o' sight! I jes seen
her slip into the drawing-room, where I knowed as Mr. Berners was a
lying onto the sofa, and then I turns back and runs away."

"Oh, why didn't you follow her in?" groaned Sybil.

"Yes, why didn't I, ma'am; which I wish I had, and would a done if it
hadn't a been for that forring nuss a coming outen _her_ room, and a
screeching after me:

"'Missus Winterblossom! Missus Winterblossom!' which I allus told that
huzzy as I wasn't a 'missus,' but a 'miss,' nor likewise a 'blossom,'
but a 'rose.' Howsever, there she was, a yelling at the top of her
voice, 'Missus Winterblossom! Missus Winterblossom!' until I had to run
to her, only to stop her mouth!"

"Ah! the wretch! she was the accomplice of her mistress, and wished to
bring you away," breathed Sybil more to herself than to her housekeeper,
and in a tone too low to reach the ears of Miss Tabby, who continued:

"It was the baby, as had been eating of new chestnuts, and got the
cramp. So the forring nuss, as wasn't worth her salt, comes screaming
after me to come and do something for the baby. Of course I went and did
what was right and proper for the poor little suffering creetur; and
when I had put him to sleep, I thinks about his neglectful mother, and
so I ups and goes after her. And when I opens the drawing-room door,
ma'am--well, I sees a sight as strikes me intor a statty o' stone, or a
pillar o' salt, like Lot's wife."

"What? what?" panted Sybil.

"I seen 'em both, him and her, a sitting close together and a going on
jes like two lovyers as was going to be married to-morrow, or a bride
and groom as was married yesterday."

"How? how?"

"Well, ma'am, if her head wasn't a leaning on his shoulder, it was so
nigh it as it made no difference! And her hand was squeezed inter
hizzen, and her eyes was rolled up inter hizzen in the most be-devilling
way as ever I see in my life--for all the world as if she was a loving
of him, and a worshipping of him, and a praising of him, and a praying
to him, all in one gaze!"

"And he!--and he!"

"Oh, my dear honey! what can you expect of a poor, weak, _he-man_? He
looks down on her as if he enjoyed being loved and worshipped and
praised and prayed to, and he squeezes of her hand up to his mouth as if
he'd like to have eaten it!"

"_Oh, my heart! my heart!_" moaned Sybil, turning deadly pale.

Still, Miss Tabby, full of her own subject, scarcely noticed the pain
she was inflicting, so she continued