Buildings. That's all, sir."

"Why have I never heard of him?" said the Chemist, rising
hurriedly. "Why has he not made his situation known to me? Sick!-
-give me my hat and cloak. Poor!--what house?--what number?"

"Oh, you mustn't go there, sir," said Milly, leaving her father-in-
law, and calmly confronting him with her collected little face and
folded hands.

"Not go there?"

"Oh dear, no!" said Milly, shaking her head as at a most manifest
and self-evident impossibility. "It couldn't be thought of!"

"What do you mean? Why not?"

"Why, you see, sir," said Mr. William Swidger, persuasively and
confidentially, "that's what I say. Depend upon it, the young
gentleman would never have made his situation known to one of his
own sex. Mrs. Williams has got into his confidence, but that's
quite different. They all confide in Mrs. William; they all trust
HER. A man, sir, couldn't have got a whisper out of him; but
woman, sir, and Mrs. William combined--!"

"There is good sense and delicacy in what you say, William,"
returned Mr. Redlaw, observant of the gentle and composed face at
his shoulder. And laying his finger on his lip, he secretly put
his purse into her hand.