Come!" She started down a very dark and dismal corridor--I stepping close after her.

Presently she stopped, and said that, as the way was so crooked and dark, perhaps she had better get a light.

But it seemed ungallant to allow a woman to put herself to so much trouble for me, and so I said: "It is not worth while, madam.

If you will heave another sigh, I think I can follow it." So we got along all right.

Arrived at her official and mysterious den, she asked me to tell her the date of my birth, the exact hour of that occurrence, and the color of my grandmother's hair.