said Mr. Orridge, opening the door. " But
remember, Mrs. Frankland, I shall expect
you to reward your ambassador, when he
returns from his mission, by showing him
that you are a little more quiet and composed
than I find you this morning." With that
parting hint, the doctor took his leave.

"'When you go to Porthgenna, keep out
of the Myrtle Room,' " repeated Mr. Frankland,
thoughtfully. " Those are very strange
words, Rosamond. Who can this woman
really be? She is a perfect stranger to both
of us; we are brought into contact with her
by the merest accident; and we find that
she knows something about our own house,
of which we were both perfectly ignorant
until she chose to speak!"

"But the warning, Lenny — the warning,
so pointedly and mysteriously addressed to
me ? O, if I could only go to sleep at once,
and not wake again till the doctor comes
back!"

"My love, try not to count too certainly
on our being enlightened, even then. The
woman may refuse to explain herself to
anybody."

"Don't even hint at such a disappointment
as that, Lenny — or I shall be wanting to get
up and go and question her myself!"

"Even if you could get up and question
her, Rosamond, you might find it impossible
to make her answer. She may be afraid of
certain consequences which we cannot foresee;
and, in that case, I can only repeat, that it is
more than probable she will explain nothing
—or, perhaps, still more likely that she will
coolly deny her own words altogether."

"Then, Lenny, we will put them to the
proof for ourselves."

"And how can we do that?"

"By continuing our journey to Porthgenna,
the moment I am allowed to travel, and by
leaving no stone unturned, when we get
there, until we have discovered whether there
is, or is not, any room in the old house that
ever was known, at any time of its existence,
by the name of the Myrtle Room."

"And suppose it should turn out that there
is such a room? " asked Mr. Frankland,
beginning to feel the influence of his wife's
enthusiasm.

"If it does turn out so," said Rosamond,
her voice rising, and her face lighting up
with its accustomed vivacity, " how can you
doubt what will happen next? Am I not a
woman? And have I not been forbidden to
enter the Myrtle Room! Lenny! Lenny!
Do you know so little of my half of humanity,
as to doubt what I should do, the moment
the room was discovered? My darling, as a
matter of course, I should walk into it
immediately!"

CHAPTER THE ELEVENTH. ANOTHER SURPRISE.

WITH all the haste he could make, it was
one o'clock in the afternoon before Mr.
Orridge's professional avocations allowed him
to set forth in his gig for Mrs. Norbury's
house. He drove there with such good-will
that he accomplished the half-hour's journey
in twenty minutes. The footman having
heard the rapid approach of the gig, opened
the hall door, the instant the horse was pulled
up before it ; and confronted the doctor
with a smile of malicious satisfaction.

"Well," said Mr. Orridge, bustling into
the hall, " you were all rather surprised, last
night, when the housekeeper came back, I
suppose?"

"Yes, sir, we certainly were surprised
when she came back last night," answered
the footman; " but we were still more
surprised when she went away again, this
morning."

"Went away! You don't mean to say she
is gone?"

"Yes, I do, sir — she has lost her place and
gone for good." The footman smiled again,
as he made that reply; and the housemaid,
who happened to be on her way down stairs
while he was speaking, and to hear what he
said, smiled too. Mrs. Jazeph had evidently
been no favourite in the servants' hall.

Amazement prevented Mr. Orridge from
uttering another word. Hearing no more
questions asked, the footman threw open the
door of the breakfast-parlour; and the doctor
followed him into the room. Mrs. Norbury
was sitting near the window in a rigidly
upright attitude, inflexibly watching the
proceedings of her invalid child over a basin of
beef-tea.

"I know what you are going to talk about
before you open your lips," said the outspoken
lady. " But just look to the child first, and
say what you have to say on that subject, if
you please, before you enter on any other."

The child was examined, was pronounced
to be improving rapidly, and was carried
away by the nurse to lie down and rest a
little. As soon as the door of the room had
closed, Mrs. Norbury abruptly addressed the
doctor, interrupting him, for the second time,
just as he was about to speak.

"Now, Mr. Orridge," she said, " I want to
tell you something at the outset. I am a
remarkably just woman, and I have no quarrel
with you. You are the cause of my having
been treated with the most audacious
insolence by three people — but you are the
innocent cause, and, therefore, I don't blame
you."

"I am really at a loss," Mr. Orridge began,
"quite at a loss, I assure you — "

"To know what I mean?" said Mrs.
Norbury. " I will soon tell you. Were you not
the original cause of my sending my
housekeeper to nurse Mrs. Frankland?"

Yes: Mr. Orridge could not hesitate to
acknowledge that.

"Well," pursued Mrs. Norbury, " and the
consequence of my sending her is, as I said
before, that I am treated with unparalleled
insolence by no less than three people. Mrs.