"Did you know Mrs. Armstrong and Louise are in the village?" she
called.
"No," I replied, startled. "How did you hear it?"
"I met the oldest Stewart girl to-day, the doctor's daughter, and
she told me they had not gone back to town after the funeral.
They went directly to that little yellow house next to Doctor
Walker's, and are apparently settled there. They took the house
furnished for the summer."
"Why, it's a bandbox," I said. "I can't imagine Fanny Armstrong
in such a place."
"It's true, nevertheless. Ella Stewart says Mrs. Armstrong has
aged terribly, and looks as if she is hardly able to walk."
I lay and thought over some of these things until midnight. The
electric lights went out then, fading slowly until there was only
a red-hot loop to be seen in the bulb, and then even that
died away and we were embarked on the darkness of another night.
Apparently only a few minutes elapsed, during which my eyes were
becoming accustomed to the darkness. Then I noticed that the
windows were reflecting a faint pinkish light, Liddy noticed it
at the same time, and I heard her jump up. At that moment Sam's
deep voice boomed from somewhere just below.
"Fire!" he yelled. "The stable's on fire!"
I could see him in the glare dancing up and down on the drive,
and a moment later Halsey joined him. Alex was awake and running
down the stairs, and in five minutes from the time the fire was
discovered, three of the maids were sitting on their trunks in
the drive, although, excepting a few sparks, there was no fire
nearer than a hundred yards.
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