enough or does not seem pleasant to you, she will find you
another one to-morrow."

"It's very pleasant and quite large enough," I confidently
replied, after a hasty look about me. "I could not be more
comfortable."

She smiled, a trifle broadly for the occasion, I thought, and
patted a pillow here and twitched a curtain there, as she
remarked with a certain emphasis:

"I'm sure you will be comfortable. There's nobody else on this
floor but Letty and the baby, but you don't look as if you would
be easily frightened." Astonished, not so much by her words as
by the furtive look she gave me, I laughed as I repeated
"Frightened? What should frighten me?"

"Oh, nothing." Her back was to me now, but I felt that I knew her
very look. "Nothing, of course. If you're not timid you won't
mind sleeping so far away from every one. Then, we are always
within call. The attic door is just a few steps off. We'll
leave it unlocked and you can come up if--if you feel like it at
any time. We'll understand."

Understand! I eyed her as she again looked my way, with some of
her own curiosity if not wonder.

"Mrs. Packard must have had some very timorous guests," I
observed. "Or, perhaps, you have had experiences here which have
tended to alarm you. The house is so large and imposing for the