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 be something at the bottom of the affair, and she would be much relieved to have the mystery cleared up.

Miss Mildred Fanshawe was an aristocratic but anemic-looking woman of perhaps thirty years. She was a brunette, with dark hair and eyes, with a lean narrow face, full of nervous energy. Her hands were long and slim; her upper lip was nearly covered with fine hair, almost a mustache, which gave her a distinctly Italian aspect. She talked freely with Astro and Valeska, using gestures like a foreigner.

When she had gone, Astro turned to his assistant. "Well," he said, "I'm curious to know just what you noticed about that woman."

"There is something strange about her—I hardly know what it is," said Valeska. "I noticed, though, for one thing, that she wiggled her ears. I knew a boy once who could do that. I've often tried to; but I can't. Then, her mustache was a great blemish, wasn't it? It's a pity for a woman to have to suffer that. Then, her eyes were queer. What was the matter with them?"

Astro smiled. "And I have been lecturing you upon the eye for a fortnight! It was the 'semilunar fold' I spoke to you about a while ago. It was extraordinarily large."

"So it was, now I recall it. That was funny about her being able to pick up a fork with her toes, like Stevenson at Vailima, wasn't it? I always wanted to live in a country where I could go barefooted. We don't half use our feet, do we?"

"Well—and the ghost? Have you no theory?" Astro asked.

"Already? Of course not! How can we tell any