ters. The whole party were in a little
den at the pastrycook's; the boys consuming mutton pies, and the ladies
ox-tail soup, while waiting to be taken up by the waggonette which had
of late been added to the Myrtlewood establishment, when the little lady
thus spoke--

"If you don't object, Miss Williams, we will go to Rachel's asylum on
our way home."

Miss Williams asked if she had made the appointment.

"No," said Lady Temple, "but you see I can't be satisfied about those
woodcuts; and that poor woman, Mrs. Kelland, came to me yesterday about
my lace shawl, and she is sadly distressed about the little girl. She
was not allowed to see her, you know, and she heard such odd things
about the place that I told her that I did not wonder she was in
trouble, and that I would try to bring the child home, or at any rate
see and talk to her."

"I hope we may be able to see her, but you know Colonel Keith could not
get in without making an appointment."

"I pay for her," said Lady Temple, "and I cannot bear its going on in
this way without some one seeing about it. The Colonel was quite sure
those woodcuts were mere fabrications to deceive Rachel; and there must
be something very wrong about those people."

"Did she know that you were going?"

"No; I did not see her before we went. I do not think she will mind
it much; and I promised." Lady Temple faltered a little, but gathered
courage the next moment. "And indeed, after what Mrs. Kelland said, I
could not sleep while I thought I had been the means of putting any poor
child into such hands."

"Yes," said Alison, "it is very shocking to leave them there without
inquiry, and it is an excellent thing to make the attempt."

And so the order was given to drive to the asylum, Alison marvelling
at the courage which prompted this most unexpected assault upon the
fortress that had repulsed two such warriors as Colonel Keith and Mrs.
Kelland. But timid and tender as she might be, it was not for nothing
that Fanny Temple had been a vice-queen, so much accustomed to be
welcomed wherever she penetrated, that the notion of a rebuff never
suggested itself.

Coombe rang, and his lady made him let herself and Miss Williams out, so
that she was on the step when the rough charwoman opened the door, and
made the usual reply that Mr. Mauleverer was not within. Lady Temple
answered that it was Mrs. Rawlins, the matron, that she wished to see,
and with more audacity than Alison thought he