"Mrs. Pond had been out riding. When she returned she hurried up to her room to dress for dinner.
"She took off some of her jewelry—some rings, pins and that sort of thing—and laid them on the dressing-table. Then she went into her sitting-room.
"Remember, I'm telling this just as she told it. How much of it is fact and how much is hysterics I can't say. She was scared half out of her wits by what happened afterward, and may have got mixed up in her narrative.
"This is what she told us: When she had been in the sitting-room about a minute she turned toward the bedroom and saw the door slowly shutting.
"She was surprised at this, for she had locked the other door of the bed-room, and it did not seem possible for anybody to be in there.
"In fact, such a thing did not come into her mind. She supposed that a draught of air was swinging the door.
"She hastened toward it, but it closed before she got there.
"She turned the knob and tried to open the door, but was unable to do so. It did not seem to resist firmly, as it would if it had been fastened. Instead it gave slightly, as if some person had been holding it.
"If that was the case, he was stronger than she was, for she didn't succeed in opening the door.
"Then she screamed. Such a yell I never heard a woman utter. I was in my own room, which is over hers, and I jumped nearly out of my skin, it startled me so.