In the middle of the room surrounded by a pile of Holland covers and hangings stood Mrs. Eliot, the housekeeper. Christopher had seen her once or twice and she was the only servant, except the butler, with whom he had heard Peter Masters exchange a word. "Lor', sir, how you made me jump!" she cried at sight of him in the doorway. "It isn't often one hears a footfall down here, they girls keep away or I'd be about 'em as they know very well." "May I come in?" asked Christopher. "What a pretty room." The woman glanced round hesitatingly. "Well, now, you're here. Yes. It's pretty enough, sir." "Are you getting ready for visitors?" He had no intention of being curious, he was only thankful to find some distraction from his own thoughts, and there seemed no reason why he should not chat to the kindly portly lady in charge. "No visitors here, sir. We don't have much company. Just a gentleman now and then, as may be yourself." She pulled a light pair of steps to the window and mounted them cautiously one step at a time, dragging a long Holland curtain in her hand. "Do you want to hang that up?" asked Christopher, watching her with idle interest. "Do let me do it, Mrs. Eliot, you'll fall off those steps if you go higher. I can't promise to catch you, but I can promise to hang curtains much better than you can." Mrs. Eliot, who was already panting with exertion and the fatigue of stretching up her ample figure to unaccustomed heights, looked down at him doubtfully. "Whatever would Mr. Masters say, sir?" "He would be quite pleased his visitor found so harmless an amusement. You come down, Mrs. Eliot. Curtain-hanging is a passion with me, but what a shame to cover up those pretty curtains with dingy Holland!" "They wouldn't be pretty curtains now, sir," said Mrs. Eliot, descending with elaborate care, "if they hadn't been covered up these twenty years and more." "What a waste," ejaculated Christopher now on the steps, "isn't the room ever used?" "Never since Mrs. Masters went out of it. 'Eliot,' says the master--I was first housemaid then--'keep Mrs. Masters' rooms just as they are, ready for use. She will want them again some day.' So I did." Christopher shifted the steps and hung another curtain. "I didn't know there had been a Mrs. Masters." "Most folk have forgotten it, I think, sir." "This was her boudoir, I suppose."