It was a disagreeable, an offensive word--a word, or rather an appellation, which the clever young doctor had not heard applied to himself for a good many years.

For, twice over, was the word "Fool!" repeated in a mocking voice, a voice to whose owner he could not at the moment put a name, and yet which seemed vaguely familiar.
Then he remembered.

Why, of course, it was the voice of that crazy, unpleasant old woman who had called on him last spring! But how had Miss Pigchalke found her way into Wyndfell Hall?
And where on earth was she?
He looked round him, this way and that; and his eyes, by now accustomed to the dim light thrown by a hanging lamp, saw everything quite distinctly.

He was certainly alone in the corridor now.

But Miss Pigchalke had as certainly been there a moment ago.