h a makeshift bed at one end of it, and
a makeshift bed at the other--I give you my word of honor, that was
how your aunt put it. She spoke of two men next; two men asleep (you
understand) in the two beds. I think she called them 'gentlemen'; but I
can't be sure, and I wouldn't deceive you--you know I wouldn't deceive
you, for the world. Miss Letitia muttered and mumbled, poor soul. I own
I was getting tired of listening--when she burst out plain again, in
that one horrid word--Oh, miss, don't be impatient! don't interrupt me!"

Emily did interrupt, nevertheless. In some degree at least she had
recovered herself. "No more of it!" she said--"I won't hear a word
more."

But Mrs. Mosey was too resolutely bent on asserting her own importance,
by making the most of the alarm that she had suffered, to be repressed
by any ordinary method of remonstrance. Without paying the slightest
attention to what Emily had said, she went on again more loudly and more
excitably than ever.

"Listen, miss--listen! The dreadful part of it is to come; you haven't
heard about the two gentlemen yet. One of them was murdered--what do
you think of that!--and the other (I heard your aunt say it, in so many
words) committed the crime. Did Miss Letitia fancy she was addressing a
lot of people when _you_ were nursing her? She called out, like a person
making public proclamation, when I was in her room. 'Whoever you are,
good people' (she says), 'a hundred pounds reward, if you find the
runaway murderer. Search everywhere for a poor weak womanish creature,
with rings on his little white hands. There's nothing about him like
a man, except his voice--a fine round voice. You'll know him, my
friends--the wretch, the monster--you'll know him by his voice.' That
was how she put it; I tell you again, that was how she put it. Did you
hear her scream? Ah, my dear young lady, so much the better for you!
'O the horrid murder' (she says)--'hush it up!' I'll take my Bible oath
before the magistrate," cried Mrs. Mosey, starting out of her chair,
"your aunt said, 'Hush it up!'"

Emily crossed the room. The energy of her character was roused at last.
She seized the foolish woman by the shoulders, forced her back in the
chair, and looked her straight in the face without uttering a word.

For the moment, Mrs. Mosey was petrified. She had fully expected--having
reached the end of her terrible story--to find Emily at her feet,
entreating her not to carry out her inten