The Stapletons of Merripit House
and chilled by our drive, so we took a grey view of the place. Now we are fresh and well, so it is all cheerful once more.”
“And yet it was not entirely a question of imagination,” I answered. “Did you, for example, happen to hear some one, a woman I think, sobbing in the night?”
“That is curious, for I did when I was half asleep fancy that I heard something of the sort. I waited quite a time, but there was no more of it, so I concluded that it was all a dream.”
“I heard it distinctly, and I am sure that it was really the sob of a woman.”
“We must ask about this right away.”
He rang the bell and asked Barrymore whether he could account for our experience. It seemed to me that the pallid features of the butler turned a shade paler still as he listened to his master’s question.
“There are only two women in the house, Sir Henry,” he answered. “One is the scullery-maid, who sleeps in the other
127
