She looked through the open door of the parlor, but there was no one there, and then she knocked on the door of a closed room.
No answer came, and she went to the back door of the long hall and looked out, but not a soul could she see.

This was discouraging, but she was not a girl who would willingly turn back, after having set out on an errand of mercy.

There was a door which seemed to lead to the basement, and on this she knocked, but to no purpose.
"This is an awfully funny house," she said to herself.

"If I could see any stairs, I might go up a little way and call.

Surely there must be somebody alive somewhere." Then the thought suddenly came into her mind that perhaps want of life in the particular person she had come to see might be the reason of this dreadful stillness and desertion, and without a moment's hesitation she stepped out of the back door into the open air.
She could not stay in that house another second until she knew.