“Look here,” said her master. “What did he see? Not a word can I get out of him but havers. What did the man see? I suppose you were there too, like all the rest of the house--like everybody, in short, except myself. What did he see?” “He saw naething, my lord, that I can make out,” said the housekeeper; “just the door dung open in his face with the wind and a good push from the outside. It’s been a wild night, and the sounds of the storm were awfu’ confusing even to the like of me. So far as I can discover, there was just something thrown inside, and a blast of weet, and the big door snatched out of his hand and clashed to, and all in a moment before he could say a word. That’s a’ that I can make out. I was in the servants’ passage myself listening and wondering, and a’ in a tremble with the thoughts of visitors or waur. He didna say a word but gaed a kind of skreigh, and I kent something had happened. When I ran into the hall, and a’ the women after me--for ye ken the story of the Eskside warning, my lord, as well as me--there was the wean standing up in the corner against the wa’; and him there glow’ring at it, as if the bonnie bit laddie was a ghaist.” “And that’s all?” “That’s all, my lord, as far as I can find out--he says he saw a figure, but what kind of a figure----” “It was a woman wrapped in a cloak,” said Harding, somewhat sullenly--“I was coming to that; a tall figure of a woman, not like nobody I know--a sort of a beggar--a tramp.” “Would you know her again, if you saw her?” asked Lord Eskside. “As for that, my lord--I see as she had black hair hanging down, and something red twisted round her neck,--a roughish sort of a woman. She caught hold of the door and shut it in my face,” said Harding, roused to energy, “though she was the one as was outside and me in----” “And said nothing--you are sure she said nothing?” “Not a word, my lord. I called out to her, Hollo! ’old ’ard!” said Harding; “but she didn’t pay no attention. She took hold of the door, and dragged it out of my hand. It’s true as I was taken by surprise and didn’t put out my strength.”