1 One day Mrs. Griggs went away from the Dale place with a very curious story , which she diligently spread far and wide .
2 It made a good deal of talk , but people , although they listened eagerly , and wondered and questioned , were rather incredulous about it .
3 They thought Mrs. Griggs must be drawing considerably upon her imagination ; there were not lacking those who declared that she had invented the whole account , since her reputation for strict veracity was not wholly unquestioned .
4 Mrs. Griggs 's story was as follows : -- One day she found the door of the west gable unlocked .
5 She went in , expecting to see bare walls and a collection of odds and ends .
6 Instead she found herself in a finely furnished room .
7 Delicate lace curtains hung before the small , square , broad-silled windows .
8 The walls were adorned with pictures in much finer taste than Mrs. Griggs could appreciate .
9 There was a bookcase between the windows filled with choicely bound books .
10 Beside it stood a little table with a very dainty work-basket on it .
11 By the basket Mrs. Griggs saw a pair of tiny scissors and a silver thimble .
12 A wicker rocker , comfortable with silk cushions , was near it .
13 Above the bookcase a woman 's picture hung -- a water-colour , if Mrs. Griggs had but known it -- representing a pale , very sweet face , with large , dark eyes and a wistful expression under loose masses of black , lustrous hair .
14 Just beneath the picture , on the top shelf of the bookcase , was a vaseful of flowers .
15 Another vaseful stood on the table beside the basket .
16 All this was astonishing enough .
17 But what puzzled Mrs. Griggs completely was the fact that a woman 's dress was hanging over a chair before the mirror -- a pale blue , silken affair .
18 And on the floor beside it were two little blue satin slippers !
19 Good Mrs. Griggs did not leave the room until she had thoroughly explored it , even to shaking out the blue dress and discovering it to be a tea-gown -- wrapper , she called it .
20 But she found nothing to throw any light on the mystery .
21 The fact that the simple name `` Alice '' was written XXXXX the fly-leaves of all the books only deepened it , for it was a name unknown in the Dale family .	on		Above|although|as|before|beneath|from|on|over|since|that

