shilling. And Brett was walking briskly about
to warm himself, when he came suddenly on a
woman with two children. He recollected the
woman at once.

"O, sir," she said, "I came to look for you.
I heard a gentleman had been at our house, and
I was sure it was the same."

"What, at Griffiths's?" said Young Brett.
"And this is the little woman that nearly fell
into the water? You must take care another
time, little woman." He doted on children,
and most children that he met were seen
"toddling" to him with their little hands
extended. This little child of the red cloak he
stooped down and kissed. The mother looked
at him with beaming eyes. She was young and
fresh, and had a soft interest in her face.

"O, indeed, sir," she said, "we are so grateful
to you. And you thought so little of it."

"Nonsense," said Young Brett, colouring, as
he always did at praise. "You make me
uncomfortable. So you were at Griffiths's?"

"I am their daughter-in-law," said she, "and
live with them. My husband is dead. That
little one there was his favourite."

"Nice little woman!" Brett took her up, and
put her on his shoulder. " What does she like?
Go-carts and dolls, and that sort of thing? I
suppose they sell those sort of things somewhere?"

"O no, no, sir; you are too kind. But," she
went on, with some hesitation, "you wanted
lodgings, you said."

"Why—er—no, not exactly," said Young
Brett, setting the little girl down. "I wanted
to—see somebody—or to hear something—you
know—more than the lodgings. Wasn't there a
Mrs. Carter staying with you?"

The woman looked round with alarm. "Ah, I
thought it was that," she said.

"Why?" said Young Brett, wondering.

"You wished to hear about all that. And I
have been expecting it this long time back."

"Why, I dare say you know all about it," said
he, eagerly; "that is, if there is anything to
know."

She shook her head. "Something—not much.
It is a long story, and a sad story, and a curious
story, sir. If you wish to learn it all, you should
stay here sometime, and see people who ought  to
be seen. You should take our lodgings."

Young Brett looked at her astonished. "This
is all mysterious," he said. "I did want to take
your lodgings, but they won't let me take them."

"O, they will," she said. "He will. He is
moaning over the loss of so much money at this
very moment. If you come again, sir, in the
morning——"

"But," said he, "this is all so odd;  and if I
were to go to your house, I don't know—I
ought to be back in London."

"Some one should look to it," the young
woman said.

"It? What?" echoed Young Brett.

"Her illness," said she, mysteriously. "It
was very long, and very miserable, and—"

"How did she die?" said Young Brett, eagerly.

She shook her head. "I was kept away—
shut out. Poor gentle lady, she fancied me a
little, and someway he took care always not to
let me near her. He suspected me."

"Suspected!" said Young Brett, a little
bewildered. "Suspected what?—and why should
he suspect?"

The young woman shook her head and looked
round. "He himself has been here, at our house.
He knew that some one was coming, and told
them. He has great influence with Mrs. Griffiths.
But I say," she went on, with greater vehemence,
"some one should look after it! You should
stay here some days. There are people to be
seen that know a great deal. I can tell
nothing, because I know but little; but you are
clever, and can use your eyes and head."

"Who am I to see?" said Young Brett.

They talked some time longer, and she told
him—then went away.

There was a dingy apothecary's shop there,
languid as regards business; its bottles,
medicines, and apparatus, appearing under a delicate
film of blue mould. The dispenser himself, as seen
through a dusty pane, seemed to be suffering
under the same powdery mite-eaten blight.

Young Brett walked into the shop briskly, and
asked to see Doctor Jones. A boy came out
from behind the dusty glass door of a back
parlour, with hope in his face; but Young Brett, fresh,
clean, and full of bright health, quickly
dissipated all illusion. The boy's face fell. Doctor
Jones appeared presently, a stooping,
greyhaired, trembling old man, with a face of crushed
and crumpled parchment. It was turned very
shyly and suspiciously on the young officer. With
his off-hand way, Young Brett said he wanted a
box of cough lozenges. He did not say for a
cough. Some such old friable fossils were
discovered in a pigeon-hole and given to him. Then
he began to talk pleasantly with the old man
about the place, and about those who lived there.

There was a fire in the back parlour, and
Doctor Jones, shivering a good deal, asked
"would he come in and sit down?" Brett
went in gladly, and had soon, with his old charm,
recommended himself. Gradually he came to
the subject that was in his mind, and cautiously
mentioned the name of Major Carter.

The old man started back, and looked at him
steadfastly, with his hands clasping the knobs of
his chair. "Why do you mention him?" he said,
quickly. "What do you want to know?"

"I?" said Young Brett. "I know him already
—have known him ever so long. I knew his
wife, too, poor lady!"

Old Doctor Jones squeezed up his eyes to look
yet more suspiciously at his visitor. "why do
you talk to me about her?" he said. "It is all so
long ago; it is better to let the whole thing be
forgotten. I don't want to think of it. That is—
if I was to be thinking of all the people I have
attended, and what they suffered, what pleasant
thoughts and pleasant dreams I should have!"