ingbird's. They can't talk me out
on't, sir. I see'd the porkypine as plain as I see'd him. He were--"

Dan brought his information to a summary standstill. Bustling down the
stairs was that revered mother. She came in, curtseying fifty times to
Lionel. "What could she have the honour of serving him with?" He was
leaning over the counter, and she concluded he had come to patronise the
shop.

Lionel laughed. "I am a profitless customer, I believe, Mrs. Duff. I was
only talking to Dan."

Dan sidled off to the street door. Once there, he took to his heels, out
of harm's way. Mr. Verner might begin telling his mother more
particulars, and it was as well to be at a safe distance.

Lionel, however, had no intention to betray trust. He stood chatting a
few minutes with Mrs. Duff. He and Mrs. Duff had been great friends when
he was an Eton boy; many a time had he ransacked her shop over for flies
and gut and other fishing tackle, a supply of which Mrs. Duff professed
to keep. She listened to him with a somewhat preoccupied manner; in
point of fact, she was debating a question with herself.

"Sir," said she, rubbing her hands nervously one over the other, "I
should like to make bold to ask a favour of you. But I don't know how it
might be took. I'm fearful it might be took as a cause of offence."

"Not by me. What is it?"

"It's a delicate thing, sir, to have to ask about," resumed she. "And I
shouldn't venture, sir, to speak to _you_, but that I'm so put to it,
and that I've got it in my head it's through the fault of the servants."

She spoke with evident reluctance. Lionel, he scarcely knew why, leaped
to the conclusion that she was about to say something regarding the
subject then agitating Deerham--the ghost of Frederick Massingbird.
Unconsciously to himself, the pleasant manner changed to one of
constraint.

"Say what you have to say, Mrs. Duff."

"Well, sir--but I'm sure I beg a hundred thousand pardings for
mentioning of it--it's about the bill," she answered, lowering her
voice. "If I could be paid, sir, it 'ud be the greatest help to me. I
don't know hardly how to keep on."

No revelation touching the ghost could have given Lionel the surprise
imparted by these ambiguous words. But his constraint was gone.

"I do not understand you, Mrs. Duff. What bill?"

"The bill what's owing to me, sir, from Verner's Pride. It's a large sum
for me, sir--thirty-two pound odd. I have to keep up my payments for my
good