"Now, I must tell you the odd thing that happened that very night. You know I've said it was raining hard all that day, and by ten o'clock the wind was blowing a gale. I was just ready for bed, and had turned off my light and raised the shade, when I thought I'd take another peep at my mysterious mansion across the fence. All I could see, however, were just some streaks of light through the chinks in the shutters in that one room on the second floor. All the rest of the place was as dark as a pocket. And as I sat staring out, it suddenly came to me what fun it would be to try to unravel the whole mysterious affair all by myself. It would certainly help me to pass the dull days till you came! "But then, too, the only way to do it would be to watch this old place like a cat, and I knew _that_ wouldn't be right. It would be too much like spying into your neighbor's affairs, and, of course, that's horrid. Finally, I concluded, that if I could do it without being meddlesome or prying, I'd just watch the place a _little_ and see if anything interesting would happen. And while I was thinking this, a strange thing _did_ happen--that very minute! "The wind had grown terrific, and, all of a sudden, it just took one of the shutters of that lighted room, and ripped it from its fastening, and threw it back against the wall. And the next moment a figure hurried to the window, leaned out, and drew the shutter back in place again. But just for one instant I had caught a glimpse of the whole inside of the room! And what do you suppose I saw, Jan?" "_What?_" demanded Janet. "Well, not much of the furnishing, except a lighted oil-lamp on a table. But, directly in the center of the room, in a perfectly enormous armchair sat--a woman! And it wasn't the one I'd seen in the afternoon, either. I'm sure of that. I couldn't see her face, for it was in shadow, but she was looking down at something spread out on her lap. And she held her right hand over it in the air and waved it back and forth, sort of uncertainly. You can't imagine what a strange picture it was--and then the shutter was closed. There was something so _weird_ about it all. "If I was curious before, I was simply _wild_ with interest then. It seemed as if I _must_ know what it all meant--what that strange old lady could be doing, sitting there in state in the middle of the room, and all the rest of it. You don't blame me, do you, Jan?" "Indeed I don't! I'd be ten times worse, I guess. But what about the _secret_? And _did_ you find out anything else?" "Yes, I did. And that's the secret. The whole mysterious thing is in the secret, because no one but you knows I'm the least interested in the affair, and I don't want them to--now! I'll tell you what happened next." But just at this moment they were interrupted by a knock at the door, and a voice inquiring: "Girls, _girls_! haven't you gone to bed yet? I've heard you talking for the last hour."