floriculture.
+Or perhaps I strike nearer the gold with an intimation of a sunny
+window-ledge, banked neatly and not too abundantly in geraniums.
+
+In any event the impression was wholly agreeable.  I had to do with a
+lady and a lady of no mean degree.  The marks of breeding were upon
+her, and she spoke with that quiet authority that is the despair of the
+vain and vulgar.  Her features were small and delicate; her ringless
+hands were perfectly formed, and both face and hands belied the age to
+which she had so frankly confessed.  She was more than twice my age,
+and there was not the slightest reason why she should not address me if
+it pleased her to do so; and her obsession as to the potency of the
+numeral seven was not in itself proof of an ill-balanced mind.  I
+recalled that my own mother had, throughout her life, imputed all
+manner of occult powers and influences to the number thirteen, and I
+have myself always been averse to walking beneath a ladder.  Musing
+thus, I reached the conclusion that this encounter was very likely the
+sort of thing that happened to patrons of the Asolando.  My time has,
+however, a certain value, and I began to wonder just how I should
+escape.  I was about to excuse myself when my companion suddenly put
+down her cup and addressed me with a directness that seemed habitual in
+her.
+
+"I have formed an excellent opinion of your bringing up from the manner
+in which you have suffered my advances, if I may so call them.  You act
+and speak like a gentleman of education.  I imagine from your being in
+this strange place that you may be a water-colorist or a designer of
+_l'art-nouveau_ wall-papers, though I trust for your own sake that I am
+mistaken.  Or it may be that you are a magazine poet, though when I
+tell you that I read no poets but Isaiah and Walt Whitman, you will
+understand that mere verse does not attract me.  All this"--and she
+indicated the mottoes on the wall with a slight movement of the
+head--"is the sheerest rubbish, a form of disease.  Will you kindly
+tell me the nature of your occupation?"
+
+I produced one of my professional cards.
+
+    +-----------------------------+
+    |                             |
+    |        ARNOLD AMES          |
+    |                             |
+    |   CONSULTANT IN CHIMNEYS    |
+    |  Suite 92, Landon Building  |
+    |                             |
+    +-----------------------------+
+
+She read it aloud without glasses and mused a moment.
+
+"This is very curious," she remarked, placing my card in a silver case
+she drew from her pocket.  "This is very curious indeed.  It was only
+yesterday that my friend General Glendenning was speaking of you.  He
+told me that you had rendered him the greatest service in adjusting
+several flues in his country house at Shinnecock.  My own fireplaces
+doubtless require attention, and you may consider yourself retained.  I
+shall make an early appointment with you.  You will find my name and
+residence sufficiently described on this card."
+
+    +-----------------------------+
+    |                             |
+    |        _Miss Hollister_     |
+    |                             |
+    |  HOPEFIELD MANOR            |
+    |                             |
+    +-----------------------------+
+"Oh!" I exclaimed, bowing.  "Any further introduction is unnecessary,
+Miss Hollister."
+
+"The name is familiar?  I recall that General Glendenning mentioned
+that you were related to the Ames family of Hartford, and your mother
+was a Farquhar of Charlottesville, Virginia.  If you bear your father's
+name, I dare say it was he whom I met ten years ago in Paris.  There is
+no reason, therefore, why we should not be the best of friends."
+
+She continued to talk as she drew on her gloves, and I saw, as her eyes
+rested on mine from time to time during this process, that they were
+the most kindly and humorous eyes in the world.  Her face was scarcely
+wrinkled, but the hair that showed under the small plain hat was evenly
+and beautifully gray.  It was a kind fate indeed that had led me back
+to the Asolando, and introduced me to the aunt of Wiggins's inamorata.
+
+It may well be believed that I was immediately interested, attentive,
+absorbed.  As she smoothed her gloves, Miss Hollister continued to
+speak in a low musical voice that was devoid of any of the quavers of
+age.
+
+"On the day I reached my sixtieth year, Mr. Ames, I decided that my
+humdrum life must cease.  The strictest conventions had guided me from
+earliest childhood.  My experience of life had been limited to those
+things which women of education and means enjoy--or suffer, as you
+please to take it.  I resolved that for the years that remained to me I
+should seek to enjoy myself after my own fashion.  To sit in the
+inglenook and knit, with no human companionship but sick kittens, with
+dull monotony broken only by visits from dutiful clergymen in pursuit
+of alms for foreign missions, was not for me.  Two years ago I
+chartered a yacht and cruised among the Lesser Antilles, enjoying many
+adventures.  Later I crossed the Andes; and I have just returned from
+Switzerland, where I accomplished some of the most difficult ascents.
+I have a clipping bureau engaged to inform me of all rumors of hidden
+treasure and sunken ships, and I hope that of this something may come,
+as I retain a marine engineer and corps of divers and can leave at an
+hour's notice for any likely hunting-ground.  This may strike you as
+the most whimsical self-indulgence.  Tell me candidly whether my
+remarks so affect you."
+
+"If it were not that your benefactions of all kinds have given you
+noble eminence among American philanthropists, I might be less biased
+in favor of the sort of thing you describe; but your gifts to
+orphanages, colleges, hospitals"--
+
+"Ah!" she interrupted; "enough of that.  Philanthropy in these times is
+only selfish exploitation, the recreation of the conscience-stricken.
+But you see no reason why," she pursued eagerly, "if I wished to dig up
+the Caribbean Sea in search of Spanish doubloons, I should not do so?
+Answer me frankly, without the slightest fear."
+
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that such projects appeal to me
+strongly.  I have often lamented that my own lot fell in these
+eventless times.  As an architect I proved something of a failure; as a
+chimney-doctor I lead a useful life, but the very usefulness of it
+bores me.  And besides, many people take me for a sweep."
+
+"I dare say they do, for unfortunately many people are fools.  But I am
+bent upon adventure.  It has dawned upon me that every day has its
+possibilities, that the right turn at any corner may bring me face to
+face with the most stirring encounters.  My age protects me where youth
+must timidly turn back.  My physician pronounces me good for ten years
+more of active life, and I intend to keep amused.  If I were a young
+man like you, I should crawl through chimneys no more, but take to the
+open road.  I resent the harsh clang of these meaningless years.  As I
+walked among the hills that lie behind the Manor this morning I heard
+the bugles calling.  Out there in the Avenue at this hour there are
+miles of fat dowagers in padded broughams who think of nothing but
+clothes and food.  And speaking of food," she continued, with a droll
+turn, "I am convinced that the caviare in that sandwich was never
+nearer Russia than Casco Bay."
+
+She drew out her watch, and noting the hour, concluded:--
+
+"Clearly we have much in common.  I should like to ask you further as
+to your unusual profession, but errands summon me elsewhere.  However,
+something tells me we shall meet again."
+
+She rose in her swift bird-like fashion and passed lightly down the
+room and through the door.  She had left a dollar beside her plate to
+pay her check, which I noted called for only forty cents.  I glanced at
+the cashier's desk.  The aureoled head had not reappeared; but
+immediately I heard a voice murmuring beside me.  I had believed myself
+alone, and in my surprise I thought some wizardry had made audible one
+of the verses on the wall.
+
+  "What of Rafael's sonnets, Dante's picture"--
+
+
+It was she whose aureoled head I had marked earlier in the receipt of
+custom, the girl who had vanished as Miss Hollister appeared.  She wore
+the snowy vestments of the other attending vestals, with the difference
+that the cap that crowned the waitresses was omitted in her case.  This
+I took to be the Asolando's tribute to her adorable head, which clearly
+did not need the electric light or other adventitious aid to invoke its
+lovely glow.  The line she had spoken hung goldenly upon the air.  She
+was not tall, and her eyes, I saw, were brown.  She had clearly not
+climbed far the stairway of her years, but her serenity was the least
+bit disconcerting.
+
+"Pardon me," I began, "but I am an ignorant Philistine, and cannot cap
+the verse you have quoted."
+
+"There is no reason why you should do so.  It is the rule of the
+Asolando that we shall attract the attention of customers when
+necessary by speaking a line of verse.  We are not allowed to open a
+conversation, no matter how imperative, with 'Listen,' or the even more
+vulgar 'Say.'"
+
+"A capital idea, of which I heartily approve, but now that I am a
+waiting auditor, eager"--
+
+"It's merely the check, if you please," she interrupted coldly.  "My
+desk is closed, and the Room will refuse further patrons for the next
+hour, as the executive committee of the Shelley Society meets here at
+four o'clock and the Asolando is denied to outsiders."
+
+"This, then, is my dismissal?  The lady who joined me here for a time
+left a dollar, which, you will see, is somewhat in excess of her check.
+My own charge of fifty cents is so moderate that I cannot do less than
+leave a dollar also."
+
+"Thank you," she replied, unshaken by my generosity.  "The tips at the
+Asolando all go to the Sweetness and Light Club, which is just now
+engaged in circulating Matthew Arnold's poems in leaflet form in the
+jobbing district."
+
+"I sympathize with that propaganda," I replied, gathering up my hat and
+stick, "and am delighted to contribute to its support.  And now I dare
+say you would be glad to be rid of me.  The Asolando has tolerated me
+longer than my slight purchases justified."
+
+I bowed and had turned away, when she arrested me with the line,--
+
+  "My good blade carves the casques of men."
+
+
+I turned toward her.  Several of the waitresses were now engaged in
+rearranging the tables, but they seemed not to heed us.
+
+"Permit me to inquire," she asked, "whether the lady who joined you
+here expressed any interest in the life beautiful as it is exemplified
+in the Asolando?"
+
+"I am constrained to say that she did not.  She spoke of the Asolando
+in the most contumelious terms."
+
+The golden head bowed slightly, and a smile hovered about her lips; but
+her amusement at my answer was more eloquently stated in her eyes.
+
+"I must explain that my sole excuse for addressing you is that we are
+required to learn, where possible, just why strangers seek the
+Asolando."
+
+"In the case of the lady to whom you refer, it was a matter of this
+being the seventh shop from the corner; and my own appearance was due
+to the idlest curiosity, inspired by enthusiastic descriptions of the
+Asolando's atmosphere and rumors of the cheapness of its food."
+
+"The reasons are quite ample," was her only comment, and her manner did
+not encourage further conversation.
+
+"May I ask," I persisted, "whether the Asolando's staff is permanent,
+and whether, if I return another day."
+
+"I take it that you do not mean to be impertinent, so I will answer
+that my service here is limited to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
+On the other days Pippa is in the cash-booth.  My name at the Asolando
+is Francesca."
+
+"I had guessed it might be Lalage or Chloris," I ventured.
+
+She shook her head gravely.
+
+"Kindly write your name in the visitors' book at the door as you pass
+out."
+
+There was no ignoring this hint.  I thought she smiled as I left her.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+I FALL INTO A BRIAR PATCH
+
+Miss Hollister's summons lay on my desk the next morning and was of the
+briefest.  I was requested to call at Hopefield Manor at four o'clock
+the following afternoon, being Thursday.  A trap would meet me at
+Katonah, and it was suggested that I come prepared to spend the night,
+so that the condition of the flues might be discussed and any necessary
+changes planned during the evening.  The note, signed Octavia
+Hollister, was written in a flowing hand, on a wholly impeccable note
+sheet stamped Hopefield Manor, Katonah.
+
+Before taking the train I sought Wiggins by telephone at his office,
+and at the Hare and Tortoise, where he lodged, but without learning
+anything as to his whereabouts.  His office did not answer, but
+Wiggins's office had never been responsive to the telephone, so this
+was not significant.  The more I considered his conduct during the
+recital of my visit to the Asolando the more I wondered; and in spite
+of my wish to ignore utterly Jewett's revelations as to Wiggins's
+summer abroad, I was forced to the conclusion that Jewett had not lied.
+I had known Wiggins long, and this was the first time that I had ever
+been conscious of any withholding of confidence on his part; and on my
+own I had not merely confided all my hopes and aims to him, but I had
+leaned upon him often in my perplexities.  There was, indeed, a kind of
+boyish compact between us, that we should support each other through
+all difficulties.  This, as I remembered, dated back to our prep
+school-days and had been reinforced by a fearsome oath, inspired
+doubtless by some dark fiction that had captivated our youthful
+imaginations.  His failure to tell me of his summer abroad or of his
+interest in the Hollisters when I had afforded him so excellent an
+opening by my reference to the Asolando emphasized the seriousness of
+his plight.  His reserve hid, I knew, a diffident and sensitive nature,
+and it was wholly possible that if his affair with Cecilia Hollister
+had not prospered he had fled to his ranch there to wrestle in
+seclusion with his disappointment.  My mind was busy with such
+speculations as I sped toward Katonah, where I found the trap from
+Hopefield Manor awaiting me.
+
+"It's rather poor going over the hills; about five miles, sir," said
+the driver, as we set off.
+
+This sort of thing was wholly usual in the nature of my vocation.  The
+flues in country houses seem much more willful and obdurate than those
+in town, a fact which I have frequently discussed with architects, and
+I had been met in just this way at many stations within a radius of
+fifty miles of New York, and carried to houses whose chimneys were
+provocative of wrath and indignation in their owners.
+
+This was the first week in October.  There was just zest enough in the
+air to make a top coat comfortable.  The team of blacks spoke well for
+Miss Hollister's stable, and the liveried driver kept them moving
+steadily, but eased the pace as we rose on the frequent slopes to the
+shoulders of pleasant hills.  The immediate neighborhood into which we
+were wending was unknown to me, though I saw familiar landmarks.  I am
+not one to quibble over the efforts of man to supplement the work of
+nature, so that I confess without shame that the Croton lakes, to my
+cockney eye, merge flawlessly into this landscape.  It is not for me to
+raise the cry of utilitarianism against these saucerfuls of blue water,
+merely because the fluid thus caught and held bubbles and sparkles
+later in the taps of the Manhattaners.  Early frosts had already
+wrought their miracle in the foliage, and the battle-banners of
+winter's vanguard flashed along the horizons.  I rejoiced that my
+business, vexatious enough in many ways, yet afforded me so charming an
+outing as this.
+
+Presently we climbed a hill that shouldered its way well above its
+fellows and came out upon a broad ridge, where we entered at once a
+noble gateway set in an old stone wall, and struck off smartly along a
+fine bit of macadam.  The house, the driver informed me, was a quarter
+of a mile from the gate.  The way led through a wild woodland in which
+elms and maples predominated; and before this had grown monotonous we
+came abruptly upon an Italian garden, beyond which rose the house.  I
+knew it at once for one of Pepperton's sound performances; Pepperton is
+easily our best man in domestic Tudor, and the whole setting of
+Hopefield Manor, the sunken garden, the superb view, the billowing
+fields and woodlands beyond, all testified to a taste which no ignorant
+owner had thwarted.  The house was Tudor, but in no servile sense: it
+was also Pepperton.  I lifted my eyes with immediate professional
+interest to the chimney-pots on the roof.  It occurred to me on the
+instant that I had never before been called to retouch any of
+Pepperton's work.  Pep knew as much as I about flue-construction; I had
+an immense respect for Pep, and as my specializing in chimneys had been
+a subject of frequent chaffing between us, I anticipated with a chuckle
+the pleasure I should have later in telling him that at last one of his
+flues had required my services.
+
+My good opinion of Miss Hollister did not diminish as I stepped within
+the broad hall.  Houses have their own manner of speech, and Hopefield
+Manor spoke to all the senses in accents of taste and refinement.  A
+servant took my bag and ushered me into a charming library.  A fire
+smouldered lazily in the great fireplace; there was, in the room, the
+faintest scent of burnt wood; but the smoke rose in the flue in a
+perfectly mannerly fashion, and on thrusting in my hand I felt a good
+draught of air.  I instinctively knelt on the hearth and peered up, but
+saw nothing unworkmanlike: Pepperton was not a fellow to leave obvious
+mistakes behind him.  But possibly this was not one of the recalcitrant
+fireplaces I had been called to inspect; and I rose and was continuing
+my enjoyment of the beautiful room, when I became conscious, by rather
+curious and mixed processes not wholly of the eye, that a young woman
+had drawn back the light portieres--they were dark brown, with borders
+of burnt orange--and stood gravely gazing at me.  She held the curtains
+apart--they made, indeed, a kind of frame for her; but as our eyes met
+she advanced at once and spoke my name.
+
+[Illustration: She held the curtains apart.]
+
+"You are Mr. Ames.  My aunt expected you.  I regret to say that she is
+not in the house just now, but she will doubtless return for tea.  I am
+her niece.  Won't you sit down?"
+
+As she found a seat for herself, I made bold to survey her with some
+particularity.  She carried her fine height with beautiful dignity.
+She was a creature of grace, and it was a grace of strength, the
+suppleness and ease that mark our later outdoor American woman.  She
+could do her miles over these hills,--I was sure of that.  Her fine
+olive face, crowned with dark hair, verified the impression I had
+gathered from Jewett, that she was a woman of cultivation.  She had
+read the poets; Dante and Petrarch spoke from her eyes.  Cecilia was no
+bad name for her; she suggested heavenly harmonies!  And as for
+Jewett's story of Wiggins's infatuation, I was content: if this was the
+face that had shattered the frowning towers of Wiggins's Ilium and sent
+him to brood disconsolate upon his broad acres in Dakota, my heart went
+out to him, for his armor had been pierced by arrows worthy of its
+metal.
+
+She was talking, meanwhile, of the day and its buoyant air and of the
+tapestries hung in the woodlands, in a voice deep with rare intimations
+of viol chords.
+
+"It's very quiet here.  It doesn't seem possible that we are so near
+the city.  My aunt chose the place with care, and she made no mistake
+about it.  Yes; the house was built by Mr. Pepperton, but not for us.
+My aunt bought it of the estate of the gentleman who built it.  This
+will be her first winter here."
+
+She made no reference to the object of my visit, and I wondered if she
+knew just how I came there.  A man-servant wheeled in a portable
+tea-table and placed it beside a particular chair, lighted the lamp
+under the kettle, and silently departed.  And with the stage thus
+disposed Miss Hollister herself appeared.  She greeted me without
+surprise and much as she might have spoken to any guest in her house.
+I had sometimes been treated as though I were the agent of a
+decorator's shop, or a delinquent plumber, by the people whom I served;
+but Miss Hollister and her niece established me upon a plane that was
+wholly social.  I was made to feel that it was the most natural thing
+in the world for me to be there, having tea, with no business ahead of
+me but to be agreeable.  The fact that I had come to correct the
+distemper of their flues was utterly negligible.  I remembered with
+satisfaction that I had journeyed from town in a new business suit that
+made the best of my attenuated figure, and I will not deny that I felt
+at ease.
+
+Miss Hollister talked briskly as she made the tea.
+
+"I was over at the kennels when you came.  I believe the kennel-master
+is a rascal, Cecilia.  I have no opinion of him whatever."
+
+"He was highly recommended," replied the niece.  "It's not his fault
+that the fox terriers were sick."
+
+"I dare say it is n't," said the old lady, measuring the tea; "but it's
+his fault that he whipped one of those Cuban hounds,--I 'm sure he
+whipped her.  The poor beast was afraid to crawl out when I called her
+this afternoon."
+
+"We were warned against those dogs, Aunt Octavia; but I must admit that
+they have lovely eyes."
+
+Miss Cecilia's manner toward her aunt left nothing to be desired; it
+was wholly deferential and kind, and her dignity, I surmised, was equal
+to any emergency that might rise between them.
+
+"Do you ever shoot behind traps?" demanded Miss Hollister abruptly.
+
+The question surprised me.  I did not shoot behind traps or anywhere
+else, for that matter; but it delighted me to find that her unusual
+interests, as she had touched upon them at the Asolando, were part of a
+consistent scheme of life.  She talked of her experiments with
+different guns and traps, her arms folded, her eyes reverting
+occasionally to the kettle.  It was all in the shells, she said.
+Before she had begun filling her own cartridges she had no end of
+trouble.
+
+"It is not necessary for you to take tea if you don't care for it, Mr.
+Ames," she said, as I rose and handed the first cup to Cecilia.  "If
+you will touch the bell at your elbow you may have liquids of quite
+another sort.  It may interest you to know that this temperance wave
+that is sweeping the country does not interest me in the least.  Our
+great Americans of the old times were gentlemen who took their liquor
+with no cowardly fear of public censure.  You will find my sideboard
+well stocked after the fashion of old times; and I have with my own
+hand placed in your room a quart of Scotch given me at the distillery
+four years ago by its proprietor, Lord Mertondale.  A case of like
+quality is yours at any moment you choose to press the button at the
+head of your bed."
+
+"You are most generous, Miss Hollister.  Tea will suffice for the
+moment.  It is fitting that I should take it here, it having been a
+weakness for tea as well as curiosity and chance that threw me in your
+way at the Asolando."
+
+"That absurd, that preposterous hole in the wall!"
+
+She put down her cup and faced me, continuing: "Mr. Ames, I will not
+deny that if it had not been for General Glendenning's cordial
+indorsement of you, and the further fact that I had met your late
+father, I should not have invited you to my house on the occasion to
+which you refer.  My contempt for the Asolando and the things it stands
+for is beyond such language as a lady may use before the young."
+
+I laughed at her earnestness; but on turning toward Miss Cecilia I saw
+that she was placidly stirring her cup.  It might be that one was not
+expected to manifest amusement in Miss Hollister's utterances; and I
+was anxious to adjust myself to the proper key in my intercourse, no
+matter how brief it might be, with this remarkable old lady.
+
+In my embarrassment I rose and offered the bread and butter to Cecilia,
+who declined it.  The austerity of her rejection rather unnerved me.
+
+"To think, that with all the opportunities for adventure that offer in
+this day and generation, any one should waste time on the idiotic
+worship of a lot of silly moulders of literary patisserie!  It is
+beyond me, Mr. Ames, and when I recall that your late father commanded
+a cavalry regiment in the Civil War, I fall back upon the privilege of
+my age to beg that you will hereafter give the Asolando a wide berth."
+
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have no wish to become an habitue
+of the place.  And yet you will pardon me if I repeat that, but for it,
+I should not now be enjoying the hospitality of Hopefield Manor."
+
+She lifted her head from her cup and bowed; but I was immediately
+interested in the fact that her niece was speaking.
+
+"I think Aunt Octavia is hard on the Asolando," she was saying.  "Aunt
+Octavia is interested in the revival of romance, and romance without
+poetry seems to me wholly impossible.  The Asolando makes no
+pretensions to be more than an incident in a real movement whose aim is
+the diffusion of poetic fire,--it is merely a shrine where the divine
+lamp is never allowed to fail or falter."
+
+"And if, Cecilia Hollister, you think that sandwiches named for
+Browning's poems or macaroons dedicated to Walter Pater can assist
+foolish virgins in keeping their lamps filled, I give you the word of
+an old woman that you are in danger of a complete loss of your mind.
+The age is decadent, and I know no better way of restoring the race to
+its ancient vim and energy than by sending men back to the camp and
+field or to sail the high seas in new armadas.  The men of this age
+have become a lot of sordid shopkeepers, and to my moral sense the
+looting of cities is far more honorable than the creation of trusts and
+the manipulation of prices, though I cannot deny that but for my late
+father's zeal in destroying his competitors in the baby-buggy business
+we might not now be enjoying the delicate fragrance of caravan tea."
+
+I continued to flounder in my anxiety to determine just how Miss
+Hollister wished to be taken.  She spoke with the utmost seriousness
+and with the earnestness of deep conviction.  If the aims of the
+Asolando were absurd, what might be said of the declarations of this
+old lady in favor of a return to the age of sword and buckler!
+
+I again turned to Cecilia, thinking that I should find a twinkle in her
+eye that might solve the riddle and make easier my responses to her
+aunt's appeals.  Her reply did not help me greatly:--
+
+"I assure you, Mr. Ames, that the Asolando is a very harmless place,
+and that as a matter of fact its aims are wholly consonant with those
+of Aunt Octavia.  I myself served there for a time, and those were
+among the most delightful days of my life."
+
+"And you might still be handing about the Rossetti eclairs in that
+smothery little place if I had not rescued you from your bondage.  I
+assure you, Mr. Ames, that my niece is a perfectly healthy young woman,
+to whom all such rubbish is really abhorrent."
+
+I expected Miss Cecilia to rouse at this; but she ignored her aunt's
+fling, saying merely,--
+
+"There are times when I miss the Asolando."
+
+"Mr. Ames," began Miss Octavia presently in her crisp, direct fashion,
+which had the effect of leading me, in my anxiety to appear ready with
+answers, to take a flattering view of my own courage and
+resourcefulness,--"Mr. Ames, are you equal to the feat of swimming a
+moat under a shattering fire from the castle?"
+
+"I have every reason to think I am, Miss Hollister," I replied modestly.
+
+"And if a white hand waved to you from the grilled window of the lonely
+tower, would you ride on indifferently or pause and thunder at the
+gate?"
+
+"White hands have never waved to me, save occasionally when I have gone
+a-riding in the Sixth Avenue elevated, but it is my honest belief that
+my sword would promptly leave its scabbard if the hand ever waved from
+the ivied tower."
+
+She nodded her pleasure in this avowal.  For a chimney-doctor I was
+doing well.  In fact, as I submitted to Miss Octavia's examination, I
+felt equal to charging a brigade single-handed.  Something about the
+woman made it possible and pleasant to be absurd.
+
+"If a king or an emperor of Europe should ask you to inspect his
+chimneys, would you be content to perform your service in the most
+expeditious and professional manner and depart with a nominal fee?"
+
+"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister.  On the other hand I should nurse the
+job for all it was worth, plunder the public treasury, explore the
+dungeons, make love to the princesses, and free the rightful heir to
+the throne from his cell beneath the bosom of the lake."
+
+My friends at the Hare and Tortoise would have heard this avowal with
+some surprise, for no man's life had ever been tamer than mine.  I am
+by nature timid, and fall but a little short of being afraid of the
+dark.  Prayers for deliverance from battle, murder, and sudden death
+cannot be too strongly expressed for me.  My answer had, however,
+pleased Miss Octavia, and she clapped her hands with pleasure.
+
+"Cecilia," she cried, "something told me, that afternoon at the
+Asolando, that my belief in the potential seven was not ill-placed, and
+now you see that in introducing myself to Mr. Ames at the seventh table
+from the door, in the seventh shop from Fifth Avenue, I was led to a
+meeting with a gentleman I had been predestined to know."
+
+As we talked further, a servant appeared and laid fresh logs across the
+still-smouldering fire.  This I thought would suggest to Miss Hollister
+the professional character of my visit; but the fire kindled readily,
+the smoke rose freely in the flue; and Miss Hollister paid no attention
+to it other than to ask the man whether the fuel he had taken from a
+carved box at the right of the hearth was apple-wood from the upper
+orchard or cherry from a tree which, it appeared, she had felled
+herself.  It was apple-wood, the man informed her, and she continued
+talking.  The merits of chain-armor, I think it was, that held us for
+half an hour, Cecilia and I listening with respect to what, in my
+ignorance, seemed a remarkable fund of knowledge on this recondite
+subject.
+
+"We dine at seven, Mr. Ames, and you may amuse yourself as you like
+until that hour.  Cecilia, you may order dinner in the gun-room
+to-night."
+
+"Certainly, Aunt Octavia."
+
+Once more I glanced at the girl, hoping that some glimmer in her eyes
+would set me right and establish a common understanding and sympathy
+between us; but she was moving out of the room at her aunt's side.  The
+man who had tended the fire met me in the hall and, conducting me to my
+room, suggested various offices that he was ready to perform for my
+comfort.  The house faced south, and my windows, midway of the east
+wing, afforded a fine view of the hills.  The room was large enough for
+a chamber of state, and its furniture was massive.  A four-poster
+invited to luxurious repose; half a dozen etchings by famous
+artists--Parrish and Van Elten among them--hung upon the walls; and on
+a table beside the bed stood a handsome decanter and glasses,
+reinforced by the quart of Scotch which Miss Hollister had recommended
+for my refreshment.
+
+My bag had been opened and my things put out, so that, there being more
+than an hour to pass before I need dress for dinner, I went below and
+explored the garden and wandered off along a winding path that stole
+with charming furtiveness toward a venerable orchard of gnarled apple
+trees.  From the height thus gained I looked down upon the house, and
+caught a glimpse beyond it of one of the chain of lakes, on which the
+westering sun glinted goldenly.  Thus seeing the house from a new
+angle, I was impressed as I had not been at first by its size: it was a
+huge establishment, and I thought with envy of Pepperton, to whom such
+ample commissions were not rare.  Pepperton, I recalled a little
+bitterly, had arrived; whereas I, who had enjoyed exactly his own
+training for the architect's profession, had failed at it and been
+obliged to turn my hand to the doctoring of chimneys.  But I am not a
+morbid person, and it is my way to pluck such joy as I may from the
+fleeting moment; and as I reflected upon the odd circumstance of my
+being there, my spirits rose.  Miss Hollister was beyond question a
+singular person, but her whims were amusing.  I felt that she was less
+cryptic than her niece, and the thought of Cecilia drove me back upon
+Jewett's story of Wiggins's interest in that quarter.  I resolved to
+write to Wiggins when I got back to town the next day and abuse him
+roundly for running off without so much as good-bye.  That, most
+emphatically, was not like dear old Wiggins!
+
+I had been sitting on a stone wall watching the shadows lengthen.  I
+rose now and followed the wall toward a highway along which wagons and
+an occasional motor-car had passed during my revery.  The sloping
+pasture was rough and frequently sent me along at a trot.  The wall
+that marked the boundary at the roadside was hidden by a tangle of
+raspberry bushes, and my foot turning on a stone concealed in the wild
+grasses, I fell clumsily and rolled a dozen yards into a tangle of the
+berry bushes.  As I picked myself up I heard voices in the road, but
+should have thought nothing of it, had I not seen through a break in
+the vines, and almost within reach of my hand, Cecilia Hollister
+talking earnestly to some one not yet disclosed.  She was hatless, but
+had flung a golf-cape over her shoulders.  The red scarlet lining of
+the hood turned up about her neck made an effective setting for her
+noble head.
+
+"Oh, I can't tell you!  I can't help you!  I must n't even appear to
+give you any advantage.  I went into it with my eyes open, and I 'm in
+honor bound not to tell you anything.  You have said
+nothing--nothing,--remember that.  There is absolutely nothing between
+us."
+
+"But I must say everything!  I refuse to be blinded by these absurd
+restrictions, whatever they are.  It's not fair,--it's inviting me into
+a game where the cards are not all on the table.  I 've come to make an
+end of it!"
+
+My hands had suffered by contact with the briars, and I had been
+ministering to them with my handkerchief; but I fell back upon the
+slope in my astonishment at this colloquy.  Cecilia Hollister I had
+seen plainly enough, though the man's back had been toward me; but
+anywhere on earth I should have known Wiggins's voice.  I protest that
+it is not my way to become an eavesdropper voluntarily, but to disclose
+myself now was impossible.  If it had not been Wiggins--but Wiggins
+would never have understood or forgiven; nor could I have explained
+plausibly to Cecilia Hollister that I had not followed her from the
+house to spy upon her.  I should have made the noise of an invading
+army if I had attempted to effect an exit by creeping out through the
+windrow of crisp leaves in which I lay; and to turn back and ascend the
+slope the way I had come would have been to advertise my presence to
+the figures in the road.  There seemed nothing for me but to keep still
+and hope that this discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley
+Wiggins would not be continued within earshot.  To my relief they moved
+a trifle farther on; but I still heard their voices.
+
+[Illustration: This discussion between Cecilia Hollister and Hartley
+Wiggins.]
+
+"I cannot listen to you.  Now that I 'm committed I cannot honorably
+countenance you at all; and I can explain nothing.  I came here to meet
+you only to tell you this.  You must go--please!  And do not attempt to
+see me in this way again."
+
+I was grateful that Wiggins's voice sank so low in his reply that I did
+not hear it; but I knew that he was pleading hard.  Then a motor
+flashed by, and when the whir of its passing had ceased, the voices
+were inaudible; but a moment later I heard a light quick step beyond
+the wall, and Cecilia passed hurriedly, her face turned toward the
+house.  The cape was drawn tightly about her shoulders, and she walked
+with her head bowed.
+
+I breathed a sigh of relief, and when I felt safe from detection
+climbed the slope.
+
+Pausing on the crest to survey the landscape, I saw a man, wearing a
+derby hat and a light top-coat, leaning against a fence that inclosed a
+pasture.  As I glanced in his direction he moved away hastily toward
+the road below.  The feeling of being watched is not agreeable, and I
+could not account for him.  As he passed out of sight, still another
+man appeared, emerging from a strip of woodland farther on.  Even
+through the evening haze I should have said that he was a gentleman.
+The two men apparently bore no relation to each other, though they were
+walking in the same direction, bound, I judged, for the highway below.
+I had an uncomfortable feeling that they had both been observing me,
+though for what purpose I could not imagine.  Then once more, just as I
+was about to enter the Italian garden from a fallow field that hung
+slightly above it, a third man appeared as mysteriously as though he
+had sprung from the ground, and ran at a sharp dog-trot along the
+fence, headed, like the others, for the road.  In the third instance
+the stranger undoubtedly took pains to hide his face, but he, too, was
+well dressed and wore a top-coat and a fedora hat of current style.
+
+I did not know why these gentlemen were ranging the neighborhood or
+what object they had in view; but their several appearances had
+interested me, and I went on into the house well satisfied that events
+of an unusual character were likely to mark my visit to the home of
+Miss Octavia Hollister.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+WE DINE IN THE GUN-ROOM
+
+Cecilia sat reading alone when I entered the library shortly before the
+dinner-hour.  She put down her book and we fell into fitful talk.
+
+"I took a walk after tea.  I always feel that sunsets are best seen
+from the fields; you can't quite do them justice from windows," she
+began.
+
+She seemed preoccupied, but this may have been the interpretation of my
+conscience, whose twinges reminded me unpleasantly of my precipitation
+into the briar bushes at the foot of the pasture, where I had witnessed
+her meeting with Wiggins.  My admiration gained new levels.  Her black
+evening gown became her; a band of velvet circled her throat,
+emphasizing its firm whiteness.  It seemed incredible that I had seen
+her so recently, in the filmy dusk, talking with so much earnestness to
+Hartley Wiggins.  It was my impression, gained from the few sentences I
+had overheard by the road, that she did not repulse him, but that some
+mysterious, difficult barrier kept them apart.  Where, I wondered, was
+Wiggins now, and what were to be the further incidents of this singular
+affair?
+
+While we waited for Miss Hollister to appear, she continued to speak of
+her joy in the hills.  It is not every one who can admire a sunset with
+sincerity, but she conveyed the spirit of the phenomena that had
+attended the lowering of the bright targe of day in terms and tones
+that were delightfully natural and convincing.  And yet the far-away
+look in her eyes suggested inevitably the scene I had witnessed and the
+phrases I had caught by the roadside.  Wiggins was in her recollection
+of the glowing landscape,--I was confident of this; and poor Wiggins
+was even now wandering these hills, no doubt, brooding upon his
+troubles under the clear October stars.
+
+Dinner was announced the moment Miss Hollister entered, and I walked
+out between them.  Miss Octavia Hollister was a surprising person, but
+in nothing was she so delightfully wayward as in the gowns she wore.
+My ignorance of such matters is immeasurable, but I fancy that she
+designed her own raiment and that her ideas were thereupon carried out
+by a tailor of skill.  At the Asolando and when we had met at tea in
+her own house, she had worn the severest of tailored gowns, with short
+skirt and a coat into whose pockets she was fond of thrusting her
+hands.  To-night the material was lavender silk trimmed in white, but
+the skirt had not lengthened, and over a white silk waist she wore a
+kind of cut-away coat that matched the skirt.  An aigrette in her
+lovely white hair contributed a piquant note to the whole impression.
+As we passed down the hall she talked with great animation of the Hague
+Tribunal, just then holding a prominent place in the newspapers for
+some reason that has escaped me.
+
+"The whole thing is absurd; perfectly absurd!  I know of nothing that
+would contribute more to human enjoyment than a real war between
+Germany and England.  The Hague idea is pure sentimentalism,--if
+sentimentalism can ever be said to be pure.  I will go further and say
+that I consider it positively immoral."
+
+This new view of the matter left me stammering.  Cecilia, I saw, had no
+intention of helping me over these difficult hurdles that were
+constantly popping up in my conversations with her aunt.  This
+delightful old lady in lavender, the mistress of a house whose luxury
+and peace were antipodal to any hint of war, continued to baffle me.
+She had ordered dinner in the gun-room, but I thought this merely a
+turn of her humor; and I was taken aback when she led the way into a
+low, heavily raftered room, where electric sconces of an odd type were
+thrust at irregular intervals along the walls, which were otherwise
+hung with arms of many sorts in orderly combinations.  They were not
+the litter of antique shops, I saw in a hasty glance, but rifles and
+guns of the latest patterns, and beside the sideboard stood a gun-rack
+and a cabinet which I assumed contained still other and perhaps
+deadlier weapons.  At one end of the room, and just behind Miss
+Hollister, was a sunburst of swords, which gleamed with a kind of
+mockery behind her white head.
+
+The small round table was conventionally set, but this only added to
+the grimness of the encompassing arsenal.  A bowl of crimson roses in
+the centre of the snowy cloth would ordinarily have mitigated the
+effect of the grim walls; but I confess that the color reminded me a
+little too sombrely of the ugly business for which this steel had been
+designed.  But for the presence of Miss Cecilia, who was essentially
+typical of our twentieth-century American woman, I think I might
+readily have yielded to the illusion that I was the guest of some
+eccentric chatelaine who had invited me to dine with her in a bastion
+of her fortress before ordering me to some chamber of horrors for
+execution.
+
+There seemed to be no reason why one of those keen blades on the wall
+might not find its way through my ribs between a highly satisfactory
+plate of _potage a la tortue_ and a bit of sea-bass that would have
+honored any kitchen in the land.  No reference was made to the
+character of the room; I felt, in fact, that Cecilia rather pleaded
+with her eyes that I should make no reference to it.  And Miss
+Hollister remarked quite casually as though in comment upon my
+thoughts:--
+
+"Consistency has buried its thousands and habit its tens of thousands.
+We should live, Mr. Ames, for the changes and chances of this troubled
+life.  Between an opera-box and a villa at Newport many of my best
+friends have perished."
+
+"I have thought myself that Thoreau had the right idea,"--I began
+hopefully; but she raised her finger warningly.
+
+"Mr. Ames, the mention of Henry David Thoreau is wholly distasteful to
+me.  A man who will deliberately choose to whittle lead-pencils for
+chipmunks and write a book about a moist sand-pile like Cape Cod
+arouses no sympathy in me.  And these well-meaning women who are
+forever gathering autumn leaves, or who tire you in spring by telling
+you they have found the first pussy-willow feathering, and who make all
+Nature odious by their general goo-gooings, bore me to death.  There is
+no such thing possible as the simple life.  I give you my word for it
+that it is only in the most complex existence that the spirit of man
+can thrive."
+
+I am only a chimney-doctor; I have never been able to make any headway
+in discussing things aesthetic, sentimental or spiritual with persons of
+sound conviction in such matters.  A bishop with whom I once roamed the
+English cathedrals confessed to me his sincere belief that in the days
+of the inquisition the gridiron would have been my rightful portion.  I
+was fearful lest my hostess should suggest the mediaeval church as a
+topic, and this I knew would be disastrous.  As an abbess she would, I
+fancied, have ruled with an iron hand.  But with startling abruptness
+she put down her fork, and bending her wonderfully direct gaze upon me,
+asked a question that caused me to strangle on a bit of asparagus.
+
+"I imagine, Mr. Ames, that you are a member of some of the better clubs
+in town.  If by any chance you belong to the Hare and Tortoise,--the
+name of which has always pleased me,--do you by any chance happen to
+enjoy the acquaintance of Mr. Hartley Wiggins?"
+
+Cecilia lifted her head.  I saw that she had been as startled as I.  It
+crossed my mind that a denial of any acquaintance with Wiggins might
+best serve him in the circumstances; but I am not, I hope, without a
+sense of shame, and I responded promptly:--
+
+"Yes, I know him well.  We are old friends.  I always see a good deal
+of him during the winter.  His summers are spent usually on his ranch
+in the west.  We dined together two days ago at the Hare and Tortoise,
+just before he left for the west."
+
+"You will pardon me if I say that it is wholly to his credit that he
+has forsworn the professions and identified himself with the honorable
+calling of the husbandman."
+
+"We met Mr. Wiggins while traveling abroad last summer," interposed
+Cecilia, meeting my eyes quite frankly.
+
+"Met him!  Did you say met him, Cecilia?  On the contrary we found him
+waiting for us at the dock the morning we sailed," corrected Miss
+Hollister, "and we never lost him a day in three months of rapid
+travel.  I had never met him before, but I cannot deny that he made
+himself exceedingly agreeable.  If, as I suspected, he had deliberately
+planned to travel on the same steamer with my two nieces, I have only
+praise for his conduct, for in these days, Mr. Ames, it warms my heart
+to find young men showing something of the old chivalric ardor in their
+affairs of the heart."
+
+"I 'm sure Mr. Wiggins made himself very agreeable," remarked Cecilia
+colorlessly.
+
+"For myself," retorted Miss Hollister, "I should speak even more
+strongly.  He repeatedly served us with tact and delicacy; and I recall
+with the greatest satisfaction his vigorous chastisement of our courier
+in Cologne, where that person was found to have treated us in the most
+treacherous manner.  He had, in fact, in collusion with an inn-keeper,
+connived at the loss of our baggage to delay our departure, even after
+I had pronounced the cathedral the greatest architectural monstrosity
+in Europe."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Octavia, you didn't really mean that!"  And Cecilia laughed
+for the first time.  Her color had risen, and her dark eyes lit with
+pleasure.
+
+"I had formed so high an opinion of Mr. Wiggins," Miss Octavia
+continued, "that I learned with sincerest regret that his ancestors
+were Tories and took no part in the struggle for American independence.
+There are times when I seriously question the wisdom of the colonists
+in breaking with the mother country; but certainly no man of character
+in that day could have hesitated as to his proper course."
+
+Then, as though by intention, Miss Hollister dropped upon the smooth
+current of our talk a sentence that drove the color from Cecilia's
+face.  At once the girl was cold again, and I felt embarrassed and
+uncomfortable that a friend of mine had been brought into the
+conversation to my befuddlement.  The situation was trying, but in
+spite of this it grew steadily more interesting.
+
+"Hezekiah and Mr. Wiggins were the best of friends," was Miss
+Hollister's remark.
+
+Cecilia's eyes were on her plate; but her aunt went on in her blithest
+fashion:--
+
+"You may not know that Hezekiah is another niece, Cecilia's sister.
+She was named, at my suggestion, for my father, there being no son in
+the family, and I trust that so unusual a name in a young girl does not
+strike you as indefensible."
+
+"On the contrary, it seems to me wholly refreshing and delightful.  As
+I recall the Sunday-school of my youth, Hezekiah was a monarch of great
+authority, whose animosity toward Sennacherib was justified in the
+fullest degree.  The very name bristles with spears, and is musical
+with the trumpets of Israel.  Nothing would make me happier than to
+meet the young lady who bears this illustrious name."
+
+"As to your knowledge of ancient history, Mr. Ames," began Miss
+Hollister, as she helped herself to the cheese,--sweets, I noted, were
+not included in the very ample meal I had enjoyed,--"it is clear that
+you were well taught in your youth.  I am not surprised, however, for I
+should have expected nothing less of a son of the late General Ames of
+Hartford.  As to meeting my niece Hezekiah, I fear that that is at
+present impossible.  While Cecilia remains with me, Hezekiah's duty is
+to her father, and I must say in all kindness that Hezekiah's ways,
+like those of Providence and the custom-house, are beyond my feeble
+understanding.  In a word, Mr. Ames, Hezekiah is different."
+
+"Hezekiah," added Cecilia with feeling, "is a dear."
+
+"Please don't bring sentimentalism to the table!" cried Miss Hollister.
+"Mr. Wiggins once informed me in a moment of forgetfulness,--it was at
+Fontainebleau, I remember, when Hezekiah persisted in reminding a
+one-armed French colonel who was hanging about that we named cities in
+America for Bismarck,--it was there at the inn, that Mr. Wiggins
+confided to me his belief that Hezekiah bears a strong resemblance to
+the common or domestic peach.  As a single peach at that place was
+charged in the bill at ten francs, the remark was ill-timed, to say the
+least.  But Mr. Wiggins was so contrite when I rebuked him, that I
+allowed him to pay for our luncheon,--no small matter, indeed, for
+Hezekiah's appetite is nothing if not robust."
+
+The table-talk had yielded little light on the subject of Wiggins's
+predicament, whatever that might be; but these references to the absent
+Hezekiah had set a troop of interrogation points to dancing on the
+frontiers of my curiosity.  Miss Hollister had given so many turns to
+the conversation that I could reach no conclusion as to her feeling
+toward Wiggins or Hezekiah Hollister; and as for Cecilia, I was unable
+to determine whether she was a prisoner at Hopefield Manor or the
+willing and devoted companion of her aunt.
+
+In this bewildered state of mind, while we lingered over our coffee,
+the servant appeared with a card for each of the ladies.  I saw Cecilia
+start as she read the name.
+
+"Mr. Wiggins!  How remarkable that he should have appeared just as we
+were speaking of him," said Miss Hollister.  "Be sure the gentleman is
+comfortable in the library, James.  We shall be in at once.  Mr. Ames,
+you will of course be delighted to meet your friend here, and you will
+assist us in dispensing our meagre hospitality."
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE STRANGE BEHAVIOR OF A CHIMNEY
+
+There was no reason in the world why Hartley Wiggins should not call
+upon two ladies living in Westchester County, and I must say that he
+appeared to advantage in Miss Hollister's library.
+
+He had got into his evening clothes somewhere, perhaps at a neighboring
+inn, or maybe at the house of a friend; for he could not possibly have
+motored into town and back since his interview with Cecilia in the
+highway.  He had impressed the clerk at the Hare and Tortoise with the
+idea that he had left New York for a long absence, and he had
+apparently camped at the gates of Hopefield to be near Cecilia.
+
+When he had paid his compliments to the ladies, he turned to me with an
+almost imperceptible lifting of the brows; but he was cordial enough.
+If he was surprised or disappointed at seeing me, his manner did not
+betray the feeling.
+
+"Glad to see you, Ames.  Rather nice weather, this."
+
+"Even Dakota could n't do better," I affirmed with a grin; but he
+ignored the fling.
+
+"It is quite remarkable, Mr. Wiggins, that you should have appeared
+just when you did, for we had been speaking of you, and I had been
+telling Mr. Ames of our travels abroad and in particular of the
+thumping you very properly gave our courier at Cologne.  And I shall
+not deny that I mentioned also our brief discussion of the peach-crop
+at Fontainebleau."
+
+Cecilia stirred restlessly; Wiggins shot a glance of inquiry in my
+direction; and I felt decidedly ill at ease.  Miss Hollister crossed to
+the fireplace and poked the logs.
+
+Just what part Hezekiah Hollister played in the situation was beyond
+me.  If I had not witnessed Wiggins's clandestine meeting with Cecilia,
+matters would have been clearer to my comprehension; but his appearance
+at the house, after the colloquy I had overheard from the briar patch,
+was in itself inexplicable.  Cecilia was a woman, therefore to be
+wooed, and yet she had indicated by her words to him that the wooing,
+independently of her feeling and inclination, might not go forward with
+entire freedom.  Miss Hollister's singular references to Hezekiah--a
+person about whom my curiosity was now a good deal aroused--added to
+the mystery that enfolded the library.
+
+"Our American peaches are not what they were in my youth.  Cold storage
+destroys the flavor.  I have not tasted a decent peach for twenty
+years."
+
+This was pretty tame, I admit; but I felt that I must say something.
+Responsive to Miss Hollister's energetic prodding, the flames in the
+fireplace leaped into the great throat of the chimney with a roar.  She
+turned, her back to the blaze, and looked upon her guests benignantly.
+
+"If all your flues draw like that one, they are not seriously in need
+of doctoring," I remarked, feeling that flues were a safer topic than
+the peach-crop.
+
+"Flues are nothing if not erratic," replied Miss Hollister.  The
+subject did not appear to interest her; nor had she, by the remotest
+suggestion, referred to the object of my coming.  I had sniffed vainly
+in the halls above and below for any trace of the stale smoke which
+usually greeted me at once on my arrival at the house of a client.  The
+air of Hopefield Manor was as sweet as that of a June meadow.  Wiggins
+remarked to me that I doubtless knew the Manor had been designed by
+Pepperton, whom we both knew well.
+
+"This is Pep's masterpiece.  He need do nothing better to keep his grip
+at the top," he said.
+
+"I consider it a great privilege to be permitted to visit a house
+designed by a dear friend and occupied by a lady peculiarly fitted to
+appreciate and adorn it."
+
+I thought rather well of this as I spoke the words; but neither Cecilia
+nor Wiggins rose to it as I hoped they might.
+
+"You have a neat turn for the direct compliment," said Miss Hollister
+promptly.  "The house was built, you may not know, for a manufacturer
+of umbrellas, who died before he had occupied it, in circumstances I
+may later disclose to you; which accounts, Mr. Ames, for that figure of
+Cupid under a pink parasol on the drawing-room ceiling.  At the first
+opportunity I shall remove it, as baby Cupids are irreconcilable with
+the militant love-making I admire.  I consider umbrellas detestable,
+and never carry one when I can command a mackintosh."
