tting-room next.

This door was covered with green baize. It had handles but no lock; and
it swung inwards, so as to allow the door of the cupboard (situated in
the angle of the sitting-room wall) to open towards the bedroom freely.
Teresa oiled the hinges, and the brass bolt and staple which protected
the baize door on the side of the bedroom. That done, she looked again
at her watch.

Mr. Le Frank's absence was expected to last for an hour. In five minutes
more, the hour would expire.

After bolting the door of communication, she paused in the bedroom, and
wafted a kiss to Carmina, still at rest. She left the room by the door
which opened on the stairs, and locked it, taking away the key with her.

Having gone down the first flight of stairs, she stopped and went back.
The one unsecured door, was the door which led into the sitting-room
from the staircase. She opened it and left it invitingly ajar. "Now,"
she said to herself, "the trap will catch him!"

The hall clock struck the hour when she entered the landlady's room.

The woman of many words was at once charmed and annoyed. Charmed to
hear that the dear invalid was resting, and to receive a visit from the
nurse: annoyed by the absence of the carpenter, at work somewhere else
for the whole of the day. "If my dear husband had been alive, we should
have been independent of carpenters; he could turn his hand to anything.
Now do sit down--I want you to taste some cherry brandy of my own
making."

As Teresa took a chair, Mr. Le Frank returned. The two secret
adversaries met, face to face.

"Surely I remember this lady?" he said.

Teresa encountered him, on his own ground. She made her best curtsey,
and reminded him of the circumstances under which they had formerly met.
The hospitable landlady produced her cherry brandy. "We are going to
have a nice little chat; do sit down, sir, and join us." Mr. Le Frank
made his apologies. The umbrella which had been so kindly lent to him,
had not protected his shoes; his feet were wet; and he was so sadly
liable to take cold that he must beg permission to put on his dry things
immediately.

Having bowed himself out, he stopped in the passage, and, standing on
tiptoe, peeped through a window in the wall, by which light was conveyed
to the landlady's little room. The two women were comfortably seated
together, with the cherry brandy and a plate of biscuits on a table
between them. "In for a good long gossip," thought Mr. L