"'November 28th. A piece of good fortune to-day. I tracked a young woman, a discharged housemaid from the Hall, to the railway station, and had a long confab with her while she was waiting for a train. It seems that the Squire is really shut up behind the green baize doors--whether with or without his consent, who shall say?--and that only four persons are allowed to have access to him. They are, Dr. Jago, Aaron Stone and his grandson Hubert, and a certain Mrs. Dexter, a middle-aged nurse from London, hired by Dr. Jago, of whose presence there I confess that I was previously unaware. The doors are always kept locked--no other inmate of the Hall ever sees or hears anything of the Squire, unless it be on those rare occasions when he drives out for an hour. Very mysterious, to say the least of it. The girl had got that rubbish into her head about the house being haunted, and would have liked to talk of nothing else--and she looked disposed to be offended because I laughed at it. "'December 19th. The Squire has only been outside the baize doors twice during the last month, and then only for half an hour's drive in the park. "'January 1st. The Squire has never been seen outside the house since early in December. "'January 7th. Dr. Jago goes up to the Hall every morning. He told a friend of mine the other day that Mr. Denison was no worse than usual, and that he was only kept indoors by the cold winds. "'February 3rd. Nothing seen of the Squire since my last report, and yet we have had a fortnight of beautiful open weather for the time of year. Jago daily visits the Hall as usual. I've made acquaintance with one Hannah Tilney, the gardener's wife at the lodge. Creeping in there one fine morning, my hand to my side, I begged to be allowed to sit for five minutes, telling her a thumping story about a weak heart. She is a decent woman, but fond of gossip, as they all are, and she had a queer thing to talk of. She said that ever since early in December the shutters of Mr. Denison's sitting-room had been closed and barred at dusk, although it was a well-known fact that all his life the Squire hated to sit in a room of which the shutters were closed or the blinds pulled down. I do not see much in this myself: old people's fancies change: but the woman seemed to think it very strange, a matter for speculation, and said that she and her husband could not understand it at all. Speculation of what, you will ask, and in truth I can't say: but an air of mystery seems to overhang the doings in the Hall. "'March 1st. No news of the Squire. He is pretty well, it is said, but he has not been seen out of doors since the 17th of December. Nothing fresh at all to report, except that I have ascertained that every week there passes through Nullington Post Office a letter from abroad addressed to Mr. Denison in a lady's handwriting. Is this letter from Miss Winter? If so, can she be aware how matters are going on at Heron Dyke?