+
+"When I 'm on the ranch I wear a slicker," said Wiggins.  "It's
+bullet-proof, and that I have found at times a decided advantage."
+
+We discussed mackintoshes for at least ten minutes, with far more
+sprightliness than I had imagined the subject could evoke.  Then Miss
+Hollister, after a turn up and down the room, paused beside me.
+
+"Mr. Ames," she said, "would you care to join me in a game of
+billiards?  I 'm not in my best form, but I think we might profitably
+knock the balls for half an hour."
+
+I acquiesced with alacrity.  I assumed it to be Miss Hollister's
+purpose to leave Cecilia and Wiggins alone.  I should be rendering
+Wiggins and Cecilia a service by withdrawing, and I was glad of a
+chance to escape.
+
+To my infinite surprise they both protested, not in mere polite murmurs
+but with considerable vehemence.
+
+"It's quite cool to-night, and I don't believe you ought to use the
+billiard-room until the plumber has fixed the radiator," said Cecilia.
+
+"And if you knew Mr. Ames's game I 'm sure you would n't care to waste
+time on him," piped Wiggins, whom I had frequently vanquished in
+billiard bouts at the Hare and Tortoise, where, I may say modestly, I
+had long been considered one of the most formidable of the club's
+players.
+
+Both he and Cecilia had risen, and we stood, I remember, just before
+the hearth, during this exchange.  At this moment, a singular thing
+happened.  The fire that had been sweeping in a broad wave-like curve
+into the chimney was checked suddenly.  I had repeatedly marked the
+admirable draught, the facile grace of the flame as it rose and
+vanished.  The cessation of the draught was unmarked by any of those
+premonitory symptoms by which a fire usually gives warning of evil
+intentions.  The upward current of air had ceased utterly and without
+apparent cause.  We were all aware of a choking, a gasping in the deep
+flue, which could not be accounted for by any natural stoppage incident
+to chimneys--the dislodging of masonry, or a packing of soot.  The
+former was hardly possible and the house was not old enough to make the
+latter theory plausible.  From my survey of the flue on my arrival in
+the afternoon, I judged that this particular chimney had been little
+used.
+
+The smoke now rolled out in billows and drove us back from the hearth.
+I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the logs, without,
+however, any hope of correcting a difficulty that lay patently in the
+upper regions of the flue itself.  The smoke, after a courageous effort
+to rise, encountered an obstruction of some sort and ebbed back upon
+the hearth and out into the room.  My efforts to stop the trouble by
+shifting the logs were futile, as I expected them to be, and I
+retreated quickly, making, I fear, no very gallant appearance as I
+mopped my face and eyes.
+
+[Illustration: I seized the tongs and poker and began readjusting the
+logs.]
+
+"Well," exclaimed Miss Hollister, who had rung for a servant to open
+the doors and windows, "this is certainly most extraordinary.  What
+solution do you offer, Mr. Ames?"
+
+"The matter requires investigation.  I can't venture an opinion until I
+have made a thorough investigation.  The night is perfectly quiet and
+the wind is hardly responsible.  I think we had better abandon the room
+until I can solve this riddle in the morning."
+
+The prompt opening of the windows and doors caused the slow dispersion
+of the smoke, but the lights in the room still shone dimly as through a
+fog.
+
+"It's beastly," ejaculated Wiggins, coughing.  "I did n't suppose
+Pepperton would put a flue like that into a house.  He ought to be
+shot."
+
+"It is fortunate," said Miss Hollister, "that Mr. Ames is on the
+ground.  He now has a case that will test his most acute powers of
+diagnosis."
+
+The logs that had burned so brightly before the chimney choked still
+held their flames stubbornly, and I had advised against pouring water
+upon them, fearing to crack the brick and stonework.  We were about to
+adjourn to the drawing-room; Miss Hollister and the others had in fact
+reached the door, leaving me alone before the hearth.  Then, as I stood
+half-blinded watching the smoke pour out into the room, and more
+puzzled than I had ever been before in any of my employments, the
+chimney, with a deep intake of breath, began drawing the smoke upward
+again; the flames caught and spread with renewed ardor; and when the
+trio still loitering in the hall returned in answer to my exclamation
+of surprise, the flue had recovered its composure and was behaving in a
+sane and normal manner.
+
+There is, I imagine, nothing pertaining to the life of man (unless it
+be rival climates, motor-cars or pianos) that so inspires incompetent,
+irrelevant and immaterial criticism as wayward fireplaces.  It is part
+of my business to listen respectfully to opinions, to receive with an
+appearance of credulity the theories of others; and those advanced in
+Miss Hollister's library were not below the average to which I was
+accustomed.
+
+"A swallow undoubtedly fell into the chimney-pot and then got itself
+out again," suggested Cecilia.
+
+"The logs must have been wet.  The sap had n't dried out yet," proposed
+Wiggins.
+
+"The wood was as dry as tinder," averred Miss Hollister, not without
+irritation.  "And one swallow does not make a summer or a chimney
+smoke.  It must have been a changing current of air.  I was reading a
+book on ballooning the other day, and it is remarkable how the air
+currents change."
+
+"That is quite possible, as the air cools rapidly after sunset at this
+season, and that is bound to have an effect on the quality and
+resistance of the atmosphere," I replied sagely.
+
+"Perhaps," suggested Miss Hollister, with one of those flashes of
+animation that were so delightful in her, "perhaps it was a ghost!
+Will you tell us, Mr. Ames, whether in your experience you have ever
+known a chimney ghost?"
+
+As I had no opinion of my own as to what had caused the chimney's brief
+aberration, I was glad to follow Miss Hollister's lead.
+
+"I have had several experiences with ghosts," I began, "though I should
+not like you to think that I profess any special genius for the
+analysis of psychical phenomena.  But there was a house at Shinnecock
+that was reputed to be haunted.  The living-room chimney behaved
+damnably.  The house was one of Buffington's.  Buffington, you know,
+was quite capable of building a house and omitting any stairway.  We
+used to say at the club that he ought to have specialized in
+fire-engine houses, where the men don't use stairways but slide down a
+pole.  Well, the living-room chimney in this particular house could n't
+be made to draw with a team of elephants, and it had also the
+reputation of being haunted.  Strange flutings of the weirdest and most
+distressing kind were often heard at night.  The owner gave up in
+despair and moved out, turning the house over to me.  After eliminating
+all other possibilities, I decided that the piping spook must be
+related to the disorder in the chimney.  It served two fireplaces, and
+I proceeded to knock the kinks out of it so it did n't tie knots in a
+plumb-line as at first; but, believe me, when it stopped smoking it
+still whistled, in the most fantastical fashion.  I was living in the
+house, with only the servants about, and for a week gave my whole
+thought to this flue.  The ghostly flutist was an amateur, but he tried
+his hand at every sort of tune, from 'Sally in our Alley' to the jewel
+song in Faust.  The whistling did n't begin till nearly midnight, and
+continued usually for about an hour.  I tried in every way to lure him
+into the open, and I fell downstairs one night as I crept about in the
+dark trying to trace the sound.  And to what palpable and mundane
+source do you suppose I traced that ghost?"
+
+"I never should guess," murmured Cecilia, "unless it was merely the
+weird whistling of the wind."
+
+"Nothing so poetical, I'm sorry to confess.  It was the butler!  In his
+nightly cups his soul inclined to music, and being a timid soul,
+fearful of the cynical tongues of the other servants, he crawled into
+the ash-dump in the cellar, which communicated with the several
+fireplaces above, and there indulged himself gently upon the tuneful
+reed.  The night I caught him he was breathing the wild strains of
+Brunhilde's Battle-Cry into the tube, and it was shuddersome, I can
+tell you!  I took it upon myself to discharge him on the spot, and the
+grateful owner returned the next day."
+
+"The presence of a ghost in this house would give me the greatest
+pleasure," declared Miss Hollister, who had listened intently to my
+recital.  "I should look upon a ghost's appearance at Hopefield Manor
+as a great compliment.  If any reputable, decent ghost should by any
+chance take up his residence in this house, I should give him every
+encouragement."
+
+Miss Hollister seemed to have forgotten the proposed game of billiards.
+The chimney's lawless demonstration had, in fact, given a new turn to
+the evening.  We discussed ghosts for half an hour, and then, without
+having enjoyed any opportunity for a single private word with Cecilia,
+Wiggins rose to leave.  He shook hands all around and bowed from the
+door.  It was in my mind to follow, making a pretext of walking with
+him to the station or of helping him find his car; but nothing in his
+good-night to me encouraged such attentions, and as I pondered, the
+outer door closed upon my irresolution.
+
+At the stroke of ten Miss Hollister rose and excused herself.  "We
+breakfast at eight, Mr. Ames.  I trust the hour does not conflict with
+your habits."
+
+I assured her that the hour was wholly agreeable, and she gave me her
+hand with great dignity.
+
+When I turned toward Cecilia she had moved to a seat close by the
+hearth and was gazing dreamily into the fire, now a bed of glowing
+coals.
+
+"It was odd," I remarked.
+
+"You mean the chimney?"
+
+"Yes.  It was quite unaccountable.  I confess that I never knew a
+chimney's mood to change so abruptly."
+
+She sat silent for several minutes, and then she lifted her head and
+her eyes met mine.
+
+"Pardon me, Mr. Ames, but did my aunt ask you here to examine the
+chimneys?  I did n't quite understand.  We have been here only a week;
+the weather has been warm, and I believe this fire had not been lighted
+before to-day.  You will pardon my frankness, but I can't quite
+understand why my aunt invited you here if you came professionally.  I
+thought when you appeared this afternoon that you were a guest--nothing
+more--or less."
+
+"You had heard nothing of any trouble with the fireplaces?  Then I am
+in the dark as much as you.  As I understood it, I was called here to
+examine the flues; but now that I think of it, she did not say
+explicitly that her chimneys were behaving badly, though that was of
+course implied.  I naturally assumed that she summoned me here in my
+professional capacity.  I was a stranger to your aunt; she would hardly
+have invited me otherwise."
+
+She turned again to the fire as though referring to it for counsel.
+Her perplexity was no greater than my own.  It was certainly an
+extraordinary experience to be invited to a strange house where my
+services had not been needed, and to find that an apparently sound
+chimney had begun to smoke at once as though in mockery of my presence.
+
+"I imagine, however, that your aunt acts a good deal on impulse.  Her
+asking me here may have been only a whim."
+
+"Please don't imagine that your coming has not been agreeable to me,"
+Cecilia protested.  "My aunt is quite capable of inviting a stranger to
+the house.  She met you, I believe, at the Asolando.  I hope you
+understand that it is only because I am in deep trouble, Mr. Ames,
+trouble of the gravest nature, that I have ventured to speak to you in
+this way of my aunt, for whom I have all respect and affection."
+
+She had never, I was sure, been lovelier than at this moment.  Her eyes
+filled, but she lifted her head proudly.  Whatever the trouble might be
+I was sorry for it on her own account; and if it involved Hartley
+Wiggins my sympathy went out to him also.  On an impulse I spoke of him.
+
+"I was surprised to meet Hartley Wiggins here.  He 's a dear friend of
+mine, you know.  I thought he had gone to his ranch.  He left the Hare
+and Tortoise very abruptly a few nights ago just after we had dined
+together.  He must be stopping somewhere in the neighborhood."
+
+"It's quite possible.  And there's an inn, you know.  I fancy he drove
+over from there."
+
+"I hadn't thought of that; the Prescott Arms, I suppose you mean."
+
+She nodded, but she was clearly not interested in me, and when I found
+myself failing dismally to divert her thoughts to cheerfuller channels,
+I rose and bade her good-night.
+
+The servant who had previously attended me appeared promptly when I
+reached my room, bearing a tray, with biscuits and a bottle of ale.  He
+gave me an envelope addressed in a hand I already knew as Miss
+Octavia's, and I opened and read:--
+
+"The following I either detest or distrust, so kindly refrain from
+mentioning them while you are a guest of Hopefield Manor:--
+
+  Automobiles.
+  Mashed Potatoes.
+  Whiskers.
+  Chopin's Concerto in E Minor (op. 11).
+  Bishop's Coadjutor.
+  Limericks.
+  Cats.
+
+    OCTAVIA HOLLISTER."
+
+
+I absorbed this with a glass of ale.  There were seven items, I noted,
+and I had no serious quarrel with her attitude toward any of them; but
+just what these matters had to do with me or my presence in her house I
+could not determine.  She had referred to me in the note as a guest--I
+had noted that; and I did know, moreover, that Miss Octavia Hollister
+possessed a quaint and delicate humor; and I looked forward with the
+pleasantest anticipations to our further meetings.
+
+Before I slept I threw up my window and stepped out upon a narrow
+balcony that afforded a capital view of the fields and woods to the
+east.  The night was fine, with the sky bright with stars and moon.  As
+my eyes dropped from the horizon to the near landscape, I saw a man
+perched on a knoll in the midst of a corn-field.  He stood as rigid as
+a sentry on duty, or like a forlorn commander, counting the spears of
+his tattered battalions.  I was not sure that he saw me, for the
+balcony was slightly shadowed, but at any rate, he was sharply outlined
+to my vision.  His derby hat and overcoat gave him an odd appearance as
+he stood brooding above the corn.  Then he vanished suddenly, though,
+as he retired toward the highway, I followed him for some time by the
+shaking and jerking of the corn-stalks.
+
+I lay awake far into the night, considering the events of the day.  Of
+these the curious stoppage of the library chimney was the least
+interesting.  I doubted whether it would ever recur.  The love-affair
+of Hartley Wiggins was, however, a matter of importance to me, his
+friend, and I determined to make every effort to see him the next day
+and learn the exact status of his affair with Cecilia Hollister.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+I DELIVER A MESSAGE
+
+I was aroused at six o'clock the next morning by the sound of
+gun-shots, and springing out of bed I beheld, in an open pasture beyond
+the stable-yard, the indomitable Miss Hollister engaged in the pleasing
+pastime of breaking clay pigeons with a fowling-piece.  Her Swedish
+maid stood by with a formidable pad of paper, keeping score.  A boy
+pulled the trap for her, and she threw up her gun and blazed away with
+a practised hand.  Her small, slight, tense figure, awaiting the
+launching of the target, the quick up-bring of the gun as she sighted,
+and the pause, following the firing of the shot, in which she bent
+forward rigidly watching the result, were features of a picture which I
+would not have missed.  My eye could not follow the curving disc in its
+flight, but when the shot told, the bursting clay made a little patch
+of dust in the air that was plainly visible from where I sat.  Beyond
+the stable-roofs, on a broad stretch of pasture whose aftermath made a
+green field about her, and against a background of the more distant
+woods' tapestry, Miss Octavia Hollister was a figure to admire.  And I
+will write it down here and be done with it, that it has been my good
+fortune to know many delightful women, but I have never known one more
+interesting or charming than Miss Octavia Hollister.  The spirit of
+deathless youth was in her heart; and youth's gay pennants fluttered
+about her, as the reports of her gun fell cheerily upon the crisp
+morning air, a rebuke and a challenge to all indolent souls.
+
+[Illustration: She threw up her gun and blazed away with a practised
+hand.]
+
+I made myself presentable as quickly as possible and went forth to
+report to her.  She nodded pleasantly as I greeted her immediately
+after she had scored a capital shot.  A second gun was produced, and I
+saw that it was not without satisfaction that she observed my lack of
+prowess.  One out of five was the best I could do, whereas she smashed
+three with the greatest ease.
+
+On alternate mornings, she informed me, she shot glass balls with a
+rifle, a sport which she declared to be superior to pigeon-shooting in
+the severity of its demand upon the nerve and eye.
+
+"If I had known you would be up so early I should have sent coffee to
+your room," she remarked as we walked toward the house.  "Very likely
+your lack of luck with the birds is attributable entirely to the
+impoverished state of your stomach."
+
+Breakfast was served on a delightful sun-porch that I had not before
+seen.  Cecilia appeared promptly, having in fact been gathering fall
+flowers for some time, I judged, from the considerable armful of
+chrysanthemums, asters, dahlias and marigolds, which we found her
+arranging for the table.  She seemed in excellent spirits, and greeted
+us most amiably.
+
+"I heard the artillery booming and thought an army had descended.  It's
+a great regret to me, Mr. Ames, that I have never been able to make any
+headway at the traps.  I suffer from chronic and incurable gun-shyness.
+I 'm sorry archery has gone out.  I think I might have done better with
+the long bow."
+
+"Pinkle!" exclaimed Miss Hollister disdainfully.  "I cured myself of
+gun-shyness easily enough by having the gardener follow me about
+whenever I took my daily walks, firing a gun at irregular intervals
+just behind me.  I was threatened with deafness when I began, but the
+agitation of my tympanums by the explosions of my gun has corrected the
+difficulty.  I have mentioned my discovery of this remedy to a
+distinguished aurist, and he is preparing a paper on the subject--not,
+however, without my permission--which he expects to read shortly before
+one of the most learned societies in Europe.  Cecilia, the chops are
+overdone again; please remind me to speak to the cook about it.  If it
+were not that he is so expert in detecting spurious steam-mill
+corn-meal, which is constantly sold as a substitute for the Boydville
+water-ground article, I should discharge him for this.  An ill-broiled
+chop can do much to shake one's faith in human nature.  If I wanted to
+eat grilled patent leather I should order it."
+
+In spite of her sharp observations it was quite clear to me that Miss
+Hollister's was the gentlest and sweetest of natures.  I fully believed
+that her whims were the honest expression of a revolt against the
+tedious and conventional, and nothing in my later acquaintance
+disturbed this opinion.  It was her privilege to do as she liked, and
+if she preferred cracking clay saucers with a shot-gun to knitting or
+darning stockings or gossiping, it was no one's business.
+
+The mail arrived and was placed by her plate before we left the table.
+She opened first a bulky envelope containing cuttings from a clipping
+bureau, and she mused aloud upon these as she read.
+
+"This persistent story of a sunken galleon off the Bolivian coast
+sounds plausible, but I fear it is the work of some bright young
+journalist.  Our minister in that benighted country does n't take any
+stock in it.  I had a cable from him yesterday.  If he had given the
+story credence I should have gone down at once with a steamer and crew
+of divers.  The imaginative young newspaper men continue romancing,
+however; and it costs me five cents a clipping."
+
+She next opened a letter that roused her to vigorous declamation.
+
+"Cecilia," she began, "here is a letter from that Mrs. Stanford we met
+in Berne.  She encloses a card that indicates her wish to be called
+Mrs. Appleby now, having, I believe, spent a few months since our
+meeting in one of our American States where the marital tie readily
+evaporates, and shaken Stanford, whom I have heard spoken of in the
+highest terms by persons of character.  We live in an era of horseless
+carriages, wireless telegraphy, husbandless wives and wifeless
+husbands.  I have hit upon a formula which I am tempted to utilize
+hereafter when I meet husbandless women.  When they are introduced I
+shall ask:--
+
+   Shaken,
+  Or taken?
+
+signifying in the first instance a loss by way of Nevada, or, in the
+second, through the pearlier gates of that Paradise which is the hope
+of us all.  Mr. Ames, as the butler has gone to sleep in the pantry,
+you will kindly pass the salt."
+
+She had handed Cecilia a number of letters, which the girl opened and
+then to my surprise meekly turned over to her aunt.  Miss Hollister
+surveyed them critically.
+
+"I thought," she remarked, "that that young Henderson who was so
+attentive to you at Madrid was an impostor, and this note settles the
+matter.  He flirted outrageously with Hezekiah behind your back.  He
+asks if he may call upon you here.  If he were the nephew of Colonel
+Abner Henderson of Roanoke, as he represented himself to be, he would
+not ask if he might call upon you, but would have appeared at once in
+his proper person to pay his addresses.  An unchivalrous and wobbly
+character, who evidently expects you to make the advances.  But such
+are the youth of our time.  And besides, Cecilia, his stationery leaves
+much to be desired.  As for these other gentlemen we need not discuss
+them.  Their actions must speak for them."
+
+Miss Hollister, having thus dismissed her niece's correspondents, rose
+and led the way to the library.  Cecilia seemed in no wise depressed by
+her aunt's fling at Mr. Henderson, whoever he might be, but threw the
+notes upon the flames that blazed merrily in the fireplace.
+
+I suggested immediately that as I had come to Hopefield Manor to
+inspect the flues I should now be about my business; but to my surprise
+Miss Hollister evinced no interest whatever in the matter.  Her tone
+and manner implied that the condition of her chimneys was wholly
+negligible.
+
+"There is no haste, Mr. Ames.  I have suffered all my life from the
+ill-considered and hurried work of professional men.  Even the
+clergy--and I have enjoyed the acquaintance of many--are quite reckless
+in giving opinions.  I once asked the Bishop of Waxahaxie--was it
+Waxahaxie, Cecilia, or Tallahassee?--well, it does n't matter
+anyhow--whether he honestly believed there are no women angels.  He
+replied with unusual frankness for one in holy orders that he did n't
+know, but added that he was sure there are angel women.  Just for that
+impertinence I cut in two my subscription to his cathedral
+building-fund.  When I ask an expert opinion of an educated person I
+don't intend to be put off with mere persiflage.  And to return to my
+chimneys, I beg that you give me the result of your most serious
+deliberations.  At this hour I ride; Cecilia, will you dress
+immediately and accompany me?"
+
+She disappeared at once and I stared mutely after her.  I am by no
+means an idler, and this cool indifference to the value of my time
+would ordinarily have enraged me; but I believe I laughed, and when I
+turned to Cecilia I found her smiling.
+
+"I 'm glad, Mr. Ames, that you are a person of humor.  My aunt's
+conduct verifies what I said to you last night--that the flues in this
+house have given us no trouble; that they have indeed had little chance
+to do so in the short time we have spent here.  It is true that this
+one acted queerly last night, and I have wondered about its temporary
+sulkiness a good deal.  It will be well, of course, for you to go over
+it, and all the others in the house.  It is no joke that my aunt is a
+believer in thoroughness, and one of these days, when she is ready to
+talk of chimneys, she will subject you to a most rigid examination."
+
+"One of these days?  Why, I have looked at the time-table, and it is my
+present intention to take the 12:03 into town.  I have appointments at
+my office for the afternoon.  I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I 'm a
+man of engagements, particularly at this season."
+
+I remembered what Jewett had told me of Fortner, the painter, and his
+detention at Newport by Miss Octavia Hollister.  I had no intention of
+being immured in any such fashion, and I was about to protest further
+when Cecilia took a step toward me, and after a glance at the door
+spoke in a low tone and with great earnestness.
+
+"Mr. Ames, I have every reason to believe that you are a gentleman, and
+in that confident belief I 'm going to ask a favor of you.  You have
+said that you know Mr. Hartley Wiggins well."
+
+"I know no man better.  You might not have inferred it from his manner
+last night, but he was undoubtedly surprised and embarrassed by my
+presence, and did not act quite like himself."'
+
+"I think I understand the cause of that.  If I should ask you to see
+him to-day and give him a message for me, could you do so?"
+
+"It will be an honor to serve you; and a very simple matter, as I
+should see him on my own account if he is still in the neighborhood."
+
+"He is doubtless at the Prescott Arms.  My message is a verbal one.
+Please urge him not to make any effort to see me, and not to call here
+again.  But at the same time, as the chimney smoked just as we were
+about to be left alone last night, I think--I think"--she hesitated a
+moment--"You may say that his interests have not been jeopardized by
+his temerity in calling."
+
+In her pause before concluding this curious commission her eyes
+searched mine deeply, and I felt that she had not lightly entrusted me
+with this singular errand.  Her dark eyes held mine an instant after
+she had spoken; then she smiled, and her face showed relief.
+
+"Ask for anything you want.  Aunt Octavia despises motors, so there 's
+no car here, but you will find plenty of horses and traps.  Order
+whatever pleases you.  I shall expect to meet you at dinner if not at
+luncheon--and so"--she smiled again--"will Aunt Octavia."
+
+She nodded to me from the door, and I heard her running lightly
+upstairs.
+
+Left to my own devices I rang the bell and ordered the library fire
+extinguished and the hearth cleaned.  This required a little time; but
+the house man obeyed me readily, and soon, clad in my professional
+overalls and jumper, I was going carefully over the flue whose behavior
+had been so unaccountable the previous night.  Guided by the servant I
+inspected the three fireplaces in the upper chambers that were served
+by flues in this chimney and finally dropped my torch and plumb-line
+from the chimney-pot.  Never in all my experience had I seen better
+flues; but remembering my ghost at Shinnecock, I had the ashes thrown
+out of the dump in the cellar and found the chute in perfect order.  I
+learned by inquiry that the other flues worked perfectly, but I
+nevertheless scrutinized them carefully.  My freedom of the house
+afforded an excellent opportunity for a study of its beautiful
+construction.  It was modern in every sense, with no dark, mysterious
+corners in which goblins might lurk.  I prowled about with increasing
+admiration for Pepperton, and with a deepening sense of my own failure
+in the art which he adorned.
+
+My professional labors were finished.  I was quite ready for Miss
+Hollister's most searching inquiries.  As for the library flue, I had
+decided that a little care in piling the logs in the hearth would
+obviate the possibility of any recurrence of the difficulty.  And I
+thereupon hurried to my room, and after a tub (my vocation encouraged
+frequent tubbing) chose from the stable a neat trap for one horse.
+Thus equipped I set out to find Wiggins.
+
+The Prescott Arms is an inn that sprang into being with the advent of
+motoring.  The tourist is advised of his approach to it by signs swung
+at the crossways, and its plaster and timber walls are in plain sight
+from one of the excellent state roads.  Gasoline and other liquids are
+offered there; one may have tea or an ampler meal on short notice; and
+a few guests may be lodged in case of necessity.  I remembered it well,
+having several times found it a haven on motor-flights with friends.
+As I drove into the entrance I saw Wiggins pacing the long veranda.  He
+waved a hand and came out to meet me, and when I had rid myself of the
+trap he suggested that we take a walk.
+
+[Illustration: As I drove into the entrance.]
+
+His manner was not cordial, and he wore the haggard look of a man on
+bad terms with his pillow.  I attributed his appearance to
+preoccupation with his love-affair.  When we had withdrawn a little way
+from the inn he turned on me sharply.
+
+"Well?" he demanded.
+
+"Well," I laughed.
+
+"Oh, you needn't take that tone about it!  Your being here is something
+that requires explanation; and your being _there_"--he flung out his
+arm toward Hopefield Manor--"your presence there is not a laughing
+matter."
+
+"My dear Wiggins, I came here in a spirit of friendship, and you treat
+me like a pickpocket.  I must say that if you had not acted like a clam
+the other night at the club, but had told me what was in the wind, we
+might not be meeting now like ancient enemies instead of old and
+intimate friends."
+
+He vouchsafed no reply, but threw himself down under a scarlet maple
+and began to whittle a stick, while I went on with my story.
+
+"I met Miss Octavia Hollister in the Asolando the day after our last
+dinner at the club.  I had dropped into the tea-room merely to look at
+the place again.  I had never seen her before in all my life.  She is a
+whimsical old lady--but a lady, you must admit that--and we exchanged
+cards.  On learning my occupation she at once declared that I must come
+up here to look at her chimneys.  She made an appointment by mail for
+yesterday afternoon.  It is not my fault that she treated me like a
+guest, or that she introduced me of necessity to her niece Cecilia.
+And now I have finished my work, and after I have made my report I
+shall probably not meet her again.  As for Miss Cecilia Hollister, I
+can only say, my dear Wiggins, that she is a rarely beautiful woman,
+and that if you wish to marry her you have my very best wishes for your
+success and happiness."
+
+"It struck me that you were pretty well established there," he blurted.
+"I confess that I took it for granted you were not there wholly on a
+professional errand; and I won't deny, Ames, that I was not pleased to
+see you."
+
+"You honor me in assuming that I might aspire to the hand of so
+splendid a woman as Cecilia Hollister; but, my dear Wiggins, I tell you
+I never laid eyes on her until last night."
+
+"But you had been to the Asolando," he persisted, hacking away doggedly
+at his stick.
+
+"Of course I had.  I told you I had.  I told you the whole story.  But
+I did not see Cecilia Hollister there.  She was n't there!  I fancy
+that after you saw her there last spring and became infatuated with her
+and followed her to Europe instead of going to Dakota to harvest your
+blooming wheat--after that bit of history she never returned to the
+Asolando.  Your lack of frankness in all this has pained me.  And you
+left it for a gossiping chap like Jewett to tell me the whole story.
+And to cap your duplicity you sneaked out of the club the other night
+while Jewett was talking to me and let the club people think you were
+bound for your ranch.  I call it rather low down, Wiggins, after all
+the years we have known each other.  My slate is clean; how about
+yours?"
+
+He threw the stick at a sparrow whose chirp irritated him from a stone
+fence beyond us, and turned toward me a countenance on which dejection,
+humiliation, and chagrin were written large.
+
+"Damn it all!" he bellowed, "I believe I 'm losing my mind.  I don't
+know what I 'm doing.  That old woman up there is responsible for all
+this.  She 's as crazy as a March hare,--crazier!  And she 's made a
+prisoner of that girl.  I tell you Cecilia Hollister is the grandest
+girl in the world."
+
+"Go it, son!  Those descendants of Caesar's legions at work in the road
+down there are pausing to listen.  Try to affect calmness if you don't
+feel it.  I agree to all you say of Miss Cecilia.  And please get it
+into your noddle that I have no intention of becoming your rival for
+her hand.  But I must beg of you also not to speak in such terms of her
+aunt.  She 's the most delightful woman I ever met."
+
+"Mad, I tell you, quite mad!"
+
+"Wise,--with the most beautiful wisdom; you simply don't understand
+her."
+
+"I know all I want to about her.  If she were not insane she would not
+build a wall of mystery about her niece and keep me camping out here
+not knowing where I stand.  I tell you, Ames, that woman is a
+malevolent being; she 's perfectly fiendish."
+
+There is no way of answering a man in this humor save by laughter; and
+I laughed long and loud, to the consternation of the Italian
+road-laborers who were now swallowing their luncheons a short distance
+away from us.
+
+Wiggins sulked awhile and then addressed me seriously.
+
+"I didn't tell you I was going abroad, because the situation made
+explanations difficult.  I could hardly tell you that I was about to
+race over Europe after a waitress I had seen in a tea-room.  You 're
+always so confoundedly suspicious.  It would have an odd sound even now
+if she were--well, if she were a waitress instead of what you know her
+to be.  And my animosity toward Miss Octavia Hollister is due to the
+fact that after I had been as courteous to her all summer long as I
+could, and thought myself tolerably established in her mind as a decent
+person and a gentleman, she suddenly shuts Cecilia up in that
+house,--bought it on purpose, I fancy,--and Cecilia herself is
+compelled to take on an air of mystery, warning me to keep away,
+suggesting the darkest possibilities, but giving me no hint whatever of
+the reason for her conduct."
+
+"Let us confine ourselves to Miss Octavia for a moment.  While you were
+acting as cavalier to her party abroad she was friendly; then she
+suddenly changed.  Now there must be some explanation of that."
+
+"Well, for one thing, she flew off at a tangent about my ancestors.  We
+were in Berlin on the Fourth of July and got to talking about the
+American revolution.  She asked me what my people had done for the
+patriotic cause.  The painful fact is that most of them were Tories;
+but my great-grandfather broke with his father and brothers, joined
+Washington's army, and fought through the whole business.  But to save
+the feelings of the rest of them, who went to England till it was all
+over, he changed his name.  There's no mention of him in the war
+records anywhere.  I've had experts working on it, but they can't find
+any trace of him.  He was greatly embittered by the estrangement from
+his people, and though he had a farm in this very neighborhood
+somewhere--I 've thought sometime I 'd look it up and try to get hold
+of it--he never mentioned his military experiences even to his own
+children.  Usually Miss Hollister changes front if you give her time.
+I've heard her say that we'd have been better off if we'd never broken
+with England; but she persists in prodding that weak place in my armor."
+
+"That's very dark, Wiggy.  If she keeps it up you'll have to dig up
+your great-grandfather someway.  The spiritualists might call him on
+long distance.  But let us turn to Miss Cecilia.  I don't for a moment
+believe that she is a victim of ancestor worship.  The perambulator
+rampant adorns the Hollister shield to the exclusion of everything
+else.  From what you say Cecilia has not repelled you; on the other
+hand she has frankly given you to understand that you must not press
+your suit at this time for reasons she sees fit to withhold.  A little
+more patience, a little calm deliberation and less violent language,
+and in due course the girl is yours.  Now what do you fancy is the
+cause of Cecilia's abrupt change of attitude?"
+
+He refused to meet my eyes, but turned away as though to conceal an
+embarrassment whose cause I could not surmise.  When he spoke it was in
+a voice husky with emotion.
+
+"Am I a cad?  Am I beneath the contempt of decent people?"
+
+"It's possible, Wiggy, that you are.  Go on with it."
+
+"Well, you know," he began diffidently, "Cecilia has a sister."
+
+I grinned, but his scowl brought me to myself again.
+
+"Yes.  And her name is Hezekiah.  The name pleases me."
+
+"She was with Miss Octavia in her gallop over Europe, so I saw a good
+deal of her necessarily.  She is younger than Cecilia; she's a good
+deal of a kid,--the sort that never grows up, you know."
+
+"Just like her aunt Octavia!"
+
+"Bah!  Don't mention that woman.  Hezekiah is a very pretty girl; and I
+suppose,--well, when you are thrown with a girl that way, seeing her
+constantly"--
+
+I clapped my hand on his knee as the light began to dawn upon me.
+
+"You old rascal, you don't need to add a single word!  I dare say you
+are guilty.  I can see it in your eye.  After waiting till you reached
+years of discretion before beginning an attack upon womankind, you
+began mowing them down in platoons.  So they come running now that you
+'ve got a start.  Oh, Wiggy, and I believed you immune!  And you 're
+trying to drive 'em tandem."
+
+The thing was funny, knowing Wiggins as I did, and I gave expression to
+my mirth; but his fierce demeanor quickly brought me back to the
+serious contemplation of his difficulty.
+
+"That, you shameless wretch, would be a sufficient reason for Miss
+Octavia's aloofness,--your double-faced dealing with her nieces?  You
+confirm my impression that she is a wise woman.  And Cecilia, I take
+it, may be deeply embarrassed by her sister's infatuation for you.  You
+certainly have made a tangle of things, you heart-wrecker, you
+conscienceless deceiver!  But where, may I ask, does this Hezekiah keep
+herself?"
+
+"Oh, she's with her father.  They have a bungalow over the hills there,
+several miles from Hopefield Manor."
+
+"Well, I hope you are no longer toying with her affections.  Of course
+you don't see her any more?"
+
+"Well," he mumbled, "I did see her this morning.  But I could n't help
+it.  It was the merest chance.  I met her in the road when I was out
+taking a walk.  She 's always turning up,--she's the most unaccountable
+young person."
+
+"I suppose, Wiggy, that if you stand in the road and Miss Hezekiah
+Hollister strolls by on her way to market, you fancy that she is
+pursuing you.  As Miss Octavia has well said, this is not a chivalrous
+age.  I 'm deeply disappointed in you.  Your conduct and your attitude
+toward this trusting young girl are disgraceful."
+
+He rose and flung up his arms despairingly.  It was much easier to
+laugh at Wiggins than to be angry at him; but I recalled the message
+which Cecilia had entrusted to me, and this, I thought, might give him
+some comfort.
+
+"Miss Cecilia asked me this morning to say to you that you must not try
+to see her again; you must keep away from the house."
+
+This obviously increased his dejection.
+
+"But," I added, "I was to say that she thought nothing had yet occurred
+to interfere with your ambitions, as you were not permitted to see her
+alone last night.  The chimney, you may remember, began playing pranks
+just at the moment when Miss Hollister and I were about to adjourn to
+the billiard-room, so a tete-a-tete between you and Cecilia was
+impossible."
+
+"She told you to see me?"
+
+"She certainly did.  I confess that my message does n't seem luminous,
+but I have a feeling that she meant to be kind.  It may be that she is
+giving you time to disentangle yourself from the delectable Hezekiah's
+meshes.  I can't elucidate; I merely convey information.  But answer
+honestly if you can: has Cecilia ever by word or act refused you?"
+
+"No," he replied grimly; "she 's never given me the chance!"
+
+He asked me to luncheon, and on the way back to the inn, after
+inquiring my plans for returning to town, he proposed that I delay my
+departure until the following day.  What he wanted, and he put it
+bluntly, was a friend at court, and as I had seemingly satisfied him of
+my entire good faith and of my devotion to his interests, he begged
+that I prolong my stay in Miss Hollister's house, giving as my excuse
+the condition of the chimneys of Hopefield Manor.  He brushed aside my
+plea of other engagements and appealed to our old friendship.  He was
+taking his troubles hard, and I felt that he really needed counsel and
+support in the involved state of his affairs.  I did not see how my
+continued presence under Miss Hollister's roof could materially assist
+him, and the thought of remaining there when there was no work to be
+done was repugnant to my sense of professional honor; but he was so
+persistent that I finally yielded.
+
+While we ate luncheon I sought by every means to divert his thoughts to
+other channels.  After we were seated in the dining-room four other men
+followed, exercising considerable care in placing themselves as far
+from one another as possible.  A few moments later a motor hummed into
+the driveway, and we heard its owner ordering his chauffeur to return
+to town and hold himself subject to telephone call.  This latest
+arrival appeared shortly in the dining-room, and surveying the rest of
+us with a disdainful air, sought a table in the remotest corner of the
+room.  Others appeared, until eight in all had entered.  The presence
+of these men at this hour, their air of aloofness, and the care they
+exercised in isolating themselves, interested me.  They appeared to be
+gentlemen; they were, indeed, suggestive of the ampler metropolitan
+world; and one of them was unmistakably a foreigner.
+
+While Wiggins appeared to ignore them, I was conscious that he reviewed
+the successive arrivals with every manifestation of contempt.  One of
+these glum gentlemen seemed familiar; I could not at once recall him,
+but something in his manner teased my memory for a moment before I
+placed him.  Then it dawned upon me that he was the third man I had met
+in the field overhanging the garden after my eavesdropping experience
+the day before.  I thought it as well, however, not to mention this
+fact, or to speak of the man I had seen so grimly posted in the midst
+of the cornfield.  I was an observer, a looker-on, at Hopefield, and my
+immediate business was the collecting of information.
+
+"Will you kindly tell me, Wiggy, who these strange gentlemen are and
+just what has brought them here at this hour?  They seem greatly
+preoccupied, and the last one, in particular, surveyed you with a
+murderous eye.  If we could be translated to some such inn as this in
+the environs of Paris, I should conclude that a duel was imminent and
+that these gentlemen were assembling to meet after their coffee
+to-morrow morning for an affair of honor."
+
+"I know them; they are guests of the inn.  Most of them were more or
+less companions in our procession across Europe last summer.  The one
+in the tan suit is Henderson; you must have heard of him.  The short
+dark chap of atrabilous countenance is John Stewart Dick, who pretends
+to be a philosopher.  As for the others"--
+
+He dismissed them with a jerk of the head.  My wits struggled with his
+explanation.  It is my way to wish to reduce information to plain terms.
+
+"Are these gentlemen, then, your rivals for the hand of Miss Cecilia
+Hollister?  If so, they are a solemn band of suitors, I must confess."
+
+"You have hit it, Ames.  They are suitors, assembled from all parts of
+the world."
+
+"Nice-looking fellows, except the chap with the monocle, who has just
+ordered rather more liquor than a gentleman should drink at this hour."
+
+"That is Lord Arrowood.  I have feared at times that Miss Octavia
+favored him."
+
+"Possibly, but not likely.  But how long is this thing going to last?
+If you fellows are going to hang on here until Miss Cecilia Hollister
+has chosen one of you for her husband, I shudder for your nerves.  I
+imagine that any one of these gentlemen is likely to begin shooting
+across his plate at any minute.  Such a situation would become
+intolerable very quickly if I were in the game and forced to lodge
+here."
+
+"I hope," replied Wiggins with heat, "that you don't imagine these
+fellows can crowd me out!  I 've paid for a month's lodging in advance,
+and if you will stand by me I 'm going to win."
+
+"Spoken like a man, my dear Wiggins!  You may count on me to the sweet
+or bitter end, even if I pull down all the superb chimneys with which
+Pepperton adorned that house up yonder."
+
+He silently clasped my hand.  A little later I telephoned from the inn
+to my office explaining my absence and instructing my assistant to
+visit several pressing clients; and I instructed the valet at the Hare
+and Tortoise to send me a week's supply of linen and an odd suit or two.
+
+At about three o'clock I left Wiggins in first-rate spirits and set out
+on my return to Hopefield Manor.  I felt the eyes of the eight other
+suitors, who were scattered at intervals along the verandah, glued to
+my back as I drove out of the inn yard.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+NINE SILK HATS CROSS A STILE
+
+A girl in a white sweater sat on a stone wall and munched a red apple;
+but this is to anticipate.
+
+I had made a wrong turn on leaving the Prescott Arms, and I came out
+presently near Katonah village.  I got my bearings of a shopkeeper and
+started again for Hopefield Manor; but the mid-afternoon was warm, and
+the hills were steep, and as Miss Hollister's admirable cob showed
+signs of weariness, I drove into a fence-corner and loosened the mare's
+check.  On a sunny slope several hundred yards above the highway lay an
+orchard, advertised to the larcenous eye by the ruddiest of red apples.
+Not in many years had I robbed an orchard, and I felt irresistibly
+drawn toward the gnarled trees, which were still, in their old age,
+abundantly fruitful.
+
+When I reached the orchard I found it quite isolated, with only fallow
+fields, seamed with stone fences, stretching on either hand.  A spring
+near by sent the slenderest of brooks flashing down the slope.  There
+was no house in sight anywhere, and the neglected orchard flaunted its
+bright fruit with pathetic bravado.  I drew down a bough and plucked my
+first apple, tasted, and found it good.  At my palate's first
+responsive titillation, something whizzed past my ear, and following
+the flight of the missile, I saw an apple of goodly size fall and roll
+away into the grass.  I had imagined myself utterly alone, and even
+now, as I looked guiltily around, no one was in sight.  The apple had
+passed my ear swiftly and at an angle quite un-Newtonian.  It had been
+fairly aimed at my head, and the law of gravitation did not account for
+it.  As I continued my scrutiny of the landscape, I was addressed by a
+voice whose accents were not objurgatory.  Rather, the tone was
+good-natured and indulgent, if not indeed a trifle patronizing.  The
+words were these:--
+
+  "Soup of the evening, beautiful soup!"
+
+
+It was then that, lifting my eyes, I beheld, sitting lengthwise of the
+wall, with her feet drawn comfortably under her, a girl in a white
+sweater, bareheaded, munching an apple.  There was no question of
+identity: it was the girl whose head behind the cashier's grill of the
+Asolando had interested me on the occasion of my second visit to the
+tea-room.  In soliciting my attention by reciting a line of verse, she
+had merely followed the rule of the tea-room in like circumstances.
+The casting of the apple at my head possessed the virtue of novelty,
+but now that her shot was fired and her line spoken, she addressed
+herself again to her apple.  Her manner implied indifference; but her
+unconcern was that of a trout not wishing to discourage the fisherman,
+feigning a languid interest in a familiar fly dropped at its nose.
+While I tried to think of something to say, I pecked at my own apple,
+but kept an eye on her.  She concluded her repast calmly and flung away
+the core.
+
+"I mentioned soup," she remarked.  "The courses are mixed.  We have
+partaken of fruit.  Are you fish, flesh, fowl, or good red herring?"
+
+"Daughter of Eve, I will be anything you like.  I 'm obliged for the
+apple, and I apologize for having entered Eden uninvited."
+
+"It's not my Eden.  Nobody invited me.  But it's not too much to say
+that these apples are grand."
+
+"I 'm glad we 're both in the same boat.  I 'm a trespasser myself.  I
+don't even know the name of the owner.  But if you have had only one
+apple, two more are coming to you, if you follow Atalanta's precedent."
+
+"I don't follow precedents, and I 've forgotten the name of the boy who
+threw the apples in the race.  It does n't matter, though; nothing
+matters very much."
+
+Her hands clasped her knees.  Her skirt was short, and I was conscious
+that she wore tan shoes.  She continued to regard me with lazy
+curiosity.  She seemed younger than at the Asolando.  Not more than
+eighteen times had apples reddened on the bough in her lifetime!  She
+was even slenderer and more youthful in her sweater than in the snowy
+vestments of the Asolando.  Her hair which, in the glow of the lamp at
+Asolando cash-desk had been golden, was to-day burnished copper, and
+was brushed straight back from her forehead and tied with a black
+ribbon.
+
+"I quite agree with your philosophy.  Nothing is of great importance."
+
+"So it's not your orchard?" she asked.
+
+"The thought flatters me.  I own no lands nor ships at sea.  I 'm a
+chimney doctor, and if necessary I 'll apologize for it."
+
+"You needn't submit testimonials; I take the swallows out of my own
+chimneys."
+
+"That requires a deft hand, and I 'm sure you 're considerate of the
+swallows."
+
+"You may come up here and sit on the wall if you care to.  I saw you
+driving in a trap.  I hope your horse is n't afraid of motors; motors
+speed scandalously on that road."
+
+"I am not in the least worried about my horse.  It's borrowed.  As you
+remarked, this is a nice orchard.  I like it here."
+
+"If you are going to be silly, you will find me little inclined to
+nonsense."
+
+"Shall we talk of the Asolando?  I haven't been back since I saw you
+there.  And yet,--let me see, is n't this your day there?"
+
+She seemed greatly amused; and her laughter rose with a fountain-like
+spontaneity, and fell, a splash of musical sound, on the mellow air of
+the orchard.  She had changed her position as I joined her, sitting
+erect, and kicking her heels lazily against the wall.
+
+"Mr. Chimney Man, something terrible happened just after you left that
+afternoon.  I was bounced, fired; I lost my job."
+
+"Incredible!  I 'm sure it was not for any good cause.  I can testify
+that you were a model of attention; you were surpassingly discreet.
+You repelled me in the most delicate manner when I intimated that I
+should come often on the days that you made the change."
+
+"The sad part of it was that that was not only my last day but my
+first!  I had never been there before, except for a nibble now and then
+when I was in town.  But I could n't stand it.  It was like being in
+jail; in fact, I think jail would be preferable.  But I 'm glad I spent
+that one day there.  It proved what I have long believed, that I am a
+barbarian.  That poetry on the walls of the Asolando made me tired, not
+that it is n't good poetry, but that the walls of a tea-shop are no
+place for it.  I always suspect that people who like their poetry
+framed, and who have uplift mottoes stuck in mirrors where they can
+study them while they brush their hair in the morning, never really get
+any poetry inside of them.  You need a place like this for poetry,--an
+old orchard, with blue sky and a crumbly wall to sit on.  I tried the
+Asolando as a lark, really, not because I 'm deeply entertained by that
+sort of thing.  They dispensed with my company because I remarked to
+one of the silly girls who are making the Asolando their life-work that
+I thought the English Pre-Raphaelites had carried the dish-face rather
+too far.  The girl to whom I uttered this heresy was so shocked she
+dropped a tea-cup,--you know how brittle everything is in there,--and I
+came home.  You were really the only adventure I got out of my day
+there.  And I did n't find you entirely satisfactory."
+
+"Thank you, Francesca, for these confidences.  And having lost your
+position you are now free to roam the hills and dream on orchard walls.
+Your scheme of life is to my liking.  I can see with half an eye that
+you were born for the open, and that the walls of no prison-house can
+ever hold you again."
+
+She nodded a dreamy acquiescence.  Then she turned two very brown eyes
+full upon me and demanded:--
+
+"What is your name, please?"
+
+I mentioned it.
+
+"And you doctor chimneys?  That sounds very amusing."
+
+"I 'm glad you like it.  Most people think it absurd."
+
+"What are you doing here?  There's not a chimney in sight."
+
+"Oh, I have a commission in the neighborhood.  Hopefield Manor; you may
+have heard of Miss Hollister's place."
+
+"Of course; every one knows of her."
+
+"And now that I think of it, it was she about whom you asked in the
+Asolando that afternoon.  You wanted to know what she said about the
+tea-room."
+
+"I remember perfectly."
+
+She was quiet for a moment, then she threw back her head and laughed
+that rare laugh of hers.
+
+"You might let me into the joke."
+
+"It would n't mean anything to you.  I have a lot of private jokes that
+are for my own consumption."
+
+"Your way of laughing is adorable.  I hope to hear more of it.  In the
+Asolando you repulsed me in a manner that won my admiration, but I
+venture to say now that, if you roam these pastures, I am the grass
+beneath your feet; and if yonder tuneful water be sacred to you, I sit
+beside the brook to learn its song."
+
+"You talk well, sir, but from your tone I fear you can't forget that we
+met first in the Asolando.  That day of my life is past, and I am by no
+means what you might call an Asolandad.  I don't seem to impress you
+with that fact.  I 'm a human being, not to be picked like a red apple,
+or trampled upon like grass, or listened to as though I were a foolish
+little brook.  I 'm greatly given to the highway, and I prefer macadam.
