“This is my cousin, Miss Milnes, who is to be your new lodger, Mrs. Corder. Will you please to show her at once to her rooms?” said Mr. Montrose, who, having settled with the man, now turned and presented his companion to her landlady.
“Yes, certainly, sir; the rooms are quite ready. I’m proud to see you, Miss Miller—that’s a real governessing name, is Miller,” added the landlady, sotto voce, as she led the way up-stairs, and threw open the door of the front parlor.
Malcolm and Eudora entered the room, and the landlady lingered to receive orders.
“You may have the box sent up, if you please, Mrs. Corder,” said Mr. Montrose, to get rid of the good woman, who dropped a curtsey and withdrew.
“Now, dearest Eudora,” said the young man, “for your own sake I must hasten to leave you. I must hurry back to Allworth Abbey, that no one may suspect that I have been so far absent from the neighborhood, or connect my absence with your disappearance. My presence is also necessary to assist at the funeral obsequies at Allworth. So you perceive, dearest, that I must immediately depart.”
“Oh, yes, I know that for every good reason you must go,” said Eudora.
“And this advice I must give in leaving you—keep yourself closely within doors! send the landlady or her son out for whatever you may require—but go not forth yourself. If time hangs heavily on your hands, send for books from Mudie’s Circulating Library, a branch of which stands near this. Do not risk writing to any one, not even to me, unless it should be positively necessary; and, if you do write, be careful neither to put address nor date at the top of your letter, nor name of any sort at the bottom; and direct your letter to Howth, a post town about twenty miles from Allworth. Do you mark me, dear Eudora?”
“Oh, yes, I mark, and I will remember and follow your directions.”
“I will write to you under your middle name of Milnes, and post my letters at Howth. Now, dearest, trust in God—trust also in me; keep up your spirits, and hope for the best. You will be quite safe here, as you know the hunt for you will be led off in an opposite direction. Your landlady is evidently a good-humored, obliging, unsuspicious creature, who will endeavor to make you comfortable. If she should betray any curiosity upon the subject of my interest in you, tell her so much of the truth as that we are betrothed, but avoid telling her my name; she will probably believe it to be the same as your own. Will you remember all these things?”
“Oh, yes, yes, dearest Malcolm!” said Eudora, endeavoring to control her emotions.