to Emily without waiting to hear more. Not
presuming to stop her, Mrs. Ellmother ventured to put a question "Do
you happen to have my telegram about you, ma'am?" Miss Ladd produced it.
"Will you please look at the last part of it again?"

Miss Ladd read the words: "I have something besides to say to you which
cannot be put into a letter." She at once returned to her chair.

"Does what you have still to tell me refer to any person whom I know?"
she said.

"It refers, ma'am, to Miss de Sor. I am afraid I shall distress you."

"What did I say, when I came in?" Miss Ladd asked. "Speak out plainly;
and try--it's not easy, I know--but try to begin at the beginning."

Mrs. Ellmother looked back through her memory of past events, and
began by alluding to the feeling of curiosity which she had excited in
Francine, on the day when Emily had made them known to one another.
From this she advanced to the narrative of what had taken place at
Netherwoods--to the atrocious attempt to frighten her by means of
the image of wax--to the discovery made by Francine in the garden at
night--and to the circumstances under which that discovery had been
communicated to Emily.

Miss Ladd's face reddened with indignation. "Are you sure of all that
you have said?" she asked.

"I am quite sure, ma'am. I hope I have not done wrong," Mrs. Ellmother
added simply, "in telling you all this?"

"Wrong?" Miss Ladd repeated warmly. "If that wretched girl has no
defense to offer, she is a disgrace to my school--and I owe you a debt
of gratitude for showing her to me in her true character. She shall
return at once to Netherwoods; and she shall answer me to my entire
satisfaction--or leave my house. What cruelty! what duplicity! In all my
experience of girls, I have never met with the like of it. Let me go to
my dear little Emily--and try to forget what I have heard."

Mrs. Ellmother led the good lady to Emily's room--and, returning to the
lower part of the house, went out into the garden. The mental effort
that she had made had left its result in an aching head, and in an
overpowering sense of depression. "A mouthful of fresh air will revive
me," she thought.

The front garden and back garden at the cottage communicated with each
other. Walking slowly round and round, Mrs. Ellmother heard footsteps
on the road outside, which stopped at the gate. She looked through the
grating, and discovered Alban Morris.

"Come in, sir!" she said, rejoiced to see