im when the landlady had withdrawn, and crept to bed
again with a thankful heart.

The schoolmaster sat for a long time smoking his pipe by the kitchen
fire, which was now deserted, thinking, with a very happy face, on the
fortunate chance which had brought him so opportunely to the child's
assistance, and parrying, as well as in his simple way he could, the
inquisitive cross-examination of the landlady, who had a great
curiosity to be made acquainted with every particular of Nell's life
and history. The poor schoolmaster was so open-hearted, and so little
versed in the most ordinary cunning or deceit, that she could not have
failed to succeed in the first five minutes, but that he happened to be
unacquainted with what she wished to know; and so he told her. The
landlady, by no means satisfied with this assurance, which she
considered an ingenious evasion of the question, rejoined that he had
his reasons of course. Heaven forbid that she should wish to pry into
the affairs of her customers, which indeed were no business of hers,
who had so many of her own. She had merely asked a civil question, and
to be sure she knew it would meet with a civil answer. She was quite
satisfied--quite. She had rather perhaps that he would have said at
once that he didn't choose to be communicative, because that would have
been plain and intelligible. However, she had no right to be offended
of course. He was the best judge, and had a perfect right to say what
he pleased; nobody could dispute that for a moment. Oh dear, no!

'I assure you, my good lady,' said the mild schoolmaster, 'that I have
told you the plain truth. As I hope to be saved, I have told you the
truth.'

'Why then, I do believe you are in earnest,' rejoined the landlady,
with ready good-humour, 'and I'm very sorry I have teazed you. But
curiosity you know is the curse of our sex, and that's the fact.' The
landlord scratched his head, as if he thought the curse sometimes
involved the other sex likewise; but he was prevented from making any
remark to that effect, if he had it in contemplation to do so, by the
schoolmaster's rejoinder.

'You should question me for half-a-dozen hours at a sitting, and
welcome, and I would answer you patiently for the kindness of heart you
have shown to-night, if I could,' he said. 'As it is, please to take
care of her in the morning, and let me know early how she is; and to
understand that I am paymaster for the three.'

So,