"Won't you come up-stairs, ma'am?" she said. "Wouldn't you like
to set in your own room perhaps?"

"No! No!" was the answer. "She was always there! She used to come
into my bed in the morning. She used to watch me dress to go out.
No! No!"

"I'll open the shutters in the library," said Jane.

"Oh! No! No! No! She would be sitting on the big sofa with her
fairy story-book. She's everywhere--everywhere! How could I come!
Why did I! But I couldn't keep away! I tried to stay in the
mountains. But I couldn't. Something dragged me day and night.
Nobody knows I am here!" She got up and looked about her again.
"I have never been in here since I went out with HER," she said.
"They would not let me come back. They said it would kill me. And
now I have come--and everything is here--all the things we lived
with--and SHE is millions and millions--and millions of miles
away!"

"Who--who--was it?" Jane asked timidly in a low voice.

"It was my little girl," the poor young beauty said. "It was my
little Andrea. Her portrait is in the library."

Jane began to tremble somewhat herself. "That--?" she began--and
ended: "She is DEAD?"

Mrs. Haldon had dragged herself almost as if unconsciously to the