"What a queer story!" he said. "It suggests all manner of hidden tragedies. What a life for those poor men, even if they have done anything to deserve it! I can't help pitying them more than the sisters." "The younger one is dreadfully delicate," I said, "so perhaps his life any way would have been a dull one. He is crippled somehow. I had the feeling that the elder brother, the eldest of them all, was the cause of their imprisoned life. But Isabel maintains that they are all suffering together for some one else. I do wonder if it will ever be explained!" "There must be many mysteries," said Jocelyn, "that are never cleared up, but certainly this is a very curious one. Don't let Moore hear of it if there is any chance of _his_ ever going to the place; he could never rest contented till he got inside the Grim House. He'd be scaling the walls, and goodness knows what all, and would certainly get himself into trouble." "I don't think that he or any one could feel more curiosity about it than I do," I said. "Isabel has got accustomed to it in all these years, but even _she_ says she has fits of wondering and wondering about these queer people." "And possibly," said Jocelyn thoughtfully, "possibly the root of it all is nothing very terrible. The poor things may have got morbid about it, whereas if they could make up their minds to consult some outsider it might all be put right. It is extraordinary how brooding over troubles magnifies and increases them." Jocelyn was wise beyond his years, and what he said impressed me. "It seems a pity that no one--Mr Wynyard, for instance, or the clergyman of the place, if he is a sensible man--tries to help them," I said. "I know I couldn't live beside four miserable-looking people for twenty years without trying to gain their confidence." "It may have been tried," remarked my brother. "But of course that sort of thing cannot be forced. It would require great tact and experience. Don't go on thinking about it too much, Reggie, or it will get on your brain; and whatever you do, don't attempt any investigation of the secret." I did not reply. To tell the truth, words had added a new incentive to my great wish to unravel the mystery. What a good work it would be to get these poor lives out into the sunshine again! I was very young and very self-confident in some ways, and I did not then know that the onlookers whom I had tacitly reproached with indifference had already done their best in the direction of offering help.