“And you told her she was?”

“Sartain; and how much time she had to get there to catch the boat.”

“I see.  So you would know her again if you saw her.”

“I jest would.”

The lawyer made a move towards the door which Mr. Ransom hastened to open.  As the long vista of the hall disclosed itself, Mr. Harper turned upon the countryman with the quiet remark: 

“There were two ladies here, you know.  Twins.  Their likeness was remarkable.  If we show you the remaining one who now lies asleep, you surely will be able to tell if she is like the lady you saw.”

“If she looks just like her you can bet beans against potatoes on that.”

“Come, then.  You needn’t feel any embarrassment, for she’s not only sound asleep but so deaf she couldn’t hear you if she were awake.  You need only take one glance and nod your head if she looks like the other.  It is very desirable that none of us should speak.  The case is a mysterious one and there’s enough talk about it already without the women hiding and listening behind every shut door you see, adding their gossip to the rest.”

A knowing look, a twitch at the corners of a good-natured mouth, and the man followed them down the hall, past one or two of the doors alluded to, till they reached the one against the panel of which Mr. Ransom had already laid his ear.

“Still asleep,” his gesture seemed to signify; and with a word of caution he led the way in.

The room was very dark.  Mrs. Deo had been careful to draw down the shade when she put her strange charge to bed, and at this first moment of entrance it was impossible for them to see more than the outline of a dark head upon a snowy pillow.  But gradually, feature by feature of the sleeping woman’s countenance became visible, and the lawyer, turning his acute gaze on the man from whose recognition he expected so much, impatiently awaited the nod which was to settle their doubt.

But that nod did not come, not even after Mr. Ransom, astonished at the long pause, turned on the stranger his own haggard and inquiring eyes.  Instead, Mr. Goodenough lifted a blank stare to either face beside him, and, shaking his head, stumbled awkwardly back in an endeavor to leave the room.  Mr. Ransom, taken wholly by surprise, uttered some peremptory ejaculation, but a glance from the lawyer quieted him, and not till they were all shut up again in that convenient room at the head of the stairs did any of the three speak.

And not even then without an embarrassed pause.  Both the lawyer and his unhappy client had a deep and, in the case of the latter, a heartrending disappointment to overcome, and the clock on the stairs ticked out several seconds before the lawyer ventured to remark: 

“Miss Hazen’s face is quite new to you, I perceive.  Evidently it was not her twin sister you met on the high road this morning.”

“Nor anything like her,” protested the man.  “A different face entirely; prettier and more saucy.  Such a gal as a man like me would be glad to call darter.”