"I can't understand what object they can have in detaining me. If I were
rich, I might guess, but I am poor. I am compelled to work for my daily
bread, and have been out of a place for two weeks."

"I don't understand," she said, in a low voice, rather to herself than
to him. "But I cannot wait. I must not stand here. I will come up in
fifteen minutes, and if you wish another cup of tea, or some toast, I
will bring them."

His confinement did not affect his appetite, for he enjoyed his tea and
toast; and when, as she had promised, the woman came up, he told her he
would like another cup of tea, and some more toast.

"Will you answer one question?" asked our hero.

"I don't know," answered the woman in a flurried tone.

"You look like a good woman. Why do you stay in such a house as this?"

"I will tell you, though I should do better to be silent. But you won't
betray me?"

"On no account."

"I was poor, starving, when I had an application to come here. The man
who engaged me told me that it was to be a housekeeper, and I had no
suspicion of the character of the house--that it was a den of--"

She stopped short, but Frank understood what she would have said.