Everything was in order in the little room; only a whole row of books lay open on the table in front of the bed, one on the top of the other. "Does she read at night?"--"I don't know, but she never puts her light out BEFORE one o'clock." The dean and Signe looked at each other,--they separated at the deanery about ten or half-past, and they re-assembled again in the morning at six or seven.--"Do YOU know anything about it?" Signe did not reply. But the steward who was down on his knees in the corner, seeking, answered from there: "She certainly is not alone."--"What is that you are saying?"--"No, there is always some one with her, talking to her; they often speak very loud; I have heard her both plead for herself and threaten. She must be in the hand of some evil power, poor thing!" Signe turned away; the dean had grown deathly pale.--"And here is the ladder," said the steward, he pulled it out, and got up. Two clothes lines were fastened together by a third, tied in a hard knot, then carried across and fastened in a knot about half a foot below, then back, and so on till the ladder was long enough. They examined it carefully.--"Was she long away?" asked the dean.--The steward looked at him, "How, away?"--"Was she long away, when she came down?"--Signe stood and shivered from fear and cold.--"She did not go anywhere, she went up again."--"Up again? Then who went away?"--Signe turned, and burst into tears. "There was not any one with her that evening, it was yesterday."--"Then there was no one on the ladder except her?"--"No."--"And she went down and up again directly?"--"Yes." "She has been proving it then," said the dean, and drew a long breath as if relieved.--"Yes, before she let any one else go," added the steward. The dean looked at him: "Then do you mean this is not the first she has made?"--"No, otherwise how could people have got up to her?"--"Have you known a long time that some one came to her?"--"Not before this winter, when she began to burn her lamp at night. It never struck me before to go down there."--"Then you have known it the whole winter," said the dean severely; "why have you not told me before?"--"I thought it was some one belonging to the house that was with her;--but when I saw her on the ladder last night, it struck me it might be some one else. If it had struck me before, I should have mentioned it before."--"Yes,--it is clear enough she has deceived us all!" Signe looked up imploringly. "She should not have a room so far away from the others," observed the steward, rolling up the ladder. "She should not have a room beneath my roof," said the dean, and went; the others followed.