ask for them. If she comes there to-morrow again, it might be best for
the master to take it up himself."

For once in her life Mrs. Hamlyn condescended to listen to the opinion
of an inferior, and Japhet was dismissed without orders. Close upon
that, a cab came rattling down the square, and stopped at the door. Her
husband leaped out of it, tossed the driver his fare--he always paid
liberally--and let himself in with his latch-key. To Mrs. Hamlyn's
astonishment, she had seen the woman dart from her standing-place to the
middle of the road, evidently to look at or to accost Mr. Hamlyn. But
his movements were too quick: he was within in a moment and had closed
the outer door. She then walked rapidly away, and disappeared.

Eliza Hamlyn stood there lost in thought. The nurse came in to take the
child; Mr. Hamlyn had gone to his room to dress for dinner.

"Have you seen the woman who has been standing out there yesterday
evening and this, Penelope?" she asked of the nurse, speaking upon
impulse.

"Oh, yes, ma'am. She has been there all the blessed afternoon. She came
into the garden to talk to us."

"Came into the garden to talk to you?" repeated Mrs. Hamlyn. "What did
she talk about?"

"Chiefly about Master Walter, ma'am. She seemed to be much taken with
him; she clasped him in her arms and kissed him, and said how old was
he, and was he difficult to manage, and that he had his father's
beautiful brown eyes--"