The clergyman looked about him a good deal, at the dirty and disorderly
rooms, and when Mr. Tebrick took him into the drawing room it was
evident that it had been unused for several months, the dust lay so
thickly on all the furniture.

After some conversation on indifferent topics Canon Fox said to him:

"I have called really to ask about my niece."

Mr. Tebrick was silent for some time and then said:

"She is quite happy now."

"Ah--indeed. I have heard she is not living with you any longer."

"No. She is not living with me. She is not far away. I see her every day
now."

"Indeed. Where does she live?"

"In the woods with her children. I ought to tell you that she has
changed her shape. She is a fox."

The Rev. Canon Fox got up; he was alarmed, and everything Mr. Tebrick
said confirmed what he had been led to expect he would find at Rylands.
When he was outside, however, he asked Mr. Tebrick:

"You don't have many visitors now, eh?"