e; I don't say I won't be even with
her yet. But not in _that_ way! I won't have her death laid at my door.
Oh, but I know her temper--and I say it's as likely as not to kill her
or drive her mad, if she isn't warned about it in time. Never mind her
losing her money. If it's lost, it's lost, and she's got plenty more.
She may be robbed a dozen times over for all I care. But don't let her
set her heart on seeing her child, and then find it's all a swindle. I
hate her; but I can't and won't, let _that_ go on. Good-morning, sir."

Amelius was relieved by her departure. For a minute or two, he sat
absently stirring his coffee, and considering how he might most safely
perform the terrible duty of putting Mrs. Farnaby on her guard.
Toff interrupted his meditations by preparing the table for Sally's
breakfast; and, almost at the same moment, Sally herself, fresh and
rosy, opened her door a little way, and looked in.

"You have had a fine long sleep," said Amelius. "Have you quite got over
your walk yesterday?"

"Oh yes," she answered gaily; "I only feel my long walk now in my feet.
It hurts me to put my boots on. Can you lend me a pair of slippers?"

"A pair of my slippers? Why, Sally, you would be lost in them! What's
the matter with your feet?"

"They're both sore. And I think one of them has got a blister on it."

"Come in, and let's have a look at it?"

She came limping in, with her feet bare. "Don't scold me," she pleaded,
"I couldn't put my stockings on again, without washing them; and they're
not dry yet."

"I'll get you new stockings and slippers," said Amelius. "Which is the
foot with the blister?"

"The left foot," she answered, pointing to it.

CHAPTER 5

"Let me see the blister," said Amelius.

Sally looked longingly at the fire.

"May I warm my feet first?" she asked; "they are so cold."

In those words she innocently deferred the discovery which, if it had
been made at the moment, might have altered the whole after-course of
events. Amelius only thought now of preventing her from catching cold.
He sent Toff for a pair of the warmest socks that he possessed, and
asked if he should put them on for her. She smiled, and shook her head,
and put them on for herself.

When they had done laughing at the absurd appearance of the little feet
in the large socks, they only drifted farther and farther away from the
subject of the blistered foot. Sally remembered the terrible matron, and
asked if anythin