ted to proceed on foot. The distance was five miles.
She would have to carry her child, but the babe was not a heavy
weight. Gladly would she have carried it twice the distance if
only it were more solid and a greater burden. The hands were almost
transparent, the face as wax, and the nose unduly sharp for an
infant of such a tender age.

"I daresay," said Joe aside, "that if I can blind old Clutch and
turn him round so that he don't know his bearin's, that I may get
him up and to run along, thinkin' he's on his way back to Gorlmyn.
But he's deep--terrible deep."

Accordingly Mehetabel walked on, and walked for nearly two hours
without being overtaken. She reached that point of the main road
whence a way diverges on the right to the village of Thursley,
whereas the Ship Inn lies a little further forward on the highway.
She purposed going to the dame's schoolhouse, to ascertain whether
Mrs. Chivers had returned. If she had not, then Mehetabel did not
know what she should do, whither she should go. Return to the
Punch-Bowl she would not. Anything was preferable to that. The
house of Jonas Kink was associated with thoughts of wretchedness,
and she could not endure to enter it again.

She reached the cottage and found it locked. She applied at the
house of the nearest neighbor, to learn whether Betty Chivers was
expected home shortly, and also whether she had left the key. She
was told that news had reached Thursley that the schoolmistress
was still unwell, and the neighbor added, that on leaving, Betty
had carried the key of the cottage with her.

"May I sit down?" asked Mehetabel; her brow was bathed in
perspiration, and her knees were shaking under her, whilst her
arms ached and seemed to have lost the power to hold the precious
burden any longer. "I have walked from Gorlmyn," she explained;
"and can you tell me where I can be taken in for a night or two.
I have a little money, and will pay for my lodgings."

The woman drew her lips together and signed to a chair. Presently
she said in a restrained voice: "That there baby is feverish, and
my man has had a hard day's work and wants his rest at night, and
though 'tis true we have a spare room, yet I don't see as we can
accommodate you. So they let you off--up at Kingston?"

"Yes, I was let off," answered Mehetabel, faintly.

"Hardly reckoned on it, I s'pose. Most folks sed as you'd swing
for it. You mustn't try on them games again, or you won't be so
lucky next t