+I like asphalt pavements, too, for the matter of that.  I should love a
+motor, but lacking the coin I pedal a bicycle.  My wheel lies down
+there in the bushes.  You see, Mr. Chimney Man, I am a plain-spoken
+person and have no intention of deceiving you.  My name was Francesca
+for one day only.  It may interest you to know that my real name is
+Hezekiah."
+
+"Hezekiah!"
+
+I must have shouted it; she seemed startled by my violence.
+
+"You have pronounced it correctly," she remarked.
+
+"Then you are Cecilia's sister and Miss Hollister's niece."
+
+"Guilty."
+
+"And you live?"--
+
+"Over there somewhere, beyond that ridge," and she waved her hand
+vaguely toward the village and laughed again.
+
+"Pray tell me what this particular joke is: it must be immensely
+funny," I urged, struggling with these new facts.
+
+"Oh, it's Aunt Octavia!  She will be the death of me yet!  You know the
+girl who waited on Aunt Octavia that afternoon took all that artistic
+nonsense as seriously as a funeral, and she told me after you left,
+with the greatest horror, that Aunt Octavia had asked for a cocktail!"
+That laugh rippled off again to carry joy along the planet-trails above
+us.  "But you know," she resumed, "that Aunt Octavia never drank a
+cocktail in her life,--and would n't!  She does n't know a cocktail
+from soothing syrup!  She pines for adventures.  She is just like a
+boarding-school girl who has read her first romance of the young
+American engineer in a South American republic, shooting the insurgents
+full of tortillas and marrying the president's dark-eyed daughter.  She
+reads pirate books and is crazy about buried chests and pieces of
+eight.  And they say I 'm just like her!  She is the most perfectly
+killing person in the world!"
+
+Hezekiah laughed again.
+
+So this was the child whose devotion had rendered Wiggins so miserable,
+and the sister of whom Cecilia Hollister and her aunt had spoken so
+strangely.  I had not suspected it.  She was as unlike Cecilia as
+possible, and the difference lay in her independent spirit and bubbling
+humor.  Her individuality was more pronounced.  You took her, without
+debate, on her own ground; and though she had expressed a preference
+for macadam, she seemed related to the days when maidens sat on sunny
+walls and were not disappointed in their expectation that light-footed
+youths, or mayhap winged sons of the Olympians, would reward patient
+waiting.  But at the same time she struck the note of modernity.  Her
+flings at the Asolando were reassuring; she was a healthy-minded,
+vigorous young woman whose nature protested against affectation and
+pose.  She rebelled against closed doors, whether those of town or
+country.  I am myself much of a cockney, and not averse to asphalt and
+streets ablaze with electric banners.  My imagination sprang to meet
+this Hezekiah.  I had, in fact, a feeling that I had waited for her
+somewhere in some earlier incarnation.  She jumped down from the wall,
+shook three apples from a tree, and sustained them in the air with the
+deftness and certainty of practised _jonglerie_.  Her absorption was
+complete, and when she wearied of this sport, she flung the apples
+away, one after the other, with a boy's free swing of the arm.  Herrick
+would have delighted in her; Dobson would have spun her bright hair
+into a rondeau; but only Aldrich, with a twinkle in his eye, could have
+brought her up to date in a dozen chiming couplets.  I felt that no
+matter how much one admired and respected this Hezekiah one would never
+deal with her in the phrases of drawing-rooms.  Her charming
+inadvertences made this impossible; and it was the part of discretion
+to await her own initiative.
+
+She had gone on up to the crest of the orchard, and stood clearly
+limned against the sky, her hands thrust into the pockets of her
+sweater.  She appeared to be intent upon something that lay beyond, and
+half turned her head and summoned me by whistling.  I liked this better
+than the quotation method of address.  It was a clear shrill pipe, that
+whistle, and she emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her arm.
+When I stood beside her I was surprised to find that the site commanded
+a wide area, including the unmistakable roofs and chimneys of Hopefield
+Manor half a mile distant.
+
+[Illustration: She emphasized it further by a peremptory wave of her
+arm.]
+
+"You will see something funny down there in a minute.  They are out of
+sight now, but there 's a stile--the kind with steps, just beyond those
+trees.  It's in a path that leads from the Prescott Arms to Aunt
+Octavia's.  Look!"
+
+My eyes discovered the stile.  It was set in a wall that was, she told
+me, the boundary dividing Hopefield Manor from another estate nearer
+our position.
+
+Suddenly a silk hat bobbed in the path beyond the stile; it rose as its
+owner mounted the steps; it paused an instant when the top of the stile
+was reached; then quickly descended, and came toward us, a black blot
+above a black coat.  I was about to ask her the meaning of this
+apparition when a second silk hat bobbed in the path and then rose like
+its predecessor, descending and keeping on its way until hidden from
+our sight by shrubbery.  A third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,
+eighth, and ninth followed.  Nine gentlemen in silk hats crossing a
+stile in a lonely pasture between woodlands; so much was plain to the
+eye from our vantage-ground; but I groped blindly for an explanation of
+this spectacle.  The bobbing hats and dark coats suggested wanderers
+from some dark Plutonian cave, bent upon mischief to the upper world.
+Their step was jaunty; they moved as though drilled to the same cadence.
+
+We waited a moment, expecting that another figure might join the
+strange procession, but nine was the correct count.  I looked down to
+find Hezekiah checking them off on the fingers of her slim brown hand.
+
+"Has there been a funeral and are they the returning pall-bearers?" I
+inquired.
+
+"Not yet," she replied.
+
+Her face showed amusement; the twitching of her lips encouraged hope
+that another of those delightful laughs was imminent.
+
+"It was positively weird," I said.  "It reminds me of a dream I used to
+have, when I was a boy, of a long line of Chinamen running along the
+top of a great wall,--an interminable procession.  I must have dreamed
+that dream a hundred times.  I could hear the pigtails of those fellows
+flapping against their backs as they trotted along, and the soft
+scraping of their sandals on the smooth surface of the wall.  But the
+pot hats are equally eerie and unaccountable to my dull
+twentieth-century senses.  Pray tell me the answer, Hezekiah."
+
+"Oh, those are Cecilia's suitors.  They've been to Aunt Octavia's to
+tea.  They 're staying at the Prescott Arms probably."
+
+"They 're terribly formal.  I can't get rid of the impression of
+sombreness created by those fellows.  You 'd hardly expect them to
+tramp cross country in those duds.  Such grandeur should go on wheels."
+
+"Oh, they are afraid of Aunt Octavia!  She won't allow a motor on her
+grounds; and I suppose they 're afraid they might break some other rule
+if they went on any kind of wheels.  She 's rather exacting, you know,
+my aunt Octavia."
+
+"I was at the Prescott for luncheon to-day, and I must have seen these
+gentlemen there."
+
+"Oh, _you_ were at the Prescott?"
+
+Almost for the first time her manner betrayed surprise; but mischief
+danced in the brown eyes.  With Wiggins's confession as to the havoc he
+had played with Hezekiah's confiding heart fresh in my memory, I felt a
+delicacy about telling her that it was to see Wiggins that I had
+visited the inn.  But to my surprise she introduced the subject of
+Wiggins immediately, and with laughter struggling for one of those
+fountain-like splashes that were so beguiling.
+
+"Oh, Wiggy is staying there!  Do you know Wiggy?"
+
+"Know Wiggy, Hezekiah?  I know no man better."
+
+"Wiggy is no end of fun, isn't he?  I've heard him speak of you.  You
+are his friend the Chimney Man.  He was the last man over the stile.
+Did you notice that he lingered a moment longer at the top than the
+others?  From his being the ninth man I imagine that he was the last to
+leave the house, and he probably felt that this set him apart from the
+others.  Wiggy is nothing if not shy and retiring."
+
+A heart-broken, love-lorn girl did not speak here.  She whistled softly
+to herself as we descended.  The air was cooling rapidly, and the west
+was hung in scarlet and purple and gold.  The horse neighed in the road
+below, and I knew that I must be on my way to the Manor.
+
+"Hezekiah," I said, when I had drawn her bicycle from its hiding-place,
+"you 'd better leave your wheel here and let me drive you home.  It's
+late and there 's frost in the air.  I imagine it's some distance to
+your house."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Chimney Man; but it is much farther to Aunt Octavia's,
+for you have to make a long circuit around the hills.  And besides, as
+we met in the orchard, it would be altogether too commonplace a
+conclusion of our adventure for you to drive me home behind a mere
+horse.  But tell me this: what do you think of Wiggy's chances?"
+
+"Of winning your sister?  I should say from my knowledge of Wiggins
+that he is a man much given to staying in a game once the cards are
+shuffled."
+
+She nodded, standing beside her wheel, her hands on the bars.  Her
+manner was contemplative; her eyes for a moment were deep, shadowless
+pools of reverie.
+
+"Then you think he knows the game?"
+
+There seemed to be something beneath the surface meaning of her words,
+but I answered:--
+
+"Wiggy's affairs have been few, and while he may not know the game in
+all its intricacies, he has a shrewd if rather slow mind, and besides,
+he has asked my help in the matter."
+
+"One of these speak-for-yourself-John situations, then?  Well, I should
+say, Mr. Chimney Man, I should say"--
+
+She made ready for flight, looking ahead to be sure of a clear
+thoroughfare.
+
+"I should say," she concluded, settling her skirts, "that that
+indicates considerable intelligence on Wiggy's part."
+
+The tires rolled smoothly away; the gravel crunching, the pebbles
+popping.  The white sweater clasped a straight back snugly; then
+suddenly, as the wheels gained momentum, she bent low for a spurt, and
+her rapidly receding figure became a gray blur in the purple dusk.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+CECILIA'S SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+
+Miss Octavia was in the gayest spirits at dinner that night, and struck
+afield at once with one of her amusing dicta.
+
+"Human beings," she said, "may be divided into two groups,--interesting
+and uninteresting; but idiots abound in both classes."
+
+Cecilia and I discussed this with more or less gravity, until we had
+exhausted the possibilities, Miss Octavia following with apparent
+interest and setting us off at a new tangent when our enthusiasm
+lagged.  She referred in no way whatever to her chimneys, nor did she
+ask me how I had spent the day.  I felt the pleading of Cecilia's eyes
+that I should accept the situation as it stood, and having already
+agreed to Wiggins's suggestion that I abide in Miss Hollister's house
+as a spy,--for this was the ignoble fact,--I felt the threads of
+conspiracy binding me fast.  So far as my hostess was concerned, I was
+now less a guest than a member of the household.
+
+The variety of subjects that Miss Octavia suggested was amazing.  From
+aeronautics to the negro question, from polar exploration to the
+political conditions in Bulgaria, she passed with the jauntiest
+insouciance and apparently with a considerable fund of information to
+support her positions.  She knew many people in all walks of life.  I
+remember that she spoke with the greatest freedom of the Governor of
+Indiana, whom she had met on a railway journey.  She quoted this
+gentleman's utterances with keenest zest.  His anecdotal range she
+declared to be the widest and raciest she had ever encountered in a
+considerable acquaintance with public characters.  She thought the
+Hoosier statesman eminently fitted by reason of his acute sense of
+humor for the office of president.
+
+"That man," said Miss Octavia, "was splendidly equipped for handling
+the most perplexing affairs of state.  It seemed absurd that his public
+services should be limited to the petty business of a commonwealth
+whose chief products are pawpaws, persimmons, and politics.  The
+governor told me that before his election he had been sorely beset by
+reformers.  They had teased him persistently to express his views on
+the most absurd questions.  They wanted him to promise all manner of
+things before they gave him their support.  And finally, to appease
+them, he answered that he would combine their questions in one and
+reply to all that, the earth being round, he would, if elected, do all
+in his power to make it square.  This he found to be perfectly
+satisfactory to the reformers.  Solomon was a mere tyro in wisdom
+compared with that man.  You would n't expect so much sagacity in one
+who, by his own frank confession, had been raised on fried meat, and
+who declared that if grand opera were attempted in his state he would
+suspend the writ of habeas corpus and call out the militia to suppress
+it."
+
+I was not at all sure whether the governor whom she quoted with so
+great delight was an actual person or a myth upon whom Miss Octavia
+hung her own whimsicalities; but as if to rebuke my skepticism, she
+dwelt on this personage at considerable length, inviting my own and
+Cecilia's questions as to her knowledge of him.
+
+"I didn't suppose," remarked Cecilia provocatively, "that Indiana was
+really a place that you could go to on trains, but a kind of imaginary
+kingdom like Eppenwelzen-Sarkeld or Grunewald or Zenda, or an extinct
+place in Asia where lions crouch upon the ruins in the moonlight."
+
+"Indiana," said Miss Octavia sternly, "is a commonwealth for which I
+have always had the greatest veneration, and which, in due course, I
+hope to visit.  In the early seventies my father, the late Hezekiah
+Hollister, invested a considerable part of his fortune in Indiana
+farm-mortgages.  On these investments the interest was paid with only
+the greatest reluctance and in the most fitful fashion.  This, I think,
+argues for a keen sense of humor in the Hoosier people.  Interest is
+something that I should never think of paying in any circumstances, as
+I have always considered it immoral.  My father, keenly enjoying the
+playfulness of the Hoosiers in this particular, saved himself from loss
+merely by raising the price of baby-cabs throughout the world, and gave
+the mortgages as a free gift to the Society for the Amelioration of the
+Condition of Good Indians.  All the good Indians being dead, the
+society had no expenses except officers' salaries, and as the Hoosiers
+gave up politics for a season and raised enough corn to pay their
+debts, the society became enormously rich."
+
+As we rose from the table Miss Octavia declared that she must show me
+the pie-pantry.  I was now so accustomed to her ways that I should not
+have been in the least surprised if she had proposed opening a steel
+vault filled with a mummified Egyptian dynasty.
+
+"The gentleman who built this house," she explained, "had already grown
+rich in the manufacture of the famous ribless umbrella before he
+acquired a second fortune from a nostrum warranted to cure dyspepsia.
+He was inordinately fond of pies, and in order that this form of pastry
+might never be absent from his home, he had a special pantry built to
+which he might adjourn at his pleasure without any fear of finding the
+cupboard bare."
+
+She led the way through the butler's pantry and into a small cupboarded
+room adjoining the table-linen closet.  At her command the butler threw
+open the doors, and disclosed lines of shelves so arranged as to
+accommodate, in the most compact and orderly form imaginable, several
+dozens of pies.  These pastries, in the pans as they had come from the
+oven, peeped out invitingly.  Miss Octavia explained their presence in
+her usual impressive manner.
+
+"It was one of the conditions of the sale of this house to me by the
+original owner's executors that the pie-vault should be kept filled at
+all times, whether I am in residence here or not.  He felt greatly
+indebted to pie for the success of the dyspepsia cure.  It had widened
+and steadily increased the market for the cure, and pie was to him a
+consecrated and sacred food.  It was his habit to eat a pie every night
+before retiring, and on the nightmares thus inspired he had planned the
+strategy of all his campaigns against dyspepsia.  The man had elements
+of greatness, and these shelves are a monument to his genius.  In order
+to keep perfect my title to this property it is necessary for me to
+maintain a pastry-cook, and as I do not myself care greatly for
+pie--though contrary to common experience I have found it a splendid
+antephialtic--the total output is distributed among the people of the
+neighborhood every second day.  The station agent at Bedford is a heavy
+consumer, and a retired physician at Mt. Kisco has a standing order for
+a dozen a week.  My niece Hezekiah, of whom you have heard me speak, is
+partial to a particular type of pie and one only.  It is the gooseberry
+that delights Hezekiah's palate, and under G in File 3, in the corner
+behind you, there is even now a gooseberry pie that I shall send to
+Hezekiah, who, for reasons I need not explain, does not now visit here."
+
+"But the dyspepsia man--you speak of him as though he were dead."
+
+"Your assumption is correct, Mr. Ames.  The builder of Hopefield died
+only a few weeks after he had established himself in this house.
+Having entered upon the enjoyment of his well-earned leisure, and made
+it unnecessary that he should ever go pieless to bed, he gave himself
+up for a fortnight to a mad indulgence in meringues, and died after
+great suffering, steadily refusing his own medicine to the end."
+
+We still lingered in the pie-crypt after this diverting recital, while
+Miss Octavia entertained me with her views on pies.
+
+"The soul-color of pies varies greatly, Mr. Ames.  It has always seemed
+to me that apple-pie stands for the homelier virtues of our
+civilization; it is substantial, nutritious and filling.  The custard
+and lemon varieties are feminine, and do not, perhaps for that reason,
+appeal to me.  Cherry-pie at its best is the last and final expression
+of the pie genus, and where cooks have been careful in eliminating the
+seeds, and the juice hasn't made sodden dough of the crust, a
+cherry-pie meets the soul's highest demands.  Grape and raisin-pie are
+on my cook's _index expurgatorius_; I consider them neither palatable
+nor respectable.  But rhubarb is the most odious pie of all, in my
+judgment.  It suggests the pharmacopoeia--only that and no thing more.
+You will pardon me for mentioning the matter, but one of my gardeners,
+a Swiss, crawled in here two nights ago and stole a rhubarb-pie, which,
+I rejoice to say, made him hideously ill.  The R's, you will notice,
+are placed near the floor and within easy reach of any larcenous hand.
+The ease of his approach was his undoing.  The pumpkin variety reaches
+almost the same lofty heights as the cherry.  When not over-dosed with
+spices, a pumpkin-pie conveys a sense of the October landscape that is
+the despair of the best painters.  In the gooseberry I find a certain
+raciness, or if I may use the expression, zip, that is highly
+stimulating.  Both qualities you will observe in Hezekiah if you come
+to know her well.  The thought of blackberry or raspberry-pie depresses
+me, but huckleberry buoys the spirit again.  The huckleberry seems to
+me to voice a protest, and unless managed with the greatest neatness
+and circumspection it is bound to stimulate the laundry business.  As
+any one who would eat a cooked strawberry would steal a sick baby's
+rattle, I need hardly say that the strawberry-pies, even in their
+season, shall have no place on these shelves."
+
+"So it is the gooseberry that Miss Hezekiah prefers," I remarked with
+feigned carelessness, as we walked toward the library.
+
+"It is, Mr. Ames; and I trust that your inquiry implies no reflection
+on Hezekiah's judgment."
+
+"Quite the reverse, Miss Hollister.  It is not going too far to say
+that I have formed a high opinion of Miss Hezekiah, and that I should
+deal harshly with any one who ventured to criticise her in any
+particular."
+
+"Will you kindly inform me just when you made the acquaintance of my
+younger niece?  I should greatly dislike to believe you guilty of
+dissimulation, but when Hezekiah was mentioned in the gun-room last
+night your silence led me to assume that she was wholly unknown to you."
+
+"She was, I assure you, at the dinner-hour last night; but I met her
+quite by chance this afternoon, in an orchard at no great distance from
+this house."
+
+I did not think it necessary to mention the Asolando, as Hezekiah
+herself had taken pains to avoid her aunt in the tea room.  It was
+clear that my words had interested Miss Octavia.  She paused in the
+hall, and bent her head in thought for a moment.
+
+"May I inquire whether she referred in any way to Mr. Wiggins in this
+interview?"
+
+"She did, Miss Hollister," I replied; and I could not help smiling as I
+remembered Hezekiah's laughter at the mention of my friend.  My smile
+did not escape Miss Octavia.
+
+"Just how, may I ask, did she refer to Mr. Wiggins?"
+
+"As though she thought him the funniest of human beings.  She laughed
+deliciously at the bare mention of his name."
+
+"It was not your impression, then, that she was deeply enamored of him;
+that she was eating her heart out for him?"
+
+"Decidedly not, Miss Hollister.  She gave me quite a different idea."
+
+"You relieve me greatly.  Mr. Wiggins's sense of humor is the
+slightest, and I should not in the least fancy him for Hezekiah.  And
+besides, I am not yet ready to arrange a marriage for her."
+
+She laid the slightest stress on the final pronoun.  It was a fair
+inference, then, that Miss Cecilia's affairs were being "arranged;"
+when they had been determined, a husband would be found for Hezekiah.
+But had there ever existed before, anywhere in the Copernican system, a
+wealthy aunt so delightfully irresponsible, so vertiginous in her
+mental processes, so happily combining the maddest quixotism with the
+bold spirit of the Elizabethan mariners!  My faith in the real
+sweetness and kindliness of her nature was unshaken by her
+capriciousness.  I did not doubt that her intentions toward her nieces
+were the friendliest, no matter what strange devices she might employ
+to bend those young women to her purposes.
+
+She disappeared in the hall without excuse, and I entered the library
+to find Cecilia sitting alone by the fire.  She put aside a book she
+had been reading, and seeing that her aunt had not followed me, asked
+at once as to my visit to the inn.
+
+"I conveyed your message," I answered; "but you have seen Mr. Wiggins
+since, unless I am greatly mistaken."
+
+"Yes; he called this afternoon.  We had several callers at the
+tea-hour.  I had rather expected you back."
+
+"The fact is," I replied, "that after I had taken luncheon at the
+Prescott Arms, I got lost among the hills, and while in the act of
+robbing an apple-orchard I came most unexpectedly upon your sister."
+
+"Hezekiah!"
+
+"The same; and oddly enough, I had met her before, though I did n't
+realize it was she until the meeting in the orchard.  It was in the
+Asolando that I saw her; she was at the cashier's wicket the afternoon
+I met your aunt there."
+
+She seemed puzzled for a moment; then her eyes brightened, and she
+laughed; but her laugh was not like Hezekiah's.  Cecilia's mirth had
+its own expression.  It was touched with a sweet gravity, and her
+laughter was such as one would expect from the Milo if that divine
+marble were to yield to mirth.  Cecilia grew upon me: there was magic
+in her loveliness; she was a finished product.  It seemed inconceivable
+that she and the fair-haired girl with whom I had exchanged banter in
+the upland orchard were daughters of one mother.
+
+"You have given me information, Mr. Ames.  I did not know that Hezekiah
+had ever been connected with the Asolando."
+
+"Oh, it was only that one historic day.  She says the place was
+unbearable.  She jarred the holiest chords of the divine lyre by harsh
+comments on the Pre-Raphaelite profile.  One of the devotees was so
+shocked that she dropped a plate or something, and, to put it coarsely,
+Hezekiah got the bounce."
+
+My description of Hezekiah's brief tenure of office at the Asolando
+seemed to amuse Cecilia greatly.
+
+"There is no one like my sister," she said; "there never was and there
+never will be any one half so charming.  Hezekiah is an original, who
+breaks all the rules and yet always sends the ball over the net.  And
+it is because she is so inexpressibly dear and precious that I am
+anxious that nothing shall ever hurt her,--nothing mar the sweet,
+beautiful child-spirit in her."
+
+It was my turn to laugh now.  Cecilia's manifestation of maternal
+solicitude for Hezekiah seemed absurd.  For Hezekiah, in her way, was
+older; Hezekiah had raced with Diana and plucked arrows from her
+girdle; she had heard Homer at the roadside singing of Achilles' shield.
+
+"Hezekiah is reasonably safe, I should say, because she is so amazingly
+swift of foot and eye, and so nimble of speech.  She is not to be
+caught in a net or tripped with a word."
+
+"I suppose that is so," remarked Cecilia soberly.  "You thought her
+happy when you met her to-day?  She did not strike you as being a girl
+with a wound in her heart?  She was n't particularly _triste_?"
+
+"Not more so than sunlight on rippled water or the song of the lark
+ascending."
+
+"Of course you made no reference to Mr. Wiggins?  If I had imagined you
+would meet her I should have"--
+
+She ended with an embarrassment that I now understood, and I broke in
+cheerfully.
+
+"We did mention him.  She asked me if I had seen him, and it was the
+thought of him that evoked her merriest laughter."
+
+She shook her head and sighed; then her manner changed abruptly.
+
+"You delivered my message to Mr. Wiggins?"
+
+"I did.  He is badly out of sorts and sees nothing clearly.  He is very
+bitter toward your aunt.  He thinks she has treated him outrageously."
+
+"Aunt Octavia has done nothing of the kind," she replied with spirit.
+"Mr. Wiggins has no right to speak of Aunt Octavia save in terms of
+kindness.  If her wits are sharper than his, it is not her fault, that
+I can see!  But there are matters here that I do not understand, Mr.
+Ames.  I trust you, as my aunt evidently does, or I should not be
+talking to you as I am; and I am moved to ask a favor of you,--a favor
+of considerable weight in view of the fact that you are a professional
+man with doubtless many pressing calls upon your time."
+
+I bowed humbly before this compliment.  My time had been lightly
+appraised by Miss Octavia and again by Wiggins.  A long telegram from
+my assistant that reached me while I dressed for dinner had urged my
+immediate attendance upon my office.  Some of my best clients, now
+reopening their houses for the winter, were in desperate straits.  From
+the number of appeals for help reported by my assistant I judged that
+all the chimneys in the republic had grown obstreperous.  But Father
+Time learned early in his career that to women his scythe's edge has no
+terrors.  In this instance I must admit that if Cecilia Hollister
+wished to cut a few days out of my reasonable expectation of life it
+was not for me to plead sick chimneys as an excuse for declining to
+serve her.
+
+In fact, I had never found myself so close upon the heels of the
+adventure that we all crave as since making the acquaintance of the
+Hollisters.  Octavia Hollisters do not occur in the life of every young
+man, and both Cecilia and Hezekiah had taken strong hold upon my
+imagination.  Wiggins's place among the dramatis personae would in
+itself have compelled my sympathetic attention; and the nine silk hats
+that I had seen bobbing over the stile still danced before my eyes.
+
+"Miss Hollister," I said, "my time is yours to command.  My office is
+well organized, and I am sure that my assistant is equal to any demands
+that may be made upon him.  Pray state in what manner I may serve you."
+
+"I am going far, I know, Mr. Ames, but I beg that you will not be in
+haste to leave my aunt's house.  She must have been strongly prejudiced
+in your favor, or she would not have asked you here on so short
+acquaintance.  I am confident that she has no thought of your leaving.
+She expressed her great liking for you at luncheon, and I am sure that
+she will see to it that you do not lack for entertainment.  I assume
+that you must have gathered from what Mr. Wiggins told you of my
+acquaintance with him the peculiar plight in which I am placed."
+
+I bowed.  If she groped in the dark and needed my help in finding the
+light, I was not the man to desert her.  I had dropped my plumb-line
+into too many dark chimneys not to feel the fascination of mystery.  As
+I expressed again my entire willingness to abide at Hopefield Manor as
+long as she wished, the footman announced Mr. Hartley Wiggins.
+
+We had hardly exchanged greetings before another man was announced, and
+then another.  I should say that it was at intervals of about three
+minutes that the sedate servant appeared in the curtained doorway and
+announced a caller, until nine had been admitted.  My spirits soared
+high as the gentlemen from the Prescott Arms appeared one after the
+other.  The earlier arrivals rose to greet the later ones,--and as they
+were all in evening clothes I experienced, as when I had seen the same
+gentlemen in their afternoon raiment crossing the stile, a sense of
+something fantastic and eerie in them.  There was nothing unusual about
+them, taken as individuals; collectively they were like life-size
+studies in black and white that had stepped from their frames for an
+evening's recreation.  Cecilia introduced me in the order of their
+arrival; and in the interest of brevity, and to avoid confusion, I
+tabulate them here, with a notation as to their residence and
+occupation, taking such data from the notebook in which, at subsequent
+dates, I set down the facts which are the basis of this chronicle.
+
+
+HARTLEY WIGGINS, Lawyer and Farmer; Hare and Tortoise Club, New York.
+
+LINNAEUS B. HENDERSON, Planter; Roanoke, Virginia.
+
+CECIL HUGH, LORD ARROWOOD, no occupation; Arrowood, Hants, England.
+
+DANIEL P. ORMSBY, Manufacturer of Knit Goods; Utica, New York.
+
+S. FORREST HUME, Lecturer on Scandinavian Literature, Occidental
+University; Long Trail, Oklahoma.
+
+JOHN STEWART DICK, Pragmatist; Omaha, Nebraska.
+
+PENDENNIS J. ARBUTHNOT, Banker and Horseman; Lexington, Kentucky.
+
+PERCIVAL B. SHALLENBERGER, Novelist and Small Fruits; Sycamore, Indiana.
+
+GEORGE W. GORSE, Capitalist; Redlands, California.
+
+
+We rose and stood in our several places when, a moment later, Miss
+Octavia entered.  She greeted the suitors graciously, and then, in her
+most charming manner, called one after the other to sit beside her on a
+long davenport, the time apportioned being weighed with nicety, so that
+none might feel himself slighted or preferred.  These interviews
+consumed more than half an hour, and the movement thus occasioned gave
+considerable animation to the scene.
+
+It may seem ridiculous that nine gentlemen thus paying court to a young
+woman should call upon her at the same hour, but I must say that the
+gravity of the suitors and the entire sobriety of Cecilia did not
+affect me humorously.  Nor did I feel at all out of place in this
+strange company.  I found myself agreeably engaged for several minutes
+in discussing Ibsen with the Oklahoma professor, who proved to be a
+delightful fellow.  His experience of life was apparently wide, and he
+told me with an engaging frankness of his meeting with the Hollisters
+in France and of his pursuit of them over many weary parasangs the
+previous summer.  As no one had elected his courses in the university
+at the beginning of the fall term, he had been granted a leave of
+absence, and this accounted for his freedom to press his suit at
+Hopefield Manor at this season.  He was a big fellow, with clean-cut
+features, and bore himself with a manly determination that I found
+attractive.
+
+He alone, I may say, of the nine men who had thus appeared in Miss
+Octavia's library, met me in a cordial spirit.  Even Wiggins seemed not
+wholly pleased to find me there again, though he had asked me to
+remain.  The manner of the others expressed either disdain, suspicion,
+or fierce hostility, and Lord Arrowood, who was older than the others
+and a man well advanced toward middle age, glared at me so savagely
+with his pale blue eyes, that I should have laughed in his face in any
+other circumstances.
+
+When the last man rose from the davenport, Miss Octavia called me to
+her side.  She seemed contrite at having neglected me during the day,
+but assured me that later she hoped to place an entire day at my
+disposal.  As we talked, the nine suitors sat in a semicircle about
+Cecilia, while the group listened to an anecdotal exchange between
+Professor Hume and Henderson, the Virginia planter.  My opinion of
+Cecilia Hollister as a girl of high spirit, able to carry off any
+situation no matter how difficult, rose to new altitudes as I watched
+her.  If this strange wooing _en bloc_ was not to her liking, she
+certainly made the best of it.  She capped Henderson's best story with
+a better one, in negro dialect, and no professional entertainer could
+have improved upon her recital.  As she finished we all joined in the
+general laugh, Lord Arrowood's guffaw booming out a trifle
+boisterously, when Miss Octavia quietly rose and excused herself.
+About five minutes later, when the company had plunged into another
+series of anecdotes, I suddenly became conscious that the fireplace,
+near which I sat, had all at once begun to act strangely.  Much in the
+manner of its performance the previous night, it abruptly gasped and
+choked; the smoke ballooned in a great swirl and then poured out into
+the room.
+
+After my examination of the flues in the morning, I had dismissed them
+from my mind, and this extraordinary behavior of the library fireplace
+astounded me.  It is not in reason that a perfectly normal fireplace,
+built in the most approved fashion, and with chimneys that rise into as
+clear an ether as October can bestow, could act so monstrously without
+the intervention of some malign agency.  We had discussed all the
+possibilities the previous night, and I was not anxious to hear further
+lay opinions.  The chimney's conduct was annoying, the more so that to
+my professional sense it was inexplicable.
+
+Lord Arrowood had retreated discreetly toward the door, and the others
+had risen and stood close behind Cecilia, whose gaze was bent rather
+accusingly upon me.
+
+A dark thought had crossed my mind.  As our eyes met, I felt that she
+had read my suspicions and did not wholly reject them.  Henderson was
+valiantly poking the logs, while one or two of the other men gave him
+the benefit of their advice.  I crossed the hall to the drawing-room,
+but no one was there.  I went back to the billiard-room, but saw
+nothing of Miss Octavia.  Cecilia had rung for the footman, and I
+passed him in the hall on his way to answer her summons.  I stopped him
+with an inquiry on my lips; but I could not ask the question; even in
+my perplexity as to the cause of the chimney's remarkable performances
+I did not so far forget myself as to communicate my suspicion to a
+servant.
+
+"Nothing, Thomas," I said; and the man passed on.
+
+It was possible, of course, that Miss Octavia knew more than she cared
+to tell about the erratic ways of the library chimney, or she might
+indeed be the cause of its vagaries.  Sufficient time had elapsed after
+her retirement from the library to allow her to gain the roof and clap
+a stopper on the chimney-pot.  This did not however account for the
+fact that on the previous evening she had been present in the library
+when the same chimney had manifested a similar sulkiness.  I was still
+pondering these things when I heard loud laughter from the library, and
+on returning found the logs again blazing in the fireplace, from which
+the smoke rose demurely in the flue.
+
+"This fireplace is like a geyser, Mr. Ames," said Cecilia, "and spurts
+smoke at regular intervals.  As I remember, the clock on the stair was
+striking nine last night when the smoke poured out, and there--it is
+striking nine now!"
+
+She tossed her head slightly; and this was, I thought, in disdain of
+the suspicion that must still have shown itself a little stubbornly in
+my face.
+
+I withdrew again in a few minutes, and followed the great chimney's
+course upward.  Miss Octavia's apartments were at the front of the
+house, her sitting-room windows looking out upon the Italian garden.
+Her doors were closed, but I knew from my examination in the morning
+that the flue of her fireplace tapped the chimney that rose from the
+drawing-room, and had nothing whatever to do with the library chimney.
+
+From the fourth floor I gained the roof, by the route followed on my
+inspection of the house in the morning.  The smoke from the library
+chimney was rising in the crisp, still air blithely.  I leaned upon the
+crenelations and looked off across the hills, enjoying the loveliness
+of the sky, in which the planets throbbed superbly.  There was nothing
+to be learned here, and I crept back to the trap-door through which I
+had come, made it fast, and continued on down to the library.
+
+There, somewhat to my surprise, I found that in my absence all but Hume
+had taken their departure.  As I paused unseen in the doorway, I caught
+words that were clearly not intended for my ear.
+
+Cecilia sat by the long table near the fireplace; Hume stood before
+her, his arms folded.
+
+"You are kind; you do me great honor, Professor Hume, but under no
+circumstances can I become your wife."
+
+I retreated hastily to the billiard-room, where I took a cue from the
+rack and amused myself for perhaps fifteen minutes, when, hearing the
+outer door close and knowing that Hume had departed with his congee, I
+returned to the library.
+
+Cecilia sat where I had left her, and at first glance I thought she was
+reading; but she turned quickly as I crossed the room.  She held in her
+hand an oblong silver trinket not larger than a card-case.  A short
+pencil similar to those affixed to dance-cards was attached to it by a
+slight cord, and she had, I inferred, been making a notation of some
+kind on a leaf of the silver-bound booklet.  Even after she had looked
+up and smiled at me, her eyes sought the page before her; then she
+closed the covers and clasped the pretty toy in her hand.  As though to
+divert my attention she recurred at once to the chimney, in a vein of
+light irony.
+
+"You see," she said, "there is ample reason for your remaining here.
+You would hardly find anywhere else so interesting a test of your
+professional powers as Hopefield Manor offers.  The house is haunted
+beyond question, and I can see that you are not a man to leave two
+defenseless women to the mercy of a ghost who drops down chimneys at
+will."
+
+I suffered her chaff for several minutes, then I asked point-blank:--
+
+"Pardon me, but have you the slightest idea that Miss Octavia is behind
+this?  It is not possible that she was responsible last night; but she
+was not on this floor a while ago when the smoke poured in here.  I
+should be glad to hear your opinion."
+
+"I saw that you suspected her before you left the room, Mr. Ames, and I
+must say that the idea is in no way creditable to you.  If you
+entertain such a suspicion you must supply a motive, and just what
+motive would you attribute to my Aunt Octavia in this instance?"
+
+Her tone and manner piqued me, or I should not have answered as I did.
+
+"It is possible," I said, "that some of these gentlemen who came here
+to-night were not to her liking, and it may have occurred to her to get
+rid of them by the obviously successful method of smoking them out."
+
+She rose, still clasping the little silver-backed note-book, and looked
+me over with amusement in her face and eyes.
+
+"You are almost too ingenious, Mr. Ames.  I hope that by breakfast-time
+you will have some more plausible solution of the problem.  Good-night."
+
+And so, tightly clasping the little book, she left the room.  I
+followed her to the door, and at the turn of the stair she glanced down
+and nodded.  Her face, as it hung above me for an instant, seemed
+transfigured with happiness.
+
+But, as will appear, my adventures for the day were not concluded.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+I MEET A PLAYFUL GHOST
+
+It was not yet ten o'clock, and I was dismayed at the thought of being
+left to my own devices in this big country-house, at an hour when the
+talk at the Hare and Tortoise usually became worth while.  I sat down
+and began to turn over the periodicals on the library table, but I was
+in no mood for reading.
+
+The butler appeared and offered me drink, but the thought of drinking
+alone did not appeal to me.  I repelled the suggestion coldly; but
+after I had dropped my eyes to the English review I had taken up, I was
+conscious that he stood his ground.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"Hit's a bit hod about the chimney, sir."
+
+The professional man in me was at once alert.  The chimney's conduct
+was inexplicable enough, but I was in no humor to brook the theories of
+a stupid servant.  Still, he might know something, so I nodded for him
+to go on.
+
+He glanced over his shoulder and came a step nearer.
+
+"They say in the village, sir, that the 'ouse is 'aunted."
+
+"What?"
+
+"'Aunted, sir."
+
+"Who say it, James?"
+
+"The liveryman told the coachman, and the 'ousemaid got hit from a
+seamstress.  Hit's werry queer, sir."
+
+"Rubbish, James.  I 'm amazed that a person of your station should
+listen to a liveryman's gossip.  There 's the chimney, it's working
+perfectly.  Some shift of air-currents causes it to puff a little smoke
+into this room occasionally, but those things are not related to the
+supernatural.  We 'll find some way of correcting it in a day or two."
+
+"Werry good, sir.  But begging pardon, the chimney hain't hall.  Hit
+walks, if I may so hexpress hit."
+
+"Walks?" I exclaimed, sitting up and throwing down my review.  "What
+walks?"
+
+"You 'ear hit, sir, hin the walls.  Hit goes right through the solid
+brick, most hunaccountable."
+
+"You hear a mouse in the walls and think it's a ghost?  But you forget,
+James, that this is a new house,--only a year or so old,--and spooks
+don't frequent such places.  If it were an old place, it might be
+possible that the creaking of floors and the settling of walls would
+cause uneasiness in nervous people.  The ghost tradition usually rests
+on some ugly fact.  But here nothing of the kind is present."
+
+"Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he answered hoarsely.
+
+[Illustration: "Hit was one of 'is majesty's horfficers, sir," he
+answered hoarsely.]
+
+It flashed over me that this big stolid fellow was out of his head; but
+sane or mad he was clearly greatly disturbed.  It was best, I thought,
+on either hypothesis, to speak to him peremptorily, and I rose, the
+better to deal with the situation.
+
+"What nonsense is this you have in your head?  You 're in the United
+States, and there are n't any majesty's soldiers to deal with.  You
+forget that you 're not in England now."
+
+"But this 'ere country used to be Henglish, you may recall, sir.  The
+story the coachman got hin the village goes back to the hold times,
+sir, when the colonies was hin rebellion, if I may so call hit, sir,
+and 'is majesty's troops was puttin' down the rebellion hin these
+parts.  Some American rebels chased a British soldier from hover near
+White Plains to these 'ere woods as they was then, and they 'anged 'im,
+sir, right where this 'ere 'ouse stands, if I may make so free."
+
+"Ah!  This is a revolutionary relic, then?"
+
+"You 'ave got hit, sir," he sputtered eagerly.  "They 'anged the man
+right 'ere where the 'ouse stands."
+
+"That's not a bad story, James.  And what does your mistress say about
+it?"
+
+"Well, sir; hit's the talk hin the village that that's why she bought
+the place, sir.  She rather fancies ghosts and the like, as you may
+know, sir."
+
+"Be careful what you say, James.  Miss Hollister is a noble and wise
+lady, and you do well to give her your best service."
+
+"We're all fond of 'er, sir, though she's a bit troubled hin the 'ead,
+if I may make so bold.  She says a good ghost is a hasset."
+
+I did not at once catch 'asset' with an aspirate, but when he repeated
+it, I laughed in spite of myself.
+
+"You 'd better go to bed, James.  And don't encourage talk among the
+other servants about this ghost.  I know something about the building
+of houses, and I 'll give these walls a good looking over.  Good-night."
+
+It was apparent that my interview had not cheered him greatly.  He
+turned at the door, to ask if I would put out the lights, and fear was
+so clearly written upon his big red face that I dismissed him sharply.
+
+I made myself comfortable for an hour, smoking a cigar over an article
+on English politics, and while I read, a big log placidly burned itself
+to ashes.  I found the switch and snapped out the library lights.  When
+I had gained the second floor I turned off the lights in the hall
+below, and as I looked down the well to make sure I had turned the
+right key, the third floor lights suddenly died and I was left in
+darkness.  This was the least bit disconcerting.  I was quite sure that
+the upper lights had remained burning brightly after the darkening of
+the lower hall, so that it was hardly possible that the one switch had
+cut off both lights.
+
+Standing by the rail that guarded the well, I peered upward, thinking
+that some one above me was manipulating another switch; but the silence
+was as complete as the blackness.  I was about to turn from the rail to
+the wall to find the switch, but at this moment, as my face was still
+lifted in the intentness with which I was listening, something brushed
+my cheek,--something soft of touch and swift of movement.  As I gripped
+the rail I felt this touch once, twice, thrice.  Then my hand sought
+the wall madly, and with so bad an aim that it was quite a minute
+before I found the switch-plate and snapped all the keys.  The stair,
+and the halls above and below me sprang into being again, and I stood
+blinking stupidly upward.
+
+Though I was in a modern house thoroughly lighted by electricity, I
+cannot deny that this incident, following so quickly upon the butler's
+story, occasioned a moment's acute horripilation, accompanied by an
+uncomfortable tremor of the legs.  As already hinted, I lay no claim to
+great valor.  As for ghosts, I am half persuaded of their existence,
+and after witnessing a presentation of Hamlet, always feel that
+Shakespeare is as safe a guide in such matters as the destructive
+scientific critics.
+
+There were various plausible explanations of the failure of the lights.
+Some switch that I did not know of, perhaps in the third-floor hall,
+might have been turned; or the power house in the village might have
+been shifting dynamos.  Either solution of the riddle was credible.
+But the ghostly touch on my face could not be accounted for so readily.
+Leaving the lights on, I continued to the third floor, and examined the
+switch, and sought in other ways to explain these phenomena.  My
+composure returned more slowly than I care to confess, and I think it
+was probably in my mind that the ghost of King George's dead soldier
+might be lying in wait for me; but I saw and heard nothing.  The doors
+of the unused chambers on the third floor were closed, and I did not
+feel justified in trying them.  The servants were housed on this floor,
+at the rear of the house, and a door that cut off their quarters proved
+on examination to be tightly locked.
+
+The fourth floor was only a half-story, used for storage purposes.  The
+roof was gained, I recalled, by an iron ladder and a hatchway in a
+trunk-room.  I ran down to my room and found a candle, to be armed
+against any further fickleness of the lights, and set out for the
+fourth floor.  I had changed my coat, and with a couple of candles and
+a box of matches started for the roof.  My courage had risen now, and I
+was ready for any further adventure that the night might hold for me.
+Miss Hollister and Cecilia were both in their rooms, presumably asleep;
+the servants doubtless had their doors barred against ghostly visitors,
+and the house was mine to explore as I pleased.
+
+I think I was humming slightly as I mounted the stair, which, in
+keeping with the general luxuriousness that characterized the
+furnishing of the house, was thickly carpeted even to the fourth floor.
+I was slipping my hand along the rail, and mounting, I dare say, a
+little jauntily as I screwed my courage to an unfamiliar notch, when
+suddenly, midway of the first half, and just before I reached the turn
+where the stair broke, the lights failed again, with startling
+abruptness.  This was carrying the joke pretty far, and instantly I
+clapped my hand to my pocket for the box of safety-matches, dug it out,
+and then in my haste dropped the lid essential to ignition, and stooped
+to find it.
+
+The stair had narrowed on this flight, and as I sought with futile
+eagerness to regain the box-lid, I could have sworn that some one
+passed me.  Still half-stooping, I stretched out my arms and clasped
+empty air, and so suddenly had I thrown myself forward, that I lost my
+balance and rolled downward the space of half a dozen treads before I
+recovered myself.  I was badly scared and hardly less angry at having
+missed through my own clumsiness the joy of grappling with the ghost of
+one of King George's soldiers; but the matches having been lost in the
+pitch-darkness of the stair, I could get my bearings again only by
+clinging to the stair-rail until I found the second-floor switch.  I
+should say that two full minutes had passed between the loss of the
+matches and my flashing on of the lamps.  From top to bottom the lights
+shone brightly; but no one was visible and I heard no sound in any part
+of the house.
+
+As I began to analyze my sensations during the temporary eclipse of the
+lights, I was conscious of two things.  The being, human or other, that
+had passed me had been light of step and fleet of motion.  There had
+been something uncanny in the ease and speed of that passing.  I was
+without conviction as to its direction, whether up or down, though I
+inclined to the former notion for the reason that the employment of a
+concealed switch above seemed the more reasonable argument.  And a
+faint, an almost imperceptible scent, as of a flower, had seemed to be
+a part of the passing.  Mine is a sensitive nostril, and I was
+confident that it did not betray me in this.  The sensation stirred by
+that faintest of odors had been agreeable; there was nothing suggestive
+of grave-mold or cerecloth about it.  There was in fact something
+rather delightfully human and contemporaneous in this fellow that
+pleased and reassured me.  That scamp of a revolutionary British
+soldier, resenting as was his right the application of hemp to his
+precious neck, had still a grace in him, and a ghost who prowls
+undaunted about an electric-lighted house in this twentieth century,
+having his whim with the switches, cannot be an utterly bad fellow.  My
+respect for all who are doomed to walk the night rose as, leaving the
+lights on clear to the lower hall, I gathered up my matches and started
+again for the roof.  The trunk-room door opened readily, as on my
+morning inspection of the chimney-pots, but as I glanced up, I saw that
+the hatch was open.  Through the aperture shone the heavens, a square
+of stars, and bright with the moon's radiance.  Pocketing my matches, I
+ran nimbly up the ladder.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+MY BEFUDDLEMENT INCREASES
+
+I had been surprised to find the hatch open, but it is not too much to
+say that I was greatly astonished by what I saw on the moon-flooded
+roof.  There, midway of a flat area that lay between the two larger
+chimney-pots, two persons were intently engaged, not in ghostly
+promenading or posturing, or even in audible conversation, but in a
+spirited bout with foils!  The clicking and scraping of the steel
+testified unmistakably to the reality of their presence.  And I was
+grateful for those sounds!  It needed only silence to tumble me back
+down the trap with chattering teeth, but these were beyond question
+corporeal beings, albeit rendered weird and fantastical by the oddity
+of their playground and the soft effulgence of the moon.  The vigor of
+the onset and the skill of the antagonists held me spellbound.  I stood
+with head and shoulders thrust through the opening, staring at this
+unusual spectacle, and not sure but that after all my eyes were
+tricking me.
+
+"_Touche!_"
+
+It was a woman's voice, faint from breathlessness.  She threw off her
+mask and dropped her foil, and with a most human and feminine gesture
+put up her hands to adjust her hair.  It was Cecilia Hollister, in a
+short skirt and fencing coat!
+
+Her opponent was a man, and as he too flung off his mask I saw that he
+was a gentleman of years.  If Miss Cecilia Hollister chose to meet
+strange men on the roof of her aunt's house and practice the fencer's
+art with them, it was no affair of mine, and I was about to withdraw
+when the stranger swung round and saw me.  His sudden exclamation
+caused the girl to turn, and as a reasonable frankness has always
+seemed to me essential to a nice discretion, I crawled out on the roof.
+
+"I beg your pardon, Miss Hollister, but if I had known you were here I
+should not have intruded.  The vagaries of the library chimney have
+been on my mind, and I was about to have another peep into yonder pot."
+
+She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly against the
+inexplicable chimney in question, and still somewhat spent from her
+exercise.
+
+[Illustration: She stood at her ease, with one hand resting lightly
+against the inexplicable chimney.]
+
+"Father," she said, turning to the stranger who stood near, "this is
+Mr. Ames, who is Aunt Octavia's guest."
+
+The light of the gibbous moon enabled me to discern pretty clearly the
+form and features of Mr. Bassford Hollister.  And I find, in looking
+over my notes, that I accepted as a matter of course the singular
+meeting with my hostess's brother.  I had grown so used to the ways of
+the Hollisters I already knew, that the meeting with another member of
+the family at eleven o'clock at night on the roof of this remarkable
+house gave me no great shock of surprise.  He was tall, slender and
+dark, with fine eyes that suggested Cecilia's.  His close-trimmed beard
+was slightly gray: but he bore himself erect, and I had already seen
+that he was alert of arm and eye and nimble of foot.
