small bequests, his entire estate, real and personal, was left to
his granddaughter, Alix Crown, to have and to hold in perpetuity
without condition or restriction of any sort or character.

The first thing she did was to have a strong picket fence constructed
around the base of the hill leading up to Quill's Window, shutting
off all accessible avenues of approach to the summit. Following
close upon the publication of David Windom's confession, large
numbers of people were urged by morbid curiosity to visit the
strange burial-place of Edward and Alix Crown. The top of Quill's
Window became the most interesting spot in the county. Alix the
Third was likewise an object of vast interest, and the old, deserted
farmhouse on the ridge came in for its share of curiosity.

Almost immediately after the double tragedy and the birth of little
Alix, David Windom moved out of the house and took up his residence
in the riverside village of Windomville, a mile to the south.
The old house was closed, the window shutters nailed up, the doors
barred, and all signs of occupancy removed. It was said that he never
put foot inside the yard after his hasty, inexplicable departure.
The place went to rack and ruin. In course of time he built a new
and modern house nearer the village, and this was now one of the
show places of the district.

The influence of Alix the First was expressed in the modelling
of house and grounds, the result being a picturesque place with a
distinctly English atmosphere, set well back from the highway in
the heart of a grove of oaks,--a substantial house of brick with
a steep red tile roof, white window casements, and a wide brick
terrace guarded by a low ivy-draped wall. English ivy swathed the