He thought a shade of pallor showed itself
on her ash-colored cheeks. Yet she smiled a
little at the idea of her playing.

"There is no piano," she said, and she put
an enigmatical emphasis to the words.

"Nonsense," cried Boyce, indignantly. "I
heard a piano being played in this very house
for hours last night!"

"You may enter," said the old woman,
with an accent more vicious than hospitable.

Boyce almost burst into the drawing-room.
It was a dusty and forbidding place, with ugly
furniture and gaudy walls. No piano nor any
other musical instrument stood in it. The
intruder turned an angry and baffled face to
the old woman, who was smiling with ill-
concealed exultation.

"I shall see the other rooms," he an-
nounced. The old woman did not appear to
be surprised at his impertinence.

"As you please," she said.

So, with the hobbling creature, with her