"Oh dear no, sir!" cried Milly, giving it back again. "Worse and
worse! Couldn't be dreamed of!"

Such a staid matter-of-fact housewife she was, and so unruffled by
the momentary haste of this rejection, that, an instant afterwards,
she was tidily picking up a few leaves which had strayed from
between her scissors and her apron, when she had arranged the
holly.

Finding, when she rose from her stooping posture, that Mr. Redlaw
was still regarding her with doubt and astonishment, she quietly
repeated--looking about, the while, for any other fragments that
might have escaped her observation:

"Oh dear no, sir! He said that of all the world he would not be
known to you, or receive help from you--though he is a student in
your class. I have made no terms of secrecy with you, but I trust
to your honour completely."

"Why did he say so?"

"Indeed I can't tell, sir," said Milly, after thinking a little,
"because I am not at all clever, you know; and I wanted to be
useful to him in making things neat and comfortable about him, and
employed myself that way. But I know he is poor, and lonely, and I
think he is somehow neglected too.--How dark it is!"

The room had darkened more and more. There was a very heavy gloom
and shadow gathering behind the Chemist's chair.