I Say No

'I was admiring your complexion, dear,' she answered coolly. 'Well, and why do you pity the Rooks?'

Simple Cecilia smiled, and went on with her story.

'They are obliged to go out to service in their old age, through a misfortune for which they are in no way to blame. Their customers deserted the inn, and Mr. Rook became bankrupt. The inn got what they call a bad name— in a very dreadful way. There was a murder committed in the house.'

'A murder?' cried Francine. 'Oh, this is exciting! You provoking girl, why didn't you tell me about it before?'

'I didn't think of it,' said Cecilia placidly.

'Do go on! Were you at home when it happened?'

'I w as here, at school.'

'You saw the newspapers, I suppose?'

'Miss Ladd doesn't allow us to read newspapers. I did hear of it, however, in letters from home. Not that there was much in the letters. They said it was too horrible to be described. The poor murdered gentleman—'

Francine was unaffectedly shocked. 'A gentleman!' she exclaimed. 'How dreadful!'

'The poor man was a stranger in our part of the country,' Cecilia resumed; 'and the police were puzzled about the motive for a murder. His pocketbook was missing; but his watch and his rings were found on the body. I remember the initials on his linen because they were the same as my mother's initial before she was married—'J. B.' Really, Francine, that's all I know about it.'

'Surely you know whether the murderer was discovered?'

'Oh, yes—of course I know that! The government offered a reward; and clever people were sent from London to help the county police. Nothing came of it. The murderer has never been discovered, from that time to this.'

'When did it happen?'

'It happened in the autumn.'

'The autumn of last year?'

'No! no! Nearly four years since.'

CHAPTER VI. ON THE WAY TO THE VILLAGE.

Alban Morris—discovered by Emily in concealment among the trees—was not content with retiring to another part of the grounds. He pursued his retreat, careless in what direction it might take him, to a footpath across the fields, which led to the highroad and the railway station.

Miss Ladd's drawing-master was in that state of nervous irritability which seeks relief in rapidity of motion. Public opinion in the neighborhood (especially public opinion among the women) had long since decided that his manners were offensive, and his temper incurably bad. The men who happened to pass him on the footpath said 'Good-morning' grudgingly. The women took no notice of him—with one exception. She was young and saucy, and seeing him walking at the top of his speed on the way to the railway station, she called after him, 'Don't be in a hurry, sir! You're in plenty of time for the London train.'

To her astonishment he suddenly stopped. His reputation for rudeness was so well established that she moved away to a safe distance, before she ventured to look at him again. He took no notice of her—he seemed to be considering with himself. The frolicsome young woman had done him a service: she had suggested an idea.

'Suppose I go to London?' he thought. 'Why not?—the school is breaking up for the holidays—and she is going away like the rest of them.' He looked round in the direction of the schoolhouse. 'If I go back to wish her good-by, she will keep out of my way, and part with me at the last moment like a stranger. After my experience of women, to be in love again—in love with a girl who is young enough to be my daughter—what a fool, what a driveling, degraded fool I must be!'

Hot tears rose in his eyes. He dashed them away savagely, and went on again faster than ever—resolved to pack up at once at his lodgings in the village, and to take his departure by the next train.

At the point where the footpath led into the road, he came to a standstill for the second time.

The cause was once more a person of the sex associated in his mind with a bitter sense of injury. On this occasion the person was only a miserable little child, crying over the fragments of a broken jug.

Alban Morris looked at her with his grimly humorous smile. 'So you've broken a jug?' he remarked.

'And spilt father's beer,' the child answered. Her frail little body shook with terror. 'Mother'll beat me when I go home,' she said.

'What does mother do when you bring the jug back safe and sound?' Alban asked.

'Gives me bren-butter.'

'Very well. Now listen to me. Mother shall give you bread and butter again this time.'

The child stared at him with the tears suspended in her eyes. He went on talking to her as seriously as ever.

'You understand what I have just said to you?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Have you got a pocket-handkerchief?'

'No, sir.'

'Then dry your eyes with mine.'