Winefred: A Story of the Chalk Cliffs

by S. Baring-Gould

'Bindon! Oh? I am again at fault. Bindon, very nice; but where is Bindon?'

'Bindon is near where mother and I lived. Mrs. Jose has been very kind to us, that is, to mother and me, when all the folk in Seaton and Axmouth turned against us. She alone held to us and believed in mother. And mother said that it was your intention that I should be brought up as a lady, and she and Mrs. Jose put their heads together, and I have been sent here to Mrs. Tomkin-Jones.'

'Mrs. Tomkin-Jones! Delicious! Who is this lady?'

'I believe her husband was the maker of Bath. A most eminent physician. There is a story about him and a pill, but I do not know it.'

'I never heard of him, or of her, or of the pill.'

'But Mrs. Tomkin-Jones knows about you.'

'Merciful powers! Knows what!' The man quaked.

'That you are a relative of Lord Finnborough.'

'Finnborough! Finnborough has never done anything for me, although I believe there is some sort of a connection.'