"Oh," began Cynthia, stumblingly, "I--I couldn't quite explain it all in a letter--and I didn't even know you'd pay any attention to what I wrote, anyway. But we'll tell you all about it right now, if you care to hear." A light was beginning to dawn on the bewildered Joyce. Suddenly she sprang forward and seized the lady's hand. "Tell me--oh, please tell me," she cried, "_are_ you Mrs. Collingwood?" "Yes, my dear!" said the lady. And to the amazement of every one Joyce broke down and began to sob hysterically, exclaiming, "Oh, I'm so glad--so glad!" between every other sob. "I think I'll sit down," said Mrs. Collingwood, when Joyce had regained control of herself. "I'm very tired--and very, very--bewildered!" She sat down on the sofa, and drew each of the girls down beside her. "Now tell me," she said to Cynthia. "Explain it all, and then show me what you think will interest me so. You see, I have traveled many weary miles to hear this strange story." So Cynthia began at the beginning and told how they had first found their way in, and had then become interested in unraveling the mystery of the old house. Mrs. Collingwood listened with deep attention; but when Cynthia reached the tale of the hidden stairway, she started in surprise. "Why, I never dreamed there was such a thing in the house!" she exclaimed. "The rooms were re-papered once, but I was away when it was done. None of us knew!" "No, we thought you didn't," continued Cynthia. "And so we went into the locked-up room. And there we found something,--oh!--Mrs. Collingwood! We felt sure you had never seen it, and that you _ought_ to! You see, we knew all the rest of the--the story, from Joyce's great-aunt, Lucia Kenway. And we felt you _ought_ to see it,--at least _I_ felt that way, and so I wrote you the letter. I didn't even tell Joyce I'd done it, because--because I was afraid she'd think I was _meddling_ in what didn't concern me! But I couldn't help it. I couldn't sleep nights till I'd sent that letter, because it all haunted me so! I just sent it to Chesterton, South Carolina, because that was all the address I knew. I didn't even feel sure it would ever reach you. "And I set a special date for you to get here on purpose, because--well, because I thought we ought to be here to receive you, and have the place look sort of--homelike. It would be terrible, seems to me, to come back to a dark, deserted house that you'd left so long ago, and nobody here to--to welcome you. Well, that's all, I guess. But Mrs. Collingwood, I'm so afraid we haven't done right,--that we meddled in what was no business of ours, and trespassed in a house we should never have entered! I only hope you can forgive us!" Thus ended Cynthia, brokenly, and Mrs. Collingwood put out her hands to take a hand of each girl in her clasp.