Ann, leaning against the door, withdrew one foot from the floor, and slowly rubbed it up and down her other leg--a gymnastic performance she was in the habit of going through when she taxed her powers of memory. It failed, however, to have any result in the present instance; and Ann was compelled to confess that she had never heard of anything in particular being found at the Tower. She did this with more reluctance, as she foresaw the speedy termination of the gossip, and her consequent relegation to her darning duties.
But Mrs. Powler, who had been much struck with the conversation overheard by Nancy Bell, and repeated to her by her own handmaiden, sat pondering over the words for some time, allowing Ann to remain in the room, and at last bade her go round and ask Mrs. Jupp to step in for a few minutes. When Mrs. Jupp arrived, Mrs. Powler made Ann repeat her story; and when she concluded, the old lady bade her stand away out of earshot, and said to Mrs. Jupp in a hollow whisper:
"What do you think of that?"
"Of what?" asked Mrs. Jupp, in an equally ghostly tone.
"'Bout the prize? Do you think, Harriet, that it can be any of Fowler's 'runs'? They used to hide 'em in the first place as come handy, when the excisers was after 'em; and I've been wondering whether they might ha' stowed away some kegs, or bales, or things, in the lower garden, or thereabouts, and these D'rinzys ha' found 'em. I wonder whether I could claim 'em, Harriet?" said the old lady earnestly. "He left everything he had in the world to his beloved wife, Powler did."
Mrs. Jupp, who had been receiving these last words with many sniffs, denoting her content for her friend's notions, waited patiently until Mrs. Powler had finished, and then said:
"I don't think you need trouble yourself about that. It isn't about runs, or kegs, or bales, or anything of that kind, that Mrs. Derinzy meant, if so be she said anything of the kind, which I main doubt; Nancy Bell and your Ann being regular Anias and Sapphira for lying, or the man as was turned into a white leopard by the prophet for saying he hadn't asked the young man for a change of clothes."
"Du let alone naggin' and girdin' at my Ann for once, Harriet!" interrupted Mrs. Powler. "Let's s'pose Mrs. D'rinzy said it; there's no harm in s'posin', you know. What did she mean 'bout the prize?"
"Mean? What could she mean but Miss Netty?"
"Miss Netty! prize!" cried Mrs. Powler, to whom the combination of these words was hopelessly embarrassing. "Ah, well, I'm becomin' a moithered old 'ooman, I suppose?"