My adventure appeared fantastically unreal to me in the presence of this buxom creature, whom I knew to be incapable of imagining anything one hundredth part so dreadful. 'No, miss; I wasn't upset on account of you. You're always so sensible like. You always know what to do. I knew as you must have stopped the night with friends in Hanbridge on account of the heavy rain, and perhaps that there silly cabman not turning up, and them tramcars all crowded; and, of course, you couldn't telegraph.' This view that I was specially sagacious and equal to emergencies rather surprised me. 'But auntie?' I demanded, trembling. 'Oh, miss!' cried Rebecca, glancing timidly over her shoulder, 'I want you to come with me into the dining-room before you go upstairs.' She snuffled. In the dining-room I went at once to the window to draw up the blinds. 'Not that, not that!' Rebecca appealed, weeping. 'For pity's sake!' And she caught my hand. I then noticed that Lucy was standing in the doorway, also weeping. Rebecca noticed this too. 'Lucy, you go to your kitchen this minute,' she said sharply, and then turned to me and began to cry again. 'Miss Peel--how can I tell you?' 'Why do you call me Miss Peel?' I asked her. But I knew why. The thing flashed over me instantly. My dear aunt was dead. 'You've got no aunt,' said Rebecca. 'My poor dear! And you at the concert!' I dropped my head and my bosom on the bare mahogany table and cried. Never before, and never since, have I spilt such tears--hot, painful drops, distilled plenteously from a heart too crushed and torn. 'There, there!' muttered Rebecca. 'I wish I could have told you different--less cruel; but it wasn't in me to do it.' 'And she's lying upstairs this very moment all cold and stiff,' a wailing voice broke in. It was Lucy, who could not keep herself away from us. 'Will you go to your kitchen, my girl!' Rebecca drove her off. 'And the poor thing's not stiff either. Her poor body's as soft as if she was only asleep, and doctor says it will be for a day or two. It's like that when they're took off like that, he says. Oh, Miss Carlotta--' 'Tell me all about it before I go upstairs,' I said. I had recovered.