That the cottage ?" he went on, pointing to a dim light ahead of him.

"This housekeeper, now ?--is she the sort who'll take it quietly ?" "She's as queer a character as the old fellow himself was," replied Bent, as they cleared the wood and entered a hedge-enclosed garden at the end of which stood an old-fashioned cottage.

"I've talked to her now and then when calling here--I should say she's a woman of nerve." Brereton looked narrowly at Miss Pett when she opened the door.

She carried a tallow candle in one hand and held it high above her head to throw a light on the callers; its dim rays fell more on herself than on them.

A tall, gaunt, elderly woman, almost fleshless of face, and with a skin the colour of old parchment, out of which shone a pair of bright black eyes; the oddity of her appearance was heightened by her head-dress--a glaring red and yellow handkerchief tightly folded in such a fashion as to cover any vestige of hair.