She lighted a taper, and, shading it with her hand, crept softly down the stairs that led to the bricked passage, and so into the lodgers’ rooms. That occupied by Mr Portland lay to the left. The door was ajar. Nell had only to push it gently open in order to enter. She set her light down on a table and glanced around her. All was in perfect order, except the much-talked-of dispatch-box, which had been left open with its contents tumbled over. Nell did not believe that the packet of letters was not there. It was very unlikely that Jack Portland would not know what was in his box, or what was not. He had intended to hand it to the countess, but changed his mind at the last moment. She looked carefully through the contents of the box, but found no packet. She had replaced the papers carefully, and was about to search the remainder of the apartment, when, to her horror, she heard a footstep enter the narrow passage that divided the two rooms and approach the one which she occupied. It was useless to extinguish her light. The newcomer had already perceived her. ‘Halloa!’ he exclaimed, ‘and what pretty burglar have I here?’ She turned to confront him, and his tone changed to one of terror. ‘My God, _Nell_!’ he cried, ‘are you dead or living?’ She stood face to face with Jack Portland. CHAPTER VI ‘Are you living,’ he repeated, ‘or--or--dead?’ In the excitement of his subsequent conversation with Lady Ilfracombe he had forgotten the suspicions she had communicated to him with regard to this woman, and now stood before her, dazed and trembling. Men who are given to drinking are always terribly afraid of the supernatural. ‘Don’t alarm yourself,’ replied Nell scornfully, ‘I am alive.’ ‘_Alive!_ Then Lady Ilfracombe was correct when she assured me she had met you. Though she had never seen you before, your description tallied so exactly with the girl she saw here that she felt certain you must be the same person.’ ‘She was right,’ said Nell quietly. ‘And how did it all happen?’ asked Jack Portland eagerly. ‘You will forgive my curiosity, when you remember that your death was not only currently reported, but, as it was supposed, proved beyond a doubt. We--that is, Ilfracombe and all your friends--felt your loss very much. It was terrible for us to think you had come to so sad an end. You will believe so much, will you not?’ ‘Oh, yes.’ ‘But you are standing, Miss Llewellyn; pray sit down. You will not be afraid to bestow a few moments on me in order to satisfy my great curiosity. Tell me first, how is it we find you here?’ ‘That is easily accounted for, Mr Portland. Usk is my native place. I was born at Panty-cuckoo Farm. Mr and Mrs Llewellyn are my father and mother. So it was only natural, when I lost the home I thought was mine, that I should return to them.’ ‘But how was it that the rumour of your death became so widely circulated?’