with - you visited this house, and, at an hour which you should have
spent in reconciliation with her, went through its ancient rooms in
the hope - of what?"

Mr. Jeffrey could not answer. The words which came from his lips
were mere ejaculations.

"I was restless - mad - I found this adventure diverting. I had
no real purpose in mind."

"Not when you looked at the old picture?"

"The old picture? What old picture?"

"The old picture in the southwest chamber. You took a look at that,
didn't you? Got up on a chair on purpose to do so?"

Mr. Jeffrey winced. But he made a direct reply.

"Yes, I gave a look at that old picture; got up, as you say, on a
chair to do so. Wasn't that the freak of an idle man, wandering, he
hardly knows why, from room to room in an old and deserted house?"

His tormentor did not answer. Probably his mind was on his next
line of inquiry. But Mr. Jeffrey did not take his silence with the
calmness he had shown prior to the last attack. As no word came
from his unwelcome guest, he paused in his rapid pacing and,
casting aside with one impulsive gesture his hitherto imperfectly
held restraint, he cried out sharply: