The merry-eyed girl was unafraid now, but Hardwick shook his head. "I don't like it," he said. "We can't investigate if there's a trickster among us. You didn't do it yourself, did you, Vernie?" "No, Professor," and the pure truthful gaze of the brown eyes left no room for disbelief. "Honest, I didn't. But," she laughed mischievously, "if I had, I should _say_ I hadn't!" "Vernie! This won't do!" and Eve glared at her, "You little minx, I believe you did do it!" "Don't you look at me like that, Eve Carnforth! Stop it! You scare me." Vernie fairly cowered before Eve's basilisk eyes. "I believe _you_ did it!" "There, there, girls," broke in Tracy, with his gentle smile, "don't get to hair-pulling. If we've all finished breakfast, let's now hear the story of the house, and then we can tell if its patron ghost is the sort given to exchanging bedroom furniture o' nights." "Yes," agreed Norma, "I'm crazy to hear the story. Where's Mr. Stebbins, does anybody know?" "I'll dig him up," Landon assured them. "Where shall we congregate?" "In the drawing room," said Milly, "that's the only room I'm not afraid of." "I'm fearfully afraid of that!" said Tracy, in mock terror. "Those rep lambrequins get on my nerves!" "Aren't they awful!" and Norma laughed. "They don't frighten me, but they jar my æsthetics terribly." "No," said Elijah Stebbins, firmly, as the conclave began, "not in that there parlour. Here in the hall. You folks want this house, you want the story of this house, now you sit here to hear it." "Very well," said Braye, agreeably. "Just as you say, Mr. Stebbins. Now begin at the beginning, but don't drool too long a spiel." The whole party grouped themselves in the great hall, and for the first time began to take in the details of its appointments. Though in disrepair as to walls and cornices, the lines of its architecture were fine and it was of noble proportions; the staircase was beautifully planned; and the wonderful bronze doors, which they had not examined the night before, were truly works of art. "The old Montgomery who brought them doors from Italy, pretty much built the house behind 'em," Stebbins volunteered, "and them colyums, of course, come with the doors. They're some valu'ble, I'm told. You see, the doors is the same outside and in, and the colyums is, too. Well, then, he had the vestibule of murhoggany, to sort o' set off the bronze, I s'pose, and the rest of the walls is marble,--solid old Vermont marble, which Lord knows was to be had for the pickin', up here." "Get along to the story, Steb," urged Landon.