“What! not at home, and Miss Goodwin so ill?—dying, I am told. Perhaps, in consequence of her health, they do not wish to see strangers. Go and say that Mrs. Lindsay, of Rathnllan House, is here.”
“Ma'am, they are not at home; they have left Beech Grove for some time.”
“Left Beech Grove!” she exclaimed; “and pray where are they gone to? I thought Miss Goodwin was not able to be removed.”
“It was do or die with her,” replied Tom. “The doctor said there was but one last chance—change of air, and absence from dangerous neighbors.”
“But you did not tell me where they are gone to.”
“I did not, ma'am, and for the best reason in life—because I don't know.”
“You don't know! Why, is it possible they made a secret of such a matter?”
“Quite possible, ma'am, and to the back o' that they swore every one of us upon the seven gospels never to tell any individual, man or woman, where they went to.”
“But did they not tell yourselves?”
“Devil a syllable, ma'am.”