“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow and a fore-ordained fate in the journey of a wild girl to Allworth Abbey,” sighed Eudora.
CHAPTER X.
THE STUBBORN WITNESS.
“If a woman will, she will, you may depend on’t:
And if she won’t, she won’t, and there’s an end on’t.”
We must return to the scene of the tragedy, and relate what took place at Allworth Abbey immediately after the escape of Eudora.
In the first place, as soon as Eudora had taken leave, and before she had passed through the secret egress, Tabitha shut her eyes, and turned her back so that she might not actually see by what means, or in whose company her mistress quitted the chamber.
But as soon as she heard the panel slipped into its place, and the bolt on the other side shot across it, she turned, and with a smile of triumph, sank into the easy-chair, saying:
“Now they may cross-examine me until all is blue, if they like, and I can swear a hole through an iron pot that I never saw how she left the room.”
And so saying, Miss Tabs yielded herself up to the repose of which she stood so much in need.
It was late in the morning when she was awakened by a loud knocking at the door.