"Yes, and why not?" Her look was absolutely guileless. "Miss Lucetta sometimes keeps us up half the night, but she does not miss breakfast on that account. When the turn is over, she is as well as ever she was. A fine young lady, Miss Lucetta. I'd lose my two hands for her any day." "She certainly is a remarkable girl," I declared, not, however, as dryly as I felt. "I can hardly believe I dreamed about the key. Let me feel of your pocket," I laughed. She, without the smallest hesitancy, pulled aside her apron. "I am sorry you put so little confidence in my word, ma'am, but Lor' me, what you heard is nothing to what some of our guests have complained of--in the days, I mean, when we did have guests. I have known them to scream out themselves in the middle of the night and vow they saw white figures creeping up and down the halls--all nonsense, ma'am, but believed in by some folks. You don't look as if you believed in ghosts." "And I don't," I said, "not a whit. It would be a poor way to try to frighten me. How is Mr. William this morning?" "Oh, he's well and feeding the dogs, ma'am. What made you think of him?" "Politeness, Hannah," I found myself forced to say. "He's the only man in the house. Why shouldn't I think of him?" She fingered her apron a minute and laughed. "I didn't know you liked him. He's so rough, it isn't everybody who understands him," she said. "Must one understand a person to like him?" I queried good-humoredly. I was beginning to think I might have dreamed about that key. "I don't know," she said, "I don't always understand Miss Lucetta, but I like her through and through, ma'am, as I like this little finger," and holding up this member to my inspection, she crossed the room for my water-pitcher, which she proposed to fill with hot water. I followed her closely with my eyes. When she came back, I saw her attention caught by the break in the flooring, which she had not noticed on entering. "Oh," she exclaimed, "what a shame!" her honest face coloring as she drew the rug back over the small black gap. "I am sure, ma'am," she cried, "you must think very poorly of us. But I assure you, ma'am, it's honest poverty, nothing but honest poverty as makes them so neglectful," and with an air as far removed from mystery as her frank, good-natured manner seemed to be from falsehood, she slid from the room with a kind: "Don't hurry, ma'am. It is Miss Knollys' turn in the kitchen, and she isn't as quick as Miss Lucetta." "Humph," thought I, "supposing I had called in the police." But by the time she had returned with the water, my doubts had reawakened. She was not changed in manner, though I have no doubt she had recounted all that I had said, below, but I was, for I remembered the matches and thought I saw a way of tripping her up in her self-complacency. Just as she was leaving me for the second time I called her back. "What is the matter with your matches?" I asked. "I couldn't make them light last night."