freely, as there was less danger of being overheard; and without
much delay she contrived to unlock the iron door leading into the
yard. A gust of cold wind smote her as she stepped out and
groped shiveringly under the clothes-lines.

That morning at three o'clock an alarm of fire brought the
engines to Mrs. Black's door, and also brought Mrs. Sampson's
startled boarders to their windows. The wooden balcony at the
back of Mrs. Black's house was ablaze, and among those who
watched the progress of the flames was Mrs. Manstey, leaning in
her thin dressing-gown from the open window.

The fire, however, was soon put out, and the frightened occupants
of the house, who had fled in scant attire, reassembled at dawn
to find that little mischief had been done beyond the cracking of
window panes and smoking of ceilings. In fact, the chief
sufferer by the fire was Mrs. Manstey, who was found in the
morning gasping with pneumonia, a not unnatural result, as
everyone remarked, of her having hung out of an open window at
her age in a dressing-gown. It was easy to see that she was very
ill, but no one had guessed how grave the doctor's verdict would
be, and the faces gathered that evening about Mrs. Sampson's
table were awestruck and disturbed. Not that any of the boarders
knew Mrs. Manstey well; she "kept to herself," as they said, and
seemed to fancy herself too good for them; but then it is always
disagreeable to have anyone dying in the house and, as one lady
observed to another: "It might just as well have been you or me,
my dear."

But it was only Mrs. Manstey; and she was dying, as she had