Chris, anxious not to leave her mother time to waver, ran across the corridor to their bedroom, unpacked their trunks with rapid hands, and rang the bell for a house-maid to take the trunks themselves away to one of the lumber-rooms, so that Mrs. Abercarne might feel that she had burnt her ships. Then Chris peeped into the Chinese-room, saw her mother busy at the writing-table, and guessed that she was writing to inform one of her friends of her definite arrangement to stay at Wyngham. Chris thought it would be better not to interrupt her, so she softly closed the door and went down the corridor to make a private inspection of the pictures to fill up the time. In one of the odd little passages which branched off to the right and left from the corridor, she came upon a picture which seemed to her rather more interesting than the rest; for it was a figure subject, while the rest were chiefly landscapes. The passage was so dark that it was only by opening the door of one of the rooms to which it led that she could see the picture with any distinctness; and it was while she was standing on tip-toe to examine it that the sound of stealthy footsteps reached her ears. Peeping out from the nook in which she was hidden, Chris saw at the entrance of the wing the house Mr. Bradfield standing in front of the door of “Mr. Richard’s rooms.” He was stooping low with his ear to the crack of the door, and his dark face wore an expression of intense anxiety. She had scarcely had time to notice these things when Stelfox came up with absolutely silent footsteps behind his master. His face wore the same expression of hard suppressed amusement which she had noticed on one occasion in the Chinese-room. He did not speak to his master, but stood waiting in a respectful attitude and without uttering a sound. Chris thought the whole scene rather strange, and instead of retreating at once, as she should have done, she kept her eyes fixed upon the pair, from her distant corner, a few moments longer. So she saw Mr. Bradfield raise his head and turn to walk away; she saw him start at the sight of Stelfox, and utter an angry exclamation. But this was eavesdropping, so she drew back hastily out of sight and hearing. Chris could not, however, get out of her mind the thought that Mr. Bradfield’s behaviour was very odd, and that Stelfox’s action in waiting coolly there without a word was more odd still. CHAPTER VI. MUSIC HATH CHARMS.