"But to go on. I'm telling you all this so you can see what led up to my doing what I did about--the _secret_. It began one awfully rainy afternoon last month. I'd been for a walk in the wet, just for exercise, and when I came in, Aunt Minerva was out shopping. I hadn't a new book to read nor a blessed thing to do, so I sat down right here by the window and got to thinking and wondering _why_ things were so unevenly divided--why you, Jan, should have a mother and father and a big, jolly lot of brothers and sisters, and I should be just _one_, all alone, living with Aunt Minerva (though she's lovely to me), with no mother, and a father away nearly all the time on his ship. "And it seemed as if I just hated this apartment, with its little rooms, like cubbyholes, all in a row. I longed to be back in Northam. And looking out of the window, I even thought I'd give anything to live in that big, rambling, dingy, old place next door, beyond the brick wall, for at least one could go up and down _stairs_ to the different rooms. "And then, if you'll believe me, Jan, as I stared at that house it began to dawn on me that I'd never really 'taken it in' before--that it was a very strange-looking old place. And because I didn't have another mortal thing to do, I just sat and stared at it as if I'd never seen it before, and began to wonder and wonder about it. For there were a number of things about it that seemed decidedly _queer_." "What's it like, anyway?" questioned Janet. "There were so many other things to see to-day that I didn't notice it at all. And it's so dark now I can't see a thing." "Why, it's a big, square, four-story brick house, and it's terribly in need of paint. Looks as if it hadn't had a coat in years and years. It stands 'way back from the street, in a sort of ragged, weedy garden, and there's a high brick wall around the whole place, except for a heavy wooden gate at the front covered with ironwork. That gate is always closed. A stone walk runs from the gate to the front door. 'Way back at the rear of the garden is an old brick stable that looks as if it hadn't been opened or used in years. "You'll see all this yourself, Janet, when you look out of the window in the morning. For this apartment-house runs along close to the brick wall, and as we're three floors up, you get a good view of the whole place. This window in my room is the _very_ best place of all to see it--fortunately.