+
+He put on his coat, which had been lying across one of the
+crenelations, and covered his head with a small soft hat.
+
+"This will do for to-night, Cecilia.  You had the best of me.  We 'll
+try again another time.  I 'm glad you stopped us, Mr. Ames.  We 'd had
+enough."
+
+He seemed in no wise disturbed by my appearance, nor in any haste to
+leave.  This meeting between the father and daughter, I reasoned, could
+hardly have been a matter of chance, and it must have been in Cecilia's
+mind that some sort of explanation would not be amiss.
+
+"Father and I have fenced together for years," she said.  "My sister
+Hezekiah does not care for the sport.  As you have already seen that my
+aunt Octavia is an unusual woman, given to many whims, I will not deny
+to you that at present my father is _persona non grata_ in this house.
+I beg to assure you that nothing to his discredit or mine has
+contributed to that situation, nor can our meeting here to-night be
+construed as detrimental to him or to me.  In meeting my father in this
+way I have in a sense broken faith with my aunt Octavia, but I assure
+you, Mr. Ames, that it is only the natural affection for a daughter
+that led my father to seek me here in this clandestine fashion."
+
+Cecilia had spoken steadily, but her voice broke as she concluded, and
+she walked quickly toward the hatchway.  Her father stepped before me
+to give her his hand through the opening.
+
+I withdrew to the edge of the roof while a few words passed between
+them that seemed to be on his part an expostulation and on hers an
+earnest denial and plea.  He passed her the foils and masks and she
+vanished; whereupon he addressed himself to me.
+
+"I had learned from both my daughters of your presence in my sister's
+house, and I had expected to meet you, sooner or later.  This is a
+strange business, a strange business."
+
+He had drawn out a pipe, which he filled and lighted dexterously.  The
+flame of his match gave me better acquaintance with his face.  He
+leaned against the serrated roof-guard with the greatest composure, his
+hat tilted to one side, and drew his pipe to a glow.  I had not
+forgotten my encounter with the ghost on the stair, and as I waited for
+him to speak, I was trying to identify him with the mysterious agency
+that had tampered with the lights, and passed so ghostly a hand across
+my face in the stair-well.  I could hardly say that there had not been
+time for either Bassford Hollister or his daughter to have reached the
+roof after my experiences on the stair; and yet they had been engaged
+so earnestly at the moment of my appearance at the hatchway that it was
+improbable that either could have played ghost and flown to the roof
+before I reached it.  And eliminating the ghost altogether, I had yet
+to learn how Bassford Hollister had gained entrance to the house.  It
+seemed best to drop speculations and wait for him to declare himself.
+
+"You must understand, Mr. Ames, that my daughters, both of them, are
+very dear to me.  It is the great grief of my life that owing to
+matters beyond my control I have been unable to care for them as I
+should like to do.  This being the case, I have been obliged to allow
+them to accept many favors from my only sister Octavia.  This in
+ordinary circumstances would not be repugnant to my pride; but my
+sister is a very unusual person.  She must do for my children in her
+own way, and while I was prepared, in agreeing that they should accept
+her bounty, for some whimsical manifestation of her eccentric
+character, I did not imagine that she would go so far as to shut me out
+from all knowledge of her plans for them.  That, Mr. Ames, is what has
+happened."
+
+His voice rose and fell mournfully.  He puffed his pipe for a moment
+and continued:--
+
+"Cecilia, being the older, was to be launched first.  Hezekiah was to
+be cared for in due season.  Last summer Octavia took them both abroad.
+As you are aware, they are young women of unusual distinction of
+appearance and manner, and they attracted a great deal of attention.
+From what I hear, a troop of suitors followed them about.  That sort of
+thing would appeal to Octavia; to me it is most repellent, but I had
+already committed myself, agreeing that Octavia should manage in her
+own fashion.  There is now something forward here which I do not
+understand.  I have an idea that Octavia has contrived some
+preposterous scheme for choosing a husband for Cecilia that is in
+keeping with her odd fashion of transacting all her business.  I do not
+know its nature, and by the terms of her agreement Cecilia is not to
+disclose the method to be employed to me,--not even to me, her own
+father.  You must agree, Ames, that that is rather rubbing it in."
+
+"But you don't assume that your daughter is not to be a free agent in
+the matter?  You don't believe that some unworthy and improper man is
+to be forced upon her?"
+
+"That, sir, is exactly what I fear!"
+
+"You will pardon me, but I cannot for a moment believe that Miss
+Hollister would risk her niece's happiness even to satisfy her own
+peculiar humor.  Your sister is a shrewd woman, and her heart, I am
+convinced, is the kindest.  Among the suitors now camped at the
+Prescott Arms there must be some one whom your daughter approves, and I
+see no reason why he should not ultimately be her choice.  Now that you
+have broached the matter, I make free to say that one of these suitors
+is an old friend of mine.  Hartley Wiggins by name, and that he is a
+man of the highest character and a gentleman in the strictest sense."
+
+He had been listening to me with the greatest composure, but at the
+mention of Wiggins's name he started and nervously clutched my arm.
+
+"That man may be all that you say," he cried chokingly, "but he has
+acted infamously toward both my daughters.  He is a rogue, and a most
+despicable fellow.  He has flirted outrageously with Hezekiah while at
+the same time pretending to be deeply interested in Cecilia.  I say to
+you in all candor that a man who will trifle with the affections of a
+child like Hezekiah is a villain, nothing less."
+
+"But, my dear sir, is it not possible that you do him a great wrong?
+May it not be the other way round, that Hezekiah is trifling with
+Wiggins's affections?  He 's a splendid fellow, Hartley Wiggins, but he
+'s a little slow, that's all.  And between two superb young women like
+your daughters a man may be pardoned for doubts and hesitations; a case
+of being happy with either if t'other dear charmer were only away.  To
+put it quite concretely, I will say that in my own very slight
+acquaintance with these young women I feel the spell of both.  Your
+sister, I take it, is anxious not to show partiality for any of these
+men, and yet I dare say she probably feels kindly disposed toward
+Wiggins.  His worst crime seems to be that he chose Tory ancestors!
+The thing is bound to straighten itself out."
+
+He tossed his head impatiently.
+
+"Has it occurred to you that Octavia's interest in this Hartley Wiggins
+may be due to a trifling and immaterial fact?"
+
+"Nothing beyond his indubitable eligibility."
+
+"Then let me tell you what I suspect.  Both his names contain seven
+letters.  My sister is slightly cracked as to the number seven.  I
+swear to you my belief that the fact that his names contain seven
+letters each is at the bottom of all this.  Incredible, my dear sir,
+but wholly possible!"
+
+"Then, such being the case, why does n't she show her hand openly?  If
+she believes that Wiggins with his septenary names is ordained by the
+seven original pleiades to marry your daughter Cecilia, I should think
+that by the same token she would have sought a man rejoicing in the
+noble name of Septimus.  You send conjecture far when once you
+entertain so absurd an idea."
+
+"You think my assumption unlikely?" he asked eagerly.
+
+"I certainly do, Mr. Hollister.  But I confess that I had never counted
+the letters in Wiggins's name before, and your suggestion is
+interesting.  And this whole idea of the potential seven in our affairs
+has possibilities.  If seven at all, why is n't it possible that your
+sister has Jacob in mind and the seven years he served for Rachel?  You
+may as well assume that, as Wiggins is specially favored in the number
+of letters in his singularly prosaic and unromantic name, it is Miss
+Hollister's plan to keep him dallying seven years."
+
+He seized me by the arm and forced me back against the battlements,
+then stood off and eyed me fiercely.
+
+"You speak of serving and of service!  Will you tell me just why you
+are here and what brings you into this affair!  My daughter Hezekiah is
+the frankest person alive, and she told me of her meetings with you and
+that you had been to the Asolando,--where she spent a day in the
+sheerest spirit of mischief.  That was the beginning of all our
+troubles, that damned hole with its insane confectionery and poetry.
+If Cecilia, in a misguided notion of earning her own living, had not
+gone there and worn an apron for a week before I dragged her out, she
+would never have met Wiggins.  And now will you kindly tell me just
+what you are doing in my sister's house, where I have to come like a
+thief in the night to see one of my own children?"
+
+This fierce deliverance touched me nearly: I doubted my ability to
+explain to one of these amazing Hollisters just how I came to be
+sojourning in the house of another of the family without any business
+that would bear scrutiny.  I hastened to declare my profession, and
+that I had been summoned by Miss Hollister to examine her chimneys.  I
+could not, however, tell him that until my arrival the chimneys had
+behaved themselves admirably!
+
+"You've admitted your friendship for this Wiggins person; that's
+enough," he said when I had concluded.  "I advise you to leave the
+house at once.  I tell you he 's got to be eliminated from the
+situation.  Understand, that I do not threaten you with violence, but I
+will not promise to abstain from visiting heavy punishment upon that
+fellow.  And you?  A chimney-doctor?  I am a man of considerable
+knowledge of the world, and I say to you very candidly that I don't
+believe there is any such profession."
+
+"Then let me tell you," I replied, not without heat, "that I am a
+graduate in architecture, and that if you will do me the honor to
+consult a list of the alumni of the Institute of Technology, you will
+find that I was graduated there not without credit.  And as for
+remaining in this house, I beg to inform you, Mr. Hollister, that as I
+am your sister's guest and as she is perfectly competent to manage her
+own affairs, I shall stay here as long as it pleases her to ask me to
+remain.  And now, one other matter.  How did you gain this roof
+to-night, when by your own admission you are not on such terms with
+your sister as would justify you in entering it openly?"
+
+The moonlight did not fail to convey the contempt in his face, but I
+thought he grinned as he answered quietly:--
+
+"You don't seem to understand, young man, that you are entitled to no
+explanations from me.  If my sister has her sense of a joke, I assure
+you that I have mine.  I came here to see my daughter.  As I taught her
+to fence when she was ten years old and as she is particularly expert,
+and moreover, as in my present condition of poverty I have been obliged
+to forego the pleasure of metropolitan life and to give up my
+membership in the Fencers' Club, you can hardly deny my right to meet
+my own daughter for a brief bout anywhere I please.  You strike me as a
+singularly fresh young person.  It would be a positive grief to me to
+feel that my conduct had displeased you.  And now, as the night grows
+chill, I shall beg you to precede me into the house by the way you
+came."
+
+"But first," I persisted, "let me ask a question.  It is possible that
+you yourself have some preference among your daughter's several
+suitors, Mr. Hollister.  Would you object to telling me which one you
+would choose for Miss Cecilia?"
+
+"Beyond question, the man for Cecilia, if I have any voice in the
+matter, is Lord Arrowood."
+
+"Arrowood!" I exclaimed.  "You surprise me greatly.  I saw him at the
+inn, and he seemed to me the most insignificant and uninteresting one
+of the lot."
+
+"That proves you a person of poor gifts of discernment, Mr. Ames;" and
+his tone and manner were quite reminiscent of his sister's ways; and
+his further explanation proved him even more worthily the brother of
+his sister.
+
+"As I was obliged," he began, "owing to an unfortunate physical
+handicap, to abandon my art, that of a marine painter, I have given my
+attention for a number of years to the study of the Irish situation.
+Between the various political parties of Great Britain, poor Ireland
+can never regain her ancient power.  But I see no reason why she should
+not become once more a free and independent nation.  I have gone deeply
+into Irish history, and I may modestly say that I probably know that
+history from the time of the Anglo-Norman invasion to the death of
+Gladstone better than any other living man.  I met Arrowood by chance
+in the highway yesterday, and I found that he holds exactly my ideas."
+
+"But Arrowood isn't an Irishman," I interjected; "neither, I should
+say, are you!"
+
+"That's not to the point.  Neither was Napoleon a Frenchman strictly
+speaking; nor was Lafayette an American.  A friend of mine in Wall
+Street is ready, when the time is ripe, to finance the scheme by
+selling bonds to the multitudes of Irish office-holders throughout the
+United States,--most of whom are not unknown to the banks."
+
+"And I suppose you and Arrowood would sit jointly in the seat of the
+ancient kings in Dublin after you had effected your _coup_."
+
+"You lose your bet, Mr. Ames.  We have agreed that, as the mayors of
+Boston for many years have been Irishmen, and as they have, by their
+prowess in holding the natives in subordination, demonstrated the
+highest political sagacity, we could not do better than take one of
+these rulers of the old Puritan capital and place him on the Irish
+throne.  The keen humor of that move would so tickle all interested
+powers, that the investiture and coronation of the new ruler would be
+accomplished without firing a shot."
+
+This certainly had the true Hollister touch!  Miss Octavia herself
+could not have devised a more delightful scheme.
+
+"And so," Mr. Bassford Hollister concluded, "I naturally incline toward
+Arrowood, though he is so poor that he was obliged to come over in the
+steerage to continue his wooing of my daughter."
+
+He let himself down into the dark trunk-room, waited for me
+courteously, and walked by my side to the stairway, both of us
+maintaining silence.  I was deeply curious to know how he had entered
+and whether he expected to go down the front way and out the main door.
+We kept together to the third-floor hall,--I could have sworn to that;
+then suddenly, just as we reached the stairway, out went the lights,
+and we were in utter darkness.  I smothered an exclamation, clutched my
+matches and struck a light, and as the stick flamed slowly, I looked
+about for Bassford Hollister; but he had vanished as suddenly and
+completely as though a trap had yawned beneath us and swallowed him.  I
+found the third-floor switch and it responded immediately, flooding the
+stair-well to the lower hall, but I neither saw nor heard anything more
+of Hollister.
+
+Astounded by this performance, I continued on to the lower floor to
+have a look around, and there, calmly reading by the library table, sat
+Miss Octavia!
+
+"Late hours, Mr. Ames!" she cried.  "I supposed you had retired long
+ago."
+
+I was still the least bit ruffled by that last transaction on the
+stair, and I demanded a little curtly:--
+
+"Pardon my troubling you; but may I inquire, Miss Hollister, how long
+you have been sitting here?"
+
+The clock on the stair began to strike twelve, and she listened
+composedly to a few of the deep-toned strokes before replying.
+
+"Just half an hour.  I thought some one knocked at my door about an
+hour ago.  The lights were on and I came down, saw a magazine that had
+escaped my eye before, and here you find me."
+
+"Some one knocked at your door?"
+
+"I thought so.  You know, the servants have an idea that the place is
+haunted, and I thought that if I sat here the ghost might take it upon
+himself to walk.  I confess to a slight disappointment that it is only
+you who have appeared.  I suppose it was n't you who knocked at my
+door?"
+
+"No," I replied, laughing a little at her manner, "not unless it was
+you who switched off the lights as I was coming down from the fourth
+floor.  I have been studying this chimney from the roof.  I know
+something of the ways of electric switches, and they don't usually move
+of their own accord."
+
+"Your coming to this house has been the greatest joy to me, Mr. Ames.
+I should not have imagined, in a chance look at you, that you were
+psychical, and yet such is clearly the fact.  I assure you that I have
+not touched any switch since I left my room.  It was unnecessary, as I
+found the lights on.  And I acquit you of rapping, rapping at my
+chamber-door.  It gives me the greatest satisfaction to assume that the
+house is haunted, and at any time you find the ghost, I beg that you
+will lose no time in presenting me.  If the prowler is indeed one of
+King George's soldiers, hanged during the Revolution on the site of
+this house, I should like to have words with him.  I have just been
+reading an article on the political corruption in Philadelphia in this
+magazine.  It bears every evidence of truth, but if half of it is
+fiction I still feel that, as an American citizen, though denied the
+inalienable right of representation assured me in the Constitution, we
+owe that ghost an apology; for certainly nothing was gained by throwing
+off the British yoke, and that poor soldier died in a worthy cause."
+
+She wore a remarkable lavender dressing-gown, and a night-cap such as I
+had never seen outside a museum.  As she concluded her speech, spoken
+in that curious lilting tone which, from the beginning, had left me in
+doubt as to the seriousness of all her statements, she rose and, still
+clasping her magazine, made me a courtesy and was soon mounting the
+stair.
+
+I heard her door close a minute later, and then, feeling that I had
+earned the right to repose, I went to my room and to bed.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+I PLAY TRUANT
+
+I slept late, and on going down found the table set in the
+breakfast-room.  A pleasant inadvertence marked the choice of
+eating-places at Hopefield Manor; I was never quite sure where I should
+find a table spread.  No one was about, and I was seized with that mild
+form of panic familiar to the guest who finds himself late to a meal.
+As I paused uncertainly in the door, viewing the table, set, I noticed,
+for only one person, Miss Octavia entered briskly, her slight figure
+concealed by a prodigious gingham apron.
+
+"Good-morrow, merry gentleman," she began blithely.  "The most
+delightful thing has happened.  Without the slightest warning, without
+the faintest intimation of their dissatisfaction, the house-servants
+have departed, with the single exception of my personal maid, who,
+being a Swede and therefore singularly devoid of emotion, was unshaken
+by the ghost-rumors that have sent the rest of my staff scampering over
+the hills."
+
+She lighted the coffee-machine lamp in her most tranquil fashion, and
+begged me to be seated.
+
+"I have already breakfasted," she continued, "and Cecilia is even now
+preparing you an omelet with her own hand.  I beg to reassure you, as
+my guest, that the _emeute_ of the servants causes me not the slightest
+annoyance.  From reading the comic papers you may have gained an
+impression that the loss of servants is a tragic business in any
+household, but nothing so petty can disturb me.  Cecilia is an
+excellent cook; and I myself shall not starve so long as I have
+strength to crack an egg or lift a stove-lid.  And besides, I still
+retain my early trust in Providence.  I do not doubt that before
+nightfall a corps of excellent servants will again be on duty here.
+Very likely they are even now bound for this place, coming from the wet
+coasts of Ireland, from Liverpool, from lonely villages in Scandinavia.
+The average woman would merely fret herself into a sanatorium if
+confronted with the problem I face this morning, but I hope you will
+testify in future to the fact that I faced this day in the cheeriest
+and most hopeful spirit."
+
+"Not only shall I do so, Miss Hollister," I replied, trying to catch
+her own note, "but it will, throughout my life, give me the greatest
+satisfaction to set your cause aright.  To that extent let me be
+Horatio to your Hamlet."
+
+"Thank you, milord," she returned, with the utmost gravity.  "And may I
+say further that the incident gives the stamp of authenticity to my
+ghost?  I was obliged to pay those people double wages to lure them
+from the felicities of the city, and they must have been a good deal
+alarmed to have left so precipitately.  You must excuse me now, as it
+is necessary for me to do the pastry-cook's work this morning, that
+individual having fled with the rest, and it being incumbent on me, to
+maintain my fee-simple in this property, to make a dozen pies before
+high noon.  But first I must visit the stables, where I believe the
+coachman still lingers, having been prevented from joining the stampede
+of the house-servants by the painful twinges of gout."
+
+With this she left me, and I began pecking at a grape-fruit.  It had
+been in my mind as I dressed that morning to play truant and visit the
+city.  It was almost imperative that I take a look at my office, and I
+had resolved upon a plan which would, I believed, give me the key to
+the ghost mystery.  If Pepperton had built that house he must know
+whether he had contrived any secret passages that would afford exits
+and entrances not apparent to the eye.  It would be an easy matter to
+run into the city, explain myself to my assistant, and get hold of
+Pepperton.  My mind was made up, and I had even consulted a time-table
+and chosen one of the express trains.  As I sat at the table absorbed
+in my plans for the day, my nerves received a sudden shock.  I had
+heard no one enter, yet a voice at my shoulder murmured casually:
+
+  "Hast thou seen ghosts?  Hast thou at midnight heard"--
+
+
+It was the voice of Hezekiah, I knew, before I faced her.  She wore a
+blue sailor-waist with a broad red ribbon tied under the collar, and a
+blue tam o' shanter capped her head.  She bore a tray that contained my
+omelet, a plate of toast, and other sundries incidental to a
+substantial breakfast, which she distributed deftly upon the table.
+
+"How did you get here?" I blurted, my nerves still out of control.
+
+"The kitchen door, sir.  I had ridden into the garden, and seeing Aunt
+Octavia heading for the stables and Cecilia at the kitchen window, I
+pedaled boldly in.  Cecilia wanted to borrow my bicycle, and being a
+good little sister, I gave it to her.  She also said that you required
+food, so I told her to go and I would carry you your breakfast.  I
+shall skip myself in a minute.  You may draw your own coffee.  Mind the
+machine; it tips if you are n't careful."
+
+She went to the window and peered out toward the stables.
+
+"May I ask, Daughter of Kings, where your sister has gone so suddenly?"
+
+"Certainly.  She 's off for town to chase a cook and a few other people
+to run this hotel.  I heard at the post-office that the whole camp had
+deserted, so I ran over to see what was doing; and just for that I 've
+got to walk home."
+
+"But your aunt said that Providence would take care of the servant
+question; she expected a whole corps of ideal servants to come straying
+in during the day."
+
+Hezekiah laughed.  (It is not right for any girl to be as pretty as
+Hezekiah, or to laugh as musically.)  She told me to sit down, and as I
+did so she passed the toast and helped herself to a slice into which
+she set her fine white teeth neatly, watching me with the merriest of
+twinkles in her brown eyes.
+
+"Cecilia has n't Aunt Octavia's confidence in Providence, so she 's
+taking a shot at the employment agencies.  She has left a note on the
+kitchen table to inform Aunt Octavia that she had forgotten an
+engagement with the dentist and has gone to catch the ten-eighteen."
+
+"That, Hezekiah, is a lie.  It isn't quite square to deceive your aunt
+that way," I remarked soberly.
+
+Hezekiah laughed again.
+
+"You absurdity!  Don't you know Aunt Octavia yet!  She will be
+perfectly overjoyed when she comes back and finds that note from
+Cecilia.  She likes disappearances, mysteries, and all that kind of
+thing.  But it is barely possible that you will have to wash the
+dishes.  I can't, you see, for I 'm not supposed to come on the
+reservation at all--not until Cecilia has found a husband.  Is n't it
+perfectly delicious?"
+
+"All of that, Daughter of Kings!  I think that as soon as I can regain
+confidence in my own sanity I shall like it myself.  But,"--and I
+watched her narrowly,--"you see, Hezekiah, there is really a ghost, you
+know."
+
+Once more that divine mirth in her bubbled mellowly.  She had walked
+guardedly to the window and turned swiftly with a mockery of fear in
+her face.
+
+"Aunt Octavia approaches, and I must be off.  But that ghost, Mr.
+Chimney-Man,--when you find him, please let me know.  There are a lot
+of things I want to ask some reliable ghost about the hereafter."
+
+With this she fled, and I heard the front door close smartly after her.
+An instant later Miss Octavia appeared and asked solicitously how I
+liked my omelette.
+
+"The coachman has been telling me a capital ghost-story.  He believes
+them to be beneficent and declares that he will under no circumstances
+leave my employment."
+
+She sat down and folded her arms upon the table.  For the first time I
+believed that she was serious.  There was, in fact, a troubled look on
+her sweet, whimsical face.  It occurred to me that the loss of her
+servants was not really the slight matter she had previously made of it.
+
+"Mr. Ames, will you pardon me for asking you a question of the most
+intimate character?  It is only after much hesitation that I do so."
+
+I bowed encouragingly, my curiosity fully aroused.
+
+"You may ask me anything in the world, Miss Hollister."
+
+"Then I wish you would tell me whether,--I can't express the dislike I
+feel in doing this,--but can you tell me whether you have seen in the
+hands of my niece Cecilia a small--a very small, silver-backed
+note-book."
+
+"Yes, I have," I answered, greatly surprised.
+
+"And may I ask whether,--and again I must plead my deep concern as an
+excuse for making such an inquiry,--whether you by any chance saw her
+making any notation in that book?"
+
+I recalled the silver-bound book perfectly, but had attached no
+importance to it; but if Cecilia's fortunes were so intimately related
+to it as Miss Hollister's manner implied, I felt that I must be careful
+of my answer.  I was trying to recall the precise moment at which I had
+entered the library the preceding evening after Hume's departure, and
+while I was intent upon this my silence must have been prolonged.  I
+felt obliged to make an answer of some sort, and yet I did not relish
+the thought of conveying information that might distress and embarrass
+a noble girl like Cecilia Hollister.  Something in my face must have
+conveyed a hint of this inner conflict to Miss Hollister, for she rose
+suddenly, holding up her hand as though to silence me.  She seemed
+deeply moved, and cried in agitation:--
+
+"Do not answer me!  The question was quite unfair,--quite unfair,--and
+yet I assure you that at the moment I made the inquiry, I felt
+justified."
+
+She retreated toward the door as I rose; and then with her composure
+fully restored she courtesied gracefully.
+
+"Luncheon here will be a buffet affair to-day, as I shall be engaged
+with matters of pastry.  I'm sure, however, that you will find
+employment until dinner-time, when my house will be fully in order
+again."
+
+I intended that this should be a busy day, so without making
+explanations I went to the stable, told the coachman I wished to be
+driven to the station, and was soon whizzing over the hills toward
+Katonah.  The coachman, an Irishman, introduced the subject of the
+ghost as soon as we were out of sight of the house.
+
+"The ole lady's dipped; she's dipped, sir," he remarked leadingly.
+
+"It's catching," I answered; "so you'd better forget it."
+
+He thereupon settled glumly to his driving.  As we crossed the bridge
+near where I had first encountered Hezekiah in the apple-orchard, I
+spied her trudging across a meadow, and she waved her hand gaily.
+Meadows and streams and stars!  Of such were Hezekiah's kingdom.
+
+I wondered how Wiggins and the other gentlemen at the Prescott Arms
+were faring.  My question was partially answered a second later, as we
+passed the road that forked off to the inn.  On a stone by the roadside
+sat Lord Arrowood, desolately guarding a kit-bag and a suit-case.  He
+was dressed in a shabby Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers, and sucked a
+pipe.
+
+[Illustration: On a stone by the roadside sat Lord Arrowood.]
+
+I bade the driver pause, and greeted the nobleman affably.
+
+"Can I give you a lift?  You seem to be bound for the station, and I'm
+taking a train myself."
+
+"No, thanks," he replied sharply.  "They're a lot of
+bounders,--bounders, I say!"
+
+
+
+
+"Ah!  Of whom do you speak, Lord Arrowood?" I asked glancing at my
+watch.
+
+"Those scoundrels at the inn.  They have thrown me out.  Thrown me
+out--me!"
+
+"Hard lines, for a fact; but if you are interested in trains"--
+
+"I refuse to leave the county!" he shouted.  "If they think they're
+going to get rid of me they're mistaken.  Bounders, I say, bounders!"
+
+He uttered this opprobrious term with great bitterness, and crossed his
+legs, as though to emphasize his permanence upon the boulder.  Patience
+on a monument is not more eternally planted.  He seemed in no mood for
+conversation, so I sped on, with no time to lose.
+
+I gained the step of the chair-car attached to the ten-eighteen with
+some loss of dignity, the porter yanking me aboard under the
+conductor's scornful eye.  The Katonah passengers were still in the
+aisle, and as I surveyed them I saw Cecilia take a seat in the middle
+of the car.  She was just unfolding a newspaper when I moved to a seat
+behind her and bade her good-morning.
+
+The look she gave me in turning round had in it something of Hezekiah's
+quizzical humor.  This interested me, because I had not previously seen
+any but the most superficial resemblance between the sisters.  Her
+cheeks were aglow from her sprint on the wheel.  The short skirt and
+the shirt waist are the true vesture of emancipated woman.  Cecilia
+Hollister, whose apparel at home had struck me as rather formal, seemed
+this morning quite a new being.  She drew a folded veil from the pocket
+of her jacket, removed her hat, and pinned the veil to it.  She kept
+the hat in her lap, however, and went on talking.
+
+"We are both truants.  You must have breakfasted in a hurry to have
+caught this train."
+
+"Not at all.  I enjoyed a brief conversation with your sister, and
+after she had gone, your aunt came back and lingered for a moment."
+
+"She told you, I suppose, that Providence would look after the servant
+question."
+
+"She did, just that."
+
+"Well, Providence is hardly equal to getting enough servants to run
+that place, so I'm going to assist Providence a little."
+
+"You become the vicaress of Providence?  I admire your spirit."
+
+"It's mere self-preservation.  Aunt Octavia would have me chained to
+the kitchen if I did n't do something about it."
+
+She had permitted me to settle with the conductor, and when I had
+completed this transaction I found that she had drawn from her purse
+the little silver booklet about which Miss Octavia had inquired so
+anxiously.  She held this close to her eyes, so that I had a clear view
+of the silver backs, on one of which "C.H." was engraved in neat
+script.  The subjoined pencil she held poised ready for use, touching
+the tip of it absent-mindedly to her tongue.  She raised her eyes with
+the far-away look still in them.
+
+"Can you tell me how to spell Arrowood,--is it one or two w's?"
+
+"One, I think the noble lord uses."
+
+She seemed to write the name, and I saw her counting on her fingers,
+touching them lightly on the open page of the book.
+
+Then she dropped it into her purse, which she thrust back carefully
+into her pocket.  She sighed, and was silent for a moment.  We were
+passing a series of huge signs built like a barricade along the right
+of way, and on one of these I observed with fresh interest an
+advertisement whose counterpart I had seen often about New York, but
+without ever observing it attentively.  It drew a laugh from me now.
+It represented an infant in a perambulator, behind which stood the
+effigy of a capped and aproned nurse.  A legend was inscribed on the
+board to this effect:--
+
+      HUSH!  Baby's asleep.
+  It's a HOLLISTER PERAMBULATOR!
+
+
+"If it's a Hollister," I remarked as a second of these flew by the
+window, "it's perfect."
+
+"Oh, those things!" she exclaimed.
+
+"I was n't referring to the perambulator necessarily.  Anything that's
+Hollister must be good."
+
+"We're out of the business, except that Aunt Octavia gets a dollar for
+every one that's made; but the trust keeps the name."
+
+"The trust could hardly change your name.  You will have to do that
+yourself."
+
+"You've been talking to Hezekiah.  That's the way people always talk to
+her."
+
+"It's certainly not the way I've been talking to you; but we've run
+away from school, and I'm disposed to make the most of it.  Our
+conversation at your aunt's has been so high up in the air, that it's
+pleasant to come down to earth and tune it to the less strenuous note
+of a twentieth-century railway journey."
+
+"That, Mr. Ames, may depend upon the point of view."
+
+"But you will make it yours, won't you?  You see, I've always dreamed
+of adventures, but since I met your aunt in the Asolando they've been
+coming a little too fast.  There's that ghost business.  Now I 'm going
+to catch that ghost to-night, if it's the last thing I do!"
+
+"Well, I'm not the ghost, and neither is my father, if that's what's in
+your mind.  Tell me just what you have seen and heard."
+
+I gave her the story in detail, and my recital seemed to amuse her
+greatly.
+
+"You thought it was Aunt Octavia herself at first, then you thought I
+was the spook, and now you are not fully persuaded that it is not my
+father.  I will take you into my confidence this far--that I don't know
+how father got into the house last night.  He wrote a note asking me to
+meet him on the roof and bring the foils.  That was not unlike him, as
+he is the dearest father in the world, and his whims are just as jolly
+in their way as Aunt Octavia's.  I was sure that Aunt Octavia had
+retired for the night, so I changed my dress and carried the foils up
+through the trunk-room.  I had hardly reached there before my father
+appeared.  The whole situation--my being there and all that--has
+distressed father a great deal; so I let you see me cry a little.  I
+promise never to do it again."
+
+Mirth brightened the eyes she turned upon me now.
+
+"You think," she asked, "that those lights could n't have winked out
+twice by themselves while you were on the stairway."
+
+"I am positive of it.  And somebody--a being of some sort--passed me on
+the stairway.  It might imaginably have been you!"
+
+"But I tell you positively it was not."
+
+"Then it might have been your father.  A man who can enter a house at
+will might easily play any manner of other tricks.  His disappearance
+after I had gone down into the house with him was just as mysterious as
+the ghost."
+
+"It was natural for father not to want you to know how he got in; the
+motive for that would be the fact that he is not supposed to see me or
+communicate with me in any way.  But you 've got to get a
+ghost-_motif_."
+
+"I think I have one," I said.
+
+"Then all the rest is easy.  To whom does this ghost-_motif_ lead you?"
+
+"I need hardly say; for it must have occurred to you that there is one
+member of the Hollister family we have n't mentioned in this
+connection."
+
+"If you mean Hezekiah"--
+
+"None other!"
+
+The surprise in her face was not feigned,--I was confident of
+this,--and the questions evoked by my answer at once danced in her eyes.
+
+"If Hezekiah should be caught in the house just now we should all pay
+dearly for her rashness.  Believe me, this is true.  Some day you may
+know the whys and wherefores; at present no one may know.  There is
+this, however,--if Hezekiah or my father should be found at Hopefield
+Manor, anywhere on the premises, while I am there, the consequences
+would be disastrous,--more so than I dare tell you.  But why should
+Hezekiah wish to prowl about there at night,--to assume for a moment
+that she is doing it?"
+
+Her manner was wholly earnest.  It was plain that she had entered into
+some sort of a compact with her aunt, and no doubt the arrangement was
+in the characteristic whimsical vein of which I had enjoyed personal
+experience.  I did not wish to press Cecilia for explanations she might
+not be free to make, but I ventured a suggestion or two.
+
+"Hezekiah may be entering the house and playing ghost for amusement,
+merely in a spirit of childish rebellion against the interdiction that
+forbids her the house.  That is quite plausible, Hezekiah being the
+spirited young person we know her to be.  And it may amuse her, too, to
+plug the chimneys at a time when her sister is enjoying the visits of
+suitors.  Without quite realizing that such was her animus, she may be
+the least,--the very least bit jealous!"
+
+Cecilia flushed and her eyes flashed indignantly.  She bent toward me
+eagerly.
+
+"Please do not say such a thing!  You must not even think it!"
+
+"She may be a little forlorn, alone in your father's house over the
+hills at times when you are surrounded by admirers, and it is my
+assumption from what I have learned in one way and another of your
+flight abroad last summer, that some of these gentlemen now established
+at the Prescott Arms are known to her."
+
+"Oh, all of them, certainly."
+
+"And Hartley Wiggins among the rest?"
+
+"That, Mr. Ames, is most unkind," she declared earnestly.  "She has
+told me that she was not in the least interested in Mr. Wiggins."
+
+"And she told me the same thing, but I do not feel sure of it!  But
+what if she is!  You are not really interested in him yourself!"
+
+In the library at Hopefield Manor I should not have thought of speaking
+to Cecilia Hollister in any such fashion; but the flying train gave
+wings to my daring.  I was surprised at my own temerity, and more
+surprised that she did not seem to resent my new manner of speech.  She
+did not, however, vouchsafe any reply to my statement, but changed the
+subject abruptly.
+
+My description of the ghost had taken considerable time, and we were
+now running through the tunnels and would soon be at the end of our
+journey.  She put on her hat and veil without making it necessary for
+us to discontinue our talk.  A certain languor that had marked her at
+her aunt's vanished.  There was a clearer light in her eye, and as I
+helped her into her coat I felt that here was a woman to whose high
+qualities I had done scant justice.
+
+"I count on finishing my errand and taking the two-seven," she remarked.
+
+"That's a short time to allow yourself.  I've heard that it's a dreary
+business chasing the employment agencies."
+
+"Not if you know where not to go.  If you 'll get me a machine of some
+sort I 'll be off at once."
+
+"I fear I shan't conclude my own business so soon; but if you will
+honor me at luncheon?"--
+
+This last was at the door of a taxicab I had found for her.
+
+"Sorry, Mr. Ames, but it's out of the question.  I hope to see you at
+dinner to-night.  And please"--
+
+"Yes, Miss Hollister"--
+
+"Please remember that you are Aunt Octavia's guest, and don't annoy her
+by failing to appear at dinner.  You know you have n't fixed that
+chimney yet!"
+
+Her smile left me well in the air; I stood staring after the very
+commonplace cab as it rolled away with her, my mind a whirling chaos of
+emotion.  The crowd jostled me impatiently; for other people, not
+breathing celestial ether from an hour of Cecilia Hollister's society,
+were bent upon the day's business.
+
+I set off at once for Pepperton's office, where I learned that the
+architect was out of town; but his chief clerk greeted me courteously.
+I told him frankly that I wanted to look at the plans of Hopefield
+Manor to enable me to learn the exact lines of the chimneys.  He
+confessed surprise that they were causing trouble, and expressed regret
+that they were not in the office.
+
+"Miss Hollister sent for them this morning, and I have just given them
+to a young woman who bore a note from her.  Ordinarily I should not
+have let them go, but the note was peremptory, and Miss Hollister is a
+friend of Mr. Pepperton's, you know, and a person I'm sure he would not
+refuse.  We're at work now on plans for a cathedral she proposes
+building for the Bishop of Manila."
+
+I was not surprised that Octavia Hollister should be building
+cathedrals in the Orient,--I was beyond that,--but I was taken aback to
+find that she had anticipated me in my rush for the plans of her house.
+Clearly, I was dealing with a woman who was not only immensely amusing
+but exceedingly shrewd as well.  Could it be possible after all that
+she was herself playing ghost merely for her own entertainment!  She
+was capable of it; but I had satisfied myself that she could not have
+performed the tricks of which I had been the victim the night previous
+unless she possessed some rare vanishing power like that of the East
+Indian mystics.
+
+"May I ask who came for the plans?"
+
+"I judged the young woman to be a maid, or perhaps she was Miss
+Hollister's secretary."
+
+I had given little heed during my short stay at Hopefield Manor to Miss
+Hollister's personal attendant.  I had passed her in the halls once or
+twice, a young woman of twenty-five, I should say, fair-haired and
+blue-eyed.  She might herself be the ghost, now that I thought of it;
+but this seemed the most unlikely hypothesis possible,--and there was
+no difficulty in accounting for her flight to town, for there were many
+horses and vehicles in the Hopefield stable, and trains were frequent.
+
+"If there is anything further, Mr. Ames"--
+
+I roused myself to find the chief clerk regarding me impatiently, and I
+thanked him and hurried away.
+
+At my own office my assistant pounced upon me wrathfully.  He was half
+wild over the pressure of vexatious business, and had just been
+engaging in a long-distance conversation with a country gentleman at
+Lenox which had left him in bad temper.  I was explaining to him the
+seriousness of my errands at Hopefield, rather unconvincingly I fear,
+and the fact that I must return at once, when the office-boy entered my
+private room to say that three gentlemen wished to see me immediately.
+They had submitted cards, but had refused to state the nature of their
+business.  It was with a distinct sensation of surprise that I read the
+names respectively of Percival B. Shallenberger, Daniel P. Ormsby, and
+John Stewart Dick.
+
+"Show the gentlemen in," I said promptly, greatly to the disgust of my
+assistant, who retired to deal with several clients whom I had passed
+in the reception-room fiercely walking the floor.
+
+I had imagined all the suitors established at the Prescott Arms.  As
+the three appeared clad in light automobiling coats, I could not
+forbear a smile at their grim appearance.  Shallenberger, the novelist,
+and Ormsby, the knit-goods manufacturer, were big men; Dick was much
+shorter, though of compact and sturdy build.  They growled surlily in
+response to my greeting, and Ormsby closed the door behind them.  Dick
+seemed to be the designated spokesman, and he advanced to the desk
+behind which I sat, with a stride and manner that advertised his
+belligerent frame of mind.
+
+"Mr. Ames," he began, "we have come here to speak for ourselves and
+certain other gentlemen who are staying for a time at the Prescott
+Arms."
+
+"Gentlemen of the committee, welcome to our office," I replied, greatly
+amused by his ferocity.
+
+My tone caused the others to draw in defensively behind him.
+
+"We want you to understand that your conduct in accompanying a lady
+that I shall not name to the city is an act we cannot pass in silence.
+Your conduct in going to Hopefield Manor was in itself an affront to
+us, but your behavior this morning passes all bounds.  We have come,
+sir, to demand an explanation!"
+
+At a glance this was a situation I dare not take seriously.  In any
+circumstances the fact that these men had followed me to my office to
+rebuke me for accompanying Cecilia Hollister to town was absurd.  This
+young Mr. Dick was absurd in himself.  His gray cap had twisted itself
+oddly to the side of his head, and a bang of black hair lay at a
+piratical angle across his forehead.  Behind him Ormsby, the knit-goods
+man, tugged at a brown moustache; Shallenberger's blue eyes snapped
+wrathfully.
+
+"Mr. Dick," I said soberly, "I have heard of you as the original
+pragmatist of Nebraska, and as I am a mere ignorant chimney-doctor, to
+whom the later philosophical meaning of that term is only so much punk,
+I must identify you with that more obvious meaning of the word which is
+within my grasp.  Mr. Dick, and gentlemen of the committee, you are
+meddlesome persons!"
+
+"Meddlesome!" cried Dick, heatedly, and leaning toward me across my
+desk, "do I correctly understand, sir, that you mean to insult us?"
+
+"Nothing could be further from my purpose.  But I cannot permit you to
+imagine that I'm going to allow you to beard me in my office and
+criticise my conduct in regard to Miss Cecilia Hollister or anybody
+else.  As a philosopher from the fertile corn-lands of Nebraska, I
+salute you with admiration; as a critic of my ways and manners, I show
+you the door!"
+
+This I did a bit jauntily, and I had a feeling that I was playing my
+part well.  But the young man before me seemed to swell with the rage
+that surged within him.  He broke out furiously, beating the air with
+his fist.
+
+"You not only insult this committee, but you speak with intentional
+disrespect of my native state, and of the great philosophical school of
+which I am a disciple.  Am I right?"
+
+"You are eminently right, Mr. Dick.  Neither the corn, the
+philosophical schools, nor the packing-house statistics of your native
+Omaha interest me a particle.  So far as I am personally concerned you
+may go back to your wigwam on the tawny Missouri as soon as you please."
+
+"Then," he broke forth explosively, "then, sir, by Minerva's pale brow,
+and by all the gods at once, I brand you"--
+
+"Put the brand on hot, little one!  Make it a good strong curse while
+you're about it!"
+
+He choked with rage for a moment; then he controlled himself with
+painful effort.
+
+"My personal grievances must wait," continued Dick, brokenly, "but
+speaking for the committee I wish to say that your attentions to the
+young lady whom you have dared, sir, to name, are obnoxious to us."
+
+"Nothing less than that!" added Shallenberger.
+
+"We will not stand for it," growled Ormsby's heavy bass.
+
+"Mr. Shallenberger," I replied evenly, "as a member of the great
+Hoosier school of novelists I have the most profound respect for your
+talents.  My office-boy is dead to the world for weeks after the
+appearance of a novel from your pen.  But your interference in my
+private affairs is beyond all reason.  And as for you, Mr. Ormsby, I
+dare say your knit-goods are worthy of the fame of the pent-up Utica
+from which you come.  But to you and all of you, I bid defiance.  I
+return to Hopefield Manor by the four-fourteen express."
+
+I rose and bowed coldly in dismissal; but the trio stood their ground
+stubbornly.
+
+"I tell you, sir, our organization is complete!" declared Dick.  "We
+signed a gentleman's agreement only last night, for the express purpose
+of excluding you, and you cannot enter as a competitor.  You are only
+an outsider, and we don't intend to have you interfering with our
+affairs."
+
+"By the pink left ear of Venus!" I blurted, "is it a trust?"
+
+"You put it coarsely, Mr. Ames, but"--
+
+"A suitors' trust?  Then if I read the newspapers correctly, your
+organization is against public policy and in contravention of the
+anti-trust law.  But may I inquire why, if you have perfected a
+combination of Miss Hollister's suitors, I found Lord Arrowood this
+morning sitting on a stone by the roadside, evidently in the greatest
+dejection.  Can it be possible that an insurgent has crept into your
+organization and incurred the displeasure of the regulars?"
+
+"We ruled him out," Shallenberger burst forth, "because he was a
+foreigner and not entitled to a place among free-born Americans!  That
+is one reason; and for another, the colors of his half-hose were an
+offense to me, personally."
+
+"And for another reason," interposed Ormsby, "he had no money with
+which to pay his board at the Prescott Arms.  For this just cause the
+landlord ejected him shortly after breakfast this morning."
+
+"Then there is already a rift in the lute!" I returned.  "No trust of
+suitors is stronger than its weakest link.  By the bloody footprints of
+our forefathers on the snows of Valley Forge, I stand for the right of
+the American girl to choose where she will.  You may perch on the hills
+about Hopefield Manor, and besiege Cecilia Hollister till the end of
+time, but my hand is raised against your unrighteous compact, and I am
+in the fight to stay!  Go back to the Prescott Arms, gentlemen, and
+assure your associates in this hideous compact of my most distinguished
+consideration and tell them to go to the devil."
+
+
+I had gone to the St. Parvenu Hotel to call upon a Washington lady who
+had been making life a burden to my assistant, and on coming out into
+Fifth Avenue shortly after one, bethought me of the Asolando Tea-Room.
+My interview with the committee of the suitors had driven from my mind
+practically every consideration and every interest not centred in
+Hopefield Manor.  My thoughts turned gratefully to the Asolando, where
+only a few days ago I had been precipitated into the strangest
+adventures my eventless life had known.
+
+A strange face was visible at the cashier's desk as I entered the
+tea-room.  I passed on, finding the place quite full, but I took it as
+a good omen that the seventh table from the right was unoccupied, and I
+hastily appropriated it.  A waitress appeared promptly, murmuring,--
+
+  "There are no birds in last year's nest,"--
+
+and recommended a Locker-Lampson sandwich, whose contents the girl told
+me were secret, but it proved to be wholly palatable.  As I drank my
+tea and ate the sandwich I surveyed the decorated menu card with
+interest, and found pleasurable excitement in discovering an item
+directing attention to "Pickles _a la_ Hezekiah, 15 cents."
+
+The delightful Hezekiah must, then, have impressed herself upon the
+_deus ex machina_ of the Asolando on her brief day there, thus to have
+won this recognition.  And further on I noted, among the desserts,
+_Peche Cecilie_, with even greater interest and satisfaction.  Miss
+Hollister's nieces were among ten thousand young women, and it was
+quite believable that their brief tenure of office in the tea-room had
+fixed them permanently in the heart of the unknown proprietor.
+
+The girl at the cash-desk was reading, her head bent as demurely as
+Hezekiah's had been on that memorable afternoon; but I did not care for
+the stranger's profile.  I tried to fancy Cecilia in cap and apron
+serving these tables, but my imagination was not equal to the task.
+
+Cecilia occupied my mind now.  The visit of the furious suitors to my
+office had stirred in me thoughts and aspirations that had never known
+harborage in my breast before.  The presumption of those fellows had
+exceeded anything I had known in my contact with human kind, and
+instead of frightening me away from Hopefield Manor, they had called my
+own attention to the strategic importance of my present position as a
+guest in Miss Octavia's house.  Here was a siege of suitors indeed; but
+I was resolved to make the most of my position within the barricade.
+
+As these thoughts ran through my mind, I was finishing my _Peche
+Cecilie_ (I spurn all sweets ordinarily), when I became interested in
+the unusual conduct of a young woman who had entered the front door
+briskly and walked with a business-like air to the cashier's desk.  The
+girl within the wicket rose promptly, opened the screen, and without
+parley of any sort, emptied the contents of her till into the visitor's
+reticule.  With a nod and a smile and a moment's careless survey of the
+room, the girl departed, swinging the reticule in her hand.  A long
+roll she carried under her arm confirmed my identification.  It was
+Miss Octavia Hollister's Swedish maid; and the roll, beyond
+peradventure, contained the plans she had obtained at Pepperton's
+office.
+
+The girl was well-featured, neat of figure, and becomingly gowned, and
+as I watched her leave the shop the lightness of her step, something
+smooth and flowing in her movements, interested me.  I did not know
+what business she had to be robbing the Asolando money-drawer, but it
+was altogether possible that she was the Hopefield ghost!
+
+On the whole, when I had finally torn myself away from my
+assistant,--who made no attempt to conceal his doubts as to my
+sanity,--and had settled myself in the four-fourteen express with the
+afternoon papers, I was fully satisfied with the day's adventures.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE RIDDLE OF THE SIBYL'S LEAVES
+
+I had told the coachman in the morning not to trouble to meet me on my
+return, and I engaged the village liveryman to drive me to the house
+for hire.  As we approached Hopefield I saw the Napoleonic figure of
+John Stewart Dick in the roadway.  He had evidently been waiting for
+me.  He held up his hand with the superb, impersonal scorn of a Fifth
+Avenue policeman, and the driver checked his horse.
+
+"I gave you warning," he said impressively.  "If you return to the
+house the consequences will be upon your own head."
+
+"Thank you," I replied courteously.  "You lay yourself open to the
+severest penalties of the law in attempting to intimidate me.  I have
+enlisted for the whole campaign.  Sick chimneys require my immediate
+professional attention.  If my bark sink, 't is to another sea.  Be
+good, dear child, let those who will be clever; and kindly omit
+flowers."
+
+As the driver slapped his reins, Dick sprang out of the way, muttering
+words that proved the shallowness of his philosophic temper.  The
+liveryman expressed his disapproval of the pragmatist in profane terms
+as we entered the grounds.
