She saw then that the front door was not only unlocked, but slightly ajar.

"Do you suppose they really are not at home ?" she whispered.
"Of course they are not at home." "Would they go away and leave the front door unlocked ?" "They have." "They might be in the back part of the house, and not have heard the bell," Mrs.Lee said, with a curious tone, as if she replied to some unspoken suggestion.
"I know this house as well as I do my own.

You know how much I used to be here when the Ranger girls were alive.

There is not a room in this house where anybody with ears can't hear the bell." Still, Mrs.Van Dorn spoke in that curiously ashamed and indignant voice.

Mrs.Lee contradicted her no further.
"Well, I suppose you must be right," said she.