knows, is a place where any one may walk or sit as long as he likes, but
Winifred was surprised to find Principal Trenholme's housekeeper there
before her; and moreover, this staid, sad woman was in the very place
Winifred was going to, for she was looking through the fence that
enclosed the Harmon garden.

"Good morning, Mrs. Martha," said Winifred politely, concealing her
surprise.

"I've been milking," said the sad woman, glancing slightly at a pail of
foaming milk that she had set for greater security between two
grave-heaps.

Winifred came and took her place beside the housekeeper, and they both
looked through the paling of the Harmon property.

The tanager was still on the acacia, from this nearer point looking like
a great scarlet blossom of some cactus, so intense was the colour; but
Winifred was distracted from her interest in the bird by seeing the old
house more plainly than she had ever seen it before. It stood, a large
substantial dwelling, built not without the variety of outline which
custom has given to modern villas, but with all its doors and windows on
this side fastened by wooden shutters, that, with one or two exceptions,
were nailed up with crossbeams and overgrown with cobwebs. Winifred
surveyed it with an interested glance.

"Did you come to see him?" whispered the housekeeper.

Winifred's eye reverted to the tanager of which, on the whole, her mind
was more full. "Yes"--she whispered the word for fear of startling it.