In the faraway darkness of the cellar corridor, a solitary star appeared, small and feeble. Gradually as its cousins in the sky it moved, growing brighter, coming closer, until through the panes of a delicate lantern a shape resolved, thin but for the tulip flare of drab petticoat and juliet sleeves. Her face was cast in red from the lantern, and so uniform in the color she seemed an apparition, with only the dark slots of eyes and narrow line of an inexpressive mouth. Her hand was bunched into a curtsy to keep her fringe off the muddy fieldstone, and it slowed her, jangling, attending to the gate noise like a bothersome chore.<br/><br/>It was when she drew close the face could be seen for what it was. A mask, white and ladylike in shape, but not quite correct- too soft were its lines, and the shadows necessary to read a face dissolved on examination, stressing the animal brain to make sense of the abstract. What occupied the body of a woman could not with certainty be categorized as such. About the porcelain mask, a band of lily lace was drawn, in the conservative style of old maids.<br/><br/>From a safe distance she examined those beyond the gate, and then, suppressing a small sound in her throat, folded in her shoulders to work the lock with a brass key, its motif a cradled heart.<br/><br/>"Do try to keep it down." The voice was indistinct, claustrophobic beneath the mask, like a secret whispered through cracks in the garden wall. "For the sake of the patients."<br/><br/>The way beneath Heinfroth's asylum was long, and trod by the hooves of horses. The plainly-dressed orderly took care avoiding caked mud, and the journey in her custody was slow because of it.<br/>"They have all gone out to the airing courts and left us the house. It was an ordeal to prepare a serviceable room for all of you. The sitting room beside the kitchen will have to do. If you will follow me, I will show you to it. A bath will be drawn, so you may feel presentable meeting Doctor Heinfroth."<br/><br/>At the end of this walk, in the dim light of the cellar, the path branched three ways. She took the middle, and led through a well-stocked pantry, up austere flour-dusted steps into the house proper. Daylight filtered in through the kitchen windows, tall and narrow in orderly grids with the Tudor timbers of the manor. Judging from the size of the kitchen and the count of its black iron pans, Heinfroth's asylum had many patients to feed.