She was trembling with excitement now. "Thank God, thank God for me, sir," she exclaimed, as the Vicar stepped in.
When she was seated in the almost bare front room, the Vicar told her more about his visit.
"She has been very ill, indeed, and for some time it seemed likely that if she did not die of scarlet fever, she would succumb to brain fever, for it seems that her brain was more affected than could easily be accounted for," said the Vicar. "The nurses told me all about this complication, and asked me to try and persuade Fanny to tell me what was troubling her. They had failed to do this. They knew from her ravings when she was delirious that it had something to do with a watch, and from what she said she was in evident fear of the police going after her; and, of course, the natural conclusion was that she had stolen a watch from somewhere, but she refused to tell them anything about it."
"Oh, that watch! The misery and trouble it has caused!" said Mrs. Brown, with a groan.
The Vicar looked surprised. "Then you have heard about it," he said: "although Fanny seems to think she has kept the whole matter a secret."
"Yes, sir. I have heard about it; but I cannot say that I understand it clearly. When Fanny came home for her first holiday, she had got a very bright-looking watch, with a chain round her neck, and she told me she had given ten shillings for it. Naturally I was angry that she should spend her money so foolishly—the first wages she had ever earned. I wanted her to tell her father afterwards, and let him see the watch, but she never did tell him, and I never heard any more about it, except what I said myself, until I had her box come home a little while ago, and I had to look through it—for the man brought a list of things that were in it when it was taken away from the place where she caught the fever—and in a bag I found the watch I had seen before, and with it a collecting-card, by which I saw that she had agreed to pay two pounds for the watch, and two or three payments of three shillings had been paid. I will fetch the bag, and let you see it, sir. I have not told her father about it; for how could I let him know how our girl had deceived me as soon as she got away from home?" And poor Mrs. Brown burst into tears as she went out of the room to unlock Fanny's box.
She was away several minutes, and there were still traces of tears on her face when she came back with the little print-bag in her hand.
"There, sir," she said, "that bag made the news of her death doubly hard to bear; and I made up my mind that my husband should not have that sorrow to endure, if I could help it. So I have kept the box locked ever since it came back, and I put the key where I knew none but myself would find it."
The Vicar took out the watch and looked at it. "This is worth about fifteen shillings, I should think," he remarked, as he turned it about in his hand.
"How could they sell it for ten, then?" said Mrs. Brown. "I am sure Fanny told me she gave ten shillings for it," added her mother.