him at all. I am not ashamed to say that I double-locked the
hall door when I went in.

"You can lock up the rest of the house and go to bed, Liddy," I
said severely. "You give me the creeps standing there. A woman
of your age ought to have better sense." It usually braces Liddy
to mention her age: she owns to forty--which is absurd. Her
mother cooked for my grandfather, and Liddy must be at least as
old as I. But that night she refused to brace.

"You're not going to ask me to lock up, Miss Rachel!" she
quavered. "Why, there's a dozen French windows in the drawing-
room and the billiard-room wing, and every one opens on a porch.
And Mary Anne said that last night there was a man standing by
the stable when she locked the kitchen door."

"Mary Anne was a fool," I said sternly. "If there had been a man
there, she would have had him in the kitchen and been feeding him
what was left from dinner, inside of an hour, from force of
habit. Now don't be ridiculous. Lock up the house and go to
bed. I am going to read."

But Liddy set her lips tight and stood still.

"I'm not going to bed," she said. "I am going to pack up, and
to-morrow I am going to leave."

"You'll do nothing of the sort," I snapped. Liddy and I often
desire to part company, but never at the same time. "If you are
afraid, I will go with you, but for goodness' sake don't try to