I heard her call him 'father.' She's young enough
to be his daughter, anyway."

"Did he call her anything?"

"I couldn't hear. But I'll tell you what I did afterwards, aunt Eliza; I
followed her when she came out at the gate--and she didn't see me then.
She went straight to a house in Norton Square; and I managed to make
some inquiries about her at a confectioner's shop in the neighborhood.
The house belongs to a music-mistress; and this girl is a singer.
'Cynthia West,' they call her--I've seen her name in the newspapers.
Well, I thought I would wait round a bit, and presently I saw a man go
to the house to deliver a note; and thinks I to myself, 'I know that
face.' And so I did. It was Mr. Lepel's man, Jenkins, as used to come
down with him to Beechfield."

"You don't say so!" cried Mrs. Gunn, raising her hands in amazement.

"He knew me," Sabina proceeded tranquilly; "and so we had a little chat
together. I says to him, 'Who is it you take notes to at number
five--the old lady or the young one?' 'Oh,' says he, 'the young one, to
be sure. Scrumptious, isn't she?' 'Cynthia West?' says I. 'Yes,' he
says--'and Mrs. Hubert Lepel before very long, if I've got eyes to see!
He's always after her.' 'That ain't very likely,' I said, 'because he's
got a young lady already in the country.' 'One in the country and one in
the town,' he says, with a wink--'that's the usual style, isn't it?'
And, seeing that he was disposed to be familiar, I said good-day to him
and came away."

"What will you do now then, Sabina?"

"Well," said Sabina reflectively, "I think I shall let Mrs. Vane know.
She'd be glad to have a sort of handle against her brother, I'm
thinking. And these people--Mr. Dare and Miss West--seem to have got
something to do with Beechfield, for I'm certain it was to Beechfield he
went when he left here for that fortnight. He gave no address--that was
natural maybe--but he'd got the Whitminster label on his bag when he
came back. And, if Miss West was being courted by Mr. Lepel, and her
father wanted to know who Mr. Lepel was and all about him, he might
easily gather that Beechfield was the place to go to. I suppose he
wanted to find out whether Mr. Lepel was engaged to Miss Vane or not.
And I've a sort of idea too that there's something mysterious about it
all. Why shouldn't he have said straight out where he was going,
especially when I had already told him that I knew Whitminster so well
and belonged to Beechfield?