“Yes! but oh! they’ll catch her again, the tiger-cat! for there’s a reward of a hundred pounds offered for her arrest, and a full description of her person that nobody can’t mistake! Here, my dear, read it for yourself,” said Mrs. Corder, handing the newspaper to Eudora.
The poor girl took it in desperate anxiety to read the advertisement, and ascertain how far the description might suit all medium-sized young brunettes, and how nearly it might agree with her own peculiar individuality.
She essayed to read, but as she held the paper, her hands trembled, her eyes filmed over, and her voice failed.
With an appealing look she held the paper towards Mrs. Corder, who took it, saying:
“Well, my dear, you are the nervousest I ever saw, and no wonder. But for all that you would like to hear it. Shall I read it for you?”
“Yes,” was the only answer that Eudora could breathe.
The landlady seated herself, and with an air of innocent importance opened the paper, and holding it squarely before her large person, read as follows:
“One Hundred Pounds Reward.—Absconded from Allworth Abbey, near Abbeytown, in the County of Northumberland, on the night of Tuesday last, Eudora Milnes Leaton, charged with having poisoned the family of Leaton, Allworth. The fugitive is of medium height, slender, well-rounded, graceful form, and regular features, dark complexion, with black hair and black eyes. She wore, when she left, a full suit of deep mourning. The above reward will be given to any person who may apprehend and deliver up the said Eudora Milnes Leaton to justice.”
Eudora felt that this description might suit any medium-sized young brunette in mourning as well as herself, and therefore breathed more freely, especially as she perceived that the unconscious landlady never once suspected the identity of her lodger with the advertised fugitive.
“There’s for you, my dear; now, what do you think of that? They’ll be sure to catch her again with that reward offered and that description given! She had better go and hide herself under the earth, for if she shows herself above ground, she is sure to be caught! Anybody would know her from that description the minute they clapped their eyes on her! I should, I’m sure, for I think I see her now, with her sharp, wicked black eyes, and sly leer and vicious looks!” said the landlady, gazing straight into the face of Eudora without the slightest suspicion of her identity with the fugitive; for good Mrs. Corder had an ideal portrait of the supposed criminal in her mind’s eye that formed a complete blind to her discovery of Eudora.