d, it was overgrown with nettles and duckweed; that you dispossessed
no one, and such like. The answer is still the same, "Where's your
title? Where's your lease?"

Now, I am curious to hear what injury I was inflicting on that old woman
at No. 12 by any self-deceptions of mine? Could the most exaggerated
estimate I might form of myself, my present, or my future, in any degree
affect _her?_ Who constituted her a sort of ambulatory conscience, to
call people's hearts to account at a moment's notice? It may be seen
by the tone of these reflections, that I was fully impressed with the
belief through some channel, or by some clew, Mrs. Keats knew all my
history, and intended to use her knowledge tyrannically over me.

Oh that I could only retaliate! Oh that I had only the veriest fragment
of her past life, out of which to construct her whole story! Just as out
of a mastodon's molar, Cuvier used to build up the whole monster, never
omitting a rib, nor forgetting a vertebra! How I should like to say to
her, and with a most significant sigh, "I knew poor Keats well!" Could
I not make even these simple words convey a world of accusation, blended
with sorrow and regret?

Francois again, and on the same errand. "Say I am coming; that I have
only finished a hasty breakfast, and that I am coming this instant,"
cried I. Nor was it very easy for me to repress the more impatient
expressions which struggled for utterance, particularly as I saw, or
fancied I saw, the fellow pass his hand over his mouth to hide a grin at
my expense.

"Is Miss Herbert upstairs?"

"No, sir, she is in the garden."

This was so far pleasant. I dreaded the thought of her presence at this
interview, and I felt that punishment within the precincts of the jail
was less terrible than on the drop before the populace; and with this
consoling reflection I mounted the stairs.

CHAPTER XIX. MRS. KEATS'S MYSTERIOUS COMMUNICATION

I knocked twice before I heard the permission to enter; but scarcely
had I closed the door behind me, than the old lady advanced, and,
courtesying to me with a manner of most reverential politeness, said,
"When you learn, sir, that my conduct has been dictated in the interest
of your safety, you will, I am sure, graciously pardon many apparent
rudenesses in my manner towards you, and only see in them my zeal to
serve you."

I could only bow to a speech not one syllable of which was in the least
intelligible to me. She conducte