The hall was empty, and so was the front room.

The latter appeared desolate and grim in its disorder and dirt.

My thought centered on that picture of Judge Henley hanging against the further wall.

Perhaps it had not moved; the supposition that it did might have been an illusion, produced by some flaw in the mirror opposite, or by a freak of imagination.

Yet I could never be satisfied until I learned absolutely what was concealed behind that heavy gilded frame.