five lines runnin'! Oh, it's a dreadful book: and that's the book to
read to your husband when he's got a fit o' the gout. He's got nothin'
to do but swallow knolludge then. Now, Mr. Braintop, don't stop, but
tell me as ye go on what ye did with yourself all night."

A slight hesitation in Braintop caused her to cross-examine him rigidly,
suggesting that he might not dare to tell, and he, exercising some
self-command, adopted narrative as the less ignominious form of
confession. No one save Mrs. Chump listened to him until he mentioned
the name Miss Belloni; and then it was curious to see the steadiness
with which certain eyes, feigning abstraction, fixed in his direction.
He had met Emilia on the outskirts of the town, and unable to persuade
her to take shelter anywhere, had walked on with her in dead silence
through the night, to the third station of the railway for London.

"Is this a mad person?" asked the Hon. Mrs. Bayruffle.

Adela shrugged. "A genius."

"Don't eat with the tips of your teeth, like a bird, Mr. Braintop,
for no company minds your eatin'," cried Mrs. Chump, angrily and
encouragingly; "and this little Belloni--my belief is that she came
after you; and what have ye done with her?"

It was queerly worried out of Braintop, who was trying his best all the
time to be obedient to Wilfrid's direct eye, that the two wanderers by
night had lost themselves in lanes, refreshed themselves with purloined
apples from the tree at dawn, obtained a draught of morning milk, with
a handful of damsons apiece, and that nothing would persuade Emilia to
turn back from the route to London. Braintop bit daintily at his toast,
unwilling to proceed under the discouraging expression of Wilfrid's
face, and the meditative silence of two or three others. The discovery
was forcibly extracted that Emilia had no money;--that all she had in
her possession was sevenpence and a thimble; and that he, Braintop, had
but a few shillings, which she would not accept.

"And what has become of her?" was asked.

Braintop stated that she had returned to London, and, blushing,
confessed that he had given her his return ticket.

Georgiana here interposed to save him from the awful encomiums of Mrs.
Chump, by desiring to know whether Emilia seemed unhappy or distressed.
Braintop's spirited reply, "Not at all," was corrected to: "She did
not cry;" and further modified: "That is, she called out sharply when I
whistled an opera tune."

Lady