ver take more than is good for me."

"I don't suggest that for a moment, Mrs. Rapkin," said Horace; "only, if
the house was as you describe last night, how do you account for its
being all right this morning?"

Mrs. Rapkin in her embarrassment was reduced to folding her apron into
small pleats. "It's not for me to say, sir," she replied, "but, if I was
to give my opinion, it would be as them parties as called 'ere on camels
the other day was at the bottom of it."

"I shouldn't wonder if you were right, Mrs. Rapkin," said Horace
blandly; "you see, you had been exerting yourself over the cooking, and
no doubt were in an over-excited state, and, as you say, those camels
had taken hold of your imagination until you were ready to see anything
that Rapkin saw, and _he_ was ready to see anything _you_ did. It's not
at all uncommon. Scientific people, I believe, call it 'Collective
Hallucination.'"

"Law, sir!" said the good woman, considerably impressed by this
diagnosis, "you don't mean to say I had _that_? I was always fanciful
from a girl, and could see things in coffee-grounds as nobody else
could--but I never was took like that before. And to think of me leaving
my dinner half cooked, and you expecting your young lady and her pa and
ma! Well, _there_, now, I _am_ sorry. Whatever did you do, sir?"

"We managed to get food of sorts from somewhere," said Horace, "but it
was most uncomfortable for me, and I trust, Mrs. Rapkin--I sincerely
trust that it will not occur again."

"That I'll answer for it shan't, sir. And you won't take no notice to
Rapkin, sir, will you? Though it was his seein' the niggers and that as
put it into my 'ed; but I 'ave spoke to him pretty severe already, and
he's truly sorry and ashamed for forgetting hisself as he did."

"Very well, Mrs. Rapkin," said Horace; "we will understand that last
night's--hem--rather painful experience is not to be alluded to
again--on either side."

He felt sincerely thankful to have got out of it so easily, for it was
impossible to say what gossip might not have been set on foot if the
Rapkins had not been brought to see the advisability of reticence on the
subject.

"There's one more thing, sir, I wished for to speak to you about," said
Mrs. Rapkin; "that great brass vawse as you bought at an oction some
time back. I dunno if you remember it?"

"I remember it," said Horace. "Well, what about it?"

"Why, sir, I found it in the coal-cellar this morning, and I