stopped to look at the children, and wonder what
their names were, and where they had gone, and
why they wore such odd clothes. There was a
stiff, plain little girl rather like herself. She
wore a green brocade dress and held a green parrot
on her finger. Her eyes had a sharp, curious
look.

"Where do you live now?" said Mary aloud
to her. "I wish you were here."

Surely no other little girl ever spent such a queer
morning. It seemed as if there was no one in
all the huge rambling house but her own small
self, wandering about up-stairs and down, through
narrow passages and wide ones, where it seemed
to her that no one but herself had ever walked.
Since so many rooms had been built, people must
have lived in them, but it all seemed so empty that
she could not quite believe it true.

It was not until she climbed to the second floor
that she thought of turning the handle of a door.
All the doors were shut, as Mrs. Medlock had
said they were, but at last she put her hand on the
handle of one of them and turned it. She was
almost frightened for a moment when she felt that
it turned without difficulty and that when she
pushed upon the door itself it slowly and heavily
opened. It was a massive door and opened into
a big bedroom. There were embroidered hangings

[[70]]

p069 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p070w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p071

v?