+
+"There's a heap o' talk in the village," he observed.  "They do say the
+old lady 's cracked, if I may so speak of her; and that there's ghosts
+in the house.  And the conduct of the gentlemen at the Prescott is most
+remarkable.  The word 's passed that they're all dippy about the young
+Miss Hollister that lives with her aunt.  I reckon all rich people are
+a bit cracked.  It appears to go with the money.  Mr. Bassford
+Hollister,--he's the old lady's brother,--he's just as bad as any of
+'em.  I've drove in these parts fifteen year, and I 've worked a heap
+for the rich, but I never seen nothin' like the Hollisters.  They say
+Mr. Bassford is about broke now.  Had his share of the baby-wagon money
+and blew it in, and now the old lady's marryin' off the girls and he
+gets no money out of her if he takes a hand in that game.  She's doin'
+it to suit herself.  That Bassford is always up to somethin' queer.
+Yesterday he sat in the village street countin' the number of people he
+saw chewin' gum.  Hung around the school-house watchin' the children to
+see how many had their jaws goin'.  Takin' notes just like the census
+man and tax assessor.  Told our doctor in the village he was figurin'
+the amount of horse-power the American people put into gum-chewing
+every year, and expects to find some way of usin' it to run machinery.
+It's harmless, Doc says.  He calls it just the Hollister idiosyncrasy,
+if that's the word.  But I reckon it's idiotsyncrasy all right.  I wish
+you good luck of your place, sir."
+
+He evidently believed me to be some sort of upper servant, and this
+added to my joy of the day.  With my good humor augmented by the
+interview, I entered the house.  A strange footman admitted me, and I
+went to my room at once without meeting any one else.
+
+The man followed me with a penciled note, signed with Cecilia's
+initials, requesting my presence below as soon as possible, as she
+wished to see me before dinner.  The thought that she wished to see me
+at any time filled me with elation; and her few lines scratched on a
+correspondence card were a pleasing addendum to our conversation of the
+morning.  I only wondered whether I should find her the sober, reserved
+young woman of our earlier acquaintance, or whether she would choose to
+renew the good comradeship of our talk on the train.  The finding of my
+assistant's telegraphed resignation on my dressing-table, to take
+effect in January, had not the slightest effect upon the lofty minarets
+in which my fancy now found lodgment.  It pleased me to believe that
+fighting blood still pulsed in the last of the house of Ames, and that
+I had hurled defiance at the organized band of suitors that guarded the
+Hopefield gates and picketed the surrounding hills.
+
+My question as to which Cecilia I should find in the library was
+quickly answered.  Her frank smile, the candor of her eyes, confessed a
+new tie between us; we were becoming conspirators within the main
+conspiracy, whatever its character might be.
+
+"As to Providence and the cook--what luck?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, I managed that very easily.  I ran into some friends who were
+going abroad for the winter.  They have a staff of unusual servants,
+and were anxious to keep them together until their return.  I promptly
+engaged them all, and they are even now installed.  I came up on the
+train with them, and as they are unusually intelligent and biddable,
+they agreed to stray in in a casual and desultory way through the
+afternoon.  Aunt Octavia really believed, or pretended she did, which
+is just as good, that Providence had sent them, and was delighted.  The
+laundress--the last to appear--has just arrived, and Aunt Octavia is in
+fine humor.  She did n't even ask me how I came off in my encounter at
+the dentist's.  She had filled the pie-pantry and had a good time while
+I was gone."
+
+"Well, I have had an adventure of my own," I remarked, after expressing
+my relief that she had solved the servant difficulty with so much ease.
+"A committee of gentlemen waited on me in my office on a matter of
+grave importance."
+
+She lifted her brows, and folded her hands upon her knees--it was a
+pretty way she had.
+
+"Was it the freedom of the city, or some high recognition of your
+professional ability, Mr. Ames?"
+
+"Oh, far more exciting!  Three gentlemen, representing the suitors'
+trust now maintaining headquarters at the Prescott Arms, warned me
+solemnly to keep off the grass.  In other words, I am not to interfere
+with their designs upon the heart of Miss Cecilia Hollister."
+
+She flung open a fan, held it at arm's length, and scrutinized the
+daffodils that were traced upon it.
+
+"So they dared you?"
+
+"So they dared me.  And I took the dare."
+
+"Why?"
+
+Her eyes met mine gravely, but behind her pretty _moue_ a smile lurked
+delightfully.
+
+[Illustration: Her eyes met mine gravely.]
+
+"If I should tell you now it would be flirting, which is a sin."
+
+"I had imagined, Mr. Ames, that that sort of thing came easy to you.
+But if it's sinful, of course"--
+
+"But you do not rule me out!  You will give me a chance"--
+
+My earnestness caused her manner to change suddenly.  Her beautiful
+gravity came like a swift falling of starlit twilight.  I had never
+been so happy as at this moment.  Preposterous as were the
+circumstances of my presence in the house, the juxtaposition of Cecilia
+Hollister gave me unalloyed delight.  The animosity of the gentlemen at
+the Prescott Arms--an animosity which the interview in my office had
+doubtless intensified--quickened my satisfaction in thus being within
+the walls that guarded the lady of their adoration.  She had not
+answered me, and I felt my heart pounding in the silence.
+
+"I want to serve you, now, hereafter, and always," I added.  "These men
+can have no claim upon you greater than that of any other man who
+dares!"
+
+"No, none whatever," she replied firmly.
+
+"And the mystery, the whole story, is in the little silver book!"
+
+She started, flushed, and then laughter visited her lips and eyes.  The
+book was not in her hands nor in sight anywhere, but I felt that I was
+on the right track, and that the little trinket had to do with her
+plight and her compact with her aunt.  Best of all, the fact that I had
+chanced upon this clue gave her happiness.  There was no debating that.
+
+"You had best have a care, Mr. Ames.  You have spoken words that would
+be treasonable if they came from me, and I must not countenance them."
+
+"But you will tolerate from me words that you would not permit another
+to speak?  Do I go too far?"
+
+She bent her head to one side,--with the slightest inclination, as of a
+rose touched by a vagrant wind.
+
+"If I could only half believe in you," she said, "you might really
+serve me.  So those gentlemen warned you away!  Their presumption is
+certainly astounding."
+
+"They know nothing of the silver book!"
+
+"They know less than you do,--and you have a good deal to learn, you
+know."
+
+"I am dull enough, but I have no ambition but to read the riddle of the
+sibyl's leaves.  That and the laying of the ghost are my immediate
+business.  As for the gentlemen at the Prescott, including my old
+friend Hartley Wiggins, I am not in the least afraid of them.  My hand
+is raised against them.  If it's a case of the test of Ulysses over
+again, I 'm as likely as any of them to bend the bow."
+
+I thought this well spoken, but she seemed amused, though without
+unkindness, by the earnestness of my speech.
+
+"If your wit is equal to your valor, you may go far.  But"--and she
+turned her eyes full upon me--"we must play the game according to the
+rules."
+
+"And as for Hartley Wiggins"--
+
+She sat up very straight, and the sudden disdain in her face startled
+me.  I had forgotten my eavesdropping in the clump of raspberries on
+the day of my arrival.  Certainly Wiggins had been decidedly in the
+race then, and my heart thumped in resentment as I recalled her own
+message, all compact of encouragement, which I had borne to Wiggins at
+the Prescott Arms.
+
+"I will tell you something, Mr. Ames.  This afternoon, as I drove from
+the station, I came round by the lake, merely to cool my eyes on the
+water, and I saw Mr. Wiggins and my sister seated on a wall in an old
+orchard.  They were so busily engaged that they did not see me.  At
+least he did not; but I think Hezekiah did."
+
+"Hezekiah," I answered, relieved by the nature of her disclosure, which
+could not but prejudice Wiggins' case, "Hezekiah is fond of orchards.
+I dare say this was the same one in which I had a charming talk with
+her myself.  Doubtless she was amusing herself with Wiggins just as she
+did with me.  She finds the genus homo entertaining."
+
+"She is the dearest girl in the world,--the sweetest, the loveliest,
+the brightest.  Mr. Wiggins has treated her outrageously.  He has taken
+advantage of her youth and susceptible nature."
+
+"His punishment is sure," I answered complacently.  "Hezekiah laughed
+when I mentioned his name.  And you frown to-day at the thought of him."
+
+"Aunt Octavia is coming," she remarked, feigning at once a careless
+air; but I was content that she let my remark pass unchallenged.
+
+Miss Octavia's entrances were always effective.  She appeared to-night
+charmingly gowned, but the bright twinkle in her eyes made it clear
+that no matter of dress could affect her humor or spirit.  She greeted
+me, as she always did, as though our acquaintance were a matter of
+years rather than of days.  I even imagined that she seemed pleased to
+find me back again.  She asked no questions as to my day's occupations,
+but as we went in to dinner sallied forth cheerfully upon a description
+of her own activities.
+
+"After I had baked my required quota of pies this morning, I sought
+recreation at the traps.  The stable-boy who has been pulling the
+string for me having struck-work, it most providentially happened that
+I espied Lord Arrowood hanging on the edge of the maple tangle beyond
+the barn.  I summoned him at once and put him to work managing the
+traps for me, finding him most efficient.  He seemed extremely
+despondent, and after I had satisfied myself that two out of three was
+not an impossible record for one of my years, I brought him to the
+house and made tea for him.  I left the room for a moment--I had taken
+him into the kitchen where, during the incumbency of the regular cook I
+hardly dare venture myself, and he made himself comfortable quite near
+the range.  The pies on which I had been engaged all morning lay
+cooling near him.  I had composed twenty-nine pies,--I am an excellent
+mathematician, and I could not have been mistaken in the count.  What
+was my amazement to find, after his lordship's departure, that one pie
+was missing!  The pan in which it was baked I discerned later, jammed
+into a barrel of excellent Minnesota flour.  My absence from the room
+was the briefest; his lordship must indeed be a prestidigitateur to
+have made way with the pie so expeditiously."
+
+"His lordship was doubtless hungry," I suggested.  "Even nobility must
+eat.  I passed Lord Arrowood in the highway early this morning, sitting
+upon a stone, with sundry items of hand-baggage reposing beside him.  I
+have rarely seen any one so depressed."
+
+"He belongs to an ancient house," remarked Miss Octavia.  "He is
+descended from either Hengist or Horsa,--I forget which, but it does
+not greatly matter.  The missing pie, I may add, was an effect in
+Westchester pippin; and as our American experiment in self-government
+bores him, I take it as significant that he chanced upon food that is
+the veritable sacrament of democracy."
+
+"Now that the little matter of the servants has been adjusted, we must
+have a care lest the newly-arrived phalanx, which Providence so kindly
+sent to you to-day, is not stampeded by any further manifestations of
+the troubled spirit of the unfortunate Briton who was hanged on the
+site of this house."
+
+"Mr. Ames," replied Miss Octavia impressively, "that matter is entirely
+in your hands."
+
+"But if I could see the plans of this house, I should be better able to
+grapple with his ghostship."
+
+I had thrown this out in the hope of eliciting some remark from her
+touching the Swedish maid's visit to Pepperton's office; but Miss
+Octavia met my gaze unflinchingly.
+
+"You are a clever man, Mr. Ames, and I have every confidence that you
+will not only solve the mystery of the library chimney but find the
+ghost that switched off the lights on the stair last night.  I prefer
+that you should accomplish these feats without any help from the plans.
+I myself have no suggestions.  I am gratified that you are meeting the
+emergencies that have risen here with so much determination, but it is
+what I should expect of the son of Arnold Ames of Hartford.
+Opportunity is all that any of us need to find ourselves truly great,
+and if, in the ordinary course of our lives, the gate does not open
+freely, we are justified in picking the lock.  When I determined to
+seek adventures in my old age, I resolved that I should miss no chance,
+and that I should be prepared for any beckoning of the hand of fate.
+An odd fancy struck me at the beginning of my new life that Boston
+would some day be the starting-point of some interesting experience.
+This has not yet developed, but in order that I may be prepared for
+anything that may occur I keep a blue-silk umbrella constantly checked
+at the Parker House.  The presence of the little brass check in my
+purse is a constant reminder that Boston may one day call me."
+
+A discussion of the Parker House umbrella followed, Cecilia and I
+joining, and it proved so fruitful a topic that it carried us to our
+coffee.
+
+Coffee-making, in a machine she had herself contrived, was always
+attended with rites that required deliberation, and while she performed
+them Miss Hollister continued to amuse us.
+
+"You may not know," she remarked, in one of her charming irrelevant
+outbursts, "that the most important furniture transactions effected in
+this country are those negotiated daily by the head-waiters of the
+Fifth Avenue restaurants.  Such is, I assure you, the fact.  These
+gentlemen, who have attained front rank among our predatory rich, allow
+no one to dine at the inns they dominate who does not first purchase a
+table and chairs at a profit of at least two hundred per cent over the
+original Grand Rapids cost, the furniture thus purchased reverting in
+every case to the party of the first part after the purchasers have
+eaten to their satisfaction.  The Fifth Avenue head-waiters are not
+only the most absolute autocrats of our time, but the most acute
+students of human nature among us.  The sale of the tables by the lords
+of the dining-rooms is alone worth a fortune every season at our
+fashionable victualing houses and, in addition, the humbler members of
+the minor orders of waiters, who merely fetch and carry, are obliged to
+share their gratuities with their august chiefs."
+
+"The system is iniquitous," I declared.  "It's enough to pay two prices
+for the food without buying the hotel furniture."
+
+"The system, Mr. Ames, is wholly admirable, if you will pardon me for
+expressing a difference of opinion.  We cannot do less than admire the
+austere genius before which mere plutocrats and men of affairs meekly
+bow.  In making my own investments I would rather have the advice of
+Alphonse at the Hotel Pallida than that of the president of the
+strongest trust company on Manhattan Island.  The varying size of the
+sums he receives for the dining-room furniture is the best possible
+indication of the condition of the market.  When a citizen of Pittsburg
+will pay no more than one hundred dollars for the use of a table to eat
+from at the Pallida you may be sure that a panic impends.  By the way,
+I proposed to Alphonse last winter the organization of a limited
+company of leading head-waiters to control the waiting industry of
+Fifth Avenue.  It was my idea that some special forms of torture might
+be devised for calculating persons--usually readers of New York letters
+in provincial newspapers--who think a waiter entitled to only ten per
+cent of the bill, and this could best be managed by an arrangement
+between the five or six magnates who control the more gilded and
+imposing refectories.  I suggested the placing of a special mark in the
+hats of the ten-per-cent fiends, so that wherever they dine the symbol
+of their indiscreet frugalities would be apparent to the initiated eye.
+It is another of my notions that the head-waiter and his humble slave
+should present a formal bill for their services, while the hotel or
+restaurant should merely be tipped.  In this way the more important
+service would receive its due consideration.  The sole office of the
+proprietor is to provide the head-waiter a place in which to follow his
+profession.  Alphonse is impressed with my ideas, and has even offered
+to make me a director of the company."
+
+"I suppose that you won the regard of Alphonse, the magnificent, only
+by the most princely tips through many years of acquaintance, Miss
+Hollister."
+
+"On the other hand, Mr. Ames, I never gave him a cent in my life; but
+last Christmas, in recognition of his friendliness in warning me
+against an alligator-pear salad, at a moment when that vegetable was at
+the turn of the season, I knit him a pair of blue worsted bed-room
+slippers, which he received with the liveliest expressions of delight."
+
+Three suitors were announced at this moment, and I slipped away without
+excuses, while Miss Octavia and Cecilia adjourned to the library.
+
+The ghost, I had sworn, should not baffle me another night.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+I DISCOVER TWO GHOSTS
+
+As I crossed the second-floor hall, I passed the Swedish maid, walking
+toward Miss Octavia's room.  I was somewhat annoyed to find, on looking
+over my shoulder to make sure of her destination, that she, too, had
+paused, her hand on Miss Octavia's door, and was watching me with
+interest.  She vanished immediately; but to throw her off the track I
+went to my own room, closed the door noisily, and then came out quickly
+and ran up to the third floor.
+
+Bassford Hollister's mysterious exit had lingered in my mind as the
+most curious incident of the eventful Friday night.  Having been
+baffled in my effort to get hold of the architect's plans, my thought
+now was to await in the upper part of the house a repetition of the
+various phenomena that had so puzzled me.  By the process of exclusion
+I had eliminated nearly every plausible theory, but if the ghost
+manifested himself with any sort of periodicity (and the hour of the
+chimney's queer behavior had been nine) I was now prepared to meet him
+in the regions he had chosen for his exploits.  When it is remembered
+that I had always been most timorous, not at all anxious to shine in
+any heroic performances, it will be understood that the atmosphere of
+Hopefield Manor was exerting a stimulating effect upon my courage.  Or,
+more likely, my inherent cowardice had been brought into subjection by
+my curiosity.
+
+I had a pretty accurate knowledge by this time of the position and
+function of all the electric switches between the lower hall and the
+fourth floor, but I tested them as I ascended, glancing down now and
+then to make sure I was not observed.  From the sound of voices in the
+library I judged that most of Cecilia's suitors must now have arrived,
+and so much the better, I argued; for with Miss Octavia and her niece
+fully occupied, I could the better carry on my ghost-hunt above stairs.
+
+At a quarter before nine I switched off the lights on the third and
+fourth floors, and established myself at the head of the stairway, and
+quite near the trunk-room door.  This door I had opened, as I fancied
+that if Bassford Hollister were at the bottom of the business, he would
+probably wish to find his way to the roof again.  So far as I was able
+to manage it, the stage was in readiness for the entrance of the
+goblin.  And I may record my impression, that as we wait for a
+visitation of this sort, it is with a degree of credence in things
+supernatural, to which we would not ordinarily confess.  In spite of
+ourselves we expect something to appear, something unearthly,
+impalpable, and unresponsive to those tests we apply to the known and
+understood.
+
+The clock below struck nine upon these meditations, and almost upon the
+last stroke I heard a sound that set my nerves tingling.  I crouched in
+the dark waiting.  Some one was coming toward me, but from where?  The
+bottom of a well at midnight was not blacker than the fourth floor, but
+the switch lay ready to my hand, and my pockets were stuffed with
+matches of the sort that light anywhere.  The stairways were all
+carpeted, as I have said, and yet some one was ascending bare treads,
+lightly, and with delays that suggested a furtive purpose.  Meanwhile,
+as a background for this unreality, murmurs of talk and occasional
+laughter rose from the library.
+
+This concealed stairway, wherever it was, could not be of interminable
+length, and I had counted, I think, fifteen steps of that strange
+ascent when it ceased.  I heard a fumbling as of some one seeking a
+latch, and suddenly a light current of air swept by me, but its clean
+fresh quality was not in itself disturbing.  I stooped and struck a
+match smartly on the carpet and at the same time clicked the switch.  I
+should say that not more than ten seconds passed from the moment the
+soft rush of air had first advertised the opening of a passage near me
+until the hall was flooded with the glow of the electric lamps
+overhead.  My match had also performed its office, but finding the
+electric current behaving itself normally, I blew it out.  What I saw
+now interested me immensely.
+
+In the solid wall, near the stair, and almost directly opposite the
+trunk-room, a narrow door had swung outward,--a neat contrivance, so
+light in its construction that it still swayed on its concealed hinges
+from the touch of the hand that had released it.  How it had opened or
+what had become of the prowler who had unlatched it remained to be
+discovered.  It seemed impossible that whoever or whatever had climbed
+the hidden stairway had descended, nor had I been conscious of a
+ghostly passing as on the previous night.  I had only my senses to
+apply to this problem, and their efficiency was minimized for a moment
+by fear.
+
+The opening in the wall engaged my attention at once, and I was
+steadied by the thought that here was a practical matter susceptible of
+investigation.  I stepped within the door and lighted a candle; and
+just as the wick caught fire, click went a switch somewhere, and out
+went the hall lamps.  But having, so to speak, put my foot to the
+mysterious stair I would not turn back, and I continued on down the
+steps.
+
+Great was my astonishment to find that I had apparently stepped from a
+new into an old house.  The stair treads were worn by long use, the
+plaster walls that inclosed them were battered and cracked, and I
+seemed to have plunged from the glory of Hopefield into some dim lost
+passage of a domicile of another era, that lay within or beneath the
+walls of the Manor.  As I slowly descended, holding high my candle, I
+recalled, not without a qualm, the story of the British soldier whom
+tradition or superstition linked to the site of Miss Hollister's
+property.  This stairway might certainly have been built in the early
+days of the republic, and it refuted my disdain of the ghost-myth on
+the theory that new houses are inhospitable to spirits.
+
+At the foot of the stair I found two rooms, one on either side of a
+small hall, and these, also, were clearly part of an old house that
+seemed to be somehow merged into the Hollister mansion.  I remembered
+now that the mansion stood wedged against a rough spur of rock, and
+that the front and rear entrances were upon different levels, and it
+was conceivable that the back part of the mansion might inclose these
+rooms of an earlier house that had occupied the same site; why they
+should have been retained was beyond me.
+
+Through the carefully-preserved windows, many-paned and quaint, of
+these hidden rooms, the infolding walls of the new house were blank and
+black.  An odd thing indeed, that Pepperton should have lent himself to
+the preservation of a commonplace and thoroughly uninteresting relic,
+for beyond doubt he must have countenanced it; and Miss Hollister's
+prompt removal of the plans from the architect's office became more
+enigmatical than ever.
+
+One door only remained in this shell of the old house, and I hastened
+to fling it open, still lighting my way with a candle.  Before me lay
+the coal cellar, at which I had merely glanced on the morning after my
+installation at Hopefield.  I now began to get my bearings.  I
+remembered two iron lids in the cemented surface of an area on the east
+side of the house where fuel was deposited, and mounting a few steps
+that were of recent construction, and had evidently been built to
+afford communication between the remnant of the old house and the
+subterranean portion of the new, I found to my relief and satisfaction
+beneath one of these openings a short ladder, through which the court
+might be reached.  Here, then, the manner of ghostly ingress was
+illustrated by perfectly plausible means.  The lid of the coal-hole was
+entirely withdrawn, and a bar of moonlight lay brightening upon a pile
+of anthracite at the foot of the ladder.
+
+The ghost I believed to be still in the upper halls of the house, and
+now that I was in a position to watch the ladder by which he had
+entered I felt confident that I had cut off his retreat.  I was
+surveying the cellar, when I heard faint sounds in a new direction.
+Far away under the house, and remote from the secret steps, some one
+was moving toward me, and rapidly, too!  The ghost that I believed to
+have disappeared into the fourth-floor hall must then have changed the
+line of his retreat and descended by one of the regular stairways.
+
+I blew out my candle and stood with my back to the wall of the long
+corridor on which opened the various store-rooms, the heating plant,
+laundry and other accessories of the modern house.  My ghost was coming
+in haste,--a haste that did not harmonize with the stately tread of the
+spooks of popular superstition.  A slower pace and I should doubtless
+have fled before him; but quick light steps echoed in the dark
+corridor, and I gathered courage from the thought that ghosts create
+echoes no more than they cast shadows.
+
+As the steps drew nearer I prepared myself to spring upon him.  I must
+unconsciously have taken a step, for he paused suddenly, stood still
+for a moment, then turned and scampered back the way he had come.
+After him I went as fast as I could run.  The cement-paved corridor was
+four or five feet wide, and I plunged through the dark at my best
+speed.  At the end of the corridor I was pretty certain of my quarry,
+and I made ready to grapple with him.  Then as I plunged into the wall
+my hands touched a man's face and for a moment clutched the collar of
+his coat.  He had been waiting for me to strike the wall, and as he
+slipped out of my grasp he ran back toward the coal cellar.  I had
+struck the wall with a force that knocked the wind out of me, but I got
+myself together with the loss of only an instant and renewed pursuit.
+I had no fear but that, if he attempted to reach the open by means of
+the coal-hole, I should catch him on the ladder, and I sprinted for all
+I was worth to make sure of him.
+
+My fleeting grasp of the man's collar and the agility with which he had
+slipped from my clasp had settled the ghost question, and I had now
+resolved the intruder into a common thief.  As we neared the coal
+cellar I increased my pace, and felt myself gaining on him; though in
+the dark I saw nothing until I glimpsed the faint light from the
+coal-hole.
+
+It had evidently occurred to him by this time that if he tried to climb
+the ladder I could easily pull him down by the legs; and when he
+reached the cross hall, he turned quickly and dived through the opening
+into the hidden chambers.  I lost no time in following, but the fellow
+put up a good race, and as I reached the old stairway he was mounting
+it two steps at a time, as I judged from the sound.  I had hoped to
+catch and dispose of him without alarming the house, but it seemed
+inevitable now that the chase would end in such fashion as to arouse
+the company assembled in the library.
+
+I heard him stumble and fall headlong at the door above; then he shot
+off into the still darkened hall, and when I had gained the top I lost
+track of him for a moment.  I paused and was about to strike a match,
+when he resumed his flight, and I was forced to grapple with the fact
+that some one else was pursuing him.  I held my match unstruck upon
+this new disclosure, and stepped back within the concealed door and
+waited.  Up and down the hall, two persons were running, and when they
+reached the ends of the corridor I heard hands touch the wall and the
+sound of dodging, and then almost instantly the two runners flashed by
+me again.  The hall was so dark that I saw nothing, but as the runners
+passed the door I felt the rush of air caused by their flight.
+
+Three or four times this had happened, and then, still without having
+made a light, I thrust out my foot at the next return of the unseen
+runners.  Some one tripped and fell headlong, and I promptly flung
+myself upon him.
+
+My prisoner's resistance engaged my best attention a moment, but when I
+had sat upon his legs and got hold of his struggling hands, some one
+stole softly by me.  My prisoner, too, heard and was attentive.  Not
+only did I experience the same sensation as on the previous night, of a
+passing near by, but I was conscious of the same faint perfume, as of a
+flower-scent half-caught in a garden at night, that had added to my
+mystification before.  Then without the slightest warning the lights
+flashed on, and a door closed somewhere, but it was not the hidden one
+leading down into the remnant of the old house, for my prisoner's head
+and shoulders lay across its threshold.  He sighed deeply, bringing my
+dazed wits back to him, and I found myself gazing into the blinking
+eyes of Lord Arrowood.
+
+"Bounders, I say, bounders!" he gasped.
+
+"In the circumstances, Lord Arrowood, I should not call names.  Will
+you tell me what you mean by running through this house in this
+fashion?  Stand up and give an account of yourself."
+
+I helped him to his feet and bent over the stair-rail leading down to
+the third floor.  Evidently our strange transactions beneath and above
+had not disturbed the assembled suitors and their hostesses; but in
+common decency Lord Arrowood must be disposed of promptly; there was no
+doubt about that.
+
+"I was an ass to try it," muttered his lordship, pulling his tie into
+shape.  "And now I want to get out.  I want to go away from here."
+
+He was tugging at the belt of his Norfolk coat, and something between
+it and his waistcoat evidently gave him concern.  It did not seem
+possible that he was really a thief, with chattels concealed on his
+person, but he continued to smooth his jacket anxiously, meanwhile
+eyeing me apprehensively.  He puffed hard from his recent game of
+hide-and-seek, and his face was wet with perspiration.  Our
+conversation was carried on in half-whispers.  He was so crestfallen
+that if it had n't been for the necessity of maintaining silence I
+should have laughed outright.
+
+"Out with it, my lord.  What have you stuck in your coat?"
+
+"They're bounders, all the rest of 'em," he asserted doggedly, "but I
+believe you to be a gentleman."
+
+"I thank you, Lord Arrowood, for this mark of confidence; but you have
+led me a hot chase through this house, and it is clear that you have
+something tucked under your coat that you have seized feloniously.
+We're standing here in the light, and our voices may at any moment
+attract Miss Hollister and the others in the library.  Open your coat!
+I declare that even if you have lifted a bit of the Hollister plate I
+will let you go.  My lord, if you please, stand and unfold yourself!"
+
+Reluctantly, shamefacedly, and still breathing hard from his late
+exertions, Lord Arrowood of Arrowood, Hants, England, obeyed me.  There
+were five buttons to the close-fitting jacket, and the loosening of
+every succeeding one seemed to give him pain.  Then with his head
+slightly lifted as though in disdain of me, he held out for my
+observation a pie, in the pan in which it had been baked!  The top
+crust was browned to a nicety; its edges were crimped neatly; and in
+spite of the fact that I had so lately dined sumptuously at Miss
+Hollister's hospitable board, at sight of this alluring pastry I
+experienced the sharp twinges of aroused appetite.
+
+[Illustration: He held out for my observation a pie.]
+
+"Now you have it, and I hope you are satisfied," said Lord Arrowood.
+"Kindly allow me to retire by the way I came."
+
+"First," I replied, sobered by the gravity of his manner, "it would
+interest me as a student of character to know just what species of pie
+lured you to this burglarious deed."
+
+"I have reason to think," he answered, with tears in his eyes, "that it
+is a gooseberry.  I was damned hungry, if you must know the truth, and
+having sampled the old lady's pies this morning, and had nothing to eat
+since, I saw the coal-hole open and ladder beneath, and the rest of it
+was easy.  If you and the other chap had n't chased me all over the
+estate, I 'd have been off with my pie and no harm done.  The old lady
+'s insane, you know, and has no manner of use for pies.  The house is
+haunted in the bargain.  When you had about winded me down in the
+cellar and cut me off from the ladder and chased me up here, the ghost
+took a hand, and if you had n't tripped me and sat on me the spirits
+would certainly have nailed me.  O Lord, what a night!"
+
+"It's your impression then that when you got up here somebody else
+broke into the game."
+
+"Quite that, only I should say some_thing_, not some_body_.  It was a
+lighter step than yours.  It had its hand on me once; but I could n't
+touch it.  Damn me," he concluded hoarsely, "it was n't there to touch!"
+
+"You are sure you speak the truth when you say that the coal-hole was
+open and that you found the ladder there when you came?"
+
+"No manner of doubt of it.  As I have already said, I believe you to be
+a gentleman, and between gentlemen certain confidences may pass that
+would n't be possible between a gentleman and those _canaille_ down
+there."
+
+He jerked his head scornfully to indicate the suitors below.
+
+I bowed with such dignity as is possible in addressing a nobleman whom
+you have just caught in the act of lifting a gooseberry-pie from a
+lady's pantry,--a pie which you hold perforce in your hands.
+
+"The fact is that I was without the price of food; and to repeat, I was
+beastly hungry."
+
+"Poverty and hunger, my lord, are pardonable sins.  And I dare say that
+Miss Hollister would be highly pleased to know that a gentleman of your
+high position--she told me herself that you were descended from the
+Jutish chiefs--had paid so high a compliment to the excellence of her
+pastry.  Your only error, as I view the matter, lies in the fact that
+you have laid felonious hands upon a gooseberry-pie.  All gooseberry
+pastries are sacred to Hezekiah.  My impressions of Hezekiah are the
+pleasantest, and I cannot allow you to intervene between her and the
+pie I hold in my hands.  If you will accompany me below, I will
+undertake to gain access to the pie vault, return this pie to its
+proper place, and hand you, at the foot of the ladder, an apple-pie in
+place of it.  I dare say it never will be missed; but from what I know
+of Hezekiah, any trifling with her appetite would be a crime indictable
+at common law."
+
+His lordship seemed reassured, and we were about to descend by the
+concealed stair when he arrested me.
+
+"Mr. Ames, you are a gentleman, and possess a generous heart.  We
+understand each other perfectly.  And as I have every reason to believe
+that my suit is hopeless, I ask the loan of five dollars until I can
+confer with my friend the British consul at New York.  I shall sail at
+once for England."
+
+I was moved to pity by his humility.  A man who, finding himself
+reduced to larceny by hunger, and being unable to win the woman of his
+choice, meekly yields to the inevitable, is not a fair mark for
+contumely.  He stepped down before me into the dark stairway, and I
+closed the door after me and followed him.
+
+I found my way to the pie pantry without difficulty, returned the
+gooseberry-pie to its proper shelf, chose an apple-pie and gave it,
+with a five-dollar note, to Lord Arrowood.
+
+At the bottom of the ladder he pressed my hand feelingly, and expressed
+his gratitude in terms that would have touched a harder heart than mine.
+
+Then having closed the coal-hole and hidden the ladder under a pile of
+wood, I resumed my pursuit of the ghost.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+LADY'S SLIPPER
+
+I lighted my way with a candle through the lost chambers of the old
+house, up the hidden stairway, and out into the fourth-floor hall
+again.  The old stair, I found on closer observation, reached only from
+the second to the fourth floor, and below this had been pieced with
+lumber carefully preserved from the earlier house.  There was nothing
+so strange after all about the hidden stairway, though I was convinced
+that this had been no idea of Pepperton's, but that he had merely
+obeyed the orders of his eccentric client, the umbrella and
+dyspepsia-cure millionaire.
+
+I had no sooner let myself through the secret door into the upper hall
+than I was aware of a disturbance in the library below.  I heard
+exclamations from the men, and as I ran down toward the third floor
+Miss Octavia's voice rose above the tumult.
+
+"We must have patience, gentlemen.  Chimneys are subject to moods just
+like human beings; and we are fortunate in having in the house a
+gentleman who is an expert in such matters.  I do not doubt that Mr.
+Ames even now has his hand upon the chimney's pulse, and that he will
+soon solve this perplexing problem."
+
+"If you wait for that man to mend your chimney you will wait until
+doomsday."
+
+So spake John Stewart Dick, taking his vengeance of me with my client
+and hostess.  I might have forgiven him; but I could not forgive
+Hartley Wiggins.
+
+"He does n't know any more about chimneys than the man in the moon," my
+old friend was saying, between coughs.
+
+And then quite unmistakably I smelt smoke, and bending further over the
+rail and peering down the stair-well I saw smoke pouring from the
+library into the hall.  It seemed to be in greater volume to-night than
+at previous manifestations.  A gray-blue cloud was filling the lower
+hall and rising toward me.  I ran quickly to the third floor, to the
+chamber whose fireplace was served by the library chimney.  The lights
+in the third-floor hall winked out as I opened the door,--I heard a
+step behind me somewhere; but I did not trouble about this.  The switch
+inside the unused guest-chamber responded readily to my touch, and on
+kneeling by the hearth I found it cold, as I had expected.  There was
+absolutely no way of choking the library flue at this point, for, as I
+had established earlier, all the fireplaces in this chimney had their
+independent flues.  Pepperton would never have built them otherwise,
+and no one but a skilled mason could have tapped the library flue here
+or higher up, and the work could not have been done without much noise
+and labor.
+
+The hall outside was still dark, and I did not try the switch.  The
+pursuit was better carried on in darkness, and I had by this time
+become accustomed to rapid locomotion through unlighted passages.  I
+leaned over the stair-well and heard exclamations of surprise at the
+sudden cessation of the smoke, which had evidently abated as abruptly
+as it had begun.  The windows and doors had been opened, and the
+company had returned to the library.
+
+"Quite extraordinary.  Really quite remarkable!" they were saying
+below.  I heard Cecilia's light laughter as the odd ways of the chimney
+were discussed.  And as I stood thus peering down and listening, the
+Swedish maid's blonde head appeared below me, bending over the
+well-rail on the second floor.  She too was taking note of affairs in
+the library, and as I watched her she lifted her head and her eyes met
+mine.  Then, while we still stared at each other, the second-floor
+lights went out with familiar abruptness, and as I craned my neck to
+peer into the blackness above me I experienced once more that ghostly
+passing as of some light, unearthly thing across my face.  I reached
+for it wildly with my hands, but it seemed to be caught away from me;
+and then as I fought the air madly, it brushed my cheek again.  I have
+no words to describe the strange effect of that touch.  I felt my scalp
+creep and cold chills ran down my spine.  It seemingly came from above,
+and it was not like a hand, unless a hand of wonderful lightness!
+Certainly no human arm could reach down the stair-well to where I
+stood.  And in that touch to-night there was something akin to a
+gentle, lingering caress as it swept slowly across my face and eyes.
+
+I waited for its recurrence a moment, but it came no more.  Then on a
+sudden prompting I stole swiftly to the fourth floor, lighted my
+candle, and gazed about.  I thought it well to let the electric light
+alone, for my ghost had once too often plunged me into darkness at
+critical moments, and a candle in my hands was not subject to his
+trickery.
+
+The hall was perfectly quiet.  The door leading down the hidden stair
+was invisible, and I had not yet learned how it might be opened from
+the hall, though Mr. Bassford Hollister had undoubtedly left the house
+by this means after my interview with him on the roof.  And reminded of
+the roof, I opened the trunk-room door and peered in.  The candle-light
+slowly crept into its dark corners, and looking up I marked the
+presence of the trap-door secure in the opening.  As I stood on the
+threshold of the trunk-piled room, my hand on the knob and the candle
+thrust well before me, I heard a slight furtive movement to my left and
+behind the door.  I was quite satisfied now that I was about to solve
+some of the mysteries of the night, and to make sure I was
+unobserved--for having gone so far alone I wanted no partners in my
+investigations--I listened to the murmur of talk below for a moment,
+then cautiously advanced my candle further into the room.  I was not
+yet so valiant, even after all my night-prowlings and explorations of
+hidden chambers, but that I thrust the light in well ahead of me and
+bent my wrist so that the candle's rays might dispel the last shadow
+that lurked behind the door before I suffered my eyes to look upon the
+goblin.  I took one step and then cautiously another, until the whole
+of the trunk-room was well within range of my vision.
+
+And there, seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a dozen
+foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!
+
+[Illustration: Seated on a prodigious trunk frescoed with labels of a
+dozen foreign inns, I beheld Hezekiah!]
+
+As I recall it she was very much at her ease.  She sat on one foot and
+the other beat the trunk lightly.  She was bareheaded, and the
+candle-light was making acquaintance with the gold in her hair.  She
+wore her white sweater, as on that day in the orchard; and with much
+gravity, as our eyes met, she thrust a hand into its pocket and drew
+out a cracker.  I was not half so surprised at finding her there as I
+was at her manner now that she was caught.  She seemed neither
+distressed, astonished nor afraid.
+
+"Well, Miss Hezekiah," I said, "I half suspected you all along."
+
+"Wise Chimney-Man!  You were a little slow about it though."
+
+"I was indeed.  You gave me a run for my money."
+
+She finished her cracker at the third bite, slapped her hands together
+to free them of possible crumbs, and was about to speak, when she
+jumped lightly from the trunk, bent her head toward the door, and then
+stepped back again and faced me imperturbably.
+
+"And now that you've found me, Mr. Chimney-Man, the joke's on you after
+all."
+
+She laid her hand on the door and swung it nearly shut.  I had heard
+what she had heard: Miss Octavia was coming upstairs!  She had
+exchanged a few words with the Swedish maid on the second-floor
+landing, and Hezekiah's quick ear had heard her.  But Hezekiah's
+equanimity was disconcerting: even with her aunt close at hand she
+showed not the slightest alarm.  She resumed her seat on the trunk, and
+her heel thumped it tranquilly.
+
+"The joke's on you, Mr. Chimney-Man, because now that you 've caught me
+playing tricks you've got to get me out of trouble."
+
+"What if I don't?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," she answered indifferently, looking me squarely in the
+eye.
+
+"But your aunt would make no end of a row; and you would cause your
+sister to lose out with Miss Octavia.  As I understand it, you 're
+pledged to keep off the reservation.  It was part of the family
+agreement."
+
+"But I'm here, Chimney-pot, so what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"Mr. Ames!  If you are ghost-hunting in this part of the house"--
+
+It was Miss Octavia's voice.  She was seeking me, and would no doubt
+find me.  The sequestration of Hezekiah became now an urgent and
+delicate matter.
+
+"You caught me," said Hezekiah, calmly, "and now you've got to get me
+out; and I wish you good luck!  And besides, I lost one of my shoes
+somewhere, and you've got to find that."
+
+In proof of her statement she submitted a shoeless, brown-stockinged
+foot for my observation.
+
+"The one I lost was like this," and Hezekiah thrust forth a neat tan
+pump, rather the worse for wear.  "I was on the second floor a bit
+ago," she began, "and lost my slipper."
+
+"In what mischief, pray?"
+
+"Mr. Ames," called Miss Octavia, her voice close at hand.
+
+"I wanted to see something in Cecilia's room; so I opened her door and
+walked in, that's all," Hezekiah replied.
+
+"Wicked Hezekiah!  Coming into the house is bad enough in all the
+circumstances.  Entering your sister's room is a grievous sin."
+
+"If, Mr. Ames, you are still seeking an explanation of that chimney's
+behavior"--
+
+It was Miss Octavia, now just outside the door.
+
+"Don't leave that trunk, Hezekiah," I whispered.  "I'll do the best I
+can."
+
+Miss Octavia met me smilingly as I faced her in the hall.  She had
+switched on the lights, and my candle burned yellowly in the white
+electric glow.
+
+Miss Octavia held something in her hand.  It required no second glance
+to tell me that she had found Hezekiah's slipper.
+
+"Mr. Ames," she began, "as you have absented yourself from the library
+all evening, I assume that you have been busy studying my chimneys and
+seeking for the ghost of that British soldier who was so wantonly slain
+upon the site of this house."
+
+"I am glad to say that not only is your surmise correct, Miss
+Hollister, but that I have made great progress in both directions."
+
+"Do you mean to say that you have really found traces of the ghost?"
+
+"Not only that, Miss Hollister, but I have met the ghost face to
+face,--even more, I have had speech with him!"
+
+Her face brightened, her eyes flashed.  It was plain that she was
+immensely pleased.
+
+"And are you able to say, from your encounter, that he is in fact a
+British subject, uneasily haunting this house in America long after the
+Declaration of Independence and Washington's Farewell Address have
+passed into literature?"
+
+"You have never spoken a truer word, Miss Hollister.  The ghost with
+whom or which I have had speech is still a loyal subject of the King of
+England.  But by means which I am not at liberty to disclose, I have
+persuaded him not to visit this house again."
+
+"Then," said Miss Hollister, "I cannot do less than express my
+gratitude; though I regret that you did not first allow me to meet him.
+Still, I dare say that we shall find his bones buried somewhere beneath
+my foundations.  Please assure me that such is your expectation."
+
+She was leading me into deep water, but I had skirted the coasts of
+truth so far; and with Hezekiah on my hands I felt that it was
+necessary to satisfy Miss Hollister in every particular.
+
+"To-morrow, Miss Hollister, I shall take pleasure in showing you
+certain hidden chambers in this house which I venture to say will
+afford you great pleasure.  I have to-night discovered a link between
+the mansion as you know it and an earlier house whose timbers may
+indeed hide the bones of that British soldier."
+
+"And as for the chimney?"
+
+"And as for the chimney, I give you my word as a professional man that
+it will never annoy you again, and I therefore beg that you dismiss the
+subject from your mind."
+
+I saw that she was about to recur to the shoe she held in her hand and
+at which she glanced frequently with a quizzical expression.  This,
+clearly, was an issue that must be met promptly, and I knew of no
+better way than by lying.  Hezekiah herself had plainly stated, on the
+morning of that long, eventful day, when she walked into the
+breakfast-room in her aunt's absence and explained Cecilia's trip to
+town, that it was perfectly fair to dissimulate in making explanations
+to Miss Hollister; that, in fact, Miss Octavia enjoyed nothing better
+than the injection of fiction into the affairs of the matter-of-fact
+day.  Here, then, was my opportunity.  Hezekiah had thrown the
+responsibility of contriving her safe exit upon my hands.  No doubt,
+while I held the door against her aunt, that remarkable young woman was
+coolly sitting on the trunk within, eating another cracker and awaiting
+my experiments in the gentle art of lying.
+
+"Miss Hollister," I began boldly, "the slipper you hold in your hand
+belongs to me, and if you have no immediate use for it I beg that you
+allow me to relieve you of it."
+
+"It is yours, Mr. Ames?"
+
+A lifting of the brows, a widening of the eyes, denoted Miss Octavia's
+polite surprise.
+
+"Beyond any question it is my property," I asserted.
+
+"Your words interest me greatly, Mr. Ames.  As you know, the grim hard
+life of the twentieth century palls upon me, and I am deeply interested
+in everything that pertains to adventure and romance.  Tell me more, if
+you are free to do so, of this slipper which I now return to you."
+
+I received Hezekiah's worn little pump into my hands as though it were
+an object of high consecration, and with a gravity which I hope matched
+Miss Octavia's own.  I was, I think, by this time completely
+hollisterized, if I may coin the word.
+
+"As I am nothing if not frank, Miss Hollister, I will confess to you
+that this shoe came into my possession in a very curious way.  One day
+last spring I was in Boston, having been called there on professional
+business.  In the evening, I left my hotel for a walk, crossed the
+Common, took a turn through the Public Garden, where many devoted
+lovers adorned the benches, and then strolled aimlessly along Beacon
+Street."
+
+"I know that historic thoroughfare well," interrupted Miss Hollister,
+"as my friend Miss Prudence Biddeford has lived there for half a
+century, and once, while I was staying in her house, she gave me her
+recipe for Boston brown bread, thereby placing me greatly in her debt."
+
+"Then, being acquainted with the neighborhood and its sublimated social
+atmosphere, you will be interested in the experience I am about to
+describe," I continued, reassured by Miss Octavia's sympathetic
+attention to my recital.  "I was passing a house which I have not since
+been able to identify exactly, though I have several times revisited
+Boston in the hope of doing so, when suddenly and without any warning
+whatever this slipper dropped at my feet.  All the houses in the
+neighborhood seemed deserted, with windows and doors tightly boarded,
+and my closest scrutiny failed to discover any opening from which that
+slipper might have been flung.  The region is so decorous, and acts of
+violence are so foreign to its dignity and repose, that I could scarce
+believe that I held that bit of tan leather in my hand.  Nor did its
+unaccountable precipitation into the street seem the act of a
+housemaid, nor could I believe that a nursery governess had thus sought
+diversion from the roof above.  I hesitated for a moment not knowing
+how to meet this emergency; then I boldly attacked the bell of the
+house from which I believed the slipper to have proceeded.  I rang
+until a policeman, whose speech was fragrant of the Irish coasts, bade
+me desist, informing me that the family had only the previous day left
+for the shore.  The house he assured me was utterly vacant.  That, Miss
+Hollister, is all there is of the story.  But ever since I have carried
+that slipper with me.  It was in my pocket to-night as I traversed the
+upper halls of your house, seeking the ghost of that British soldier,
+and I had just discovered my loss when I heard you calling.  In
+returning it you have conferred upon me the greatest imaginable favor.
+I have faith that sometime, somewhere, I shall find the owner of that
+slipper.  Would you not infer, from its diminutive size, and the fine,
+suggestive delicacy of its outlines that the owner is a person of
+aristocratic lineage and of breeding?  I will confess that nothing is
+nearer my heart than the hope that one day I shall meet the young
+lady--I am sure she must be young--who wore that slipper and dropped it
+as it seemed from the clouds, at my feet there in sedate Beacon Street,
+that most solemn of residential sanctuaries."
+
+"Mr. Ames," began Miss Hollister instantly, with an assumed severity
+that her smile belied, "I cannot recall that my niece Hezekiah ever
+visited in Beacon Street; yet I dare say that if she had done so and a
+young man of your pleasing appearance had passed beneath her window,
+one of her slippers might very easily have become detached from
+Hezekiah's foot and fallen with a nice calculation directly in front of
+you.  But now, Mr. Ames, will you kindly carry your candle into that
+trunk-room?"
+
+And I had been pluming myself upon the completeness of my
+hollisterization!  There was nothing for me but to obey, and my heart
+sank as my imagination pictured Hezekiah's discomfiture when we should
+find her seated on the huge trunk behind the door.  And that stockinged
+foot already called in appealing accents to the shoe I held in my hand!
+The foundations of the world shook as I remembered the compact by which
+Hezekiah was excluded from the house, and realized what the impending
+discovery would mean to Cecilia, her father, and the wayward Hezekiah,
+too!  But I was in for it.  Miss Octavia indicated by an imperious nod
+that I was to precede her into the trunk-room, and I strode before her
+with my candle held high.
+
+But the sprites of mystery were still abroad at Hopefield.  The room
+was unoccupied save for the trunks.  Hezekiah had vanished.  Instead of
+sitting there to await the coming of her aunt, she had silently
+departed, without leaving a trace.  Miss Hollister glanced up at the
+trap-door in the ceiling, and so did I.  It was closed, but I did not
+doubt that Hezekiah had crawled through it and taken herself to the
+roof.  Miss Octavia would probably order me at once to the battlements;
+but worse was to come.
+
+"Mr. Ames," she said, "will you kindly lift the lid of that largest
+trunk."
+
+I had not thought of this, and I shuddered at the possibilities.
+
+She indicated the trunk upon which Hezekiah had sat and nibbled her
+cracker not more than ten minutes before.  Could it be possible that
+when I lifted the cover that golden head would be found beneath?  My
+life has known no blacker moment than that in which I flung back the
+lid of that trunk.  I averted my eyes in dread of the impending
+disclosure and held the candle close.
+
+But the trunk was empty, incredibly empty!  My courage rose again, and
+I glanced at Miss Octavia triumphantly.  I even jerked out the trays to
+allay any lingering suspicion.  Why had I ever doubted Hezekiah?  Who
+was she, the golden-haired daughter of kings, to be caught in a trunk?
+She had slipped up the ladder while I talked to her aunt and was even
+now hiding on the roof; but it was not for me to make so treasonable a
+suggestion.  Miss Octavia might press the matter further if she liked,
+but I would not help her to trap Hezekiah.
