The following pages contain a gallery of the principal characters in THE ALBUM

GEORGE TALBOT Mrs. Talbot’s son; he was often out late at night but was not allowed a latch key

LYDIA TALBOT Mrs. Talbot’s sister-in-law; a perfect specimen of the dependent spinster of the nineties

MRS. TALBOT Her husband had vanished years ago; she had a mania for locking up everything and keeping the keys

JIM WELLINGTON Young and in love with his wife, who led him a merry dance

HELEN WELLINGTON Jim’s wife; she gave lively parties, and the neighbors deplored her housekeeping

LOUISA HALL Twenty-eight and attractive, but wilting under the thumb of her domineering mother

MARGARET LANCASTER Emily’s sister, not yet resigned to spinsterhood but devoted to her mother and stepfather

MR. LANCASTER Husband of the bedridden first victim. Mild and elderly; stepfather to Emily and Margaret, who had taken his name

MR. DALTON A big man, floridly handsome; jealousy may have caused the bitter quarrel with his wife

EMILY LANCASTER A born old maid with an enormous pompadour, she waited hand and foot on her invalid mother—who was to be murdered

MRS. HALL Her husband had been dead for twenty years, but she still wore deep mourning

HERBERT RANCHESTER DEAN A criminologist who could work with the police

HOLMES The Hall’s butler-chauffeur; a strange little man who knew a little and guessed a lot

DANIELS Nobody noticed him because he was a street-cleaner

MRS. DALTON Middle-aged and sad; she had not spoken directly to her husband in twenty years

LIZZIE CROMWELL Gaunt and faithful, she had been the Talbot’s maid as long as anyone could remember