O PENING the outer door, old Nancy counterfeited great surprise at seeing Dr. Fox mounted on horseback, waiting impatiently to have his summons answered.
"Lor' bress us!" she exclaimed, holding up both hands, "what bring you on here so airly, Massa Fox?"
"Nancy, have you seen anything of Mrs. Kenyon and Cleopatra?" asked the doctor abruptly.
"How should I see them?" asked Nancy. "I haven't been to the 'sylum sence las' week."
"They have run away," explained Dr. Fox.
"Run away! Good Lor'! What they gone and run away for?"
"Out of pure cussedness, I expect," returned the doctor in a tone of disgust. "Thenyou haven't seen them?—they haven't passed this way?"
"Not as I knows on. They wouldn't come to old Nancy. She couldn't help 'em."
"I was hoping you might have seen them," said Dr. Fox, disappointed. "I don't know where to look for them."
"How did they get away?" asked Nancy, fixing her round, bead-like eyes on the doctor, with an appearance of curiosity.