+
+Miss Hollister did not, to my surprise and relief, suggest an
+inspection of the roof.  She nodded her head gravely and passed out
+into the hall.
+
+"Mr. Ames, if I implied a moment ago that I doubted your story of the
+dropping of that tan pump from a Beacon Street roof or window, I now
+tender you my sincerest apologies."
+
+She put out her hand, smiling charmingly.
+
+"Pray return to the occupations which were engaging you when I
+interrupted you.  You have never stood higher in my regard than at this
+moment.  To-morrow you may tell me all you please of the ghost and the
+mysteries of this house, and I dare say we shall find the bones of that
+British soldier somewhere beneath the foundations.  As for that
+trifling bit of leather you hold in your hand, it's rather passe for
+Beacon Street.  The next time you tell that story I suggest that you
+play your game of drop the slipper from a window in Rittenhouse Square,
+Philadelphia.  Still, as I always keep an umbrella in the check-room of
+the Parker House, I would not have you imagine that I look upon Boston
+as an unlikely scene for romance.  The last time I was there a Mormon
+missionary pressed a tract upon me in the subway, and I can't deny that
+I found it immensely interesting."
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+LOSS OF THE SILVER NOTE-BOOK
+
+Hezekiah on the roof was safe for a time.  Miss Octavia's gentle
+rejection of my Beacon Street anecdote and her intimation that Hezekiah
+had been an unbilled participant in the comedy of the ghost had been
+disquieting, and in my relief at her abandonment of the search I
+loitered on downstairs with my hostess.  I wished to impress her with
+the idea that I was without urgent business.  Hezekiah would, beyond
+doubt, amuse herself after her own fashion on the roof until I was
+ready to release her.  As I had quietly locked the trunk-room door and
+carried the key in my pocket I was reasonably sure of this.  Humility
+is best acquired through tribulation, and as Hezekiah sat among the
+chimney-crocks nursing one stockinged foot and waiting for me to turn
+up with her lost slipper, it would do her no harm to nibble the bitter
+fruit of repentance with another biscuit.  I should find her much less
+sure of herself when I saw fit to seek her on the roof.  It was a
+pretty comedy we were playing, but it was best that she should not too
+complacently take all the curtains.  Hezekiah's naughtiness had been
+diverting up to a point now reached and passed, but the time had
+arrived for remonstrance, admonition, discipline.  And it should be my
+grateful task to point out the error of her ways and urge her into
+safer avenues of conduct.  Such were my reflections as I attended Miss
+Octavia in her descent.
+
+The memoranda of my adventures at Hopefield Manor fall under two
+general headings.  On the one hand was the ghost and the library
+chimney; on the other the extraordinary gathering of Cecilia's suitors.
+As I followed at Miss Octavia's side, she seemed to have dismissed the
+ghost and the fractious chimney from her mind; her humor changed
+completely.  As in the morning when, unaccountably abandoning her
+habitual high-flown speech, she had asked me about Cecilia's silver
+note-book, she seemed troubled; and when we had reached the second
+floor she paused and lost herself in unwonted preoccupation.
+
+"Let us sit here a moment," she said, indicating a long davenport in
+the broad hall.  For the first time her manner betrayed weariness.  She
+laid her hand quietly on my arm and looked at me fixedly.  "Arnold,"
+she said,--"you will let me call you Arnold, won't you?" she added
+plaintively, and never in my life had I been so touched by anything so
+sweet and gentle and kind,--"Arnold, if an old woman like me should do
+a very foolish thing in following her own whims and then find that she
+had probably committed herself to a course likely to cause unhappiness,
+what would you advise her to do about it?"
+
+"Miss Hollister," I answered, "if you trusted Providence this morning
+to send you a corps of servants when yours had been most unfortunately
+scattered by ghosts or rumors of ghosts, why will you not continue to
+have confidence that your affairs will always be directed by agencies
+equally alert and beneficent?"
+
+She flashed upon me that rare wonderful smile of hers; she looked me in
+the eyes quizzically with her head bent slightly to one side; but for
+once her usual readiness seemed to have forsaken her.  Could it be
+possible that she was losing faith in her own play-world, and that the
+tuneful trumpets of adventure and romance which she had set vibrating
+on her own key jarred dully in her ears?  It passed swiftly through my
+mind that it was incumbent on me to win her back to complete belief in
+the potency of the oracles that had called to her old age.  She had
+dipped her paddle into bright waters and had splashed up all manner of
+gay imaginings, and what disasters awaited her now if she beached her
+argosy and found no gold at the end of the rainbow!  It occurred to me,
+prosaic man and chimney-doctor that I was, that no one should be
+disappointed who has heard the dream-gods calling at twilight, or
+wakened to the chanting of the capstan-song, or heard the timbers
+creaking in the stout old caravel of romance as it wallows in the seas
+that wash the happy isles.  I had not crawled through so many chimneys
+but that I still believed that dreams come true, not because they will
+but because they must!  And in the case of Miss Octavia Hollister I
+felt a great responsibility; for what irremediable loss might not
+result to a world too little given these days to dreaming, if she, who
+at sixty had turned her heart trustfully to adventure, should find only
+sorrow and disappointment?  The thing must not be!  I was feeling the
+least bit elated over my success in solving the riddle of the ghost,
+and I knew that the hidden chambers and stair would delight her when I
+revealed them on the morrow; so I quite honestly sought to restore her
+to the joy of life.  I felt that she was waiting for me to speak
+further, and I plunged ahead.
+
+"Our meeting in the Asolando was the most interesting thing that ever
+happened to me, Miss Hollister.  I was rapidly becoming hopelessly
+cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears as to
+the promise of life held out to us in the nursery, where, indeed, all
+education should begin and end.  Your appearance at the Asolando that
+afternoon was well-timed to save me from death in a world that was
+rapidly losing for me all its illusion and witchery.  But now that you
+have so readily won me back to the true faith, I beg of you do not
+yourself revert to the dreary workaday world from which you rescued me."
+
+I had never in my life spoken more sincerely.  I had never been so
+happy as since I knew her, and I was pleading for myself as well as for
+her--there where, from her own doorstep and in her own garden, one who
+listened attentively might hear the faint roar of trains bound toward
+the teeming city along iron highways.  It was with relief that I saw my
+words had struck home.  She touched my hand lightly; then she took it
+in both her own.
+
+"You really believe that; you are not merely trying to please me?"
+
+"I was never half so much in earnest!  Please go on in the way you have
+begun.  And have no fear that the charts will mislead you, or that the
+seas will grind your bark on hidden shoals.  Shipwreck, you know, is
+one of the greatest joys of our adventures,--we have to be wrecked
+first before we find the island of the treasure-chests."
+
+She sighed softly, but I felt that her spirits were rising.
+
+"But those men down there?  How shall I manage that?" she asked eagerly.
+
+I snapped my fingers.  We must get back into the air again.  And it was
+remarkable how readily my long-untried wings bore me upward.  The
+earth, after all, does not bind us so fast!
+
+"I don't know the game; but I have found out a lot of things without
+being told, so tell me nothing!  Remember that I have something quite
+remarkable, startling even, to show you to-morrow.  I have even
+overcome, you know, the obstacle you placed in the way of my
+discoveries by sending in ahead of me this morning for the plans of the
+house."
+
+I watched her narrowly, but she was in no wise discomfited.
+
+"Well, I burned them the moment Hilda brought them back," she laughed.
+"I had faith in you, and I wanted you to manage it all for yourself.  I
+rather guessed that you would go to Pepperton.  That was when I still
+believed."
+
+"But you must go on believing.  Make-believing is the main cornerstone
+and the keystone of the arch of the happy life."
+
+"You are sure you are not mocking a foolish old woman?"
+
+"You are the wisest woman I ever knew!" I asserted, and my heart was in
+the words.
+
+"I believe you have persuaded me; but Cecilia"--
+
+She was again at the point of loosening her hold upon the cord that
+linked her shallop to Ariel's isle, but my own youth was resurgent in
+me.
+
+I rose hastily, the better to break the current of her thought.
+
+"Those men down there!  They are in the hands of a higher fate than we
+control.  I don't know the game"--
+
+"But if"--she broke in.
+
+"But if you gave away the secret, explained it to me, you would throw
+me back into my darkest chimney to hope no more.  Leave it to me; trust
+me; lean upon me!  I assure you that all will be well."
+
+She bent her head and yielded herself to reverie for a moment.  Then
+she sprang to her feet in that indescribably light, graceful way that
+erased at least fifty of her years from the reckoning, and was herself
+again.
+
+"Arnold Ames," she said, laughing a little but gazing up at me with
+unmistakable confidence and liking in her eyes, "we will go through
+with this to the end.  And whether that slipper really fell at your
+feet in Beacon Street or in the even less likely precincts of
+Rittenhouse Square, or under the windows of the Spanish Embassy in
+Washington, I believe that you are my good knight, and that you will
+see me safely through this singular adventure."
+
+And I, Arnold Ames, but lately a student of chimneys, bent and kissed
+Miss Octavia's hand.
+
+[Illustration: And I bent and kissed Miss Octavia's hand.]
+
+She led the way to the library, where I thought it well to appear for a
+moment, and I was heartily glad that I did so.  It was joy enough for
+any man that he should have earned such glances of hatred and suspicion
+as the suitors bent upon me.  There they were, some standing, some
+seated, about Cecilia.  I bowed low from the door, feeling that to
+offer my hand to these gentlemen in their present temper would be too
+severe a strain upon their manners.  As Miss Octavia appeared, several
+of them advanced courteously and engaged her in conversation.  She
+found a seat and called the others to her, on the plea that she wished
+to ask them their opinion touching some matter,--I believe it was a
+late rumor that Andree, who had gone ballooning to discover the
+Hyperboreans, had been heard of somewhere.
+
+Cecilia appeared distrait, and I wondered what new turn her affairs had
+taken.  She rose as I crossed the room, and from her manner I judged
+that she welcomed this chance of addressing me.
+
+"You have scorned the library to-night.  Has there been trouble?  Is
+Aunt Octavia alarmed about anything?"
+
+I was sure that this inquiry covered some ulterior question.  Hartley
+Wiggins, listening with a bored air to Miss Octavia's discussion of
+Andree's fate, glanced in our direction with manifest displeasure in
+our propinquity.  Cecilia Hollister was a beautiful, charming woman of
+the world, but I felt her spell less to-night.  It may be that the
+presence of Hezekiah's slipper in my inside coat-pocket, pressing
+rather insistently against my ribs, acted as a counter-irritant.  I
+certainly could not imagine myself possessed of one of Cecilia's
+slippers!  If I had tried my fictitious Beacon Street episode on
+Cecilia, she would undoubtedly have expressed her scorn of me.  The
+hollisteritis germ, that had heretofore infected me only
+intermittently, was now exerting its full tonic power.  In trying to
+hold Miss Octavia to her covenants with the lords of romance, I had
+strengthened my own confidence in their bold emprise.  The gravity with
+which the suitors gave heed to Miss Octavia's ideas on arctic
+ballooning touched my humor.  Cecilia had but to state her perplexity
+and I would interest myself promptly in her business.  If I had been
+asked that night to enlist in the most hopeless causes I should have
+done so without a quibble, and died cheerfully under any barricade.
+
+Our time was short; at any moment the suitors might cease covertly
+glaring at me, drift away from Miss Octavia, and interpose themselves
+between me and the girl on whom they had set their collective hearts.
+
+"You are in difficulty, Miss Cecilia," I said; "please tell me in what
+way I may serve you."
+
+"I don't know why I should appeal to you"--
+
+"No reason is necessary.  I have told you before that you need only to
+command me.  We may be interrupted at any moment.  Pray go on."
+
+"I have lost an article of the greatest value to me.  It has been taken
+from my room."
+
+For a moment only I read distrust and suspicion in her eyes as it
+occurred to her that I had access to every part of the house; but my
+manner seemed to restore her confidence.  And she could not have
+forgotten that her own father had met her secretly on the roof of a
+house that was denied him, and that I was perfectly cognizant of the
+fact.
+
+"I am sure you can be of assistance," she said.  "There's something
+behind this ghost-story; some one has been in and about the house; you
+believe that?"
+
+"Yes.  There has really been a sort of ghost, you know."
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.  Cecilia had no patience with ghosts, and
+we were losing time.  My conversation with Cecilia was annoying
+Wiggins, as was plain from his nervousness.  Wiggins's courtesy was
+unfailing, but there are points at which the restraints of civilization
+snap.  Cecilia realized that time passed and that she had not stated
+her difficulty.  She now lowered her voice and spoke with great
+earnestness.
+
+"I went to my room for a moment, while Aunt Octavia was above, with you
+I suppose, just after the chimney gave another of its strange
+demonstrations.  I remembered that I had left my little silver-bound
+book, that I usually carry with me, on my dressing-room table.  It
+contains a memorandum of great importance to me.  It positively cannot
+be duplicated.  I am sure it was there when I came down to dinner.  But
+it was not on my dressing-table or anywhere to be found."
+
+"You may be mistaken as to where you left it.  You would not be
+absolutely positive that you left it on the dressing-table?"
+
+"There is not the slightest question about it.  I had been looking at
+it just before dinner.  I had sent you a note, you know, immediately
+after you came back, and hurried down to see you."
+
+"Yes.  I recall that.  You were in the library when I came down.  And I
+think I remember having seen the little trinket,--slightly smaller than
+a card-case, silver-backed and only a few leaves.  You had it in your
+hand the other night when I came in after Mr. Hume had left."
+
+She flushed slightly at this, but readily acquiesced in my description.
+Miss Octavia's inquiry as to whether I had seen the book came back to
+me; and no less clearly her withdrawal of her question almost the
+moment she had spoken it.
+
+I felt the sudden impingement of Hezekiah's slipper upon my own
+conscience, if I may so state the matter.  Hezekiah, playing ghost, had
+confessed to me that she had visited Cecilia's room.  Hezekiah, amusing
+herself with the library chimney and frightening the servants by
+stealing into the forbidden house through the coal-hole, was a culprit
+to be scolded and forgiven; but what of Hezekiah mischievously filching
+an article of real value to her sister!  I did not like this turn of
+affairs.  I must get back to the roof, find Hezekiah, and compel her to
+return the silver book.  Only by tactfully managing this could I serve
+well all the members of the house of Hollister.  But first I must leave
+Cecilia with a tranquil mind.
+
+"I thank you for confiding this matter to me, Miss Hollister.  Please
+do not attach suspicion to any one until I have seen you again."
+
+"But if you should be unable to restore"--
+
+"I assure you that the book is not lost.  It has been mislaid, that's
+all.  I shall return it to you at breakfast.  I give you my word."
+
+"Do you really mean it?" she faltered.  "Please keep this from Aunt
+Octavia!  I can't tell you how important it is that she be kept in
+ignorance of my loss.  The consequences, if she knew, might be very
+distressing."
+
+I could not for the life of me see what great importance could attach
+to those few leaves of paper in their silver case, but if Miss Octavia
+and Hezekiah were interested in it as well as Cecilia, it must have a
+significance wholly unrelated to its intrinsic value.  It is the way of
+professional detectives to suggest impossible theories merely to
+conceal their own plans and intentions, and as I had reached a point
+where my tongue was astonishingly glib in subterfuge and evasion, I
+suggested that it might perhaps have been one of the new servants, or
+indeed the Swedish maid.
+
+"We will look into the matter, Miss Hollister.  At breakfast I shall
+have something to report.  Meanwhile silence is the word!"
+
+Miss Octavia was carrying the invincible John Stewart Dick away to the
+billiard-room.  He glared at me murderously as he trailed glumly after
+the lady of the manor.  The others were crowding about Cecilia again,
+and I yielded to them willingly.  As I sauntered toward the door Ormsby
+detained me a moment.  His manner was arrogant and he hissed rather
+than spoke.
+
+"I'm directed to command your presence at the Prescott Arms to-morrow
+at twelve o'clock.  The business is important."
+
+"I regret, my dear brother, that I shall be unable to sit with you at
+that hour in committee of the whole, and for two reasons.  The first is
+that I am paired with Lord Arrowood.  You refused to take him into your
+base compact, and allowed him to be thrown out of the inn for not
+paying his bill.  The act was deficient in generosity and gallantry."
+
+"Then I suppose you would think it a fine thing for such a pauper to
+marry a woman like that,--like that, I say?" and he jerked his head
+toward Cecilia.
+
+"I consider a lord of Arrowood as good as the proprietor of a
+knitting-mill any day, if you press me for an opinion," I replied
+amiably.
+
+"And this from a chimney-sweep?" he sneered.
+
+"You flatter me, my dear sir.  I've renounced soot and become a
+gentleman adventurer merely to prevent a type that long illumined
+popular fiction from becoming extinct.  I advise you to fill the void
+existing in the heavy-villain class; believe me, your talents would
+carry you far.  Study Dumas and forget the wool-market, and you will
+lead a happier life.  My second reason for declining to meet you at the
+Arms at twelve to-morrow is merely that the hour is inconvenient.  I
+assume that you mean to urge luncheon upon me, and I never eat before
+one.  My doctor has warned me to avoid early luncheons if I would
+preserve my figure, of which you may well believe me justly proud."
+
+"You're a coward, that's all there is to that.  I dare you to come!"
+
+"Well, as I think of it I 'd rather be dared than invited.  If I find
+it quite convenient I shall drop in.  But you need n't keep the waffles
+hot for me.  Good evening."
+
+It did not seem possible that I, the timid, uncombative and unathletic,
+had thus cavalierly addressed a dignified gentleman in a white
+waistcoat who was perfectly capable of knocking me down with a slap in
+the face.  Valor, I aver, is only another of the offsprings of
+necessity.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+JACK O' LANTERN
+
+I hurried back to the trunk-room and had soon gained the roof.  The
+moon was harassed by flying clouds that obscured it fitfully, and a
+keen wind swept the hills.  I crept over the several levels of roof
+thinking that any moment I should come upon Hezekiah; I searched a
+second time, peering behind chimney-pots, and into dark angles; but to
+my disappointment and chagrin my young lady of the single slipper was
+nowhere in sight.  I found, however, lying near the library chimney, a
+trunk-tray that required no explanation.  With this Hezekiah had
+blocked the flue, and I smiled as I pictured her tip-toeing to reach
+the chimney-crock, and dropping the tray across the top.  How gleefully
+she must have chuckled as she waited for the flue to fill and send the
+smoke ebbing back into the library, to the discomfiture of her aunt and
+sister and the suitors gathered about the hearth!  The spirit of
+mischief never whispered into a prettier ear a trick better calculated
+to cause confusion.
+
+I had thought Hezekiah secure when I locked the trunk-room door, but I
+had not counted upon the versatility and resourcefulness of that young
+person.  I dropped to the second roof-level and inspected the
+down-spouts, but it was incredible that she had sought the earth by
+this means.  I swung myself to a third level, and after much groping
+for my bearings, decided that an athletic girl of Hezekiah's
+venturesome disposition might, if she set no great store by her neck,
+clamber off the kitchen-roof by means of a tall maple whose branches
+now raspingly called attention to their slight contact with the house.
+It was here that the walls of Hopefield thrust themselves into the
+shoulder of a rough rocky knoll, and it was perfectly clear now that
+the chambers of the earlier house around which the mansion had been
+built were neatly enfolded by the walls on the east side.
+
+As the moon cruised into a patch of clear sky something white fluttered
+from a maple limb, and I bent and pulled it free.  I took counsel of a
+match behind the kitchen chimney, and found that it was a handkerchief
+that had been knotted to the tip of the bough.  No one but Hezekiah
+would have thought of marking her trail in this fashion.  I held it to
+my face, and that faint perfume that had been a mystifying
+accompaniment of the passing of the mansion ghost became nothing more
+unreal than the orris in Hezekiah's handkerchief-case.  The wind
+whipped the bit of linen spitefully in my hands.  I reasoned that if
+Hezekiah the inexplicable had not meant for me to know the manner of
+her exit she need not have left this plain hint behind; but the swaying
+maple bough did not tempt me.  I hurried back across the roof to secure
+the trunk-tray, resolved to dispose of it, seek the open, and find the
+errant Hezekiah if she still lingered in the neighborhood.
+
+I looked off across the windy landscape before descending, and as my
+eyes ranged the dark I caught the glimmer of a light, as of a lantern
+borne in the hand, in the meadow beyond the garden.  It paused, and was
+swung back and forth by its unseen bearer.  It shed a curious yellow
+light and not the white flame of the common lantern; and now it rose a
+trifle higher and slowly resolved itself into a weird fantastic face.
+
+Three minutes later I was out of the house, using the backstairs to
+avoid the company in the library, and had crossed the garden and
+crawled through the hedge.  As I rose to my feet a voice greeted me
+cheerfully,--
+
+"Well done, Chimney-Man!  You were a little slow hitting the trail, but
+you do pretty well, considering.  How did you manage with Aunt Octavia
+about that slipper?  I had a narrow escape in the second-floor hall,
+when I came out of Cecilia's room.  I must have lowered a record
+getting upstairs.  And one shoe is n't a bit comfortable.  Allow me to
+relieve you!"
+
+"Here's your slipper.  You ought to be ashamed of yourself."
+
+"For losing my slipper?  I thought Cinderella had made that
+respectable."
+
+She placed her hand on my shoulder, lifted her foot, and drew the pump
+on with a single tug.
+
+"Well, what did Aunt Octavia say?"
+
+"Oh, she had thoughts too dark to express.  You probably heard what we
+said.  It was she who found the slipper!"
+
+Hezekiah laughed.  The wind caught up that laugh and whisked it away
+jealously.
+
+"She found it and carried it to you, Chimney-Man, and I skipped just as
+you began that beautiful story about finding it in Beacon Street.
+Hurry and tell me how you got me out of it."
+
+"How did you know I would try to explain it?  You did a perfectly
+foolhardy thing in roaming the house that way, scaring Lord Arrowood
+nearly to death, to say nothing of me.  Why should I help you?"
+
+"Oh, you're a man and I was just a little girl who had lost her
+slipper," she replied.  "I was sure you would fix it up."
+
+"Well, I like your nerve, Hezekiah!  I had to lie horribly to explain
+the slipper, and Miss Octavia did n't swallow more than half my yarn."
+
+"Oh, well, if it was a good story, Aunt Octavia would n't mind.  She'd
+have minded, though, if you had n't tried to get me out of it.  That's
+the way with Aunt Octavia.  I hope you made a romantic tale of it."
+
+"I can't say that it would place me among the great masters of fiction,
+Hezekiah, but as lies go I think it had merit.  And I 'll improve if I
+stay here much longer."
+
+"Oh, you'll stay all right.  Aunt Octavia has no intention of letting
+you go.  When she left the Asolando that afternoon she met you, she had
+her plans all made for kidnapping you."
+
+"She did n't tell you so, did she?"
+
+"No; because I have n't seen her and I'm not supposed to see her, you
+know, until Cecilia is all fixed."
+
+"Married?"
+
+"Um," replied Hezekiah.
+
+She drew from behind a boulder by which we stood a pumpkin of portable
+size, which I surmised had been carved into the most hideous of jack o'
+lanterns by the shrewd hand of Hezekiah.  I took it from her with the
+excuse of relieving her, but really to turn the light of the fearsome
+thing more directly upon her.  The wind blew her hair about her face;
+hers was an elfish face to-night.  With a pleasant tingling I met her
+eyes.  The light of a jack o' lantern is not of the earth earthy.  Even
+when you know perfectly well that it's only a candle stuck in a
+pumpkin, you are not fully satisfied of its mundane character.  In its
+glow one becomes a conspirator, ready for treason, stratagems and
+spoils.  More concretely, in these moments a small archipelago of
+freckles revealed itself about Hezekiah's nose and caused my heart to
+palpitate strangely.  Her sun-browned cheek was perilously near.  I
+hoped that she would bend forever over the lantern, so that I might not
+lose the tiny shadows of her lashes, or, again, the laughter of her
+brown eyes as she glanced up to ask my judgment as to the security of
+the candle.  She viewed her handiwork with feigned solicitude, the tip
+of her tongue showing between her lips.  Then the mirth in her bubbled
+out, and she drew away and clapped her hands together like a child.
+
+"Come!" she cried.  "If you are good and won't begin preaching about my
+sins, I'll show you the funniest thing you ever saw in your life."
+
+In my joy of seeing her I was neglecting Cecilia's commission.  Very
+likely Hezekiah had forgotten all about her theft; hers, I reasoned,
+was a nature that delighted in the nearest pleasure.  I would follow
+her jack o' lantern round the world for the chance of seeing the fun
+brighten in her brown eyes, but I had made a promise to Cecilia and I
+meant to fulfill it.
+
+She led me now across the meadow, over a stone wall, up a steep slope,
+and by devious ways through a strip of woodland.  I bore the jack o'
+lantern,--she had bidden me do it, with some notion, I did not
+question, of making me _particeps criminis_ in whatever mischief was
+afoot.  Dignified conduct in a man of twenty-eight, in his best evening
+clothes, carrying a jack o' lantern over stone walls, under clumps of
+briar, and through woods whose boughs clawed the night wildly!  The
+moon lost and found under the flying scud was in keeping with the
+general irresponsibility of a world ruled by Hezekiah.
+
+She swung along ahead of me with the greatest ease and certainty.
+Occasionally she flung some word back at me or whistled a few bars of a
+tune, and when I slipped and nearly fell on a smooth slope she laughed
+mockingly and bade me not lose the pumpkin.  Once, when a boy, I stole
+a watermelon and bore it a mile to the rendezvous of my pirate band
+camped at a riverside; but carrying a pumpkin, even a hollow one, is
+attended with manifold discomforts.  It would help, I reflected, to
+know just what I was lugging it for, but Hezekiah vouchsafed nothing.
+When I threatened to drop the grinning gargoyle she laughed and told me
+to trot along and not be silly; and a moment later she stopped and
+demanded that I repeat fully the story I had told her aunt of the
+finding of the slipper.
+
+"You are better than I thought you were, Chimney-Man!" she declared,
+when I had concluded and added her aunt's comment.  "You may be sure
+that tickled Aunt Octavia.  You can lie almost as well as an architect.
+Aunt Octavia says architects are better liars than dress-makers."
+
+"It was my weakness for the truth that caused me to abandon
+architecture.  For heaven's sake, what are you up to?"
+
+I had kept little account of the direction of our flight, and I was
+surprised that we had now reached the stile over which I had watched
+the passing of the suitors on the afternoon of my meeting with Hezekiah
+in the orchard.
+
+"This is the appointed place," she remarked, taking the pumpkin from me
+and dropping down on the far side of the stile.
+
+"Hezekiah, I've trotted across most of Westchester County after you,
+and my arm is paralyzed from carrying that pumpkin.  I must know what
+you're up to right here, or I'll go home.  Besides, there's a mist
+falling and you'll be soaked.  What do you suppose your father thinks
+of your absence at this time of night?"
+
+"Oh, he'll never forgive me for not letting him in on this.  This is
+the grandest thing I ever thought of.  Sit on this step and gently
+incline your ear toward the house.  It's about time those gentlemen
+were leaving Cecilia, and they'll be galloping for their inn in a
+minute, and then"--
+
+Hezekiah whistled the rest of it.
+
+While we waited, she bade me reset the candle and snuff the wick, which
+I did of necessity with my fingers.  Sitting on a stile with a pretty
+girl is an experience that has been commended by the balladists, but
+surely this felicity loses nothing where the night is fine.  When you
+get used to sitting in a drizzle in your dress-suit, while your
+shirt-bosom assumes the consistency of a gum shoe and your collar glues
+itself odiously to your neck, I dare say the ordeal may be borne
+cheerfully, but my expressions of discomfort seemed only to amuse
+Hezekiah.  While we waited for I knew not what, I tried once or twice
+to revert to the silver note-book, but without success.  Hezekiah was a
+mistress of the art of evasion with her tongue as well as her feet!
+
+"Wait till the evening performance is over and I'll talk about that.
+'Sh!  Quiet!  Crawl over there out of the way, and when I say run, beat
+it for the road."
+
+These last phrases were uttered in a whisper, her face close to my ear.
+She gave me a little push, and I withdrew a few yards and waited.  The
+ground, I may say, was wet, and the drizzle had become a monotonous
+autumn rain.
+
+The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's face as she held
+its illumined countenance toward her, crouching on the stile-steps.  I
+heard now what her keener ear had caught earlier--the tramp of feet
+along the path.  The suitors were returning to the inn, and the voices
+of one or two of them reached me.  One--I thought it was Ormsby--was
+execrating the weather.  They were stepping along briskly, and my
+remembrance of their retreat over this same stile through the amber
+evening dusk was so vivid that I knew just how they would appear if a
+light suddenly fell upon the path.
+
+[Illustration: The light of the lantern fell warmly upon Hezekiah's
+face.]
+
+The nature of Hezekiah's undertaking suddenly dawned upon me.  No one
+but Hezekiah could ever have devised anything so preposterous, so
+utterly lawless; but in spite of myself I waited in breathless
+eagerness for the outcome.  I could not have interfered now, if I had
+wished to do so, without betraying her and involving myself in a
+predicament that could not redound to my credit.
+
+Nearer and nearer came the patter of feet, and I heard, for I could not
+see, the scraping of Hezekiah's slipper,--a wet little shoe by now!--as
+she crept higher on our side of the stile.  The first suitor groped
+blindly for the steps, slipped on the wet plank, growled, and rose to
+try again.  That growl marked for me the leader of the van.  Hartley
+Wiggins, beyond a doubt, and in no good humor, I guessed!  The others,
+I judged, had trodden upon one another's heels at the moment Wiggins
+stumbled.  Thus let us imagine their approach--six gentlemen in top
+hats headed for a stile on a chilly night of rain.
+
+It was at this strategic moment that Hezekiah pushed into the middle of
+the stile-platform, its grinning face turned toward the advancing
+suitors, the jack o' lantern her hand had fashioned.
+
+I marked its position by its faint glow an instant, but an instant
+only.  The world reeled for a moment before the sharp cry of a man in
+fear.  It cut the dark like a lash, and close upon it the second man
+yelled, in a different key, but no less in accents of terror.  The
+first arrival had flung himself back, and so close upon him pressed the
+others and so unexpected was the halt, that the nine men seemed to have
+flung themselves together and to be struggling to escape from the
+hideous thing that had interposed itself in their path.
+
+All was over in a moment.  In the midst of the panic the lantern winked
+out, and instantly Hezekiah was beside me.
+
+"Skip!" she commanded in a whisper; and catching my hand she led me off
+at a brisk run.  When we had gone a dozen rods she paused.  We heard
+voices from the stile, where the gentlemen were still engaged in
+disentangling themselves; and then the planks boomed to their steps as
+they crossed.  They talked loudly among themselves discussing the cause
+of their discomfiture.  The lantern, I may add, had been knocked off
+the stile by the thoughtful Hezekiah when she blew out the light.
+
+A moment more and all sounds of the suitors had died away.  I stood
+alone with Hezekiah in the midst of a meadow.  She was breathing hard.
+Suddenly she threw up her head, struck her hands together, and stamped
+her foot upon the wet sod.  I had waited for an outburst of laughter
+now that we were safely out of the way, but I had reasoned without my
+Hezekiah.  Her mood was not the mood of mirth.
+
+"Well, Hezekiah," I said when I had got my wind, "you pulled off your
+joke, but you don't seem to be enjoying it.  What's the matter?"
+
+"Oh, that Hartley Wiggins!  I might have known it!"
+
+"Known what?" I asked, pricking up my ears.
+
+"That he would be afraid of a pumpkin with a candle inside of it.  Did
+you hear that yell?"
+
+"Anybody would have yelled," I suggested.  "I think I should have
+dropped dead if you'd tried it on me."
+
+"No, you would n't," she asserted with unexpected flattery.
+
+"Don't be deceived, Hezekiah; I should have been scared to death if
+that thing had popped up in front of me."
+
+"I don't believe it.  I gave you a worse test than that.  When I
+switched off the lights and swung a feather duster down the stair-well
+by a string and tickled your face you did n't make a noise like a
+circus calliope scaring horses in Main Street, Podunk.  But that
+Wiggins man!"
+
+"He's a friend of mine and as brave as a lion.  Out in Dakota the
+sheriff used to get him to go in and quiet things when the boys were
+shooting up the town."
+
+"Maybe; but he shied at a pumpkin and can be no true knight of mine.
+Cecilia may have him.  I always suspected that he was n't the real
+thing.  Why, he's even afraid of Aunt Octavia!"
+
+"Well, I rather think _we 'd_ better be!"
+
+I wanted to laugh, but I did not dare.  I was not prepared for the
+humor in which the panic of the suitors had left her.  I did not quite
+make out--and I am uncertain to this day--whether she had really wished
+to test the courage of her sister's lovers or whether she had yielded
+to a mischievous impulse in carrying the jack o' lantern to the stile
+and thrusting it before those serious-minded gentlemen as they returned
+from Hopefield.  In any event Hartley Wiggins was out of it so far as
+she, Hezekiah, was concerned.  She trudged doggedly across the field
+until we came presently to the highway.
+
+"My wheel's in the weeds somewhere; please pull it out for me.  I'm
+going home."
+
+"But not alone; I can't let you do that, Hezekiah."
+
+"Oh, cheer up!" she laughed, aroused by my lugubrious tone.  "And
+here's something you asked me for.  Don't drop it.  It's Cecilia's
+memorandum-book.  Give it back to her, and be sure no one sees it, and
+you need n't look into it yourself.  And we've got to have a talk about
+it and Cecilia.  Let me see.  There's an iron bridge across an arm of
+that little lake over there, and just beyond it a big fallen tree.
+To-morrow at nine o'clock I'll be there.  I've got to tell you
+something, Chimney-Man, without really telling you.  You'll be there,
+won't you?"
+
+"I'll be there if I'm alive, Hezekiah."
+
+I had found the wheel and lighted the lamp.  She scouted my suggestion
+that I find a horse and drive her home.  The lighting of the lamp
+required time owing to the wind and rain; but when its thin ribbon of
+light fell clearly upon the road, she seized the handle-bars and was
+ready to mount without ado.
+
+She gave me her hand,--it was a cold, wet little hand, but there was a
+good friendly grip in it.  This was the first time I had touched
+Hezekiah's hand, and I mention it because as I write I feel again the
+pressure of her slim cold fingers.
+
+"Sorry you spoiled your clothes, but it was in a good cause.  And you
+'re a nice boy, Chimney-Man!"
+
+She shot away into the darkness, and the lamp's glow on the road
+vanished in an instant; but before I lost her quite, her cheery whistle
+blew back to me reassuringly.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+SEVEN GOLD REEDS
+
+I woke the next morning to the banging of Miss Octavia's fowling-piece.
+In spite of the crowding incidents of the day and night I had slept
+soundly, and save for a stiffness of the legs I was none the worse for
+my wetting.  The service of the house was perfect, and in response to
+my ring a man appeared who declared himself competent to knock my dress
+clothes into shape again.
+
+I should hardly have believed that so much history had been made in a
+night, if it had not been for certain indubitable evidence: Cecilia's
+silver note-book; Hezekiah's handkerchief, which I had forgotten to
+return to her; and a patch of tallow grease from the jack o' lantern
+that had attached itself firmly to my coat-cuff.
+
+Cecilia met me at the foot of the stairs, looking rather worn, I
+thought.  We were safe from interruption a moment longer, as her aunt's
+gun was still booming, and I followed her to the library.
+
+"Please don't tell me you have failed," she cried tearfully.  "That
+little book means so much, so very much to us all!"
+
+"Here it is, Miss Hollister," I said, placing it in her hand without
+parley.  "I beg to assure you that I return it just as you saw it last.
+Please satisfy yourself that it has not been tampered with in any way.
+I have not opened it; and it has not left my hand since I recovered it."
+
+She had almost snatched it from me, and she turned slightly away and
+ran hurriedly over the leaves.
+
+In her relief she laughed happily; and with one of her charming,
+graceful gestures she gave me her hand.
+
+"I thank you, Mr. Ames; thank you! thank you!  You have rendered me the
+greatest service.  And I hope you were able to do so without serious
+inconvenience to yourself."
+
+"On the other hand it was the smallest matter, and instead of being a
+trouble I found the greatest pleasure in recovering it."
+
+I stood with my hands thrust carelessly into my trousers pockets,
+rocking slightly upon my heels to convey a sense of the unimportance of
+my service.  It was a manner I had cultivated to meet the surprise and
+gratitude of my clients when I had brought a seemingly incurable flue
+into a state of subjection.  I think I may have appeared a little
+bored, as though I had accomplished a feat that was rather unworthy of
+my powers.  A doctor who prescribes the wrong pill and finds to his
+amazement that it cures the patient, might improve upon that manner,
+but not greatly.
+
+"You naturally wonder, Miss Hollister, how I found this trinket so
+readily.  And in order that you may not suspect perfectly innocent
+persons, I will tell you exactly how I came by it.  It was your belief
+that you had left it on your dressing-table.  But as a memorandum-book
+of any character pertains to a writing-desk rather than to a
+dressing-table, my interest centred at once upon such writing-table as
+you doubtless have in your room."
+
+"There is a writing-desk, in the corner by the window, but"--
+
+"Ah, you are about to repeat your belief that you left the book on the
+dressing-table and that it could not have moved to the desk.  May I ask
+whether you did not, just before you came down to dinner, scribble me a
+line asking for an interview?"
+
+"Why, yes; I remember that perfectly."
+
+"You wrote in some haste, as indicated by the handwriting in your
+message.  It is possible that you wrote and destroyed one note, or
+perhaps two, before you had expressed yourself exactly to your liking.
+We are all of us, with any sort of feeling for style, prone to just
+such rejections."
+
+"It is possible that I did," she replied, coloring slightly.  "I was
+extremely anxious to see you."
+
+"Very well, then; is it not possible that in throwing the rejected
+correspondence cards into the waste-paper basket that stands beside
+your desk,--there is such a basket, is there not?"
+
+"Yes," she replied breathlessly.
+
+"Is it not possible, then, that that little booklet, hardly heavier
+than paper itself, may have been brushed off without your seeing it?"
+
+"It is possible; I must admit that it is possible; but"--
+
+"It is on that 'but' that any theory implicating another hand must
+break.  What I have indicated is exactly what must have happened.  To
+the nice care that characterizes the house-keeping of this
+establishment we must now turn.  I find that when I go to my own room
+after dinner it is always in perfect order,--pens restored to the rack
+on my writing-table, brushes laid straight on the dressing-table, and
+so on.  The well-trained maid who cares for your room, seeing scraps of
+paper in the basket by your desk, naturally carried it off.  When I
+accepted your commission last night I went directly to the cellar,
+sought the bin into which waste paper is thrown, and found among old
+envelopes and other litter this small trinket, which but for my
+promptness might have been lost forever."
+
+"It does n't seem possible," she faltered.
+
+"Oh," I laughed easily, "possible or impossible, you could not on the
+witness-stand swear that the book had not dropped into the waste-paper
+basket precisely as I have described."
+
+"No, I suppose I couldn't," she answered slowly.
+
+My powers of mendacity were improving; but her relief at holding the
+book again in her hand was so great that she would probably have
+believed anything.
+
+"You see," she said, clasping the book tight, "this was given me for a
+particular purpose and it contains a memorandum of greatest importance.
+And I was in a panic when I found that it was gone, for my recollection
+of certain items I had recorded here was confused, and there was no
+possible way of setting myself straight.  Now all is clear again.  I
+feel that I make poor acknowledgment of your service; but if, at any
+time"--
+
+"Pray think no more of it," I replied; and at this moment Miss
+Hollister appeared and called us to breakfast.
+
+"If it is perfectly agreeable to you, Arnold, I will hear the story of
+the finding of the ghost at four o'clock, or just before tea.  I have
+sent a telegram to Mr. Pepperton asking him to be present.  He 's at
+his country home in Redding and can very easily motor down.  As no
+motors are allowed on my premises he shall be met at the gate with a
+trap."
+
+"You have sent for Pepperton!" I exclaimed.
+
+"That is exactly what I have done, and as he knows that I never accept
+apologies under any circumstances, he will not disappoint me.  In
+addition to reprimanding him for not telling me of the secret passage
+in this house, I have another matter that concerns you, Arnold, which I
+wish to lay before him.  The new cook that Providence sent to my
+kitchen yesterday is the best we have had, Cecilia, and I beg that you
+both indulge yourselves in a second helping of country scrambled eggs."
+
+Miss Octavia made no further allusion to the incidents of the night,
+but went on turning over her mail.  I have neglected to say that her
+library contained a most remarkable array of books in praise of man's
+fortitude and daring.  I have learned later that these had been
+assembled for her by a distinguished scholar, and many of them were
+rare editions.  A "Karlamagnus Saga" elbowed Malory and the "Reali di
+Francia;" and Roland's horn challenged in all languages.  She greatly
+admired and had often visited the Chateau de Luynes, and had a
+portfolio filled with water-color and pen-and-ink drawings of it.  Such
+books as Viollet-le-Duc's "Dictionnaire du Mobilier Francais" I
+constantly found lying spread open on the library table.  She read
+German and French readily, and declared her purpose to attack old
+French that she might pursue certain obscure _chansons de geste_ which,
+an Oxford professor had told her, were not susceptible of adequate
+translation.  Why should one read the news of the day when the news of
+all time was available!  Magazines and reviews she tolerated, but no
+newspaper was as good as Froissart.  She therefore read newspapers only
+through a clipping bureau, which sent her items bearing upon her own
+peculiar interests.  By some error the story of a heavy embezzlement in
+a city bank had that day crept in among a number of cuttings relating
+to a ship that had been found somewhere off the Chilean coast with all
+sails set and everything in perfect order, but with not a soul on
+board.  She expressed her bitterest contempt for men in responsible
+positions who betrayed their trusts: highway robbery she thought a much
+nobler crime, as the robber dignified his act by exposing himself to
+personal danger.
+
+"In our day, Arnold," she said, placing her knife and fork carefully on
+her plate, "in our day the ten commandments have lost their moral
+significance and retain, I fear, only a very slight literary interest."
+
+She reminded Cecilia of an appointment to ride that morning; in the
+early afternoon she was to install a new kennel-master; and otherwise
+there was a full day ahead of her.  It was a cheerful breakfast table.
+A letter from my assistant confirming his telegraphed resignation did
+not disturb me; Miss Octavia showed no further signs of abandoning her
+quest of the golden coasts of youth, and Cecilia, having recovered her
+notebook, faced the new day cheerfully.
+
+A little later I met Miss Hollister in the hall dressed for her ride.
+
+"Arnold, you may ride whenever you like.  I may have forgotten to
+mention it.  What have you on hand this morning?"
+
+"An appointment with a lady," I replied.
+
+"If you are about to meet the owner of that Beacon Street slipper I
+wish you good luck."
+
+She was drawing on her gauntlets, and turned away to hide a smile, I
+thought; then she tapped me lightly with her riding-crop.
+
+"Cecilia's silver note-book was missing last night.  She told me of her
+loss with tears.  She has it again this morning.  Did you restore it?"
+
+"It was my good fortune to do so."
+
+"Then allow me to add my thanks to hers.  You are an unusually
+practical person, Arnold Ames, as well as the possessor of an
+imagination that pleases me.  You are becoming more and more essential
+to me.  Cecilia approaches, and I cannot say more at this time."
+
+When they had ridden out of the porte-cochere I set off across the
+fields to keep my tryst with Hezekiah.  The air had been washed sweet
+and clean by the rain of the night, and sky was never bluer.  I was
+surprised at my own increasing detachment from the world.  Nothing that
+had happened before the Asolando mattered greatly; my meeting with Miss
+Octavia Hollister had marked a climacteric from which all events must
+now be reckoned.  I had embarked with high hope in a profession to
+which I had been drawn from youth, had failed utterly to find clients,
+and had therefore taken up the doctoring of flues, a vocation whose
+honors are few and dubious, and in which I felt it to be damning praise
+that I was called the best in America.  My days at Hopefield were the
+happiest of my life.  Few as they had been, they had changed my gray
+bleak course into a path bright with promise.  The world had been too
+much with me, and I had escaped from it as completely as though I had
+stepped upon another planet "where all is possible and all unknown."
+
+I reached the fallen tree that Hezekiah had appointed as our
+trysting-place a little ahead of time, and indulged in pleasant
+speculations while I waited.  I was looking toward the hills expecting
+her to come skimming along the highway on her bicycle, when a splash
+caused me to turn to the lake.  Dull of me not to have known that
+Hezekiah would contrive a new entrance for a scene so charmingly set as
+this!  She had stolen upon me in a light skiff, and laughed to see how
+her silent approach startled me.  She dropped one oar and used the
+other as a paddle, driving the boat with a sure hand through the reeds
+into the bank.
+
+  "'Tis morning and the days are long!"
+
+
+Such was Hezekiah's greeting as she jumped ashore.  She wore a dark
+green skirt and coat, and a narrow four-in-hand cravat tied under a
+flannel collar that clasped her throat snugly.  A boy's felt hat, with
+the brim pinned up in front, covered her head.
+
+"You seem none the worse for your wetting, Hezekiah.  You must have
+been soaked."
+
+"So must you, Chimneys, but you look as fit as I feel, and I never felt
+better.  Did they catch you crawling in last night?"
+
+"I did n't see a soul.  You know I'm an old member of the family now.
+Nobody was ever as nice to me as your Aunt Octavia."
+
+"How about Cecilia?"
+
+"Having found her silver note-book and given it back to her before
+breakfast, I may say that our relations are altogether cordial."
+
+"Are you in love with her--yet?" asked Hezekiah, carelessly, tossing a
+pebble into the lake.  The "yet" was so timed that it splashed with the
+pebble.
+
+"No; not--yet," I replied.
+
+"It will come," said Hezekiah a little ruefully, casting a pebble
+farther upon the crinkled water.
+
+"You mean, Hezekiah, that men always fall in love with your sister."
+
+She nodded.
+
+"Well, she's a good deal of a girl."
+
+"Beautiful and no end cultivated.  They all go crazy about her."
+
+"You mean Hartley Wiggins and his fellow-bandits at the Prescott Arms."
+
+"Yes; and lots of others."
+
+"And sometimes, Hezekiah, it has seemed to you that she got all the
+admiration, and that you did n't get your share.  So when her suitors
+began a siege of the castle whose gates were locked against you, you
+plugged the chimney with a trunk-tray, and played at being ghost and
+otherwise sought to terrify your sister's lovers."
+
+"That's not nice, Chimneys.  You mean that I'm jealous."
+
+"No.  I don't mean that you are jealous now: I throw it into the remote
+and irrevocable past.  You were jealous.  You don't care so much now.
+And I hope you will care less!"
+
+"That is being impertinent.  If you talk that way I shall call you Mr.
+Ames and go home!"
+
+"You can't do that, Hezekiah."
+
+"I should like to know why not?  If you say I 'm jealous of Cecilia
+now, or that I ever was, I shall be very, very angry.  For it's not
+true."
+
+"No.  You see things very differently now.  You told me only last night
+that Cecilia might have Hartley Wiggins.  Assuming that she wants him!
+And you and he have been good friends, have n't you?  You had good
+times on the other side.  And while Cecilia was in town assisting
+Providence in finding your aunt a cook, you went walking with him."
+
+"I did, I did!" mocked Hezekiah.  "And why do you suppose I did?"
+
+"Because Wiggy's the best of fellows; a solid, substantial citizen, who
+raises wheat to make bread out of."
+
+"And angel food and ginger cookies," added Hezekiah, feeling absently
+in the pockets of her coat.  "No, Chimneys, you 're a nice boy and you
+don't yell like a wild man when a feather-duster hits you in the dark;
+but there are some things you don't know yet."
+
+"I am here to grow wise at the feet of Hezekiah, Daughter of Kings.
+Open the book of wisdom and teach me the alphabet, but don't be sad if
+I balk at the grammar."
+
+"I never knew all the alphabet myself," said Hezekiah dolefully; then
+she laughed abruptly.  "I was bounced from two convents and no end of
+Hudson River and Fifth Avenue education shops."
+
+"The brutality of that, Hezekiah, wrings my heart!  Yet you are the
+best teacher I ever had, and I thought I was educated when I met you.
+But I had only been to school, which is different.  Not until the first
+time our eyes met, not until that supreme moment"--
+
+"Mr. Ames," Hezekiah interrupted, in the happiest possible imitation of
+Miss Octavia's manner, "if you think that, because I am a poor lone
+girl who knows nothing of the great, wide world, I am a fair mark for
+your cajolery, I assure you that you were never more mistaken in your
+life!"
+
+"You ought n't to mimic your aunt.  It is n't respectful; and besides
+you have something to tell me.  What's all this rumpus about Cecilia's
+silver memorandum-book?  Suppose we discuss that and get through with
+it."
+
+We were sitting on the fallen tree, which lay partly in the lake, and
+Hezekiah leaned over and broke off a number of reeds from the thicket
+at the water's edge.  Out of her pocket she drew a small penknife and
+trimmed them uniformly.
+
+"You see," she began, biting her lip in the earnestness of her labor,
+"I'm going to tell you something, and yet I 'm not going to tell you.
+So far as you and I have gone you 've been tolerably satisfactory.  If
+I did n't think you had some wits in your head I should n't have
+bothered with you at all.  That's frank, is n't it?"
