"Do you know why?"
"Why, sir!" he said, looking at me strangely. "She's not gone into the village exactly, but to a little cottage just outside. You see, sir, she's mighty good to the poor, and she do visit 'em and carry things to 'em."
"Do you know the one she's gone to visit now?"
"Oh, yes, sir. She's a bedridden old woman. Mistress has been to see her many a time."
"Did she walk or ride?"
"Walked, sir; you see, she couldn't ride to Mrs. Bray's, her cottage is among the fields, and there's no carriage road."
"She is not gone alone?"
"No, sir," said the man, evidently wondering more and more at my questions, "one of the servants went with her to carry the basket.
"Have there been any callers here to-day?"
"No, sir, no one has been but Mrs. Bray's little maid, who came to say that her grandmother was worse."