"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: "And jes that minute they happened either to see or to hear me, I don't know which. Anyways, they looks up, and--whew! they jumps apart as if a fire-cracker had gone off between 'em! Well, I tells my lady as her child is sick, and she jumps up, impatient like, to go and look after him. And I comes away too. And that was just about ten minutes before you got home yourself." "Deceived! Betrayed! Scorned! Laughed at!" bitterly exclaimed Sybil.