'
'O!' said the bride, covering her eyes. 'Then he was in this room till
just now?'
'Yes,' said the maid, thinking the young lady's agitation natural enough.
'And I told missis that I thought she oughtn't to have done it, because I
don't hold it right to keep visitors so much in the dark where death's
concerned; but she said the gentleman didn't die of anything infectious;
she was a poor, honest, innkeeper's wife, she says, who had to get her
living by making hay while the sun sheened. And owing to the drownded
gentleman being brought here, she said, it kept so many people away that
we were empty, though all the other houses were full. So when your good
man set his mind upon the room, and she would have lost good paying folk
if he'd not had it, it wasn't to be supposed, she said, that she'd let
anything stand in the way. Ye won't say that I've told ye, please, m'm?
All the linen has been changed, and as the inquest won't be till
to-morrow, after you are gone, she thought you wouldn't know a word of
it, being strangers here.'
The returning footsteps of her husband broke off further narration.
Baptista waved her hand, for she could not speak. The waiting-maid
quickly withdrew, and Mr.
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