“Oh! Well, I shall never get used to foreign words. Yes, honey, he did tell me; but not till he had pumped me of every single thing I knowed about you. Then, to account for his curiosity, he told me as you was a very near and dear relative of his’n as he had given up for dead.”
“How did he come to board at your house? He is not a minister or a theological student.”
“No, honey; but he do look just like a preacher. Don’t he, now?”
“Perhaps.”
“Well, my sign is always out, you know, and he saw it, and wanting board, he stepped up and rang the bell, like any other applicant. Anyways, that’s how he came into the house, and he looked so much like a hopeful young minister of the Gospel that I took him, without once remembering to ask for his references. Afterwards he happened to see your photographs on the mantelpiece, and he took it down and gazed at it, and read your writing, and seemed so upset I didn’t know what to make of him. And he asked about one hundred questions about you, and I told him all I knowed. Then he let on as you was a near relation of his’n,” said the old lady, as she settled herself comfortably in her chair.
“Thank you, dear Aunt Sophie. And now if you will excuse me for a few moments, I will go and let the baroness know that you are here. She will be delighted,” said Lilith, rising, and leaving the room to tell the good news.
CHAPTER XIX
ANCILLON’S REVELATIONS
Doubt is the effect of fear or jealousy,
Two passions which to reason give the lie;
For fear torments and never doth assist;