+
+"It certainly is.  But I'm terribly fussed for fear I may not be equal
+to this new ordeal."
+
+"If you fail we shall never meet again; that's all there is to that.
+Now listen real hard.  You know something about it already, but not the
+main point.  Aunt Octavia got father to consent to let her marry us
+off--Cecilia and me.  Cecilia, being older, came first.  I was to keep
+out of the way, and father and I were not to come to Aunt Octavia's new
+house up there or meddle in any way.  While we were abroad I was
+treated as a little girl, and not as a grown-up at all.  But you see I
+'m really nineteen, and some of Cecilia's suitors were nice to me when
+we were traveling.  They were nice to me on Cecilia's account, you
+know."
+
+"Of course.  You're so hard to look at, it must have been painful to
+them to be nice to you,--almost like taking poison!  Go on, Hezekiah!"
+
+"You need n't interrupt me like that.  Well, as part of the
+understanding, and Cecilia agreed to it,--she thought she had to for
+papa's sake,--she was to marry a particular man.  Do you understand me,
+a particular man?  Aunt Octavia gave her the little note-book--she
+bought it at a shop in Paris at the time Cecilia consented to the
+plan--and she was to keep a sort of diary, so that she'd know when the
+right man turned up.  Now we will drop the note-book for a minute; only
+I'll say that Cecilia was to keep the book all to herself and not show
+it to any one, not even to Aunt Octavia, you know, until the right man
+had asked Cecilia to marry him.  Now who do you suppose, Mr. Ames, that
+man is?"
+
+I watched her hands as they deftly cut and fashioned the dry reeds.
+The air grew warm as the sun climbed to the zenith, and Hezekiah flung
+aside her coat.  The breeze caught the ends of her tie and snapped them
+behind her.  She was wholly absorbed in her task, and no boy could have
+managed a pocket-knife better.  The first reed she made a trifle longer
+than her hand; the succeeding ones she trimmed to graduated lessening
+lengths, till seven in all had been cut, and then she notched them.
+
+"Seven," she murmured, laying them neatly in order on her knee.  "I
+remember the right number by a poem I read the other day in an old
+magazine."
+
+She reached down and plucked several long leaves of tough grass with
+which she began to bind the reeds together, repeating,--
+
+  "Seven gold reeds grew tall and slim,
+  Close by the river's beaded brim.
+
+  "Syrnix the naiad flitted past:
+  Pan, the goat-hoofed, followed fast.
+
+
+"It will be easier," said Hezekiah, "if you hold the pipes while I tie
+them."
+
+I found this propinquity wholly agreeable.  It was pleasant to sit on a
+log beside Hezekiah.  It seemed no far cry to the storied Mediterranean
+and Pan and dryads and naiads, as Hezekiah bound her reeds to the music
+of couplets.  There was no self-consciousness in her recitation; she
+seemed to be telling me of something that she had seen herself an hour
+ago.
+
+  "He spread his arms to clasp her there
+  Just as she vanished into air.
+
+  "And to his bosom warm and rough
+  Drew the gold reeds close enough.
+
+
+"I don't remember the rest," she broke off.  "But there!  That's a pipe
+fit for any shepherd."
+
+She put it to her lips and blew.  I shall not pretend that the result
+was melodious: she whistled much better without the reeds; but the
+sight of her, sitting on the fallen tree beside the lake, beating time
+with her foot, her head thrown back, her eyes half-closed in a mockery
+of rapture at the shrill, wheezy uncertainties and ineptitudes she
+evoked, thrilled me with new and wonderful longings.  A heart, a spirit
+like hers would never grow old!  She was next of kin to all the
+elusive, fugitive company of the elf-world.  And on such a pipe as she
+had strung together beside that pond, to this day Sicilian shepherd
+boys whistle themselves into tune with Theocritus!
+
+[Illustration: She put it to her lips and blew.]
+
+"Take it," she said; "I can't tell you more than I have; and yet it is
+all there, Chimneys.  Read the riddle of the reeds if you can."
+
+I took the pipe and turned it over carefully in my hands; but I fear my
+thoughts were rather of the hands that had fashioned it, the fingers
+that had danced nimbly upon the stops.
+
+"There are seven reeds,--seven," she affirmed.
+
+She amused herself by skipping pebbles over the surface of the water
+while I pondered.  And I deliberated long, for one did not like to
+blunder before Hezekiah!  Then I jumped up and called to her.
+
+"One, two, three, four, five, six--seven!  Not until the seventh man
+offers himself shall Cecilia have a husband!  Is that the answer?"
+
+For a moment Hezekiah watched the widening ripples made by the casting
+of her last pebble; then she came back and resumed her seat.
+
+"You have done well, Chimney Man; and now I 'll not make you guess any
+more, though I found it all out for myself.  When Aunt Octavia gave
+that memorandum-book to Cecilia, I knew it must have something to do
+with the seventh man.  You know I love all Aunt Octavia's nonsense
+because it's the kind of foolishness I like myself, and the idea of a
+pretty little note-book to write down proposals in was precisely the
+sort of thing that would have occurred to my aunt.  And it was in the
+bargain, too, that she herself should not in any way interfere, or try
+to influence the course of events: it should be the seventh suitor,
+willy-nilly.  And I suspect she's been a little scared too."
+
+"She has indeed!  She was almost ready to throw the whole scheme over
+last night.  Your naughtiness had got on her nerves."
+
+"You missed the target that time: Aunt Octavia loves my naughtiness,
+and I think she has really been afraid Sir Pumpkin Wiggins would catch
+me.  Now I did n't roam my aunt's house just for fun.  I was doing my
+best to keep Cecilia from getting into some scrape about that
+seventh-suitor plan.  I found out by chance how to get into Hopefield,
+and about the hidden stairway and the old rooms tucked away there.
+Papa really discovered that.  A carpenter in Katonah who worked on the
+house helped to build papa's bungalow, and he told us how that ruin
+came to be there.  That dyspepsia-cure man, who also immortalized
+himself by inventing the ribless umbrella, was very superstitious.  He
+believed that if he built an entirely new house he would die.  So he
+had his architect build around and retain those two rooms and that
+stairway of a house that had been on the ground almost since the
+Revolution.  Mr. Pepperton, the architect, humored him, but hid the
+remains of the relic as far out of sight as possible."
+
+"Trust Pep for that!  And he did it neatly!"
+
+"Yes; but it did n't save the umbrella-man; he died anyhow; or maybe
+his pies killed him.  Papa was so curious about it that he took me with
+him one night just before Aunt Octavia moved here, and he and I found
+the rooms and the stair and the secret spring by which, if you know
+just where to poke the wall in the fourth-floor hall, you can disappear
+as mysteriously as you please."
+
+"But how on earth did you darken the halls so easily?  You nearly gave
+me heart-disease doing that!"
+
+"Oh, that was a mere matter of a young lady in haste!  When I found how
+easily I could pass you on the stair it became a fascinating game, and
+it was no end of fun to see just how long it would take you to catch
+me."
+
+"I wish, Hezekiah, that you would stay caught!"
+
+"Be very, very careful, sir!  We're talking business now.  There's
+another ordeal for you before you dare become sentimental."
+
+"Then hasten; let us be after it."
+
+"Things are in a serious predicament, I can tell you.  I was frightened
+when I looked into that note-book,--I did n't like to do that, but I
+had to assist Providence a little.  Five men have already got their
+quietus."
+
+"Then why don't they clear out, and stop their nonsense?"
+
+"Oh, it's their pride, I suppose; and every man probably thinks that
+when Cecilia has seen a little more of him in particular, in contrast
+with the others, he will win her favor.  They 're afraid of one
+another, those men; that's the reason they've been herding together so
+close since that first day you came.  Mr. Wiggins was taking it for
+granted that he was the whole thing--just like the man!--and those
+others forced him to join in some sort of arrangement by which they
+were to hang together.  These calls in a bunch came from that, as
+though any one of them would n't take advantage of the others if he saw
+a chance!  Some of this I got from Wiggy himself, the rest I just
+guessed."
+
+"But you may not know that they sent a delegation after me into town,
+to warn me off the grass."
+
+"That was Mr. Dick.  He never saw me when Cecilia was around.  And he
+was terribly snippy sometimes, and supercilious; but I'm going to get
+even with him.  I've about underlined him for number six," she
+concluded, with the manner of a queen who, about to give her chief
+executioner his orders for the day, glances calmly over the list of
+victims.
+
+"That's a good idea; Dick is insufferable; I hope you have n't counted
+wrong."
+
+"As we were saying, about the note-book," she resumed, "the fifth man
+has already been respectfully declined.  The dates of the proposals are
+written in the note-book; so I learned from the book that Mr. Ormsby,
+Mr. Arbuthnot, and Mr. Gorse had proposed on the steamer.  Professor
+Hume, as you know, tried his luck at Hopefield; and Lord Arrowood must
+have stopped Cecilia as she was riding to the station on my bicycle
+yesterday morning.  His goose is cooked."
+
+"His gooseberry pie was cooked, but I took it away from him.  No pie
+sacred to Hezekiah can be confiscated by an indigent lord so long as I
+keep my present health and spirits.  It's the close season for lords in
+Westchester County; I potted the last one.  By the way, he thought you
+were a real ghost when you were playing tag with him in the dark."
+
+"He stopped to tell papa good-bye and spoke very highly of you; papa
+and you are the only gentlemen he met in America.  But now we come to
+Mr. Wiggins."
+
+"We do; and why in the name of all that is beautiful and good has n't
+he tried his luck?"
+
+"Because, knowing Cecilia's admiration for him," replied Hezekiah
+demurely, "I have kept him so diverted that he has n't been able to
+bring himself to the scratch."
+
+She examined the palm of her hand critically to allow me time to grasp
+this.
+
+"You did n't want him to blunder in as the first, fourth, or sixth man?"
+
+Hezekiah gravely nodded her pretty head.
+
+"And while you were engaged in this sisterly labor, Cecilia has been
+afraid that you were seriously interested in him!"
+
+"That is like Cecilia.  She's fine, and would n't cause me trouble for
+anything;" and there was no doubt of Hezekiah's sincerity.
+
+"But now that I see the light and understand all this, how can we make
+sure that Wiggy will be on the spot at the right moment?  While we sit
+here, he may be the sixth man!  There's my friend, the eminent thinker
+from Nebraska; he's likely to kneel before Cecilia at any moment, and
+Henderson and Shallenberger are not asleep."
+
+"That's all true; and you've got to fix it."
+
+"You're leaving the fate of Wiggins and your sister in my hands?
+That's a heavy responsibility, Hezekiah.  I might take care of Wiggy by
+asking Cecilia to marry me, being careful to have him appear
+johnny-on-the-spot when I had been duly declined."
+
+"Um, I should n't take any chances if I were you," she replied,
+feigning to look at an imaginary bird in a tree-top; "for if you had
+counted wrong and were really the seventh man, she would have to accept
+you!"
+
+"Hezekiah!"
+
+"Oh, I really did n't mean what you thought I meant.  We don't need to
+discuss it any more.  That's the ordeal I've arranged for you," she
+answered, and set her lips sternly.
+
+"But, my dear Hezekiah, by what means can this be effected?  I don't
+dare tell him the combination he's playing against or sit on him until
+his hour strikes."
+
+"Certainly not; you must n't tell him or anybody else.  You know the
+plan; but you're not supposed to; and nobody must know I've meddled.
+Meanwhile, Cecilia must expose herself to proposals at all times.  Aunt
+Octavia's heart would be broken if she thought Providence had been
+tampered with.  She likes Wiggy well enough, except that his ancestors
+were all Tories and he can't be a son of the Revolution."
+
+"Too bad; it was very careless of him not to do better about his
+ancestors; but he can't change that now."
+
+"Well, you've behaved with considerable intelligence so far, and now
+with your friend's fate in your hands you will need to use great
+judgment and tact in all that follows.  I wash my hands of the whole
+business."
+
+She rose quickly and pointed to her coat.
+
+"Drop it into the boat for me, Chimneys.  We meet in funny places,
+don't we?  Papa expects me for luncheon, and I must row back and get my
+bicycle.  You?  No, you can't go along; you've got a lot of thinking to
+do, and you'd better be doing it."
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+TROUBLE AT THE PRESCOTT ARMS
+
+A few minutes later, as I swung along the highway toward the Prescott
+Arms, I saw Cecilia Hollister riding toward me at a lively gallop.  She
+crossed the bridge without checking her horse, and then, with a hurried
+glance over her shoulder, she pointed with her crop to a by-way that
+led deviously into a strip of forest and vanished.
+
+I hurried after her, and found her waiting for me in a quiet lane.  She
+had dismounted and seemed greatly disturbed as I addressed her.  Her
+horse, a superb Estabrook thoroughbred, had evidently been pushed hard.
+Cecilia had taken off her hat, and was giving a touch to the wayward
+strands of hair that had been shaken loose in her flight.  The color
+glowed in her dark cheeks, and her eyes were bright with excitement.
+
+"I hadn't expected to meet you; I thought you rode off with your aunt
+toward Mt. Kisco."
+
+"We did; but on our way home Aunt Octavia stopped to call on a friend,
+and as I did n't feel in a mood for visits this morning I rode on
+alone."
+
+She spoke further of her aunt's friend, of whom I had never heard
+before, to calm herself before touching upon the cause of her wild ride
+or her wish to speak to me.  She pinned on her hat and drew on her
+riding-gloves while I helped to make conversation, and soon regained
+her composure.  The haste with which she had withdrawn into the wood,
+and the imperative wave of her crop by which she had bidden me follow
+her, indicated that something of importance had happened and that she
+wished to confide in me.
+
+"I was walking my horse in the road beyond Bedford, just after I left
+Aunt Octavia, when who should ride up beside me but Mr. Wiggins.  He
+had evidently been following me."
+
+She expected me to express surprise; and with the information that
+Hezekiah had just imparted fresh in my mind I dare say she was not
+disappointed in the effect of her words.  I was thinking rapidly and
+fearfully.  If my friend had sought her in the highway and offered
+himself in some fresh accession of ardor, he might even now be a
+rejected and hopeless man; but I was unwilling to believe that this had
+happened.
+
+"Hartley is fond of riding, and nothing could be more natural than for
+him to have his horse sent out from town."
+
+"Oh, it's natural enough," she cried; "but I was greatly taken aback
+when he rode up beside me."
+
+"An old friend joining you in the highway, on a bright October morning!
+I can't for the life of me see anything surprising or alarming in that,
+Miss Hollister."
+
+"But only yesterday, you remember I told you I had seen him walking
+with my sister."
+
+"It's perfectly easy to talk to Hezekiah!  It seems to me that that
+only shows a friendly attitude toward all the family.  Let us deal with
+facts if I am to help you.  I understand perfectly that Hartley Wiggins
+wishes to marry you; and that being the case I see no reason why he
+should n't be courteous to your sister.  I 've always heard that it's
+the proper thing to be polite to the sisters, cousins, and aunts of
+one's prospective wife.  I know of no more delightful occupation than
+listening to Hezekiah.  Just now, for an hour or so, I have been
+enjoying her conversation myself.  Nothing could be more refreshing or
+stimulating.  She is an unusual young woman, and most amazingly wise."
+
+"You have seen Hezekiah this morning!" she exclaimed.
+
+"I have indeed.  I hope I may say that she and I are becoming good
+friends.  I am learning to understand her; though, believe me, I don't
+speak boastingly.  However, this morning we got on famously together.
+But won't you continue and tell me what happened in the road when
+Hartley rode up beside you?"
+
+"Oh, nothing happened; really nothing!  Nothing could have happened,
+for the excellent reason that I ran away from him.  It was n't what he
+did or said; it was the fear of what he might say!"
+
+"If it had been Mr. Dick who had joined you in exactly the same way in
+the highway, you would not have minded in the least, Miss Hollister.
+Is n't that the truth?"
+
+Her hand that had rested on the pommel of her saddle dropped to her
+side, and she stood erect, her eyes wide with wonder.
+
+"What do you mean?" she gasped.
+
+"I mean exactly what I have said; that if it had been that strutting
+young philosopher from the West you would--well, you would have allowed
+him to say what was in his mind, no matter whether it had been his
+latest thought on Kantianism, the weather, or his admiration for
+yourself.  Am I not right?"
+
+"I wonder, I wonder"--she faltered, drawing away, the better to observe
+me.
+
+"You wonder how much I know!  To relieve your mind without parleying
+further, I will say to you that I know everything."
+
+"Then Aunt Octavia must have told you; and that seems incredible.  It
+was distinctly understood"--
+
+"Your aunt told me nothing.  Not by words did any one tell me."
+
+"Not by words?" she asked, eyeing me wonderingly and clearly fearing
+that I might be playing some trick upon her.  "Then can it be that
+Hezekiah--but no!  Hezekiah does n't know!"
+
+"Trust Hezekiah for not telling secrets," I answered evasively.  "Give
+me credit for some imagination.  The air of Hopefield is stimulating,
+and in the few days I have spent in your aunt's house I have learned
+much that I never dreamed of before.  I am not at all the person you
+greeted with so much courtesy in the library when I arrived there, a
+chimney-doctor and an ignorant person, a few afternoons ago,--called,
+as I thought, to prescribe for flues that proved to be in admirable
+condition, but really summoned by higher powers to assist the fates in
+the proper and orderly performance of their duties to several members
+of the house of Hollister,--yourself among them."
+
+"I don't understand it; you are wholly inexplicable."
+
+"I am the simplest and least guileful of beings, I assure you.  Yet I
+have done some things here not in the slightest way related to chimney
+doctoring; and something else I expect to do for which I believe you
+will thank me through all the years of your life."
+
+"Ah, if you really know, that is possible!" she sighed wearily.  "I am
+very tired of it all.  I was very foolish ever to have agreed to Aunt
+Octavia's plan.  You have seen those men,--any one of them might, you
+know"--  And she shrugged her shoulders impatiently.
+
+"Any one of them might be the seventh man!  There, you see I do know!
+And I mean to help you!"
+
+She was immensely relieved; there was no question of that.  Gratitude
+shone in her eyes; and then, as I marvelled at their beautiful dark
+depths, fear suddenly possessed them.  The change in her was startling.
+Several motors had swept by in the outer road while we talked; they
+were faintly visible through the trees; and just now we both heard a
+horse and caught a fleeting glimpse of Hartley Wiggins, riding slowly
+with bowed head toward the inn.  Cecilia's horse flung up his head, but
+she clapped her hands upon his nostrils and held them there to prevent
+his whinnying until that figure of despair had passed out of hearing.
+
+I was smitten with sorrow for Hartley Wiggins.  I could put myself in
+his place and imagine his feelings as he rode like a defeated general
+back to the inn, there to face the other suitors after the humiliating
+experience which Cecilia Hollister had just described.  In his
+ignorance of the cause of her eagerness to escape from him, he no doubt
+believed that he had all unconsciously made himself intolerable to her.
+It was plain that that glimpse of him had touched Cecilia's pity; if I
+had doubted the sincerity of her regard for him before, I spurned the
+thought now.  I was anxious to requicken hope in her,--an odd office
+for me to assume when in my own affairs I had always yielded my sword
+readily to the blue devils!  Yet during my short stay at Hopefield I
+had already found it possible to restore Miss Octavia's confidence in
+her own chosen destiny, and in this delicate love-affair between
+Cecilia Hollister and my best friend I proffered counsel and sympathy
+with an assurance that astonished me.
+
+"I have told you enough, Miss Hollister, to make it clear that I am in
+a position to help you.  Believe me, I have no other business before me
+but to complete the service I have undertaken."
+
+"But there is always"--she began, then ceased abruptly, and lifted her
+head proudly--"there is always Mr. Wiggins's attitude toward my sister.
+Not for anything in the world would I cause her the slightest
+unhappiness.  You must see that, now that you know her."
+
+I laughed aloud.  Cecilia's concern for Hezekiah's happiness was so
+absurd that I could not restrain my mirth for a moment.  Displeasure
+showed promptly in Cecilia's face.
+
+"I am sorry if you doubt my sincerity, Mr. Ames.  I will put the matter
+directly, to make sure I have not been misunderstood heretofore, and
+say that if Hezekiah is interested in Hartley Wiggins and cares for him
+in the least,--you know she is young and susceptible,--I shall take
+care that he never sees me again."
+
+"Pardon me, but maybe you don't quite understand Hezekiah!"
+
+"Is it possible, then, that you do?" she inquired coldly.  "I imagine
+your opportunities for seeing her have not been numerous."
+
+"Well, it is n't so much a matter of seeing her, when you've read of
+her all your life and dreamed about her.  She's in every fairy story
+that ever was written; she dances through the mythologies of all races.
+Hers is the kingdom of the pure in heart.  Her mind is like a beautiful
+bright meadow by the sea, and her thoughts the dipping of swallow-wings
+on lightly swaying grasses."
+
+Cecilia's manner changed, and she smiled.
+
+"You seem to have an attack of something; it looks serious.  You have
+n't known her long enough to find out so much!"
+
+"Longer than you would believe.  She and I sat on the shore together
+when Ulysses sailed by; we were among those present at the sack of
+Troy; we heard Roland's ivory trumpet at Roncesvalles."
+
+"Such words from you amaze me.  I didn't imagine there was so much
+romance in chimneys."
+
+"They are full of it!  Commend me to an open fire, with a flue that
+knows its business, and a dream or two!  I 've renounced my profession.
+I shall hereafter offer myself as adviser to persons in need of
+illusions; we 'd all be poets if we dared!"
+
+I helped her into the saddle, and she looked down at me with amusement
+in her eyes.  My praise of Hezekiah had pleased her, and I felt, as
+when we journeyed together into town, her kindly, human qualities.  The
+perplexities and embarrassments resulting from her compact with her
+aunt had doubtless checked the natural flow of her spirits.  She talked
+on buoyantly, though I was eager to be off, to avert the catastrophe
+that only her flight had prevented and which Wiggins might at any
+moment precipitate.  She gathered up her reins.
+
+"You are not coming home for luncheon?  Then I shall see you at four.
+I hope the hiding-place of the ghost will prove interesting.  Aunt
+Octavia has built her hopes high, and I may add that she has expressed
+the greatest admiration of you to me.  On her ride this morning she
+declared that great things are in store for you.  I hope so, too, Mr.
+Ames."
+
+She gave me her hand and rode away, and before I had reached the
+highway she was across the bridge and galloping rapidly homeward.
+
+The inn was a mile distant, and I set off at a brisk pace, turning over
+in my mind various projects for controlling the characters now upon the
+stage in such manner that Wiggins should become the seventh man.
+Cecilia could not always run away from him without violating the terms
+of her aunt's stipulation; and it was unlikely that she would attempt
+further to guide or thwart the pointing finger of fate.  I relied
+little upon any arrangement effected among the suitors to stand
+together.  Hume had already found a chance to speak.  Lord Arrowood had
+bitten the dust and turned his face homeward, and Wiggins had been near
+the brink only that morning.  It was unlikely that any of the active
+candidates remaining would stumble upon the key to the situation, which
+Hezekiah had given into my keeping.
+
+It was well on toward two o'clock when I approached the inn.  Before
+long the suitors would depart for their afternoon call at the Manor,
+which was an established event of the day.  Just as I was about to
+enter the gate I was arrested by an imperious voice calling, and John
+Stewart Dick came running toward me.  He had evidently been expecting
+me, and I paused, thinking him about to renew his attack upon me.  To
+my surprise he greeted me cordially, even offering his hand.
+
+"You thought you would come after all.  Well, I'm glad you did.  I've
+decided that there should be peace between us."
+
+In stature he was the shortest of the suitors, but what he lacked in
+height was compensated for by a tremendous dignity.  A dark Napoleonic
+lock lay across his forehead, and his clear-cut profile otherwise
+suggested the Corsican, the resemblance being, I wickedly assumed, one
+that the philosopher encouraged.
+
+"You have several times addressed me, Mr. Ames, in a spirit of
+contumely which I have hesitated to punish by the chastisement you
+deserve; but I am willing to let bygones be bygones."
+
+His changed tone put me on guard, but it was impossible for me to take
+him seriously.  In spite of the fact that he was a vigorous muscular
+young fellow who could have threshed me without trouble, I could not
+resist the impulse he always roused in me to address him in language
+any self-respecting man would resent.
+
+"Chant the _dies irae_ with considerable _allegro_, Plato, for I am
+hungry and would fain pay for food at the adjacent inn."
+
+"I will overlook the coarseness of your humor," he rejoined haughtily.
+"My own time is as valuable as yours.  You have sneered at my
+attainments as a philosopher; but I will pass that for the present.  I
+am disposed to treat you magnanimously.  You have an excellent opinion
+of yourself; you have come here as an intruder upon the rights of those
+of us who followed Cecilia Hollister across Europe and home to America;
+but in spite of this I waive my rights in your favor.  I had intended
+to offer myself to Miss Hollister this afternoon, with every hope of
+success, but I yield to you.  My only request is that you inform me at
+once when you have learned her decision."
+
+He clapped on his cap and folded his arms, clearly satisfied with the
+expressions of surprise to which my feelings betrayed me.  Could it be
+possible that he had guessed the truth, perhaps by deductive processes
+of which I was ignorant?  Whether he had reasoned from some remark
+thrown out by Miss Octavia as to the influence of seven in the affairs
+of life and her application of that fateful principle to the choice of
+a husband for Cecilia, I could not guess, but assuming that he had
+caught that clue, he might readily enough have managed the rest.
+Having crossed on the steamer with the suitor host, a man of his
+intelligence might readily enough have kept track of the vanquished.
+In any case he had hit upon me as a likely victim, and on the plea of
+generously waiting till I had tried my luck he hoped to thrust me
+forward as the sixth suitor, and immediately thereafter project himself
+as the inevitable seventh man.  The whole situation was rendered
+perilously complex by the knowledge that, unaided, he had possessed
+himself of so much dangerous information.  I must not, however, allow
+him to see what I suspected.
+
+"My dear professor, there's an ancient warning against the Greeks
+bearing gifts.  You must give me time to inspect the horse."
+
+"Are you questioning my good faith?"
+
+"Be it far from me!  I'm a good deal tickled though by your genial
+assumption that if I offered myself to this lady I should be declined
+with thanks.  You have fretted yourself into a state of mind that bodes
+ill for American philosophy."
+
+He was again belligerent.  It may have occurred to him that I might
+know as much as he, but at any rate he grinned; it was a saturnine grin
+I did not like.
+
+"I'm starving to death at the door of an inn, and you must excuse me.
+Have you seen Hartley Wiggins lately?"
+
+"I have, indeed!  He's taken to lonely horseback rides; he's off
+somewhere now.  He has n't the stamina for a contest like this.  One by
+one the autumn leaves are falling," he added, with special intention,
+"and I have given you your chance."
+
+"Thanks, light-bringing Socrates from the lands of the Ogalallas!  For
+so much courtesy I shall take pleasure in reading all your posthumous
+works.  Let us cease being absurd."
+
+He laid his hand on my arm and lowered his tone.
+
+"Don't be an ass.  If you and I both know what's underneath all this
+mystery we might come to an understanding."
+
+"I don't follow you.  Please make a light, like a man about to have an
+idea."
+
+"You mean that you don't understand?"  He eyed me doubtfully, uncertain
+whether I knew or not.
+
+"You have implied that I am incapable of understanding; suppose we let
+it go at that."
+
+With this I left him and entered the low-raftered office--it was really
+a pleasant lounging-room, unspoiled by the usual hotel-office
+paraphernalia.  Dick had followed close behind, and as I paused,
+hearing voices raised angrily in the dining-room beyond, I turned to
+him for an explanation.  As the suitors had been the only guests of the
+inn since their advent, having stipulated that the proprietor should
+exclude other applicants for meals or lodging, I attributed the
+commotion to strife in their own ranks.  Dick nodded sullenly and bade
+me keep on.
+
+"You 'd better take a look at those fellows.  I 've quit them--quite
+out of it; remember that."
+
+The dining-room door was slightly ajar, and I flung it open.
+
+Ormsby, Shallenberger, Henderson, Hume, Gorse, and Arbuthnot had been
+engaged with cards at a round table in an alcove, but some dispute
+having apparently risen, they stood in their places engaged in
+acrimonious debate.  As near as I could determine, some one of them--I
+think it was Ormsby--wished to abandon the game, which had been
+undertaken to determine in what order they should be permitted to pay
+visits to Hopefield in future, the calls _en masse_ having grown
+intolerable.  They were so absorbed in their argument that they failed
+to note my appearance, and I stood unobserved within the door.  The
+dialogue between the card-players was swift and hot.
+
+"It's no good, I tell you!" cried Ormsby.  "There's no fairness in this
+unless all take their chances together!"
+
+"You ought to have thought of that before we began.  This was your
+scheme, but because the cards are running against you, you want to
+quit.  I say we'll go on!"  This from Henderson, who struck the table
+sharply as he concluded.
+
+"You knew Wiggins and Dick were n't going in when we started, and you
+are not likely to get them in now.  Your anxiety to cut the rest of us
+out by any means seems to have unsettled your mind," shouted Gorse.  "I
+say let's drop this and stand to our original agreement that no man
+speak till the end of the fortnight."
+
+"After that whole scheme has been torn to pieces like paper!  There's
+been nothing fair in this business from the start!  We ought to have
+kept Arrowood here and held together.  And we ought to have got rid of
+that Ames fellow--he did n't belong in this at all; and instead of
+protecting ourselves against outsiders we have sat here like a lot of
+fools while he's been making himself agreeable there in the
+house--right there in the house!"
+
+Ormsby's voice rose to a disagreeable squeak as he closed with this
+indictment of me.  Hume fidgeted uneasily, and met my eye so warily
+that I wondered whether he suspected that I knew of his breach of faith
+with the other suitors.  Much dallying with Scandinavian literature had
+not lightened his heart, and there was nothing in Ibsen to which he
+could refer his present plight.  Shallenberger seemed to be the only
+one of the group who had not lost his senses.  He was in the farther
+corner of the alcove, out of sight from the door, but I heard him
+distinctly as he addressed the other suitors with rising anger.
+
+"We're acting like cads, and cads of the most contemptible sort!  I
+only agreed to this game to satisfy Ormsby.  The idea of our sitting
+here to draw cards to determine the order in which we shall offer
+ourselves to the noblest and most beautiful woman in the world would be
+coarse and vulgar if it were not so ridiculous!  The men who had their
+chance on the steamer or after we came here--and I don't pretend to
+know who they are--ought in decency to have left the field.  We seem to
+have forgotten that we pretend to be gentlemen; or, far less
+pardonable, that we pay court to a lady.  Damn you all!  I refuse to
+have anything more to do with you, and if you try to interfere with my
+affairs in any way I'll smash your heads collectively or separately as
+you prefer!"
+
+My interest in this colloquy had led me further into the room, and
+hearing my step they all turned and faced me.  Dick had continued at my
+side, but the black looks they sent our way were intended, I thought,
+rather for me.  Shallenberger, having taken himself out of the tangle,
+leaned against the wall and filled his pipe with unconcern.  My
+appearance roused Ormsby to a fresh outburst.
+
+"You're responsible!  If you had n't forced yourself upon the ladies at
+Hopefield there would n't have been any of this trouble!"
+
+"You're only an impostor anyhow.  You went to the house to fix a
+chimney, and seem to think you 're engaged to spend the rest of your
+natural life there!" protested Henderson, twisting the ends of his
+moustache.
+
+Then they dropped me and assailed Dick.
+
+"We'd like to know what you expect to gain by dropping out!  You got
+cold feet mighty sudden!" bellowed Ormsby.
+
+Gorse and Henderson paid similar tributes to the apostate, whose
+melancholy grin only deepened.  Shallenberger was pacing the floor
+slowly and puffing his pipe.  Hume and Arbuthnot growled occasionally,
+but shared, I thought, Shallenberger's changed feeling.
+
+My silence had been effective up to this time, but I was afraid to risk
+it longer.  Dick, I imagined, had kept close to me for fear of missing
+any part of the altercation he knew my appearance would provoke.  The
+more vociferous suitors had howled themselves hoarse and glared at me
+while I considered the situation.  Henderson rallied for a final shot.
+
+"A good horsewhipping is what you deserve," he cried, leveling his
+finger at me.
+
+"Gentlemen," I began, not without inward quaking, "you have spoken loud
+naughty words to me, and in reply I must say that your vocal efforts
+suggest only the melodies of the braying jackass, and that your
+manners, to speak mildly, are susceptible of considerable improvement."
+
+"You leave this neighborhood within an hour!" boomed Ormsby; and in his
+efforts to free himself from his chair it fell backward with a crash
+that echoed through the long room.
+
+"Then summon the coroner by telephone, for I shall not be taken alive,"
+I answered quietly, trying to recall my youthful delight in Porthos,
+Athos, and Aramis.  "I should dislike to change the mild color-scheme
+of this pleasant dining-room, but as sure as you lay hands on me, these
+walls will become a playground for any corpuscles you carry in your
+loathsome persons."
+
+"Come along, let us put him out," Henderson was saying in an aside to
+Ormsby.
+
+"You were playing a game here for a stake not yours for the winning," I
+continued.  "Now I suggest that you shuffle the pack,--you three, who
+are so full of valor,--shuffle the pack, I say, and draw for the jack
+of clubs.  Whoever is the fortunate man I shall take pleasure in
+pitching through yonder very charming casement."
+
+"Agreed!" cried Henderson, and the three flung themselves into their
+chairs.
+
+The alacrity of their consent had unnerved me for a moment.
+D'Artagnan, I was sure, would have fought them all, but I consoled
+myself, as the cards rattled on the bare table, with the reflection
+that, considering the fact that I had never in my life laid violent
+hands on a fellow-being, I was conducting myself with admirable
+assurance.  My weight has always hung well within one hundred and
+thirty, and physicians have told me that I was incapable of taking on
+flesh or muscle.  Any one of these men could easily toss me through the
+window I had indicated as a means of their own exit.
+
+Shallenberger caught my eye and indicated with a slight jerk of the
+head that I had better run before it was too late.  The painstaking
+care with which Henderson had fallen upon the cards was disquieting, to
+put it mildly.  Dick nudged me in the ribs and offered to hold my coat.
+
+"It will not be necessary," I replied carelessly.  "Tender your
+services to the other gentlemen."
+
+I felt the cold sweat gathering on my brow.  The three had begun to
+draw cards, and I heard them slap the bits of pasteboard smartly upon
+the table as they lifted them from the deck and, finding the jack of
+clubs still undrawn, waited the next turn.  I had no idea that a pack
+of cards would dissolve so readily by the drawing process, and my
+memory ceased trying to recall the adventures of D'Artagnan and hovered
+with ominous persistence about the mad don of La Mancha.  I cannot say
+now whether I stood my ground out of sheer physical inability to run or
+from an accession of courage due to the remembrance of my success in
+detecting the Hopefield ghost.  In any case I affected coolness as I
+waited, even throwing out my arms to "shoot" my cuffs once or twice,
+and yawning.
+
+"Come, gentlemen, hurry: let us not waste time here," I exclaimed
+impatiently.
+
+"If Ormsby turns up the card you're a dead man," Dick was muttering
+gloomily.
+
+"They're all alike to me," I replied loudly.  "Mr. Ormsby is very
+beautiful; I shall hope not to disfigure him permanently;" but as I
+spoke my tongue was a wobbly dry clapper in my mouth.
+
+I was bending over now, watching the three men pick up the cards, and
+once, when I misread the jack of spades for the jack of clubs, a
+shudder passed over me.  They were down to the last card, and Ormsby's
+hand was on it.  I recall that a group of steins on a shelf over
+Henderson's head seemed to be dancing wildly.  Then I looked at the
+floor to steady myself, and hope leaped within me, for there, by
+Ormsby's foot,--a large and heavy one,--lay an upturned card, the jack
+of clubs, whose lone symbol magnified itself enormously in my amazed
+eyes.
+
+At this moment, I became conscious that something had occurred to
+distract the attention of the other men, who were staring at some one
+who had entered noiselessly.
+
+"Gentlemen, you seem immensely interested in the turn of those cards.
+I am glad to have arrived at the critical moment.  Mr. Ormsby, will you
+kindly lift the remaining card from the table?"
+
+Miss Octavia stood beside me.  She was dressed in a dark brown
+riding-habit; the feather in her fedora hat emphasized her usual brisk
+air.  She swung her riding-crop lightly in her hand, and bent over the
+table with the deepest interest.
+
+Ormsby turned up the card.  It was the ten of diamonds.
+
+"Gentlemen," I cried, pointing to the card, "what trick is this?  Can
+it be possible that you have been trifling with me in a fashion for
+which men have died the world over by sword and pistol!"
+
+"Kindly explain, Arnold, the nature of this difficulty," Miss Octavia
+commanded.
+
+"Simply this, Miss Hollister, if I must answer; I had offered to fight
+these three gentlemen in order.  It was agreed that the man who drew
+the jack of clubs from the pack with which they had been playing should
+be my first victim.  They have shuffled their own cards and have drawn
+the whole pack and there is no jack of clubs in the pack!  The only
+possible explanation is one to which I hesitate to apply the obvious
+plain Saxon terms."
+
+"It dropped out, that's all!  You don't dare pretend that we threw out
+the jack to avoid drawing it!" protested Ormsby, though I saw from the
+glances the trio exchanged that they suspected one another.  Ormsby and
+Gorse bent down to look for the missing card, but before they found it
+I stepped forward and drove my fist upon the table with all the power I
+could put into the blow.
+
+"Stop!" I cried.  "I gave you every opportunity to stand up and take a
+trouncing, but I need hardly say that after this contemptible knavery I
+refuse to soil my hands on you!"
+
+"Do you insinuate"--began Henderson, jumping to his feet.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Miss Hollister, lifting the riding-crop, "it is
+perfectly clear to me that Mr. Ames has gone as far as any gentleman
+need go in protecting his honor.  I do not offer myself as an
+arbitrator here, but I advise my young friend that nothing further is
+required of him in this deplorable affair."
+
+With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the three piles of
+cards that lay on the table as they had been stacked when drawn.
+
+[Illustration: With one sweep of her crop she brushed to the floor the
+three piles of cards.]
+
+"Arnold," she said, with indescribable dignity, "will you kindly attend
+me to my horse?"
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE GHOST OF ADONIRAM CALDWELL
+
+A stable-boy held Miss Octavia's horse at the inn-door.  Her face, her
+figure, her voice expressed outraged dignity as she tested the
+saddle-girth.
+
+"You need never tell me what had happened to provoke your wrath, for
+that is none of my affair; but I wish to say that your conduct and
+bearing won my highest approval.  They had undoubtedly hidden the jack
+of clubs to avoid the drubbing you would have administered to the
+unfortunate man who would have drawn that card if it had been in the
+pack."
+
+"I was not in the slightest danger at any time, Miss Hollister," I
+protested.  "By one of those tricks of fate to which you and I are
+becoming so accustomed, the card had fallen to the floor unnoticed.  If
+you had not arrived so opportunely the lost jack would have been
+discovered, the cards reshuffled, and very likely Mr. Ormsby would have
+been dusting the inn-floor with me at this very minute."
+
+"I refuse to believe any such thing," declared Miss Octavia, who had
+mounted and continued speaking from the saddle.  "Your perfect
+confidence was admirable, and I shudder to think of the terrible
+punishment you would have given them.  I do not particularly dislike
+Mr. Ormsby, though the possibility of Cecilia marrying him has troubled
+me not a little as I have recalled the unromantic aspect of Utica as
+seen from the car-windows; but it is much to your credit that you
+defied them all and brought them to the fighting-point, and then, by a
+stroke of cleverness it pleased me to witness, placed them
+irretrievably in the wrong."
+
+If Miss Octavia wished to view my performances in this flattering light
+it seemed unnecessary and unkind to object.  Now that I was in the open
+again with a whole skin I was not averse to the victor's crown; I would
+even wear it tilted slightly over one ear.  Birds have been killed by
+shots that missed the real target; bunker sands are rich in gutta
+percha and good intentions.  I was a fraud, but a cheerful one.
+
+"It was only a pleasant incident of the day's work, Miss Hollister.
+I'm going to engage a squire and take to the open road as soon as all
+this is over."
+
+"As soon as all what is over!" she demanded, eyeing me keenly.
+
+"Oh, the work I've undertaken to do here.  I flatter myself that I have
+made some progress; but within twenty-four hours I dare say that we
+shall have seen the end."
+
+"Your words are not wholly luminous, Arnold."
+
+"It is much better that it should be so.  You have trusted me so far,
+and I have no intention of failing you now.  If I say that the crisis
+is near at hand in a certain matter that interests you greatly, you
+will understand that I am not striking ignorantly in the dark."
+
+"If you know what I suspect you know, Arnold Ames, you are even
+shrewder than I thought you, and you had already taken a high place in
+my regard.  The curtains of the windows just behind you have shown
+considerable agitation since we have been speaking, not due, I think,
+to the wind, as there is no air stirring.  Those gentlemen you have
+just vanquished are timidly watching you.  Your daring and prowess have
+greatly alarmed them.  You may be sure they will think twice before
+provoking your wrath again."
+
+"I devoutly hope they will," I replied, glancing carelessly over my
+shoulder, and catching a glimpse of Henderson as he drew hastily out of
+sight.  "But will you tell me just how you came to visit the inn at
+this particular hour?"
+
+"Nothing could be simpler.  I had luncheon at the house of a friend on
+whom I called.  Cecilia had left me to continue her ride alone, and on
+my way home I thought I would ride by the Prescott Arms to see how the
+guests were faring.  You see,"--she paused and gave a twitch to her hat
+to prolong my suspense,--"you see, I own the Prescott Arms!"
+
+With this she rode away, and not caring to risk a further meeting with
+the angry suitors from whom Miss Octavia had rescued me by so narrow a
+margin, I set off across the fields toward Hopefield.  From the stile I
+saw Miss Octavia in the highway half a mile distant, sending her horse
+along at a spirited canter.  I reached the house without further
+adventures, was served with a cold luncheon in my room, and by the time
+I had changed my clothes Miss Octavia sent me word that Pepperton had
+arrived.
+
+Miss Octavia and the architect were conversing earnestly when I reached
+the library; and from the abruptness with which they ceased on my
+entrance I imagined that I had been the subject of their talk.
+Pepperton is not only one of the finest architects America has
+produced, but one of the jolliest of fellows.  He grasped my hand
+cordially and pointed to the fireplace.
+
+"So you've at last found one of my jobs to overhaul, have you!  You
+must n't let this get out on me, old man; it would shatter my
+reputation!"
+
+"Please observe that the flue is drawing splendidly now," I answered.
+"A ghost had been strolling up and down the chimney, but now that I
+have found his lair he will not trouble Miss Hollister's fireplaces
+again."
+
+"I have waited for your arrival, Mr. Pepperton, that we might have the
+benefit of your knowledge of the house in following the trail of this
+ghost which Arnold has discovered.  But we must give Arnold credit for
+effecting the discovery alone and unaided.  I destroyed the plans I
+obtained from your office so that Arnold might be fully tested as to
+his capacity for managing the most difficult situations."
+
+When Miss Octavia first referred to me as Arnold, Pepperton raised his
+brows a trifle; the second time he glanced at me laughingly.  He seemed
+greatly amused by Miss Octavia's seriousness, but her amiable attitude
+toward me clearly puzzled him.
+
+"It takes a good man to uncover a thing I try to hide.  I said nothing
+to you, Miss Hollister, about the retention within the walls of this
+house of parts of an old one that formerly occupied the site, for the
+reason that I thought you might refuse to buy the estate.  The
+gentleman for whom I built Hopefield was superstitious, as many men of
+advanced years are, as to the building of a new house, and as the site
+he chose is one of the finest in the county he compelled me to
+construct this house--which is the most satisfactory I have built--in
+such manner enough of the old should be kept intact to soothe his
+superstitious soul with the idea that he had merely altered an old
+house, not built a new one.  As it is the architect's business to yield
+to such caprices I obeyed him strictly.  So there are two rooms of an
+old farmhouse hidden under the east wing, and it amused me, once I had
+got into it, to preserve part of the old stairway, and connect the
+retained chambers with the upper hall of this house.  I had to patch
+the original stair, which was only one flight, with discarded lumber
+from the old house, but I flatter myself that I managed it neatly.  I
+even saved the old nails to avert the wrath of the evil spirits.  When
+the umbrella and dyspepsia-cure man died,--for he did die, as you
+know,--I believed the secret had died with him, as he was very
+sensitive about his superstitions.  Most of the laborers on that part
+of the job were brought from a long distance, and I supposed they never
+really knew just what we were doing.  I might have known, though, that
+if a fellow as clever as Ames got to pecking at the house the trick
+would be discovered.  But the chimney, old man,--what on earth was the
+matter with it?"
+
+"It will never happen again, and I promised the ghost never to tell how
+it was done."
+
+"You were quite right in doing that, Arnold,--a ghost's secrets should
+be sacred; but let us now proceed to the hidden chambers," said Miss
+Hollister, rising without further ado.
+
+She summoned Cecilia, to whom we explained matters briefly, and at
+Pepperton's suggestion the four of us went directly to the fourth
+floor, so that Miss Octavia might see the whole contrivance in the most
+effective manner possible.
+
+My awkward pen falters in the attempt to convey any idea of Miss
+Octavia's delight in Pepperton's revelation; she kept repeating her
+admiration of his genius, and her praise of my cleverness, which, to
+protect Hezekiah, I was forced to accept meekly.  When in broad
+daylight Pepperton found and pressed the spring in the upper hall and
+the hidden door opened, with a slowness that indicated a realization of
+its own dramatic value, Miss Octavia cried out gleefully, like a child
+that witnesses the manipulation of a new and wonderful toy.
+
+"To think, Cecilia, that I should never have known of this if that
+chimney had not smoked!"--a remark that caused Pepperton to glance at
+me curiously.  He knew as well as I did that with ordinary care every
+flue in that house would have drawn splendidly.  "Beyond any question,"
+Miss Octavia kept asserting, "beneath the chambers of the old house
+down there we shall find the bones of that British soldier who perished
+here; or it is even possible that a chest of hidden treasure is
+concealed beneath the floor.  What do you yourself suspect, Mr.
+Pepperton?"
+
+We were lighting candles preparatory to stepping down into the dark
+stairway, and Pepperton was plainly hard put to keep from laughing.
+
+"I assure you, Miss Hollister, that I have told you all I know about
+the rooms down there.  I 'm not very strong in the ghost-faith; and our
+friend the umbrella-man never dreamed of such a thing, I assure you,
+not even after he had satisfied his fierce craving for pie."
+
+Miss Octavia followed Pepperton slowly, pausing frequently to hold her
+candle close to the stair-walls, whose rough surfaces confirmed all
+that Pepperton had said of the preservation of the old timbers.  I had
+brought a handful of candles, and when we had reached the dark rooms
+beneath, I lighted these and set them up in the black corners of the
+old rooms, in which, Miss Octavia remarked, not even the wall paper had
+been disturbed.  The exit into the coal-cellar, and concealed openings
+left for ventilation which had escaped me before, were now pointed out
+by the architect, who kept laughing at the huge joke of it all.
+
+Cecilia murmured her surprise repeatedly as we continued the
+examination; nothing quite like this had ever happened in the world
+before, but even as we walked through those hidden rooms my thoughts
+reverted to the crisis so near at hand in her affairs.  I had pledged
+myself to her service, but I saw no way yet of assuring the proper
+sequence of proposals.  The ultimate seventh must be Wiggins; but how
+could I manage the penultimate sixth!  Cecilia's own apparent freedom
+from care on this tour of inspection deepened my sense of
+responsibility to all concerned.  Dick might by now have persuaded some
+one of the others at the inn to offer himself, thus closing the gap,
+and I had determined that the Westerner should not outwit me.  It was
+some consolation to know that while Cecilia was in these lost rooms in
+my company, she was safe from Dick's machinations.
+
+My thoughts were, however, given a new direction by Miss Octavia.  She
+had been scrutinizing the floor closely, asking us all to bring our
+candles to bear upon it, that she might search thoroughly for any signs
+of a trapdoor beneath which the bones of the British soldier might
+repose.
+
+"You can't tell me," she averred in her own peculiar vein, "that a
+house as old as this has been preserved merely to divert calamity from
+a superstitious gentleman engaged in the manufacture of ribless
+umbrellas and a dyspepsia cure."
+
+Miss Octavia Hollister was a woman to be humored; we all knew this; but
+I realized with a pang that she was about to be disappointed.  I had
+expected her to forget the British soldier in the perfectly tangible
+joy of secret springs and ghostly chambers; and if I had foreseen her
+persistence in clinging to the tradition of the ill-fated Briton I
+should have taken the trouble to hide a few bones under the flooring.
+Miss Octavia had brought a stick from the coal-room, and was thumping
+the floor with it even while Pepperton tried to discourage her further
+investigations.  We were all ranged about her with our candles, and
+these, with the others I had thrust into the corners, lighted the room
+well.
+
+"I'm afraid you've seen the whole of it, Miss Hollister," said
+Pepperton.  "The old house was built after the Revolution, I judge, but
+your British soldier was probably left hanging to a tree and never
+buried at all."
