uncivilly, or improperly, towards me or
towards any one.' ' Do you tell me that
deliberately, Mrs. Jazeph ? ' I asked. ' I tell it
you sincerely, ma'am,' she answered ; ' and I
am very sorry to be obliged to do so.' ' Pray
don't trouble yourself to be sorry,' I said,
'for you may consider yourself no longer in
my service. I will order the steward to pay
you the usual month's wages instead of the
month's warning, the first thing to-morrow ;
and I beg that you will leave the house as
soon as you conveniently can, afterwards.'
'I will leave to-morrow, ma'am,' says she,
' but without troubling the steward. I beg,
respectfully, and with many thanks for your
past kindness, to decline taking a month's
money which I have not earned by a month's
service.' And, thereupon, she curtseys and
goes out. That is, word for word, what passed
between us, Mr.Orridge. Explain the woman's
conduct in your own way, if you can. I say
that it is utterly incomprehensible, unless
you agree with me, that she was either not
sober, or not in her right senses, when she
came back to this house last night."

The doctor began to think, after what he
had just heard, that Mrs. Frankland's
suspicions in relation to the new nurse, were
not quite so unfounded as he had been at
first disposed to consider them. He wisely
refrained, however, from complicating
matters, by giving utterance to what he thought ;
and, after answering Mrs. Norbury in a few
vaguely polite words, endeavoured to soothe
her irritation against Mr. and Mrs. Frankland,
by assuring her that he came as the
bearer of apologies from both husband and
wife, for the apparent want of courtesy and
consideration in their conduct, which circumstances
had made inevitable. The offended
lady, however, absolutely refused to be
propitiated. She rose up, and waved her hand
with an air of great dignity.

"I cannot hear a word more from you, Mr.
Orridge," she said. "I cannot receive any apologies
which are made indirectly. If Mr. Frankland
chooses to call, and if Mrs. Frankland
condescends to write to me, I am willing to
think no more of the matter. Under any
other circumstances, I must be allowed to
keep my present opinions both of the lady
and the gentleman. Don't say another word,
and be so kind as to excuse me if I leave you,
and go up to the nursery to see how the child
is getting on. I am delighted to hear that you
think her so much better. Pray call again
to-morrow, or next day, if you conveniently
can. Good morning!"

Half-amused at Mrs. Norbury, half-displeased
at the curt tone she adopted towards
him, Mr. Orridge remained for a minute or
two alone in the breakfast-parlour, feeling
rather undecided about what he should do
next. He was, by this time, almost as much
interested in solving the mystery of Mrs.
Jazeph's extraordinary conduct, as Mrs,
Frankland herself: and he felt unwilling, on
all accounts, to go back to the Tiger's Head,
and merely repeat what Mrs. Norbury had
told him, without being able to complete the
narrative by informing Mr. and Mrs. Frankland
of the direction that the housekeeper
had taken on leaving her situation. After
some pondering, he determined to question
the footman, under the pretence of desiring
to know if his gig was at the door. The
man having answered the bell, and having
reported the gig to be ready, Mr. Orridge,
while crossing the hall, asked him carelessly,
if he knew at what time in the morning
Mrs. Jazeph had left her place.

"About ten o'clock, sir," answered the
footman. " When the carrier came by from
the village, on his way to the station for the
eleven o'clock train."

"O! I suppose he took her boxes?"
said Mr. Orridge.

"And took her, too, sir," said the man with
a grin. " She had to ride, for once in her life,
at any rate, in a carrier's cart."

On getting back to West Winston, the
doctor stopped at the station, to collect
further particulars, before he returned to the
Tiger's Head. No trains, either up or down,
happened to be due just at that time. The
station-master was reading the newspaper,
and the porter was gardening on the slope of
the embankment.

"Is the train at eleven in the morning an
up-train, or a down-train ? " asked Mr. Orridge,
addressing the porter.

"A down-train."

"Did many people go by it?"

The porter repeated the names of some of
the inhabitants of West Winston.

"Were there no passengers but passengers
from the town?" inquired the doctor.

"Yes, sir. I think there was one stranger
—a lady."

"Did the station-master issue the tickets
for that train?"

"Yes, sir."

Mr. Orridge went on to the station-master.

"Do you remember giving a ticket, this
morning, by the eleven o'clock down-train, to
a lady travelling alone?"

The station-master pondered. "I have
issued tickets, up and down, to half-a-dozen
ladies to-day," he answered, doubtfully.

"Yes, but I am speaking only of the eleven
o'clock train," said Mr. Orridge. "Try if
you can't remember?"

" Remember ? Stop! I do remember; I
know who you mean. A lady who seemed
rather flurried, and who put a question to
me that I am not often asked at this station.
She had her veil down, I recollect, and she
got here for the eleven o'clock train. Crouch,
the carrier, brought her trunk into the office."

"That is the woman. Where did she take
her ticket for ? "

"For Exeter."

"You said she asked you a question."

"Yes: a question about what coaches met