I scribbled a note to him, explaining what I was doing, and I said that
if the agent should accompany him to the house I would remain hidden
until the agent had gone. This note I gave to Burroughs, and instructed
him to explain matters to the constable.

I had provided myself with a flask and some dry biscuits in case of
contingencies, and prepared to pass the day as comfortably as I could. It
is needless to say that in daylight I examined that haunted room again,
especially the looking-glass.

It was in an ornamental wooden frame fixed on the wall, formed, in fact,
a finish to a wooden dado. It was like the fixed overmantel one finds
sometimes in small modern villas, only it wasn't over the mantelpiece.

I think there was nothing in the room which I did not examine carefully,
but I did not sit there; I preferred the front room.

It was an immense relief when I saw Quarles and another man, the agent,
come through the gate.

It was between eight and nine, and I retired to the basement to be out of
the way. The agent stayed about half an hour, and they were chiefly in
the haunted room together.

"I sincerely hope your report will set at rest this silly idea that the
house is haunted," I heard the agent say as they came down to the hall.
"When my client returns he will be pretty mad about it."

"When does he return?" asked Quarles.