"I am afraid I don't quite know what you mean," Mrs. Lee returned, in
a puzzled way. It was quite evident that Mrs. Van Dorn wished her to
grasp something which her own mind had mastered, that she wished it
without further explanation, and Mrs. Lee felt bewilderedly
apologetic that she could not comply.

"Don't you see that they have gone off and left the front door
unlocked?" said Mrs. Van Dorn, with inflections of embarrassment,
eagerness, and impatience. If she and Mrs. Lee had been, as of yore,
school-children together, she would certainly have said, "You ninny!"
to finish.

"Why!" returned Mrs. Lee, with a sort of gasp. She saw then that the
front door was not only unlocked, but slightly ajar. "Do you suppose
they really are not at home?" she whispered.

"Of course they are not at home."

"Would they go away and leave the front door unlocked?"

"They have."

"They might be in the back part of the house, and not have heard the
bell," Mrs. Lee said, with a curious tone, as if she replied to some
unspoken suggestion.

"I know this house as well as I do my own. You know how much I used
to be here when the Ranger girls were alive. There is not a room in
this house where anybody with ears can't hear the bell."