"Who says that she is mad?" asked Gerald heatedly.
"Everyone," replied the landlady vaguely. "Why, the Major himself told me that she was always wanting to kill people. That is why she is shut up and watched by Miss Bellaria. It would never do, sir, for a lunatic like that to come out. Why, we might all be murdered in our beds."
It was on the tip of Haskins' tongue to deny the insanity of Mavis, for which Mrs. Jennings vouched so staunchly. But to do so would have led to an admission of his secret visits to the Pixy's House. Until he settled with Rebb he did not wish these to be known, therefore he contented himself with another question. "Have you ever seen Miss Durham?"
"Lord! no, sir, nor has anyone else. Miss Bellaria keeps her safely within the grounds of that tumbledown house, and a good thing too, say I."
"Does the house belong to Major Rebb?"
"No, sir--to that poor girl herself. You see, sir, the Durhams were a great family hereabouts for years. But they all died out save one, who went soldiering to India. He was shot in the lungs some months after his marriage at Simla to an English lady, and came home to die. He lingered a year and died at Brighton."
"And his wife?"
"Oh, she died in Bombay, when starting for England, long before Captain Durham was shot. That poor girl at the Pixy's House was born when her mother died, so Major Rebb, who was a brother officer of Captain Durham, took charge of her."
"Has Miss Durham any money?"
"I can't tell you that, sir. What I say is only what I have heard from time to time. I believe that she has the old house of the Durhams, and enough money to keep her. Major Rebb is a good, kind gentleman to take such trouble over the poor thing. Many another gentleman would have shut her up in a lunatic asylum."