"I didn't see him. Nannie wouldn't let me."
"Nannie wouldn't let you?"
"She would not. She said that Mr. Grahame had forbidden her to admit me into the house."
"She's never spoken a word to me about it. What's been the matter with the woman? But there's something ails your story. That day, and for many days afterwards, she was lying in bed with a broken leg. Was it from her bedroom that she shouted out to you?"
"From her bedroom?--nothing of the kind. She told me through the front door that Mr. Grahame had forbidden her to let me in. When I said that I would come in, and began to break the window to show that I was in earnest, she went to the window above, and poured two buckets of boiling water over me."
"Margaret Wallace! it's dreaming you must have been."
"It was a curious kind of dream. The water scalded my neck, and left a scar which was visible for weeks--wasn't it?"
She turned to Mr. Talfourd, as if for corroboration.
"It was. When I saw it I was disposed to go straight off to Scotland, and give the old harridan a taste of my quality."
"It's as queer a story as any I've heard. Seeing that Nannie was as if she had been glued to her bed, how could she walk about the house as you say, and pour buckets of boiling water on to you through a window?"