en to ask me at which
Madame's was. She opened several. In one room she was frightened by a bat,
which had very nearly put her candle out. She went on a little, paused, and
began to lose heart in the dismal solitude, when on a sudden, a few doors
farther on, she thought she heard Madame's voice.

She said that she knocked at the door, but receiving no answer, and hearing
Madame still talking within, she opened it.

There was a candle on the chimneypiece, and another in a stable lantern
near the window. Madame was conversing volubly on the hearth, with her face
toward the window, the entire frame of which had been taken from its place:
Dickon Hawkes, the Zamiel of the wooden leg, was supporting it with one
hand, as it leaned imperfectly against the angle of the recess. There was
a third figure standing, buttoned up in a surtout, with a bundle of tools
under his arm, like a glazier, and, with a silent thrill of fear, she
distinctly recognised the features as those of Dudley Ruthyn.

''Twas him, Miss, so sure as I sit here! Well, like that, they were as mute
as mice; three pairs of eyes were on me. I don't know what made me so study
like, but som'at told me I should not make as though I knew any but Madame;
and so I made a courtesy, as well as I could, and I said, "Might I speak a
word wi' ye, please, on the lobby?"

'Mr. Dudley was making belief be this time to look out at window, wi' his
back to me, and I kept looking straight on Madame, and she said, "They're
mendin' my broken glass, Mary," walking between them and me, and coming
close up to me very quick; and so she marched me backward out o' the door,
prating all the time.

'When we were on the lobby, she took my candle from my hand, shutting the
door behind her, and she held the light a bit behind her ear; so'twas full
on my face, as she looked sharp into it; and, after a bit, she said again,
in her queer lingo--there was two panes broke in her room, and men sent for
to mend it.

'I was awful frightened when I saw Mr. Dudley, for I could not believe any
such thing before, and I don't know how I could look her in the face as I
did and not show it. I was as smooth and cool as yonder chimneypiece, and
she has an awful evil eye to stan' against; but I never flinched, and I
think she's puzzled, for as cunning as she is, whether I believe all she
said, or knowed 'twas a pack o' stories. So I told her your message, and
she said she had not heard another word since; but