“Hush, hush! I could not bear that. He was just mad with rage, or he would not have struck so hard, and I was too dazed and stupid to get out of his way in time,” Nell said hastily, more willing to make excuses for the old man now than she had been in the past.
“Don’t talk about him; it turns me sick!” exclaimed Mrs. Nichols, angrily. “That reminds me, too, that I brought a parcel home with me from the American side for you. But we’ve been in such a state of worry and confusion ever since, that I haven’t thought a word about it until now.”
“A parcel for me? What is it?” cried Nell, a tinge of pink coming into her pale cheeks.
“That I don’t know. But when I was staying with my cousin, Sabina Clack, at Lewisville, a Mrs. Joe Lipton, from Button End, came on a visit to her sister who lived opposite, and, as luck would have it, we got quite intimate.”
“Why, I know her—at least, I’ve seen her,” said Nell. “She was kind, too. I remember she gave me a lot of old magazines once, because I hadn’t anything to read.”
“I saw she was a kind-hearted sort; but she hadn’t a single good word for Doss Umpey, and she said all Button End was up in arms at the way he went off and left you to the mercy of them Gunnages.”
“But I did not stay with them long,” said Nell, smiling now to remember how angry Mrs. Gunnage had been with her for going away.
“A good thing, too. Well, when Mrs. Lipton was going on about Doss Umpey, and saying that he was no better than a murderer, because he had driven you to wander till you died, I just told her that I happened to know you were not dead, and, what is more, I knew where you were and what you were doing. I did not open my mouth very wide as to particulars, but told her enough to satisfy her about you. Then she asked me if I would take charge of a parcel which had been left at her house, and give it to you when I had the chance.”
“Who left the parcel there?” asked Nell.
“A gentleman, Mrs. Lipton said, and she told me she should have sent it over to the Lone House with the Gunnages, only she didn’t trust Mrs. Gunnage any further than she could see her.”