inks they were accompanied by an increased secretion of tears.
I can't say myself. The effort of listening being quite as much as I
could manage, my eyes were closed.

Where did I leave off? Ah, yes--she fainted after drinking a cup of tea
with the Countess--a proceeding which might have interested me if I had
been her medical man, but being nothing of the sort I felt bored by
hearing of it, nothing more. When she came to herself in half an
hour's time she was on the sofa, and nobody was with her but the
landlady. The Countess, finding it too late to remain any longer at
the inn, had gone away as soon as the girl showed signs of recovering,
and the landlady had been good enough to help her upstairs to bed.

Left by herself, she had felt in her bosom (I regret the necessity of
referring to this part of the subject a second time), and had found the
two letters there quite safe, but strangely crumpled. She had been
giddy in the night, but had got up well enough to travel in the
morning. She had put the letter addressed to that obtrusive stranger,
the gentleman in London into the post, and had now delivered the other
letter into my hands as she was told. This was the plain truth, and
though she could not blame herself for any intentional neglect, she was
sadly troubled in her mind, and sadly in want of a word of advice. At
this point Louis thinks the secretions appeared again. Perhaps they
did, but it is of infinitely greater importance to mention that at this
point also I lost my patience, opened my eyes, and interfered.

"What is the purport of all this?" I inquired.

My niece's irrelevant maid stared, and stood speechless.

"Endeavour to explain," I said to my servant. "Translate me, Louis."

Louis endeavoured and translated. In other words, he descended
immediately into a bottomless pit of confusion, and the Young Person
followed him down. I really don't know when I have been so amused. I
left them at the bottom of the pit as long as they diverted me. When
they ceased to divert me, I exerted my intelligence, and pulled them up
again.

It is unnecessary to say that my interference enabled me, in due course
of time, to ascertain the purport of the Young Person's remarks.

I discovered that she was uneasy in her mind, because the train of
events that she had just described to me had prevented her from
receiving those supplementary messages which Miss Halcombe had
intrusted to the Countess to deliver. Sh