There was an absent, uneasy expression in
his eye as he begged her not to consult economy at the expense of her
own comfort. He appeared to have some reason of his own for preventing
her from leaving the room. "Sit d own a minute, and think before you
decide," he said. Having forced her to take a chair, he put his head
outside the door and directed the lad to go up stairs, and see if he had
left his pipe in his bedroom. "I want you to go in comfort, as a lady
should," he repeated, with the uneasy look more marked than ever. Before
Anne could reply, the lad's voice reached them from the bedroom floor,
raised in shrill alarm, and screaming "Fire!"

Geoffrey ran up stairs. Anne followed him. The lad met them at the
top of the stairs. He pointed to the open door of Anne's room. She was
absolutely certain of having left her lighted candle, when she went down
to Geoffrey, at a safe distance from the bed-curtains. The bed-curtains,
nevertheless, were in a blaze of fire.

There was a supply of water to the cottage, on the upper floor. The
bedroom jugs and cans usually in their places at an earlier hour, were
standing that night at the cistern. An empty pail was left near them.
Directing the lad to bring him water from these resources, Geoffrey tore
down the curtains in a flaming heap, partly on the bed and partly on the
sofa near it. Using the can and the pail alternately, as the boy brought
them, he drenched the bed and the sofa. It was all over in little
more than a minute. The cottage was saved. But the bed-furniture
was destroyed; and the room, as a matter of course, was rendered
uninhabitable, for that night at least, and probably for more nights to
come.

Geoffrey set down the empty pail; and, turning to Anne, pointed across
the passage.

"You won't be much inconvenienced by this," he said. "You have only to
shift your quarters to the spare room."

With the assistance of the lad, he moved Anne's boxes, and the chest of
drawers, which had escaped damage, into the opposite room. This done,
he cautioned her to be careful with her candles for the future--and went
down stairs, without waiting to hear what she said in reply. The lad
followed him, and was dismissed for the night.

Even in the confusion which attended the extinguishing of the fire, the
conduct of Hester Dethridge had been remarkable enough to force itself
on the attention of Anne.

She had come out from her bedroom, when the alarm was given; had looked
a