On Saturday evening before, about ten o’clock, he had been reading in the sitting-room down-stairs, when some one rapped at the door.  The old man was alone, Warner not having arrived, and at first he was uncertain about opening the door.  He did so finally, and was amazed at being confronted by Louise Armstrong.  Thomas was an old family servant, having been with the present Mrs. Armstrong since she was a child, and he was overwhelmed at seeing Louise.  He saw that she was excited and tired, and he drew her into the sitting-room and made her sit down.  After a while he went to the house and brought Mrs. Watson, and they talked until late.  The old man said Louise was in trouble, and seemed frightened.  Mrs. Watson made some tea and took it to the lodge, but Louise made them both promise to keep her presence a secret.  She had not known that Sunnyside was rented, and whatever her trouble was, this complicated things.  She seemed puzzled.  Her stepfather and her mother were still in California—­that was all she would say about them.  Why she had run away no one could imagine.  Mr. Arnold Armstrong was at the Greenwood Club, and at last Thomas, not knowing what else to do, went over there along the path.  It was almost midnight.  Part-way over he met Armstrong himself and brought him to the lodge.  Mrs. Watson had gone to the house for some bed-linen, it having been arranged that under the circumstances Louise would be better at the lodge until morning.  Arnold Armstrong and Louise had a long conference, during which he was heard to storm and become very violent.  When he left it was after two.  He had gone up to the house—­Thomas did not know why—­and at three o’clock he was shot at the foot of the circular staircase.

The following morning Louise had been ill.  She had asked for Arnold, and was told he had left town.  Thomas had not the moral courage to tell her of the crime.  She refused a doctor, and shrank morbidly from having her presence known.  Mrs. Watson and Thomas had had their hands full, and at last Rosie had been enlisted to help them.  She carried necessary provisions—­little enough—­to the lodge, and helped to keep the secret.

Thomas told me quite frankly that he had been anxious to keep Louise’s presence hidden for this reason:  they had all seen Arnold Armstrong that night, and he, himself, for one, was known to have had no very friendly feeling for the dead man.  As to the reason for Louise’s flight from California, or why she had not gone to the Fitzhughs’, or to some of her people in town, he had no more information than I had.  With the death of her stepfather and the prospect of the immediate return of the family, things had become more and more impossible.  I gathered that Thomas was as relieved as I at the turn events had taken.  No, she did not know of either of the deaths in the family.

Taken all around, I had only substituted one mystery for another.