The road in which Clover Cottage stood was bisected on the right and left by other streets, within a hundred yards of the house itself. On reaching the corner of the street on the left, the gentleman on the prowl, as we have seen, had performed a right-about-face, and returned to the cottage. As he advanced, a woman came round the corner of the street, upon the right. He saw her the instant she appeared, and the sight had on him an astonishing effect. He stopped, as if petrified; stared, as if the eyes were starting from his head; gave a great gasp; turned; tore off like a hunted animal; dashed round the corner on the left; and vanished out of sight. Having advanced to within a few feet of where Madge was standing, she was a close spectator of his singular behaviour. As she looked to see what had been the exciting cause, half expecting that her recent visitor had come back and that the tables had been turned, and the gentleman on the prowl had played the coward in his turn, the woman who had come round the other corner had already reached the cottage. Pushing the gate unceremoniously open, she strode straight past Madge, and, without a with-your-leave or by-your-leave, marched through the open door into the hall beyond. As Madge eyed her with mingled surprise and indignation she exclaimed, with what seemed unnecessary ferocity-- "I've come to see the house." CHAPTER II THERE'S A CONSCIENCE! Madge had been taken so wholly unawares that for a moment she remained stock-still--and voiceless. Then she followed the woman to the door. "You have come to do what?" "I've come to see the house." "And pray who are you?" "What affair is that of yours? Don't I tell you I've come to see the house?" "But I don't understand you. What do you mean by saying you've come to see the house?" For only answer the woman, turning her back on her, walked another step or two along the little passage. She exclaimed, as if addressing the staircase, which was in front of her, in what seemed a tone of intense emotion-- "How his presence is in all the place! How he fills the air!" Madge felt more bewildered than she would have cared to admit. Was the woman mad? Mad or sane, she resolved that she would not submit tamely to such another irruption as the last. She laid her hand upon the woman's shoulder. "Will you be so good as to tell me, at once, to whom I have the pleasure of speaking, and what business has brought you here?" The woman turned and looked at her; as she did so, Madge was conscious of a curious sense of discomfort.