she said, 'Oh, by the bye, I met Annaple in Park's shop!'

'Full of Micklethwayte news, I suppose,' said May.

'Yes, of course. Did you know, Nuttie, that your aunt was ill?'

'No, indeed, I did not. What was the matter?'

'Bronchitis, I believe--brown titus, as Betty Butter calls it.'

'Bronchitis! Oh dear! oh dear! Are you quite sure, Blanche?'

'Oh yes! I am quite certain Annaple said Mark told her that Miss
Headworth was laid up with bronchitis.'

'And nobody has written to us all this week!' sighed Nuttie.

'I should think that a sign there could not be much in it,' observed
May; 'it may be only a bad cold.'

'But Aunt Ursel had bronchitis four years ago, and was very ill
indeed,' persisted Nuttie. 'I'm sure it is bronchitis, and that she
won't let Miss Mary write to us.'

She was in much distress about it, though May privately told her that
she ought to know Blanche's way better than to trust implicitly to any
of her reports; and her aunt said much the same thing in more general
terms, even proposing that if she did not hear the next morning she
should go over to Lescombe to ascertain what Mark had really said.

This pacified her a little, but on her way home the alarm grew upon
her, and, moreover, she recollected the opposition that she believed
that her father was certain to make to either her mother or herself
going to nurse her aunt. It flashed upon her that if she were to
hasten to Micklethwayte on this alarm before there could be a
prohibition, it would be no disobedience, and perfectly justifiable,
not to say noble. Her parents were to return on Thursday evening, and
she made up her mind that, unless she were fully reassured as to Miss
Headworth's state, she would go off at once to Micklethwayte before any
one could gainsay her. She had plenty of money, and she consulted the
time-table in the hall before going upstairs. It only concerned the
nearest line, but she calculated that if she caught the express, she
should reach her destination in time to write to her mother at
Waldicotes, and prevent needless shocks. Her eagerness for the plan
grew upon her, so that it seemed like liberation; she could hardly
sleep for thinking of it, and certainly was not as much disappointed as
she believed herself when the post came in--a blank.

Martin was away with her mistress, so Nuttie explained matters to the
upper housemaid, who was very sympathetic, carried down her orders for
the carriage, proc