The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-01-30

ceivable. It appeared to have been ,.;a out somewhat on the plan of eeneaio"l ical tree: big arm of a flower hsa stretching out horizontally, smaII.. flower beds depending from this nern.s s' diculariy. and these smaller beds Sn;sS ing at their base with others yet nor. diminished. One and all were plap,eS in even rows with variety of small plants, presenting now somewhat of . dejected appearance from an early win ter's wear and tear.
 " It is easy to see where the doctor cor. centrates his energies" said Frank, sn-. veying the neatness and order of the who'll. thing with unqualified admiration.
 Begin at whatever end you like, said Patience, trying to act the showman gracefully. "They're all here-order, classes, genera. You can arrange them for yourself any way you please. There are the Acoty-something somewhere, and the Dicoty-something or ether. Oh, and there's another coty-something some. where. I've forgotten whatit's called but l know it's here"
 From one corner of the garden tbev could get view of the house at an apgle Frank paused for moment, looking m at the front of 1t. A roomy, comfortahle house it must have been in it's day. The facade was plain and formal to the lac, degree, with rows of flat windows, seven in row, on each of it's three floors. the only attempt at ornamentation being a shelving ledge of stone little over foo, wide, which ran the length of the frontage beneath the first floor windows. Thirty years however, of dirt and neg. feet will transform the most comfortable of houses into the most forlorn, and assu. redly this house looked desolate and for. lorn enough to satisfy the soul of the mos, ghost loving antiquary who ever grubbed among oobweboy manuscripts The ill-kept ple- sure grounds, the win. ter mist beating dawn upon it from the hills, seemed sill further to accentua,e its uninhabted and generally doletul appearance.
 Isn't 1t an awful looking place ?" asked Patience with shudder; /" and oh, the echoes inside at night, when the doors are all shut and the servants gone!"
 The servants gone"
 Oh, yes, they all depart in a body di. rectly it begins to get dark; they wouldn't sleep in the house if we offered them { 100 night, and then we have to wait on ourselves till they come back again in the morning. We have the odd. est arrangement in the shape of dinner you can imagine. The servants put all we re to have to eat on the table before they go, and we just help ourselves to it."
 And do you mean to say that you and the doctor are the only two living souls in that big house all night2 Why, what miles of empty rooms you must have all round youl"
 "On the top floor there isn't single room in use they are all locked up and given up to the rats and cobwebs. They are jast stuffed with all the old furniture of the house. Uncle Richard brough, the furniture we're using now with him, and fitted up the kitchens, the sitting rooms, and just three bedrooms above. All the old furniture he had cleared of into the top story, except just one or two pictures he liked"
 And are those few windows see cur tained the only rooms in use on the first floor P
 An, you can't see Uncle Richards bedroom windows they run round the side of the house. Those first three win dows, beginning on the left, with brown curtains, are the windows of the spare room ; that will be your room tonight. Then comes the corridor window, then my room windows-the last two to the right with green curtains"
 The last two! That leaves one win dow unaccounted for-that one next to the corridor window without any cur tains"
 "Oh-h! SO it does," said Patience, suddenly looking grave and puzzled. "l don't understand it. always though. my windows were next to the corridor window. You see haven't been here long, and I've never studied the front of the house before. It's much too dismal looking to take any interest in"
 " don't suppose you've had time yet to make out the geography of the house"
 "Oh, yes, have-on that floor at any rate, and always have taken it for granted that my room adjoined the corn. dor. There can't be any room in between, there isn't any door. A picture-a huge one of Curtius taking the leap into the gulf-hangs just outside my door; then comes the corridor which runs between my room and the spare room."
 "The doctor can explain it all, no doubt, when we ask him." said Frank, sorry he had gone so minutely into the question. But though Patience assented, she no longer essayed to play the show man. Her manner grew abstracted; she kept twisting herself iote all sorts of awkward positions, as they once more made the rounds of the geometric paths, in her anxiety to keep the mysterious win dow still in view.
 "I hope haven't frightened her out of her nights rest" thought Frank. Then, the better to divert her thoughts, he be- gan talking of his life in London, his hard reading, bis successful passing of his exams, his ignominious break down.
 Patience awoke to deep, sympathetic interest. She was splendid listener, not an altogether silent enc, but much given to those short, vehement inteDec- tons which, as it were, put the spurs to