"If you don't open the door at once, I shall break the glass and let myself in that way!" She assailed the window-pane with a degree of violence which suggested that she meant what she said; then flattened her nose against it in an endeavour to discover who might be within. While she peered, the door was opened, and some one did come in. She started back. "Who on earth----" She was going to say. "Who on earth is that?" But when she got so far, she stopped--because she knew. At least in part. First through the door there came a woman. And, although she could scarcely credit the evidence of her own eyesight, in her she recognised the visitor of the day but one before--the creature who had persisted in calling herself "the ghost's wife." At her heels there was a man, a perfect stranger to Madge. Having recognised the woman, she looked to see in her companion the loafer of the previous afternoon--but this certainly was not he. This was a miserable, insignificant-looking fellow, very much down at heel--and apparently very much down at everything else. The woman, with impudent assurance, came striding straight to the window. The man hung back, exhibiting in his bearing every symptom of marked discomfort. The female, as brazen-faced as if she was on the right side of the window, stared at Madge. And Madge stared at her--amazed. So amazed, indeed, that for a moment or two she was at a loss for words. When they came at last, they came in the form of an inquiry. "What," she asked, "are you doing there?" The woman waved her hand--in fact, she waved both her hands--as if repelling some noxious insect. "Go away!" she cried; "go away! This house is mine--mine!" Madge gasped. That the creature was mad, at the best, she made no doubt. But that conviction, in the present situation, was of small assistance. What was she to do? As she asked herself this question, with no slight sense of helplessness, the gate clicked behind her. Some one entered the garden. It was Bruce Graham. CHAPTER XI UNDER THE SPELL "Mr. Graham!" she exclaimed. "Really, I do believe that if I had been asked what thing I most desired at this particular moment, I should have answered--you!" Graham's sombre features were chastened by a smile. "That's very good of you." "Look here!" Laying one hand against his arm, with the other she pointed at the sitting-room window. His glance followed her finger-tips. "Who's that?" "That's what I should very much like to ascertain." "I don't quite follow you. Do you mean that you don't know who she is?" "I only know that I've been away all day, and that on my return I find her there. How she got there I can't say--but she seems determined to keep me out." "You don't mean that! And have you no notion who the woman is? She looks half mad."