Well, it ended by my engaging Thomas on the spot, at outrageous wages, and with permission to sleep in the gardener’s lodge, empty since the house was rented.  The old man—­he was white-haired and a little stooped, but with an immense idea of his personal dignity—­gave me his reasons hesitatingly.

“I ain’t sayin’ nothin’, Mis’ Innes,” he said, with his hand on the door-knob, “but there’s been goin’s-on here this las’ few months as ain’t natchal.  ‘Tain’t one thing an’ ’tain’t another—­ it’s jest a door squealin’ here, an’ a winder closin’ there, but when doors an’ winders gets to cuttin’ up capers and there’s nobody nigh ’em, it’s time Thomas Johnson sleeps somewhar’s else.”

Liddy, who seemed to be never more than ten feet away from me that night, and was afraid of her shadow in that great barn of a place, screamed a little, and turned a yellow-green.  But I am not easily alarmed.

It was entirely in vain; I represented to Thomas that we were alone, and that he would have to stay in the house that night.  He was politely firm, but he would come over early the next morning, and if I gave him a key, he would come in time to get some sort of breakfast.  I stood on the huge veranda and watched him shuffle along down the shadowy drive, with mingled feelings—­irritation at his cowardice and thankfulness at getting him at all.  I am not ashamed to say that I double-locked the hall door when I went in.

“You can lock up the rest of the house and go to bed, Liddy,” I said severely.  “You give me the creeps standing there.  A woman of your age ought to have better sense.”  It usually braces Liddy to mention her age:  she owns to forty—­which is absurd.  Her mother cooked for my grandfather, and Liddy must be at least as old as I. But that night she refused to brace.

“You’re not going to ask me to lock up, Miss Rachel!” she quavered.  “Why, there’s a dozen French windows in the drawing-room and the billiard-room wing, and every one opens on a porch.  And Mary Anne said that last night there was a man standing by the stable when she locked the kitchen door.”

“Mary Anne was a fool,” I said sternly.  “If there had been a man there, she would have had him in the kitchen and been feeding him what was left from dinner, inside of an hour, from force of habit.  Now don’t be ridiculous.  Lock up the house and go to bed.  I am going to read.”

But Liddy set her lips tight and stood still.

“I’m not going to bed,” she said.  “I am going to pack up, and to-morrow I am going to leave.”

“You’ll do nothing of the sort,” I snapped.  Liddy and I often desire to part company, but never at the same time.  “If you are afraid, I will go with you, but for goodness’ sake don’t try to hide behind me.”