ousekeeper,
pondering,--'and sometimes I think so myself. I know she goes
out too much. And stays up too late. Why, the last time she
came from Governor Powder's I was frightened half to death.'

'That was two weeks ago?'

'Yes, Mr. Rollo. I expected her early, and then Lewis brought
word it would be late,--and so it was. Near morning, in fact.'

'Yes. Well?--She did not suffer from being out too late?'

'I'm sure I don't know, sir, what it was. She walked into the
hall just as strong and straight as ever, and then she dropped
right down on the first stair, and put her hands and face
against the balustrade, and I couldn't get one word from her--
nor one look,--any more than if she'd been part of the
staircase.

'For how long?' asked the gentleman after a short pause, and
in a lowered tone.

'It seemed a week to me,' said Mrs. Bywank,--'but I only know
nothing stirred her till she heard the servants begin to move
about the house. And then she got up, in a sort of slow way,
so that I thought she would fall. And I put my arm around her,
and she laid her head on my shoulder, and so we went upstairs.
But she only said she was "very, very tired," and didn't want
any breakfast. I couldn't get another word but that.'

'And since then?'--said her hearer, after another pause in
which he seemed to have forgotten himself.

'Since then,' said Mrs. Bywank, 'there have been balls and
picnics and dinners enough to take one's breath away. But it
don't seem to me she can enjoy them much--she comes home so
often with a sort of troubled look that I can't understand.
And when I ask if she's not well, she says, "Yes, very well."
So what is one to to?'

'I don't think you can do anything, Mrs. Bywank. Perhaps I
can. Is that all you have to tell me?'

'Not quite, sir,'--but the old housekeeper hesitated. 'I am not
sure about saying all I wanted to say.'

'Why?' said Rollo, smiling.

'It is a nice matter for one woman to talk about another
woman,' said Mrs. Bywank; and again she paused, evidently
considering where care ended and treason began. 'I am a little
uneasy, sir,--more than a little,--about some of these young men
that come here so often.'

'On what account?' said Rollo shortly and gravely, with a tone
that meant to get to the bottom of _that_ at least.

'Why,' said Mrs. Bywank, glancing at him, 'chiefly because I
think Miss Wych does not know in the least how often they
come. Which, if she thought twice about any