+
+"Mr. Pepperton," she replied, holding the candle so close to the
+architect that he blinked, "it would be far from me to question your
+knowledge of history, but I should not be at all surprised if the
+builder of this old house had fought on the seas with John Paul Jones,
+and had buried beneath these walls the very sea-chest that had been his
+companion on many eventful voyages."
+
+Pepperton gasped at the absurdity of this, and then suppressed his
+mirth with difficulty.  Cecilia faintly expostulated; but I knew Miss
+Octavia would not be dissuaded, and I thought it as well to facilitate
+her search and be done with it.  A sailor with rings in his ears and a
+cutlass dangling at his side might have come home from the wars and
+established himself on a farm in Westchester County and even buried his
+sea-chest under the floor of his house, but in all likelihood he never
+had.  It was not my office, however, to advise Miss Octavia Hollister
+in such matters.  Pepperton had changed his tune and seemed anxious to
+follow my lead.  To him she was an eccentric old woman, whose wealth
+alone gained her indulgence in such preposterous obsessions as this;
+but my own feelings were those of regret that she must so quickly be
+disillusioned.  To me she had become an incarnation of the play-spirit
+that never grows old, and there may have risen in me an honest belief
+that what this unusual woman sought she would somehow find.  Once or
+twice when the uneven worn flooring had boomed hollowly under her stick
+I had knelt promptly to examine the planks, and had thus disposed of
+several false alarms.  Pepperton feigned interest for a time, but was
+becoming bored.  Cecilia studied the quaint pattern of the wall paper,
+which she said ought to be reproduced, as nothing in contemporaneous
+designs equaled it.
+
+Miss Octavia had been over the floors of the two rooms twice, and was
+about to desist.  Her less frequent appeals to the rest of us for
+confirmation of some suspected change in the responses to her thumping
+indicated disappointment.  She made her last stand in the corner of the
+smaller room, and as we all stood holding our lights, we were conscious
+that the dull monotonous thump suddenly changed its tone.  We all
+noticed it at the same instant, and exchanged glances of surprise.
+
+"Do you hear that, gentlemen?"
+
+She subdued her gratification in the rebuking glance she gave us.  Calm
+and unhurried, she rested a moment on her stick, with the candle's soft
+glow about her, a smile ineffably sweet on her face.
+
+"The timbers may have rotted away underneath.  We did n't raise these
+floors," said Pepperton; but we both dropped to our knees and brought
+all the candle-light to bear upon the flooring.  Dust and mortar,
+shaken loose in the destruction of the house, filled the cracks.
+Pepperton, deeply absorbed, continued to sound the corner with his
+knuckles.
+
+"It really looks as though these boards had been cut for some purpose,"
+he said, whipping out his knife.
+
+I ran to the kindling-room and found a hatchet, and when I returned he
+had dug the dirt out of the edges of the floor-planks.  Silence held us
+all as I set to prying up the boards.
+
+"I beg of you to exercise the greatest care, gentlemen.  If bones are
+interred here we must do them no sacrilege," warned Miss Octavia.
+
+By this time we all, I think, began to believe that the flooring might
+really have been cut in this corner of the old room to permit the
+hiding of something.  The room had grown hot, and Cecilia opened the
+cellar-windows outside to admit air.  The old planks clung stubbornly
+their joists, but after I had loosened one, the others came up quickly
+and the smell of dry earth filled the room.  Pepperton had, at Miss
+Octavia's direction, brought a chisel and crowbar from the tool-room in
+the cellar, and he stood ready with these when I tore up the last
+board, disclosing an oblong space about five feet long and slightly
+over three feet wide.  It was possible that this was the whole story,
+but Pepperton began driving the bar vigorously into the close-packed
+soil.  As he loosened the earth I scooped it out, and we soon had
+penetrated about six inches beneath the surface.
+
+We were all excited now.  The edge of the bar struck repeatedly against
+something that resisted sharply.  It might have been a root, but when
+Pepperton shifted the point of attack the same booming sound answered
+to the prodding.  Pepperton now thought it might be only an empty cask
+or a box of no interest whatever; but Miss Octavia, hovering close with
+a candle, encouraged us to go on, and was fertile in suggestions as to
+the most expeditious manner of resurrecting whatever might be buried
+there.  We were pretty well satisfied from the soundings that the
+hidden object was somewhat shorter and narrower than the hole itself.
+
+"Quite naturally so," observed Miss Octavia, "for a man who buries a
+treasure has to allow himself room for getting at it."
+
+We worked on silently, Pepperton loosening the soil with the bar while
+I shoveled it out.  In half an hour we had revealed a long flat wooden
+surface, which to our anxious imaginations was the lid of some sort of
+box.
+
+"It's sound red cedar," pronounced Pepperton, examining the wood where
+the tools had splintered it.
+
+"Of course it's cedar," replied Miss Octavia, bending down to it.  "I
+knew it would be cedar.  It always is!"
+
+We paused to laugh at her confident tone, and Cecilia suggested that as
+there was still a good deal to do before we could free the box, we
+should send for some of the servants to complete the work.
+
+"I would n't take a thousand dollars for my chance at this," Pepperton
+answered; and we fell to again.
+
+It must have been nearly six o'clock when we dragged out into that
+candle-lighted chamber a stout, well-fashioned box.  The earth clung to
+its sides jealously, and it was bound with strips of brass that shone
+brightly where the scraping of our tools had burnished it.  We pried
+off the heavy lock with a good deal of difficulty, and when it was free
+Miss Octavia asserted her right to the treasure-trove with much
+calmness.
+
+"I should never forgive myself if I allowed this opportunity to pass;
+you must permit me to have the first look."
+
+"Certainly, Miss Hollister; if it had n't been for you this chest would
+have remained hidden to the end of all time," Pepperton replied.
+
+We gathered close about her as she knelt beside the box.  My hand shook
+as I held my candle, and I think Miss Octavia was the only one in the
+room who showed no nervousness.  Cecilia sighed deeply several times,
+and Pepperton mopped his face with his handkerchief.  The lid did not
+yield as readily as we had expected, and it was necessary to resort to
+the hatchet and chisel again; but we were careful that it should be
+Miss Octavia's hand that finally raised the lid.
+
+We all exclaimed in various keys as the light fell upon the open chest.
+The musty odor of old garments greeted us at once.  The box was well
+filled, and its contents were neatly arranged.  Miss Octavia first
+lifted out the remnants of a military uniform that lay on top.
+
+[Illustration: Miss Octavia first lifted out the remnants of a military
+uniform that lay on top.]
+
+"It's his ragged regimentals!" cried Cecilia, as we unfolded an
+officer's coat of blue and buff, sadly decrepit and faded; "and he was
+not a British soldier at all, but an American patriot."
+
+Time and service had dealt even more harshly with an American flag on
+which the thirteen white stars floated dimly on the dull blue field.
+It had been bound tightly about a packet of papers which Miss Octavia
+asked Pepperton to examine.
+
+"These are commissions appointing a certain Adoniram Caldwell to
+various positions in the Continental Army.  Adoniram had the right
+stuff in him; here he's discharged as a private to become an ensign;
+rose from ensign to colonel, and seems to have been in most of the big
+doings.  'For gallantry in the recent engagement at Stony Point, on
+recommendation of General Anthony Wayne'--by Jove, that does rather
+carry you back!"
+
+Half a dozen of these documents traced Adoniram Caldwell's career to
+the end of the Revolution and his retirement from the military service
+with the rank of colonel.  A sealed letter attached to these
+commissions next held our attention.  The ends were dovetailed in the
+old style before the day of envelopes, and evidently care had been
+taken in folding and sealing it.  The superscription, in a round bold
+hand, without flourishes, read: "To Whom It May Concern."
+
+"I suppose it concerns us as much as anybody," remarked Miss Octavia.
+"What do you say, gentlemen; shall we open it?"
+
+We all demanded breathlessly that she break the seal, and we were soon
+bending over her with our lights.  The ink had blurred and in spots
+rust had obliterated the writing:--
+
+
+"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell"--
+
+
+"Hartley Wiggins!" we gasped; and I felt Cecilia's hand clasp my arm.
+
+Miss Octavia continued reading, and as she was obliged to pause often
+and refer illegible lines to the rest of us, I have copied the
+following from the letter itself, with only slight changes of
+punctuation and spelling.
+
+
+"I, Roger Hartley Wiggins, sometime known as Adoniram Caldwell, having
+now resumed my proper name, and being about to marry, and having begun
+the construction of a habitation for myself wherein to end my days,
+truthfully set forth these matters:
+
+"My father, Hiram Wiggins of Rhode Island, having supported the
+royalist cause in our late war for Independence, and angered by my
+friendliness to the patriots, and he, with ... brothers and sister
+having returned to England after the evacuation of Boston, I joined the
+Continental troops under General Putnam on Long Island, in July, 1776,
+serving in various commands thereafter, to the best of my ability, to
+the end....  My father has now returned to Rhode Island, and has, I
+learn, been making inquiries touching my whereabouts and condition, so
+that I have every hope that we may become reconciled.  Yet as my
+services to the Country were against his wishes and caused so much
+harshness and heartache, and being now come into a part of the country
+where I am unknown, I am decided to resume my rightful name, that my
+wife and children may bear it and in the hope that I may myself yet add
+to it some honor....
+
+"Nor shall my wife or any children that may be born to me, know from me
+... (_badly blurred_.)  Yet not caring to destroy my sword, which I
+bore with some credit, nor these testimonials of respect and confidence
+I received as Adoniram Caldwell at various times and from various
+personages of renown, both civilians and in the military service, I
+place them under my house now building, where I hope in God's care to
+end my days in peace.  I would in like case make like choice again."
+
+
+Ten lines following this were wholly illegible, but just before the
+date (June 17, 1789), and the signature, which was written large, was
+this:--
+
+
+"God preserve these American states that they endure in unity and
+concord forever!"
+
+
+We had all been moved by the reading of this long-lost letter, and Miss
+Octavia's voice had faltered several times.  As I turned to Cecilia
+once or twice during the recital of the dead patriot's message, I saw
+tears brimming her eyes.
+
+"Mr. Wiggins once told me that his great-grandfather had lived
+somewhere in Westchester County, but I fancy he had no idea that
+Hopefield was the identical spot," remarked Miss Octavia.  "It seems
+incredible, and yet I dare say the hand of fate is in it."
+
+"Oh, it's so wonderful; so beyond belief!" cried Cecilia, reverently
+folding the letter, which, I observed, she retained in her own hands.
+
+"It's wonderful," added Miss Octavia promptly, taking the sword, which
+Pepperton had with difficulty drawn from its battered scabbard, "that
+even a discerning woman like me could have been so mistaken.  I recall
+with humility that last Fourth of July, at Berlin, I reprimanded Mr.
+Wiggins severely because his family had not been represented in the war
+for American Independence.  By the irony of circumstances it becomes my
+duty to present to him the very sword that his admirable
+great-grandfather bore in that momentous struggle.  I shall, with his
+permission, place a bronze tablet on the outer wall of this house to
+preserve the patriot's memory."
+
+Several copies of New York newspapers, half a dozen French gold coins,
+the miniature of a woman's face, which we assumed to be that of Roger
+Wiggins's mother or sister, were briefly examined; then by Miss
+Octavia's orders we carefully returned everything to the chest.
+Several packets of letters we did not open.
+
+"Arnold," she said when we had closed the chest, "will you and Mr.
+Pepperton kindly carry that box to my room?  No servant's hand shall
+touch it; and I shall myself give it to Mr. Wiggins at the earliest
+opportunity."
+
+We had lost track of time in those hidden rooms, preserved by the whim
+of one man that the secret of another might be discovered, and found
+with surprise, after the chest had been carried to Miss Octavia's
+apartments, that it was after seven o'clock.  We had been in the hidden
+rooms for more than three hours.
+
+"We shall have much to talk about to-night, and I fancy we are all a
+good deal shaken.  It's not often we receive a letter from a dead man,
+so we shall admit no callers to-night unless, indeed, Mr. Wiggins
+should chance to come," announced Miss Octavia.  "The next time Hartley
+Wiggins visits this house he shall come as a conquering hero."
+
+"I hope so," replied Cecilia brokenly.
+
+We were still at dinner when the cards of Dick and the other suitors I
+had last seen at the Prescott Arms were brought in; but Wiggins made no
+sign, and I wondered.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+HEZEKIAH PARTITIONS THE KINGDOM
+
+The man who looked after my needs handed me a note the next morning
+which added fresh hazards to Cecilia's already perilous plight.
+
+"Left with the gardener before six o'clock by a boy from the village.
+Said it was most confidential, sir."
+
+I waited till he had left the room before opening it.  A square white
+envelope addressed to Arnold Ames, Esq., Hopefield Manor, told me
+nothing, and the handwriting was inscrutable.  It slanted slightly
+upward; the small letters were half-printed and quaintly shaded.  If a
+woman's, she had scorned the rail-fence models of the boarding-schools;
+if a man's--but I knew its gender well enough!  The white note sheet
+within was unadorned, and the same pen had traced compactly, within the
+widest possible margins, the following:--
+
+
+GOOSEBERRY BUNGALOW,
+  Before Breakfast.
+
+DEAR CHIMNEYS:--Pep stopped here yesterday to see B.H.  He and C. old
+pals.  Watch him.  Where's Wig?  H.H.
+
+
+The initials were superfluous, and yet the sight of them pleased me
+mightily.  In her semi-printing she curved the pillars of the H's like
+parentheses, so that they bore an amusing resemblance to four men
+striding forward against a storm.  The report of a chief of scouts
+smuggled through the enemy's lines could not have improved on her
+billet for succinctness, and the information conveyed was startling
+enough.  We had been dealing with a company of suitors outside the
+barricade; now came warning of the presence of a strange knight within
+the gates who greatly multiplied the perils of the situation.  The
+compact between the suitors at the inn was a thing of the past, and I
+now expected them to exercise all the ingenuity of which desperate
+lovers are capable in pressing their claims.  The fact that both
+Wiggins and Pepperton were old friends of mine did not make my task
+easier.  I not only felt it incumbent on me to prevent Dick, the holder
+of the clue, from taking advantage of it, but knowing Cecilia's own
+attitude of mind and heart toward Wiggins I wished to save Pepperton
+the pain of rejection if it could be done.
+
+But what did Hezekiah mean by the question with which she ended her
+note?  If Wiggins, smarting under Cecilia's treatment of him the day
+before, had quit the field, here was a pretty how-d 'ye-do f Miss
+Octavia's refusal to countenance telephones made it necessary for me to
+leave Hopefield to learn what had become of Wiggins, and I realized
+that I must act promptly if I saved the day for him.  His conduct first
+and last had been spiritless, and I was out of patience with him.  It
+seemed impossible to formulate any plan amidst these multiplying
+uncertainties.  If Wiggins had decamped, Dick knew it and would lay his
+plans accordingly.  I felt that it was base ingratitude on Wiggins's
+part to ask me to watch his interests while he went roaming
+indifferently over the country.  One or two consoling reflections
+remained, however: Dick believed me to be a suitor for Cecilia's hand,
+and this doubtless caused him considerable uneasiness; and he did not
+know that Pepperton, whose acquaintance with Cecilia antedated the
+European flight, had to be reckoned with.  I wished Pepperton had kept
+out of it.
+
+Breakfast that morning was interminably long.  Miss Octavia was never
+more thoroughly amusing, never more drolly inadvertent.  She attacked
+Pepperton for all the evils in American architecture, and in particular
+took him to task for some house he had built at Newport which she
+pronounced the most hideous pile of marble on American soil.  From her
+packet of newspaper-cuttings she drew a letter her brother Bassford had
+written to the "Sun,"--the writing of letters to newspapers was, it
+seemed, one of his weaknesses,--protesting against the quality of the
+music ground from the New York hurdy-gurdies.  The selections were
+execrable; the fierce tempo at which the instruments were driven had
+caused an alarming increase in insanity, in proof of which he adduced
+statistics.  He demanded municipal censorship, and volunteered to sit
+on the proposed commission of critics without pay.
+
+"That is just like brother Bassford!  When I begin speaking to him
+again I shall point out the error of his ways.  I always miss the
+hurdy-gurdies when I 'm in the country, and I believe I shall buy one
+and have it play me to sleep at night.  The faster the tempo the
+sweeter the slumber.  I should certainly do so," she concluded, with
+that indefinable smile that always left one wondering, "if it were not
+that my new laundress is a graduate of the Sandusky-Ottumwa
+Conservatory of Music, and I fear the toreador's song on wheels might
+be painful to one of her taste and temperament."
+
+When we left the table at about half-past ten Miss Octavia insisted
+that we must visit the kennels.  A friend had just sent her a fine
+Airedale, and she wished to make sure the kennel-master was treating
+the dog properly.  Later we were all to ride.
+
+I made haste to excuse myself, saying that personal matters required
+attention.
+
+"Certainly, Arnold, you shall do as you like.  Mr. Pepperton is a
+difficult bird to catch, so we hope for you at luncheon, and of course
+we expect you for dinner."
+
+Pepperton looked at me inquiringly.  I judged that he had known Miss
+Octavia a good many years; the tone of their intercourse was intimate;
+and yet he plainly was at a loss to understand just how I came to be so
+thoroughly established in her good graces.  I confess that as I glance
+back over these pages it looks odd to me!
+
+As I paced the hall waiting for a horse to be saddled, Pepperton led me
+out on the terrace above the garden.
+
+"I'm bursting with a great secret, old man.  I'm going to be married."
+
+"What!"
+
+"I'm going to be married."
+
+I grasped a chair to support myself.  This was almost too much.  Could
+it be possible that Hezekiah had miscalculated the list of rejections
+in the silver-bound book, or that Cecilia herself had been deceived?
+Pepperton misread my agitation, and with a hearty laugh clapped me on
+the shoulder.
+
+"Oh, I'm not intruding on your preserves, old man!  Cecilia is the
+second finest girl in the world, that's all.  I'm engaged to Miss
+Gaylord, of Stockbridge.  I 'm telling a few old friends, in advance of
+the formal announcement to be made next week at a dance the Gaylords
+are giving."
+
+I crushed his hand in both my own, and seeing that he misconstrued the
+fervor of my emotion I hastened to set myself right.
+
+"You're a lucky dog as usual, Pep.  But you don't understand about
+Cecilia Hollister.  It's not I; I 'm not in the running at all; but
+Hartley Wiggins is!  I'm here trying to help him score."
+
+"What's this?  You're here to represent Wiggy?"
+
+"Well, he did n't exactly send me here, but when I came I found that
+Wiggy was n't playing the game with quite the necessary zipology.
+There's more required than appears,--a little of the dash and snap of
+the old adventures,--the ready tongue, the eager, thirsty sword!"
+
+Pepperton pursed his lips and looked me over carefully with a twinkle
+in his eye.
+
+"You are contributing those elements!  You are octaviaized, is that
+it?"  Pepperton laughed until the tears came.
+
+"I prefer hollisterized as the broader term.  Brother Bassford has it
+too, and there's always Hezekiah!"
+
+"Ah!  Hezekiah the unpredictable!  I knew there was a skirt fluttering
+somewhere.  I saw her yesterday; stopped to see Bassford, who's a good
+old chap.  Hezekiah of the teasing eyes was whitewashing the
+chicken-coop, and Michael Angelo could n't have done it better."
+
+"Pep," I said, lowering my voice, "if you love me, keep close to
+Cecilia all day.  You're an engaged man and in practice.  Give an
+imitation of devotion.  Keep her out of doors; keep male human beings
+away from her.  Don't fail me in this.  I 've got to pull off the
+greatest coup of my life to-day.  There's a band of outlaws hanging
+round here who will propose to Cecilia the first chance they get--and
+they must NOT.  Wig 's got to speak before night or lose out forever.
+No; not a word of explanation; you've got to take my word for it."
+
+"I'll be the goat; go ahead, but build a fire under Wiggins; I can't
+stay here forever."
+
+Pepperton's engagement smoothed out one wrinkle, and I felt sure that I
+could trust him as an ally.  The groom was holding my horse in the
+porte-cochere, and I mounted and rode away to the Prescott Arms.
+
+I found Ormsby, Shallenberger, Arbuthnot, Henderson, Hume, and Gorse
+glumly sitting in a semicircle before the hall fireplace.  Deepest
+gloom pervaded the inn.  I have rarely seen melancholy so darkly
+stamped upon the human countenance.  They turned indifferently and
+glared as they recognized me.  Shallenberger alone rose and greeted me.
+
+"I hope there is no bad news," he said chokingly.
+
+"Bad news?"
+
+"I mean Miss Hollister--Miss Cecilia.  We were all deeply grieved last
+night to hear of her sudden illness; there's always something so
+terrible in the very name of diphtheria."
+
+My wits had been so sharpened by my late adventures that I readily
+accounted for these false tidings.  Dick was absent; Dick alone would
+have been equal to this diabolical plot for keeping his rival suitors
+away from Hopefield.  The despair in those faces taxed my gravity
+severely.
+
+"It is extremely sad, but the first diagnosis was erroneous," I
+answered.  "I think it more likely to prove to be chicken-pox when the
+truth is known."
+
+"Not diphtheria?"
+
+"No immediate danger of diphtheria, I assure you," I replied; "though
+of course, with winter coming on and all that, one must be prepared for
+the worst."
+
+While he repeated this to the others, I sought the clerk, who promptly
+handed me a note which Wiggins had left late the previous afternoon, to
+be delivered in case I called.  He had gone to spend a day or two with
+Orton, the playwright, who was at his country house, in the hills
+beyond Mt. Kisco, rehearsing a new piece, in which a friend of
+Hartley's was to star.  I gained the telephone-booth in one jump, and
+in five minutes I was bawling wildly into Orton's ear.  I had known him
+well in the Hare and Tortoise, and he answered my demand for Wiggins
+with the heart-breaking news that Hartley had ridden off with some
+other guests in the house--Orton did n't know where.
+
+"I threw them out; I've got to rewrite my third act; I don't care
+whether they ever come back," boomed Orton's voice.
+
+"If you don't send Wiggins back to me at Hopefield as fast as he can
+get there, my third act is ruined."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Tell Wiggins to come back on the run; tell him the world's coming to
+an end any minute."
+
+"I'll be glad to get rid of him," snapped Orton, in the harried tone of
+a man whose third act has wilted in rehearsal.
+
+As I came perspiring out of the telephone-booth I found the suitors
+engaged in eager but subdued debate by the hearth.  They could hardly
+have heard my bleatings over the telephone, but they were greatly
+concerned about something.  Shallenberger, who was apparently the only
+one willing to approach me, followed me to the veranda.
+
+"Those fellows in there don't understand this.  Dick told us all last
+night, after we had called at the house and been refused admittance,
+that Miss Cecilia was ill with diphtheria.  I remember that it was Dick
+who rang the bell and gave our cards to the footman.  It was quite
+singular, you know, our being turned away, unless something had been
+wrong."
+
+I bowed gravely.  They had been turned away for the very simple reason
+that, after unearthing Adoniram Caldwell's effects in the secret rooms
+of her house, Miss Octavia had not cared to be troubled with suitors.
+The haughty Nebraskan had drawn upon his imagination for the rest.
+
+"And I understood you to say a moment ago that Miss Hollister's malady
+is not diphtheria, but chicken-pox?"  Shallenberger persisted with
+almost laughable trepidation.  "These gentlemen, I regret to say, go so
+far as to doubt your word."
+
+"That, Mr. Shallenberger, is their privilege.  But it seems to me that
+when I merely tried to mitigate the terrible news imparted by Dick, you
+are rank ingrates for questioning my far less doubtful story.  Anything
+between you gentlemen and Mr. Dick is, of course, none of my affair,
+for whether considered as a set, group or bunch I am done with the
+whole lot of you.  Farewell!"
+
+I decided as I rode away that nothing was to be gained by going in
+search of Wiggins.  Orton had purposely made his house difficult of
+access, and the roads in that neighborhood are many and devious.  Orton
+had banished his guests that he might tinker his play in peace, and
+knowing his temper, I was sure that Wiggins and the rest of them would
+keep out of his way till the pangs of hunger drove them back.
+
+I had ridden half a mile toward Hopefield, when I espied a woman riding
+rapidly toward me, and as she drew nearer I identified her as Hezekiah,
+mounted on a horse I recognized as one of the best in Miss Octavia's
+stables.  Hezekiah rode astride, as a woman should, her bicycle skirt
+serving well as a habit.  She rode as a boy rides who loves freedom and
+quickened pulses and the rush of wind across his face.  She was
+hatless, for which the sun and I were both grateful.  The big bow at
+the back of her head turned the dial back to sixteen.
+
+[Illustration: I espied a woman riding rapidly toward me.]
+
+She drew rein and fished what seemed to be salted almonds from her
+sweater pocket.  She filliped one of these into the air, and caught it
+in her mouth with a lazy toss of the head that showed the firm contour
+of her lovely throat.  I had never seen her more self-possessed.
+
+"Do you care much for this horse?" she asked, carelessly.
+
+"It's a good horse; I fancy Miss Octavia thinks so herself.  There are
+places, Hezekiah, where they hang people for horse-stealing."
+
+"Thought I might need one to-day, so I borrowed him,--through the back
+way to the old red barn.  The coachman is an ancient chum, and Aunt
+Octavia would never mind even if she knew.  And she will know all
+right!  Anyhow, my rear tire had been patched once too often, and there
+is a satisfaction in a horse!  Where's our sensitive and impressionable
+Wiggy?  Saw him riding over toward Kisco yesterday P.M. with chin on
+his chest,--dreadful riding form."
+
+"Wiggins is at Orton's,--the playwright's, you know.  I've telephoned
+him to hustle back, but he's out of our reach somewhere.  I could n't
+speak to him direct; had to leave a message for him."
+
+"Just like Wiggy to die on the last lap.  What did you make out of
+brother Pepperton?"
+
+"Your note scared me,--thanks so much for your note,--but he's all
+right.  Engaged to another girl."
+
+"Ah," she sighed, "it's comforting that Cecilia could n't keep them all
+going all the time."
+
+We rode along together, our horses in a walk, and I told her everything
+I knew of the condition of affairs, including a true account of my
+experiences at the inn the day before and of the finding of the old
+chest belonging to Wiggins's great-grandfather,--her brown eyes opened
+wide at this,--concluding with the diphtheria stratagem and Dick's
+menace to Cecilia's happiness.
+
+"He's really a bright little boy.  Coming home on the steamer he gave
+me a post-graduate course in pragmatism that I've found helpful in
+keeping house for papa.  It's too bad we have to lay a trap for Mr.
+Dick."
+
+"Is it? Just how are we to manage that, Hezekiah?"
+
+"Oh, that will be easy enough.  He's pretty desperate, and since the
+compact between the suitors has gone to pieces he knows he will have to
+show his hand pretty soon.  He thinks you are wild about Cecilia.  He
+lays great stress on his thinking powers, and he probably argues that
+you are bound to pop pretty soon.  It's just as well he thinks so, but
+we must finish this up to-day; I'll be a nervous wreck if we don't
+close the books to-night.  There's your friend Dick now."
+
+She indicated a high point in the main road, where it crossed the ridge
+from which she had shown me--it seemed, oh, very long ago!--the
+procession of suitors crossing the stile.  Dick, mounted, was gazing
+off across the fields toward Hopefield.  Man and horse were so distant
+as to create the illusion of an equestrian statue on a high pedestal.
+
+"Napoleon before Waterloo," I suggested.
+
+"He does look like Napoleon, doesn't he?" she laughed.  "He's a bit
+fussed to-day.  He knows that Wiggy 's not at the inn, and that you are
+up to something, and to little Mr. Dick the architect probably looks
+like one of those mysterious knights you read about, who suddenly
+appears at the tournament all canned in an ice-cream freezer, with a
+tin pail over his head.  Mr. Pepperton's presence no doubt worries him,
+as I don't think they ever met.  Cecilia and Mr. Pepperton are
+riding--I dodged them just before I struck you, walking their horses in
+the most loverlike fashion in a lane over yonder; but if Mr. Pepperton
+is really engaged it's all right, though if I were the other girl I
+think I'd be anxious."
+
+"Pep's playing the game, that's all.  What are you going to do now?"
+
+She glanced at the sun; I fancy that it was with such a scanning of the
+heavens that her sisters a thousand years before had noted the time.
+
+"This is my pie-day.  There's undoubtedly a gooseberry-pie waiting for
+me at the bungalow, and papa will expect me for luncheon.  I 'd ask you
+to come too, only you 'll have all you can do to keep Mr. Dick from
+persuading somebody to be the sixth man, so he can slip in as number
+seven.  If we get through to-day all right, you may come for luncheon
+to-morrow, maybe.  Papa told me he liked you; he said you were very
+decent that night you met him on the roof of Aunt Octavia's house."
+
+"My compliments to your father.  I hope to be able to persuade him to
+extend his paternal arm to include me.  Aunt Octavia must be my aunt,
+too!"
+
+"Really!" cried Hezekiah, with indescribable mockery; and she wheeled
+her horse and was gone like the wind.
+
+Luncheon at Hopefield passed without incident; and afterward Cecilia
+retired to help her aunt with her correspondence, while Pepperton and I
+lounged about the house and smoked.  I told him of my ineffectual
+efforts to reach Wiggins, and he volunteered to find a motor and search
+for him; but I pointed out the futility of this, and renewed my appeal
+that he stay on guard at Hopefield.
+
+At about three o'clock Cecilia reappeared.  Her color was high and her
+eyes were unusually brilliant.  I knew that she fully realized that the
+crisis was near, but she asked no questions and her manner reassured me
+of her confidence.  We idled on the stone terrace above the
+frost-smitten garden, which in its ruin still satisfied the eye with
+color.  I had purposely drawn some chairs to a corner well screened by
+vines, so that I could note the approach of any visitors who came cross
+country by way of the stile.
+
+We were hardly seated before Dick entered the garden, followed
+immediately by the six other suitors I had last seen at the inn.  They
+ranged themselves on a stone bench facing the house at the end of one
+of the paths.  They wore sack coats and hats in a variety of styles, so
+that they did not present quite the bizarre effect produced by their
+frock coats and silk tiles.  They surveyed the house sadly, bowed their
+heads upon their sticks, and seemed to have come to stay.  The siege,
+then, had become a practical matter!
+
+"Why don't the gentlemen come in?" asked Cecilia, peering through the
+vines.
+
+"Hush!  There's a rumor that you are terribly ill; they've come merely
+to pay their tribute of respect by waiting in the garden.  You had
+better go quietly into the house.  The shock of seeing you in your
+usual health might be too much for them."
+
+"But I can't!  I must be accessible at all times," she cried, looking
+helplessly from me to Pepperton, who was all at sea for an explanation.
+"If that impression is abroad, I shall appear at once."
+
+"Then you and Pepperton must patrol the terrace here; you are lovers
+for all I know.  Ignore them utterly in your absorption with one
+another.  If any one approaches you, Pepperton, ask Miss Hollister to
+marry you."
+
+"Me!" gasped Pepperton.
+
+"No; it can't be done that way," Cecilia interposed.  "Mr. Pepperton
+has told me of his engagement.  I can't be party to a fraud, a trick.
+I can't countenance it at all.  It would ruin everything!"
+
+"Then stay right here; pace back and forth, and I'll manage the rest.
+I don't for the life of me know how, but I'll do it."
+
+As Cecilia and Pepperton stepped from behind the screen of vines, the
+men on the benches lifted their heads; then I heard murmurs of
+amazement and chagrin, and caught a fleeting glimpse of Dick tearing
+through the hedge with his late companions tumbling after in fierce
+pursuit.
+
+I ran to the stable and found a horse, feeling that I must be in a
+position to move rapidly if I saw Wiggins approaching.  If Dick eluded
+his wrathful pursuers he would be on the lookout somewhere, awaiting
+his own time, and if he saw Wiggins rushing madly for the house, he
+might yet circumvent us.
+
+I satisfied myself that Cecilia and Pepperton were still plainly
+visible from the garden, and I knew that for the time she was safe.  I
+gained the high point in the road from which Hezekiah and I had
+observed Dick on guard at noon, and waited.  Remembering the fine
+figure the philosopher had made against the sky, I dismounted and
+rested by a stone wall where I could watch with less risk of being seen
+from a distance.
+
+I at once saw matters that interested me immensely.  Dick had thrown
+off the other suitors, and was rapidly crossing the fields toward
+Hopefield.  When I caught sight of him, he was just leaving the orchard
+where Hezekiah and I had held our memorable interview.  A long stretch
+of rough pasture lay before him, and he settled down to a quick trot.
+He took several fences without lessening his gait, crossed the stile
+like a flash a little later, and was out of sight.
+
+As I turned to my horse I heard the swift patter of hoofs, and saw a
+man and woman galloping furiously toward me.  They were rapidly nearing
+the ridge, and their horses were springing over the firm white road in
+prodigious leaps.  Wiggins had got my message; Hezekiah had met him in
+the road and was urging him on!  Here indeed was a situation to stir
+the heart, and the blood sang in my ears as I watched them.  I waved my
+arm as they checked their horses for the long climb.  The riders had
+lost their hats in their mad race, and Wiggins's horse was nearly done
+for.  As they came still nearer, I saw that Wiggins had taken fire at
+last.
+
+"Orton said some one was killed,--who--what--who"--
+
+"I just picked him up five minutes ago; he doesn't know anything," said
+Hezekiah; "and you dare n't tell him--remember the rules!  What's
+doing?" she inquired coolly.
+
+She bade Wiggins exchange horses with her, and while he was readjusting
+the saddle-girths I explained to Hezekiah the situation at Hopefield
+and told her of Dick's scamper across the fields.
+
+"There's no use fooling with this thing any more.  I'll take Wiggy to
+the house and lock him up until I 've been numbered six,--it's safest."
+
+"Not much it isn't.  I don't intend that Cecilia shall have the
+pleasure of refusing you."
+
+"I'd like to know why not.  It's only to fill the gap."
+
+"Oh!" said Hezekiah, "that would be an embarrassment to me all the rest
+of my life.  Listen carefully.  Take Wiggy in by the back way, and give
+him a picture-book to look at.  Leave Cecilia alone on the terrace when
+you're all ready, and see what happens.  If Dick's on his way to the
+house he's going to do something, and he must feel the edge of my
+displeasure.  I owe him a few on general principles."
+
+"What does all this mean?  You say there 's nothing wrong at the
+house?" began Wiggins as we left Hezekiah and started toward Hopefield.
+
+"Nothing whatever the matter; everything perfectly all right; but
+you've got to keep mum now and do what I tell you.  I've worked hard
+for you, old man, and when it's all over I'm going to send you a bill
+for professional services.  Come!"
+
+I urged my horse to his utmost, and Wiggins rode steadily beside me.
+The fright Orton had given him had done my friend good, and I felt that
+I was dealing with a live man at last.  Our speed did not permit
+conversation, but feeling that Wiggins was entitled to some further
+assurance, I waited until we were climbing our last hill to add a word.
+
+"I'll tell you all about this after we have a good-night cigar
+to-night.  You know I told you I was going to help, and if nothing goes
+wrong and Hezekiah does n't fail, you will see the world with new eyes
+before you sleep."
+
+We rode direct to the stable, and I took Wiggins to my room by the back
+stairs and bade him help himself to my raiment.  He was perfectly
+tractable, and I was glad to see that he trusted implicitly to my
+guidance.
+
+I met Miss Octavia in the lower hall.  She was just in from the
+kennels.  Her new Airedale was a perfect specimen of the breed, she
+declared, and she announced her intention of exhibiting him at all the
+reputable bench shows in America.
+
+"I hope, Arnold, that you have not been without entertainment to-day."
+
+"Miss Hollister, the three musketeers were fat monks asleep under the
+sunny wall of a monastery compared with me!"
+
+"I am glad you are not bored.  By the way, if you should by any chance
+see Hezekiah, you will kindly intimate to her that if she returns that
+Estabrook mare she borrowed this morning in reasonably good condition,
+I will overlook her indiscretion in taking it from the stable without
+permission."
+
+She did not wait for a reply, but continued on to her room, and I went
+direct to the terrace.  Cecilia and Pepperton were just going into the
+house to look up a book or piece of music which they had been
+discussing.  Cecilia was making herself interesting, as she so well
+knew how to do, and she seemed in no wise anxious.
+
+"We had forgotten tea," she said.  "Aunt Octavia has just ordered it."
+
+"She and Mr. Pepperton may have their tea.  I believe the air outside
+will do you good for a little longer,--so if you don't mind, Pepperton,
+Miss Hollister will resume her promenade alone."
+
+Pep has told me since that he thought me quite mad that afternoon.  I
+bade Cecilia patrol the long terrace slowly.  She turned up the collar
+of the covert coat and obeyed, laughing a little nervously but asking
+no questions.  The scene could not have been more charmingly set.  The
+great house loomed darkly behind her; beneath lay the garden, over
+which the dusk was stealing goldenly.
+
+She paused suddenly as I watched from the window, and I stepped out to
+see what had attracted her attention.  There into the garden from its
+farther entrance filed the six suitors who had previously come to sit
+beneath the windows of their stricken lady!  Having failed to visit
+their wrath upon the perfidious Dick they had changed their clothes and
+returned to Hopefield.  If Hezekiah had not expressly commanded me not
+to become the sixth man, I should have offered myself on the spot, and
+waited only until Cecilia had made the inevitable answer before
+summoning Wiggins to end the whole affair.  Such, however, was not to
+be the order of events.
+
+The procession, headed by Ormsby, was within a few yards of the
+terrace.  Cecilia, apparently unconscious of their proximity, continued
+her promenade.  In a moment she must recognize them, ask them into the
+house, give them tea, and otherwise destroy my hope of securing her
+happiness before the day's end.
+
+A chorus of yelps and barks, as of dogs suddenly released, greeted my
+ear.  The oncoming suitors heard it too, and the line wobbled
+uncertainly.  Then round the house swept mastiffs, hounds, terriers,--a
+collection of prize-winners such as few kennels ever boasted, loping
+gayly in unwonted freedom toward unknown and forbidden pastures.
+
+The vanguard of fox-terriers leaped down into the garden, with the rest
+of the pack at their heels.  Happy dogs, to find grown men ready for a
+gambol!  Six coat-tails streamed from the hips of six gentlemen in a
+hurry.  Several battered hats mixed with geraniums were retained later
+as spoils of war by the gardener.  That garden had been built for
+repose and contemplative amblings, not for panic and flight.  The
+disorder was superior in picturesqueness to that which attended the
+pumpkin stampede; at least it struck me at the moment as funnier; and I
+have never since been able to attend a day wedding without appearing
+idiotic--the procession of ushers suggests possibilities that are too
+much for me.  Four of the suitors found one of the proper exits into
+the road; two leaped the box-hedge on the other side without shaking a
+leaf.
+
+I ran round the house, stumbling through the rear-guard of the truant
+canines, and passing the kennel-master, who had rallied the stable men
+and was in hot pursuit.
+
+"Somebody turned 'em out--turned 'em out!" he shouted, and swept
+profanely by.  The gate of the kennel-yard stood open.  A familiar
+figure, running low, paused, and then sprinted nimbly along the paddock
+fence.  A white sweater was distinguishable for a moment on a stone
+wall, then it followed a pair of enchanted heels into oblivion.
+
+Time had been passing swiftly, and the shadows were deepening.  I
+retraced my steps toward the terrace, hearing the cries of pursued and
+pursuers growing fainter.  I had not yet gained a position from which I
+could see Cecilia, when a man appeared some distance ahead of me,
+walking guardedly in one of the garden-plots.  He came uncertainly,
+pausing to glance about, yet evidently led toward the terrace by a
+definite purpose.  All may be fair in love and war, but I confess to a
+feeling of pity for John Stewart Dick as I watched him slowly advancing
+to his fate.  He was going boldly now, and I felt a sudden liking for
+him; nor can I believe that he was other than a manly fellow with sound
+brains and a good heart.
+
+I reasoned, as I marked his approach to the terrace, that he had been
+loitering in the neighborhood, probably watching Cecilia and Pepperton,
+and when the architect retired, he had assumed that the sixth man had
+spoken.  The appearance of his former comrades of the inn had doubtless
+disturbed him as it had me; then, thanks to the resourceful Hezekiah,
+they had been routed and the coast was clear.  I think it likely that
+the sight of Cecilia sombrely pacing the terrace in the darkening
+shadows was too much for his philosophic poise, or like the rest of us
+who were actors in that comedy, he may have felt that any end was
+better than the doubts and uncertainties that beset us.
+
+I watched him draw nearer to Cecilia as I have watched deer go down to
+a lake to drink.  He would speak now; I was confident of it; and I
+stole round to the side entrance and sent word to Wiggins to go to the
+drawing-room and wait for me.
+
+Miss Octavia and Pepperton still lingered over their tea-cups.  The row
+made by the fugitives from her kennels had not, it seemed, penetrated
+to the library, and Miss Octavia bade me join the talk, which had to
+do, I remember, with some project for a national hall of fame that had
+incurred her characteristic displeasure.  A hall of immortal rascals in
+pillories she thought far likelier to please the masses.
+
+In fifteen minutes I saw Cecilia crossing the hall.  She stopped where
+I could see her quite plainly, and thrust her hand into the pocket of
+her coat.  Out flashed the silver note-book.  She made a swift notation
+with the pencil that now, I knew, wrote the fate of the sixth man.
+
+I went out and spoke to her, and walked beside her to the drawing-room
+door, where Hartley Wiggins was waiting.
+
+Miss Octavia had risen when I returned to the library, and it was time
+to dress for dinner.
+
+"Just a moment, Miss Hollister.  Something of great interest is about
+to occur;" and I made excuses for detaining her for perhaps five
+minutes,--not more.
+
+"You have never yet deceived me, Arnold Ames, and such is my confidence
+in you that if you tell me that something interesting will soon occur,
+I have no reason to doubt you.  It is worth remembering, however, that
+fowl is not improved by prolonged roasting."
+
+I heard Wiggins laugh in the hall, and Miss Octavia raised her head.
+Then Cecilia came into the room, and walked directly to her aunt.
+
+"Aunt Octavia, here is the little silver notebook you gave me in Paris;
+I have just written Mr. Wiggins's name in it,  and as I have no further
+use for the book, I return it with my love and thanks."
+
+Without a word, Miss Octavia turned to the wall and pressed the button
+twice.
+
+"William," she said as the butler appeared, "you may serve Oriana '97,
+and be careful not to freeze it to death; and the hour for dinner is
+changed to eight.  Arnold, you may yourself drive to Gooseberry
+Bungalow for my brother and niece.  They dine with me to-night."
+
+
+Hezekiah and I built our bungalow in the orchard where on that October
+afternoon I found her munching a red apple on the stone wall.  She is
+the most scrupulous of housewives, and only now took me to task for
+scattering the hearth with fragments of the notes from which this
+narrative has been written.  She has just been reading these last
+pages, with meditative brown eyes, and not without occasionally
+reaching for the pen and retouching some sentence in which, she says,
+soot from my chimney-doctoring days has clogged the ink.  Cecilia and
+Wiggins live at Hopefield across the fields.  Miss Octavia insisted on
+this, for the reason that the sword of Hartley's great-grandfather,
+found in the chest under the old house, gives him inalienable rights to
+the premises.  Miss Octavia and her brother Bassford are traveling
+abroad and enjoying those mild adventures to which they are both
+temperamentally inclined.  As Miss Octavia carried with her the Parker
+House umbrella-check I am confident of her early return.
+
+My name is joined to Pepperton's on his office-door.  Pepperton
+proposed this arrangement, with so many assurances of faith in me that
+I could not refuse him; but I knew well enough that Miss Octavia had
+first put it into his head.  So while I have called myself a
+chimney-doctor in these pages, I am again an architect, and the new
+cathedral now rising at Waxahaxie is, let me modestly note, the work of
+my hand.
+
+"You ought to say something more about the Asolando," Hezekiah has just
+murmured at my shoulder.  "Everybody will ask whether we ever went back
+there."
+
+"Of course we go back there, Hezekiah, every time you come to town and
+can get hold of me.  Will that be enough?"
+
+"You'd better explain that Aunt Octavia started the tea-room and still
+owns it, and makes money out of it, though she rarely goes there, but
+sends Freda the maid to collect the profits.  And it won't do any harm
+to say that when she met you there that day, she decided at once that
+you would be a proper husband for me.  Any one who reads your book will
+want to know that."
+
+Hezekiah is always right; so here endeth the chronicle.
+
+
+
+
+The Riverside Press
+
+CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS
+
+U . S . A
+
+
+
+
+THE RIGHT STUFF
+
+By IAN HAY
+
+"Those who love the companionship of people of fine fibre, and to whom
+a sense of humor has not been denied, will make no mistake in seeking
+the society open to them in 'The Right Stuff.'"--_New York Times_.
+
+"Hay resembles Barrie, and, like Barrie, he will grow in many
+ways."--_Cleveland Leader_.
+
+"A compelling tribute to the homely genuineness and sterling worth of
+Scottish character."--_St. Louis Post Dispatch_.
+
+"Mr. Hay has written a story which is pure story and is a delight from
+beginning to end."--_San Francisco Argonaut_.
+
+"It would be hard, indeed, to find a more winning book."--_New Orleans
+Times-Democrat_.
+
+
+
+With frontispiece by James Montgomery Flagg.  12mo.
+
+$1.20 net.  Postage 10 cents.
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+THE TWISTED FOOT
+
+By HENRY MILNER RIDEOUT
+
+"Henry Milner Rideout has written several good stories of Oriental
+mystery, but none of them approach in excellence 'The Twisted
+Foot.'"--_Cleveland Plain Dealer_.
+
+"The story is fascinating and full of the witchery of the
+East."--_Congregationalist_.
+
+"Its persuasiveness of action, its alluring color and high heart
+courage, make it one of the striking romances of the time."--_New York
+American_.
+
+"The whole story glows with the local life and color."--_New York
+Times_.
+
+
+
+With seven full-page illustrations by G. C. Widney.
+
+12mo.  $1.20 net.  Postage 11 cents.
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+THE PROFESSIONAL AUNT
+
+By MARY C. E. WEMYSS
+
+"One of the most delightful stories that has ever crossed the
+water."--_Louisville Courier-Journal_.
+
+"The legitimate successor of 'Helen's Babies.'"--_Clara Louise Burnham_.
+
+"A classic in the literature of childhood."--_San Francisco Chronicle_.
+
+"Mrs. Wemyss is a formidable rival to E. Nesbit, who hitherto has stood
+practically alone as a charmingly humorous interpreter of child
+life."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean_.
+
+"A charming, witty, tender book."--_Kate Douglas Wiggin_.
+
+"It is a sunny, warm-hearted humorous story, that leaves the reader
+with a sense of time well spent in its perusal."--_Brooklyn Eagle_.
+
+
+
+16mo.  $1.00 net.  Postage 10 cents.
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+FARMING IT
+
+By HENRY A. SHUTE
+
+"There is nothing funnier in Mark Twain."--_Grand Rapids Herald_.
+
+"Every man and woman who lives, or ever has lived, in the country will
+appreciate the situations described....  They are funny enough to
+disturb the calm of the most serious countenance."--_Boston Globe_.
+
+"Includes more fun than is concealed in all his other books taken
+together."--_Living Age_.
+
+"The book is extraordinarily frank ... spicy and
+enlivening."--_Baltimore News_.
+
+"A wholesome and invigorating sort of book....  A real story of real
+life cheerfully narrated."--_New York Times_.
+
+
+
+Fully illustrated by Reginald B. Birch
+
+12mo.  $1.20 net.  Postage 12 cents
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+      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+OLD HARBOR
+
+By WILLIAM JOHN HOPKINS
+
+"A charming picture of an old New England sea-port....  It is a book to
+close reluctantly with the hope of soon opening another volume by the
+same author."--_New York Times_.
+
+"A tale to chuckle over....  It is not often that a reader has an
+opportunity in the pages of a book to come in touch with such a group
+of genial and lovable people."--_Minneapolis Journal_.
+
+"A cheerful, amusing story of old-fashioned people....  The author is a
+genuine humorist."--_Boston Transcript_.
+
+"A story conceived in the same spirit as 'The Clammer,' filled with the
+same philosophy, displaying the same keen insight."--_Brooklyn Eagle_.
+
+
+
+Square crown 8vo.  $1.25 net.  Postage 14 cents
+
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+      *      *      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+THE BREAKING IN OF A YACHTSMAN'S WIFE
+
+By MARY HEATON VORSE
+
+"Clever!  Sparkling!  Full of quaint humor and crisp description!
+Altogether a book which will not disappoint the reader.  It is
+'different,' and that is one great merit in a book."--_Brooklyn Eagle_.
+
+"It will puzzle holiday makers to find a better vacation book than
+this.  Those who go up and down the Sound in yachts will find it
+especially pleasing; it will appeal to those who are fond of human
+nature studies; may be recommended even more decidedly to the serious
+than to the young and frivolous; a tonic to depression and an antidote
+to gloom."--_N. Y. Times_.
+
+"Charming, with its salt, sea-slangy flavor, its double love thread,
+and its pleasant chapters dealing with Long Island Sound, the
+Mediterranean, Massachusetts Bay and Venetian lagoons."--_Chicago
+Record-Herald_.
+
+
+
+Illustrated by Reginald Birch.  12mo, $1.50
+
+
+
+HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+
+BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
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+
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+
+
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+
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