and was carrying it along the passage
from the kitchen when I fancied I heard Mr. Penreath's voice in the bar
parlour. I thought at first that I must be mistaken; then the door of
the parlour opened, and Mr. Glenthorpe and Mr. Penreath came out. I was
so surprised and frightened that I almost dropped the tray I was
carrying. If they had looked down the side passage they would have seen
me. But he and Mr. Glenthorpe turned the other way, and went upstairs.
Then Charles came along carrying a dinner tray, and went upstairs also.
I knew then that Mr. Penreath was the gentleman who was going to dine
with Mr. Glenthorpe, and stay the night.

"I did not know what to do. I took grandmother's tea upstairs, and crept
past the room where they were having dinner, because I did not want him
to see me till I had made up my mind what to do. The door was shut, and
they couldn't see me, though I could hear them talking inside. When I
got to my grandmother's room I tried to think what was best to do. My
first thought was that he had found out who I was. Then it seemed to me
that he might have come by accident, in some way that I didn't
understand, because why should he dine with Mr. Glenthorpe, and stay
with him, if he had come to see me? Then I wondered if it were possible
that he knew Mr. Glenthorpe, who was a gentleman like himself, and had
come to ask him to help him. I had never told him anything about Mr.
Glenthorpe or myself.

"I determined to try and see him that night to let him know that the inn
was my home. If he had come to the inn by accident it was better that he
should not meet me in front of my father, because in his surprise he
might say that he had met me before. My father would have been very
angry if he knew I had been meeting a stranger. So I went along the
passage several times in the hope of seeing him as he came from dinner.
But once my father was going into the room where they were having
dinner, and he nearly saw me, so I dared not go again.

"A little after ten o'clock my grandmother began to get restless, as she
always does when a storm is coming on, and I had to stay with her to
keep her quiet. I can do more with her than anybody else when she is
like that, and it is not safe to leave her. Sometimes my father goes and
sits with her a while before he goes to bed, but this night he did not.
She got very bad as the storm came on, and while it lasted I sat
alongside of her holding her hand and soothing her. Aft