"Will you ask the lady to speak to me?" said Villars, as he pressed a sovereign into Mrs. Bode's horny palm.
"Thank you, sir; it's entirely too much,—entirely too much! I'll go and fetch the young lady," and Mrs. Bode padded off in her roomy felt slippers. She found Nancy, in the kitchen,—looking strangely white, and shaken.
"The car has come, miss," she announced cheerfully, "and here's your fur coat. The gentleman will be thankful, if he might speak to you?"
"No, Mrs. Bode, I will never speak to that gentleman again! If he follows me here I shall run away into the fields, or," looking round, "anywhere!"
"Then you ain't going with him in that lovely car, miss?"
"No, I'm going to stay here to-night, Mrs. Bode; if you can give me a bed or even a chair, and to-morrow morning very early, I'll get Dan to show me the way to the station."
"Oh, all right, miss, I'll give you a bed, and be pleased. At first, I thought you were man and wife,—specially as he walked about outside, and left you here by your lone,—but I see you've no ring."
"The gentleman is nothing to me,—nothing, worse than nothing," cried Nancy passionately, "we happen to be staying in the same house, that was all; and the car left us here by mistake."
Sounds of a brisk booted foot, coming down the long passage; Nancy looked at Mrs. Bode, who hastily opened a door, and thrust her through. She found herself at the foot of some queer old stairs, that twisted round a huge beam or post, and led up to a low loft-like bedroom, with two windows, flush with the floor. Here was a tester bed, painted washstand, and a beautiful chest of drawers, and here Nancy, exhausted, and trembling, sat upon a low straw chair, her eyes riveted on the grey motor car, immediately beneath them. It seemed to be several hours,—but was really twenty minutes, before the car, and its occupants, moved slowly out of sight.
After a brief interview with her hostess,—who had appeared with a pair of clean sheets,—Nancy lay down on the tester bed, and in spite of a lumpy mattress, and an overpowering smell of old feathers, slept, until a shrill young cock, announced the breaking of another day.