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I followed Great-aunt Leonora up the stairs She paused at the double doors of her and her husband's bedroom

"I knohat you're thinking," she said suddenly, hesitating to open the doors I raised ? I hoped not "You're thinking our rooms are so ss in a bigger way than anyone else," she continued, once again referring to Ah she was one "These older houses weren't built that way Here, we had to think about heating thes However, this is a house with history Do you knoas built nearly a hundred years before the house Frances lives in was built?" she asked I shook my head "This is a country with a past, where laws and art and literature began But," she said with a sood student Voila!" she cried and threw open her bedroom doors with a dramatic flair

She iian-style painted fourposter On the side of the roo an Indian ivory-and-ebony oval ht at an auction, outbidding someone named Lord Flanders by five thousand pounds There was a satinwood table where she wrote her notes and letters, long velvet drapes over the s, laypt as well as so to her all of her furnishings had historicaland all were refurbished antiques On the wall to the right of the entryas a large portrait of a ers

"It's actually a self-portrait He dabbled in art He never developed any sort of reputation, butit's good," she said, nodding She looked atsome sort of reaction

"I'hed that thin jingle of a laugh again

"Oh, of course, I forgot He was the original owner of Endfield Place And I want to tell you right away," she added with a serious face, "the stories about the spirit of his dead inative Don't let Leo or Mary Margaret or Mrs Chester or anyone else tell you otherwise"

"Dead mistress?"

"There is a ridiculous tale that he housed his nant with his child and rather than have his reputation soiled, he brought her here to give birth without society knowing about it Legend, and I stress it's legend, has it that his wife poisoned her and she wandered and haunted the house forever and ever afterward until his wife committed suicide"

"How horrible," I said

"All poppycock," she declared with a wave of her hand, "but the stuff that et you settled in"

I gazed around the bedroo atyou have when you know you have so to ask, but what it is exactly is just a little beyond your thinking because you've been so distracted or you're so tired It's like a feather tickling at the back of your brain

I glanced again in the rooaret and Leo aited in anticipation Boggs was still in the entryway, his hands behind his back, rocking up and down on his heels impatiently

"Do show Rain her quarters now, Mary Margaret, and as I said, take her immediately afterward to meet Mrs Chester," Great-aunt Leonora commanded I noticed whenever she spoke to the servants, she tilted her head back so that the tip of her chin pointed at them

Boggs cleared his throat rather emphatically

"Oh," Great-aunt Leonora said, "but, of course, before you do that, bring her back here and let Boggs describe her duties" She turned to ood luck with your studies"