Fan got into the cab again, and they proceeded in silence to Dawson Place. A small boy in buttons, who had only been engaged a day or two before, opened the door to them. They went up to the bedroom on the first floor. “Sit down, Fan, and rest yourself,” said Miss Starbrow, closing and locking the door; then after moving about the room in an aimless way for a little while, she came and sat down near the girl. “Before you tell me this dreadful story, Fan,” she said, “I wish to ask you one thing more. One day last week when it was raining you came home from Kensington with a young man. Who was he--a friend of yours?” “A friend of mine! oh no. I was hurrying back in the rain when he came up to me and held his umbrella over my head, and walked to the door with me. It was kind of him, I thought, because he was a stranger, and I had never seen him before.” “It was a small thing, but you usually tell me everything, and you did not tell me this?” “No, I was waiting to tell you that--and something else, and didn't tell you because you seemed angry with me, and I was afraid to speak to you.” “What was the something else you were going to tell me?” Fan related the scene she had witnessed in the drawing-room. It had seemed a great thing then, and had disturbed her very much, but now, after all she had recently gone through, it seemed a very trivial matter. To the other it did not appear so small a matter, to judge from her black looks. She got up and moved about the room again, and then once more sat down beside the girl. “Now tell me your own story--everything from the moment you got the telegram up to our meeting in the Gardens.” With half-averted face she listened, while the girl again began the interrupted narration, and went on telling everything to the finish, wondering at times why Mary sat so silent with face averted, as if afraid to meet her eyes. But when she finished Mary turned and took her hand. “Poor Fan,” she said, “you have gone through a dreadful experience, and scarcely seem to understand even now what danger you were in. But there will be time enough to talk of all this--to congratulate you on such a fortunate escape; just now I have got to deal with that infamous wretch of a girl who still poisons the house with her presence.” She rose and rung the bell sharply, and when the boy in buttons answered it, she ordered him to send Rosie to her. “She's gone,” said he. “Gone! what do you mean--when did she go?” “Just now, ma'am. She came up to speak to you when you came in, and then she got her box down and went away in a cab.” Miss Starbrow then sent for the cook. “What does this mean about Rosie's going?” she demanded of that person. “How came you to let her go without informing me?” “She came down and said she had had some words with you, and was going to leave because Miss Fan had been took back.” “And the wretch has then got away with my jewellery! What else did she say?”