Receiving no response he struck a match, and looked around. The room was empty. Greatly alarmed he went to the landing, and knocked at an adjoining door. A woman's voice called,-- "Who's there?" "It is I, Dr. Spenlove." "Wait a moment, sir." He heard shuffling steps, and presently the tenant appeared, only partially dressed, with a lighted candle in her hand. "I didn't send for you, doctor," she said. "No. I want to ask you about Mrs. Turner. She is not in her room." "I thought it was strange I didn't hear the baby crying, but I don't know where she is." "Did you not hear her go out?" "No, sir; I came home at ten soaked through and through, and I was glad to get to bed. It ain't a night a woman would care to keep out in unless she couldn't help herself." "Indeed it is not. Did you see anything of her before you went to bed?" "I didn't see her, I heard her. I was just going off when she knocked at my door, and asked if I could give her a little milk for the baby; but I hadn't any to give. Besides, she ain't got a feeding-bottle that I know of. She's been trying to borrow one, but nobody in the house could oblige her. She's having a hard time of it, doctor." "She is, poor soul!" said Dr. Spenlove, with a sigh. "It's the way with all of us, sir; no one ought to know that better than you do. There ain't a lodger in the house that's earning more than twelve shillings a week; not much to keep a family on, is it, sir? And we've got a landlord with a heart of stone. If it hadn't been for her baby, and that it might have got him in hot water, he'd have turned her out weeks ago. He's bound to do it to-morrow if her rent ain't paid. He told me so this morning when he screwed the last penny out of me." "Do you know whether she succeeded in obtaining milk for the child?" "It's hardly likely, I should say. Charity begins at home, doctor." "It is natural and just that it should; but it is terrible, terrible! Where can Mrs. Turner have gone to?" "Heaven knows. One thing I do know, doctor, she's got no friends; she wouldn't make any, kept herself to herself, gave herself airs, some said, though I don't go as far as that. I dare say she has her reasons, only when a woman sets herself up like that it turns people against her. Are you sure she ain't in her room?" "The room is empty." "It's enough to be the death of a baby to take it out such a night as this. Listen to the wind." A furious gust shook the house, and made every window rattle. To Dr. Spenlove's agitated senses it seemed to be alive with ominous voices, proclaiming death and destruction to every weak and helpless creature that dared to brave it. He passed his hand across his forehead in distress. "I must find her. I suppose you cannot tell me of any place she may have gone to for assistance?" "I can't, sir. There's a bare chance that as she had no coals and no money to buy 'em with, some one in the house has taken her in for the night. I'll inquire, if you like."