"No; she is out, and the girl is out. Will you come in? You probably didn't come to see me." "But I did come to see you." She led the way into the long, low sitting-room, with its many doors and its wide fireplace, so familiar that he might have left it yesterday. "I can't imagine what you want of me," Mrs. Singleton said, waving her hand toward a chair. "The last time I saw you you didn't seem very fond of me." She seated herself by the side of the fire in a great old-fashioned chair covered with chintz and spreading out wings on either side of her head. "You are still angry, Alice, I see," he rejoined. "Well, I can't help that. I did what was right. How in the world could you make up your mind to fool those people so?" "They wanted to be fooled; why not oblige them?" He regarded her with astonishment. He had expected her to deny that her deception was deliberate, to claim that the manifestations were real. Her frank and cynical speech disconcerted him. He had no reply. She broke into a sneering laugh. "There," she said, "you didn't come here to talk about that seance. What did you come for?" "I came to ask you if you still have Aunt Hannah's desk." She regarded him keenly. "The little traveling desk?" "Yes." "What if I have?" "But have you?" "Oh, I don't mind telling you that. I don't see that it can do you any good to know that I have it. I always carry it round with me. It's so convenient." "Will you sell it to me?" "Certainly not. If you didn't want it, I might give it to you; but if you do you can't have it." Maurice began to feel his anger rising. He felt helpless before this woman, with her innocent, baby face, this woman with the guileless look of a child and a child's freedom from moral scruples, who faced him with a smile of pleased malice. It might be unwise to tell his real errand, but she surely could not do any harm greater than to be disagreeable. There must be some method, he reflected, of getting at the thing legally; but what it was he was entirely ignorant; and now that he had shown a desire for the desk he was confident that Mrs. Singleton would persist until she had discovered the truth. He could think of nothing to do but to make a clean breast of the whole matter. He nerved himself to the task, and told her of the finding of Norah and of what followed. "Have you ever discovered that the desk had a false bottom?" he asked in conclusion. "No, brother Maurice. The spirits hadn't revealed it to me. But then I never asked them about that." There was an air of triumphant glee in her manner, an open and mocking sneer, which dismayed him. He was sure that he had erred in telling her his secret; yet he reflected that he could hardly have done otherwise, and that she surely would not dare to refuse to give up a legal document so important. "Will you let me examine the desk?"