a weeping willow designed in somebody's hair. Altogether the widow's
attire and array suggested that she had recently dismissed, or was
even now expecting, company.

'Doctor Unonius?'

'You may well be surprised, madam--at this hour--'

'I did not send for you.'

'No, madam; and you will be surprised when you learn the reason of
this call--surprised but not (I beg) alarmed. To begin with, I have
a pistol here and can, at the worst, protect you.'

'Protect me?'

'I had best tell you my story, which is a sufficiently extraordinary
one. I have been dining at Penalune--nay, madam, do not
misunderstand me: I am as sober as a judge. On my homeward road I
overtook a suspicious character, and certain evidence I managed to
wrest from him leaves little doubt that robbery is intended here
to-night, as it has actually been achieved elsewhere. The man, I
should tell you--a powerful fellow--was dressed in woman's apparel.'

'Oh!' said Mrs Tresize shortly, and called down the passage behind
her--'Tryphena, come here!'

Without delay a middle-aged maid-servant appeared from a doorway that
(as the doctor knew) led out of an inner kitchen. Two sheep dogs
followed her growling, but at her command grew tractable and made no
demonstration beyond running around the doctor and sniffing at his
legs.

Tryphena, too--who, like her mistress, was fully dressed--betrayed no
surprise. She had, in fact, been sent upstairs at the sound of
wheels, and from behind a curtain had recognised Doctor Unonius as he
examined the paper by the light of his gig-lamp.

'Tryphena, here's Doctor Unonius, and he brings word we're to be
robbed and murdered in our beds.'

'The Lord preserve us!' said Tryphena.

'Amen,' said Mrs Tresize; 'and meanwhile you'd best go and stable the
horse while I hear particulars.'

Tryphena slipped out into the yard, the sheep dogs following.
The doctor would have helped her, but she took the lamp from his
hand, replaced it in its socket and set about unharnessing without
further to-do, coaxing Dapple the while to stand steady.

'Tryphena understands horses,' said Mrs Tresize. 'Come indoors,
please, and tell me all about it.'

Doctor Unonius lifted out the incriminating bag and followed her
along the passage. She paused at the door of the best kitchen and
pushed it wide. He looked in upon a bare but not uncheerful room,
where a clean wood fire blazed on an open hearth and over the fire a
kettle sang cosily.