The Phantom Treasure

ce so like the one which she daily saw in her mirror that she had no difficulty in recognizing it as her mother. Yet she realized now that in certain featur

e face. The dress was white, lacy about bare neck and arms. A necklace of pearls furnished ador

er the picture, Janet saw a sheet of note paper. Some on

ding to your father. Your mother lived in New York, studying voice, for a year. Your grandfather took an apartment there and your grandmother

r near the table to think and to grow familiar with her mother's face. Then she noted a small silver vase of spring violets on top of a dark, old-fashioned h

r own clothes could be put here, where that other Jannet's clothing was. One by one, Janet opened the drawers. In the bottom one a few unmounted photographs lay loosely. E

as! They were hand in hand, the two young people, her mother in her wedding veil, her father so handsome in his wedding attire. Some one had snapped them outdoors, and

cture of her father and mother and have it in sight. She laid it carefully upon the table and went to examine a beautiful desk that stood at no great distance from the fireplace. How wonderful to have such a fireplace in her own roo

balcony that stretched away the length of the house, Janet again sat down near the tabl

er in her arms. She wore spectacles, but as they were drooping upon her nose Janet thought that they were not of much use. A woolen

bed to lay the comforter and a blanket, which it had concealed from view, across the foot. "You're here, then," she continued. "You look like your ma. You will need some extr

Janet

woman, leaving the room in the sa

le. This must be "Old P'lina!" Later Janet was to

he house could seem like that. What had Uncle Pieter said about her "having some rights in

tertainment of guests. She wondered, for she could not imagine Uncle Pieter in the role of affable host. He appeared to be preoccupied and joined little in the conversation, which was la

ch of a hurry to find out everything. "It will take you a little while to become adjusted to the new p

ltivated. Janet's consideration for others, nevertheless, kept her from blundering into questions or comments that wer

y of the corridors this time, to the door of her room. She peeped in at the glowing fire that burned behind a modern wire screen, put the

d pretty soon. I love

gotten all the money that he has spent on this place is a mystery to me. But I was delighted to be asked here. I had not seen the place sin

f I might open it or not,

e gave me directions to that effect. He said

ood of

Why should you

that was so. Unless Uncle Pieter had bought it or arrange

y was nice, and she was so sleepy. She could not quite finish the letter, but hurried to undress before the fire should go out, and climbed into the comfortable, soft bed, first spreading on the extra blanket. On finding it very chilly when she opened the window,

roused enough to put down her windows, sufficiently to pr

Slowly the comforter began to slide from her. How strange! The cold chills began to play

s and curtains of the window, disclosed a moving form at the foot of the bed. Janet, who had lifted her head to see, agai

ut the rain and the boom of distant thunder. Janet remembered that she had slid fast a small, curious brass bolt at the do

where the electric button was. Flash! On came the light and Janet was at the door, ready to run if there w

were still only a trifle raised, and now Janet threw them up as high as they would go. No one had entered there, thoug

ere in the old days or not but she fancied that it might have dated back to her mother's time. After her uncle's brief talk at supper about the old Dutch homes and habits a

reached back to the wall. No door there. The bathroom, blue and white and prettily t

been anywhere in the room, she might have thought it a dream. Yet she certainly did not dream those cold chills, or that

to bed, refreshed by the air from the wide open windows. At once she fell asleep, no