, however, from the few
crooked lines scrawled by the servant, that Patty had been very much
startled by the sudden entrance of the landlady's rough lodger, who
had let himself in from the street, just as she was about to follow her
young mistress up to the sitting-room, and had uncivilly stood in her
way on the stairs, while he listened to what the good woman of the
house had to tell him about young Mr. Thorpe's illness. Confused as the
writing was on the slate, Madonna contrived to interpret it thus far,
and would have gone on interpreting more, if she had not felt a heavy
hand laid on her arm, and had not, on looking round, seen Zack's friend
making signs to her, with her money loose in his hand.

She felt confused, but not frightened now; for his eyes, as she looked
into them, expressed neither suspicion nor anger. They rested on her
face kindly and sadly, while he first pointed to the money in his hand,
and then to her. She felt that her color was rising, and that it was
a hard matter to acknowledge the gold and silver as being her own
property; but she did so acknowledge it. He then pointed to himself; and
when she shook her head, pointed through the folding doors into Zack's
room. Her cheeks began to burn, and she grew suddenly afraid to look at
him; but it was no harder trial to confess the truth than shamelessly
to deny it by making a false sign. So she looked up at him again, and
bravely nodded her head.

His eyes seemed to grow clearer and softer as they still rested kindly
on her; but he made her take back the money immediately, and, holding
her hand as he did so, detained it for a moment with a curious awkward
gentleness. Then, after first pointing again to Zack's room, he began to
search in the breast-pocket of his coat, took from it at one rough grasp
some letters tied together loosely, and a clumsy-looking rolled-up strip
of fur, put the letters aside on the table behind him, and, unrolling
the fur, showed her that there were bank-notes in it. She understood him
directly--he had money of his own for Zack's service, and wanted none
from her.

After he had replaced the strip of fur in his pocket, he took up the
letters from the table to be put back also. As he reached them towards
him, a lock of hair, which seemed to have accidentally got between them,
fell out on the floor just at her feet. She stooped to pick it up for
him; and was surprised, as she did so, to see that it exactly resembled
in color th