“You have had quite a serious accident, and I am glad to see you are better. Are you quite comfortable, and do the servants attend you properly?” and she put up her eyeglasses to inspect the stranger. “Thank you, I have been very kindly cared for, and am very grateful for the good Samaritan’s charity which has provided for my necessities,” Brownie answered, trying to speak heartily, although she felt the greatest repugnance toward this woman, who she believed was guilty of so much wrong. She had a cold, false eye, and a cunning, cruel expression about her handsome mouth. She was just the kind of a woman to ruin the life of any one who stood in her way, Brownie thought. She laughed lightly but disagreeably at the young girl’s words. “Oh, I do not claim any merit whatever regarding your comfort or necessities. My house was full, and at first I thought it would be impossible to take you in, but Lady Ruxley, who is very eccentric and wilful, insisted upon it, and gave up her own chamber for your accommodation, she sleeping, meanwhile, in her maid’s room.” Brownie’s fair face grew scarlet, as she listened to this, and was made to feel, by the indelicate explanation, that Lady Randal, at least, had regarded her in the light of an intruder. It explained to her, too, what she had at first considered singular—that the rooms should be connected by archways and curtains instead of doors. “I regret exceedingly,” she returned, with dignity, “that I should have put an aged lady like Lady Ruxley to such inconvenience. I laid my plans yesterday to go to some hotel as soon as I should be able, and remain until I fully recover. If you will allow one of your servants to order a carriage for me, I will put my plan into execution at once.” “No, no, Miss Dundas, that would never do at all, and Aunt Ruxley would berate me soundly if she knew I had told you this. She is a very queer woman, as doubtless you discovered yesterday. She will not be crossed in anything, and when her mind is once made up, you can no more move her than you could one of the seven hills of Rome. But,” continued the woman, who had never once taken her eyes from the fair young face before her, and had read every expression with a boldness which made her odious, “I did not come to tell you this—I came upon a little matter of business.” She paused a moment, and Brownie wondered what business she could have with her.