as she had set eyes on her. Now she were
far too deep to do anything as would get herself into trouble. She
might have robbed her ladyship in many ways; and so she did, but not by
taking her jewels or anything of that sort. She would wheedle things
out of her mistress in the slyest way. And then, too, Lady Morville
would trust her to pay some of her bills for her; and then she'd manage
to pop things into the account which my lady had never ordered, or she
would alter the figures in such a way as to cheat her ladyship. And she
hadn't been long at the Hall, as you may suppose, before she and the
butler became fast friends; and a pretty lot of robbery and mischief was
carried on by them two. Jane couldn't keep her eyes shut, so she saw
many things she longed to expose to her mistress; but it would have been
very difficult to bring the wrong-doings to light, even if Lady Morville
had given her the opportunity of doing so--which she never did.

"Georgina--that were the name of the lady's-maid--was fully aware,
however, that Jane had her eyes upon her, and she was resolved to get
her out of the way. But how was that to be done? For Jane bore a high
character in the house, and her ladyship would not listen to any
gossiping tales against her. Her mind was soon made up: a little talk
with John Hollands, and the train was laid.

"Now, she could have taken a bit of jewellery from her mistress, and
hidden it in Jane's box, or among her things; and this was John
Hollands' idea, as Jane afterwards found out from another fellow-
servant, who was sorry for her, and had overheard the two making up
their plans together. But Georgina said: `No; that were a stale trick,
and her ladyship might believe Jane's positive assertion of innocence.
She would manage it better than that.' And so she did.

"To Jane's surprise, both the butler and the lady's-maid changed their
manner towards her after a while, and became quite friendly: indeed,
Hollands even took an opportunity to thank Jane for her good advice, and
to say that he was beginning to see things in a different light; and
Georgina made her a present of a neat silver pencil-case. Jane couldn't
quite understand it; but having no guile in herself, she weren't up to
suspecting guile in other folks, and she were only too thankful to see
anything that looked like a change for the better.

"Things were in this fashion, when one morning, just before Sir Lionel's
breakfast-time, as J