"I was thinkin' so. Lawful born or come-by-chance, the child's a
little gentleman, an' different from the others. Blood al'ays comes
out, don't it?"

"I s'pose so."

Tilda, still perched on her chair, glanced out at the children in the
yard.

"You won't see 'im out there. He's in the shed at the end o' the
kitchen garden, cleanin' the boots. If you've got anything good to tell
'im, an' 'll promise not to be five minutes, I might give you a run
there while the Doctor's finishin' his dinner in his study. Fact is,"
added this strange woman, "the child likes to be alone, an' sometimes I
lets 'im slip away there--when he's good, or the Doctor's been extra
'ard with 'im."

"Beats 'im?" asked Tilda, and suddenly, still erect on her chair and
looking down on the woman, felt her courage flowing back full and
strong. "He's a beast, then."

"You musn' talk like that," said the woman hurriedly, with a glance back
at the half-open door. "Hut he's 'ard if you cross 'im--an' the child's
pay bein' be'ind--'and--"

"What's your name?" demanded Tilda.

"Sarah 'Uggins."

"Miss or Missis?"

"What's that to you?"

The blood surged into the woman's face, and she eyed the child
suspiciously under lowered brows. Tilda slipped down from her chair.
She had a sense of standing dangerously on the edge of something evil,
forbidden. If only she could scream aloud and rush out--anywhere--into
the open air!

"I--I was only wantin' to speak polite," she stammered. "I been
impident to yer. But O, Sarah 'Uggins--O, ma'am--'elp me see 'im an'
get away, an' I'll bless yer name fur ever and ever! Amen."

"Nip in front o' me," said the woman, "and be quick, then! First
turnin' to the right down the stairs, an' don't clatter yer boots."

Tilda obeyed breathlessly, and found herself in a dark stone stairway.
It led down steeply to the basement, and here her guide overtook and
stepped ahead of her. They passed through two dirty kitchens, through a
wash-house littered with damp linen and filled with steam from a copper
in the corner, and emerged upon a well-court foetid with sink-water and
decaying scraps of vegetables. They had met no one on their way, and it
crossed Tilda's mind--but the thought was incredible--that Sarah Huggins
served this vast barracks single-handed. A flight of stone steps led up
from this area to the railed coping twenty feet aloft, where the sky
shone pure and fresh.

"Up there, an' you 're in the ga