The wretched mother tossed but made no reply. Mrs. Jose seated herself again, talked to her soothingly, till she considered that the first violence of her grief was over. Then she rose and proposed, 'Have a cup o' tea.'
An hour later she had induced Jane to sit by the hearth.
Then, convinced that she might quit her temporarily, she departed for Bindon to make such arrangements there as would be necessitated by her absence during the night.
She was back again in three-quarters of an hour, but found the house locked and Jane gone, as she satisfied herself by looking through the window.
In alarm she hurried home.
'Please, ma'am,' said the maid, 'just after you was gone that Mrs. Marley came here, looking wild-like, and she gave me this key and said it was that of the house, and that you was to take charge of it till she came again.'