Mrs.Openshaw had almost forgotten the whole affair when she got up about seven o'clock.But,bye-and-bye,she heard a sharp altercation going on in the nursery.Norah speaking angrily to Ailsie,a most unusual thing.Both Mr.and Mrs.Openshaw listened in astonishment.
"Hold your tongue,Ailsie I let me hear none of your dreams;never let me hear you tell that story again!"Ailsie began to cry.
Mr.Openshaw opened the door of communication before his wife could say a word.
"Norah,come here!"
The nurse stood at the door,defiant.She perceived she had been heard,but she was desperate.
"Don't let me hear you speak in that manner to Ailsie again,"he said sternly,and shut the door.
Norah was infinitely relieved;for she had dreaded some questioning;and a little blame for sharp speaking was what she could well bear,if cross-examination was let alone.
Down-stairs they went,Mr.Openshaw carrying Ailsie;the sturdy Edwin coming step by step,right foot foremost,always holding his mother's hand.Each child was placed in a chair by the breakfast-table,and then Mr.and Mrs.Openshaw stood together at the window,awaiting their visitors'appearance and making plans for the day.
There was a pause.Suddenly Mr.Openshaw turned to Ailsie,and said:
"What a little goosy somebody is with her dreams,waking up poor,tired mother in the middle of the night with a story of a man being in the room.""Father!I'm sure I saw him,"said Ailsie,half crying."I don't want to make Norah angry;but I was not asleep,for all she says Iwas.I had been asleep,--and I awakened up quite wide awake though I was so frightened.I kept my eyes nearly shut,and I saw the man quite plain.A great brown man with a beard.He said his prayers.
And then he looked at Edwin.And then Norah took him by the arm and led him away,after they had whispered a bit together.""Now,my little woman must be reasonable,"said Mr.Openshaw,who was always patient with Ailsie."There was no man in the house last night at all.No man comes into the house as you know,if you think;much less goes up into the nursery.But sometimes we dream something has happened,and the dream is so like reality,that you are not the first person,little woman,who has stood out that the thing has really happened.""But,indeed it was not a dream!"said Ailsie,beginning to cry.
Just then Mr.and Mrs.Chadwick came down,looking grave and discomposed.All during breakfast time they were silent and uncomfortable.As soon as the breakfast things were taken away,and the children had been carried up-stairs,Mr.Chadwick began in an evidently preconcerted manner to inquire if his nephew was certain that all his servants were honest;for,that Mrs.Chadwick had that morning missed a very valuable brooch,which she had worn the day before.She remembered taking it off when she came home from Buckingham Palace.Mr.Openshaw's face contracted into hard lines:
grew like what it was before he had known his wife and her child.
He rang the bell even before his uncle had done speaking.It was answered by the housemaid.
"Mary,was any one here last night while we were away?""A man,sir,came to speak to Norah."
"To speak to Norah!Who was he?How long did he stay?""I'm sure I can't tell,sir.He came--perhaps about nine.I went up to tell Norah in the nursery,and she came down to speak to him.
She let him out,sir.She will know who he was,and how long he stayed."She waited a moment to be asked any more questions,but she was not,so she went away.
A minute afterwards Openshaw made as though he were going out of the room;but his wife laid her hand on his arm:
"Do not speak to her before the children,"she said,in her low,quiet voice."I will go up and question her.""No!I must speak to her.You must know,"said he,turning to his uncle and aunt,"my missus has an old servant,as faithful as ever woman was,I do believe,as far as love goes,--but,at the same time,who does not always speak truth,as even the missus must allow.Now,my notion is,that this Norah of ours has been come over by some good-for-nothin chap (for she's at the time o'life when they say women pray for husbands--'any,good Lord,any,')and has let him into our house,and the chap has made off with your brooch,and m'appen many another thing beside.It's only saying that Norah is soft-hearted,and does not stick at a white lie--that's all,missus."
It was curious to notice how his tone,his eyes,his whole face changed as he spoke to his wife;but he was the resolute man through all.She knew better than to oppose him;so she went up-stairs,and told Norah her master wanted to speak to her,and that she would take care of the children in the meanwhile.
Norah rose to go without a word.Her thoughts were these:
"If they tear me to pieces they shall never know through me.He may come,--and then just Lord have mercy upon us all:for some of us are dead folk to a certainty.But he shall do it;not me."You may fancy,now,her look of determination as she faced her master alone in the dining-room;Mr.and Mrs.Chadwick having left the affair in their nephew's hands,seeing that he took it up with such vehemence.
"Norah!Who was that man that came to my house last night?""Man,sir!"As if infinitely;surprised but it was only to gain time.
"Yes;the man whom Mary let in;whom she went up-stairs to the nursery to tell you about;whom you came down to speak to;the same chap,I make no doubt,whom you took into the nursery to have your talk out with;whom Ailsie saw,and afterwards dreamed about;thinking,poor wench!she saw him say his prayers,when nothing,I'll be bound,was farther from his thoughts;who took Mrs.
