"You must mean Miss Chandos—I don't recollect her married name," said he, without stirring. "I heard she had been here: and left almost as soon as she came."
I bowed my head and tried to pass him. I might as readily have tried to pass through the privet hedge.
"Some lady was taken away ill, yesterday," he resumed. "Who was it?"
"It was Mrs. Freeman."
"Oh! the companion. I thought as much. Is she very ill?"
"It was something of a fit, I believe. It did not last long."
"Those fits are ticklish things," he remarked. "I should think she will not be in a state to return for some time, if at all."
He had turned his eyes away now, and was speaking in a dreamy sort of tone; as I once heard him speak to Selina.
"They will be wanting some one to fill Mrs. Freeman's place, will they not?"
"I cannot say, I'm sure, sir. The family do not talk of their affairs before me."