"I ran all the way", Miss Eva. "I'm in such sorrow. Giles has come."
"What, your husband?" said Allen.
"Yes, and worse. I found this on the doorstep." She drew from under her shawl the wooden hand!
CHAPTER XX
[AN AMAZING CONFESSION]
Mr. and Mrs. Merry were seated the next day in the kitchen having a long chat. It was not a pleasant one, for Mrs. Merry was weeping as usual, and reproaching her husband. Giles had been out to see his old cronies in the village, and consequently had imbibed sufficient liquor to make him quarrelsome. The first thing he did, when he flung himself into a chair, was to grumble at the kitchen.
"Why should we sit here, Selina?" he asked; "it's a blamed dull hole, and I'm accustomed to drawing-rooms."
"You can't go into the drawing-room," said Mrs. Merry, rocking and dabbing her red eyes with the corner of her apron. "Miss Eva is in there with a lady. They don't want to be disturbed."
"Who is the lady?" demanded Signor Antonio, alias Mr. Merry.
"Lady Ipsen. She's Miss Eva's grandmother and have called to see her. What about, I'm sure I don't know, unless it's to marry her to Lord Saltars, not that I think much of him."