said, "that my mistress is in the house. She must be
in the house. What are you going to do with her? I believe you have put
her somewhere."

"Indeed!"

"You would do anything! I will go to the police."

"If you please."

"Oh! doctor, tell me where she is!"

"You are a faithful servant: it is good, in these days, to find a woman
so zealous on account of her mistress. Come in, good and faithful.
Search the house all over. Come in--what are you afraid of? Put down
your box, and go and look for your mistress." Fanny obeyed. She ran
into the house, opened the doors of the salon and the dining-room one
after the other: no one was there. She ran up the stairs and looked
into her mistress's room: nothing was there, not even a ribbon or a
hair-pin, to show the recent presence of a woman. She looked into Lord
Harry's room. Nothing was there. If a woman leaves hairpins about, a
man leaves his toothbrush: nothing at all was there. Then she threw
open the armoire in each room: nothing behind the doors. She came
downstairs slowly, wondering what it all meant.

"May I look in the spare room?" she asked, expecting to be roughly
refused.

"By all means--by all means," said the doctor, blandly. "You know your
way about. If there is anything left belonging to your mistress or to
you, pray take it."

She tried one more question.

"How is my patient? How is Mr. Oxbye?"

"He is gone."

"Gone? Where has he gone to? Gone?"

"He went away yesterday--Friday. He was a grateful creature. I wish we
had more such grateful creatures as well as more such faithful
servants. He said something about finding his way to London in order to
thank you properly. A good soul, indeed!"

"Gone?" she repeated. "Why, on Thursday morning I saw him--" She
checked herself in time.

"It was on Wednesday morning that you saw him, and he was then
recovering rapidly."

"But he was far too weak to travel."

"You may be quite certain that I should not have allowed him to go away
unless he was strong enough."

Fanny made no reply. She had seen with her own eyes the man lying still
and white, as if in death; she had seen the new nurse rushing off,
crying that he was dead. Now she was told that he was quite well, and
that he had gone away! But it was no time for thought.

She was on the point of asking where the new nurse was, but she
remembered in time that it was best for her to know nothing, and to
awaken no suspicions. She opened the door of the