“‘When I went down again, I ’ardly durst stand on the landing, but the door of the drawing-room was ajar, and I ’eard Mr. Bloggs say: “Surely you will not turn a human being, much less a woman, out on a night like this?” And the mistress said, still speaking very angrily: “Very well, you may sleep here; but remember, I don’t wish to see your face again. I go to church at six and come home again at seven; mind you are out of the house before then. There are plenty of trains after seven o’clock.”’ “After that,” continued the man in the corner, “Mrs. Yule rang for the housemaid and gave orders that the spare-room should be got ready, and that the visitor should have some tea and toast brought to her in the morning as soon as Annie was up. “But Annie was rather late on that eventful morning of the 28th. She did not go downstairs till seven o’clock. When she did, she found her mistress lying dead at the foot of the stairs. It was not until after the doctor had been and gone that both the servants suddenly recollected the guest in the spare room. Annie knocked at her door, and, receiving no answer, she walked in; the bed had not been slept in, and the spare room was empty. “‘There, now!’ was the housemaid’s decisive comment, ‘me and cook did ’ear some one cross the ’all, and the front door bang about an hour after every one else was in bed.’ “Presumably, therefore, Mrs. William Yule had braved the elements and left the house at about midnight, leaving no trace behind her, save perhaps the broken lock of the desk that had held the deed of gift in favour of young Bloggs.” Chapter III “Some say there’s a Providence that watches over us,” said the man in the corner, when he had looked at me keenly, and had assured himself that I was really interested in his narrative, “others use the less poetic and more direct formula, that ‘the devil takes care of his own.’ The impression of the general public during this interesting coroner’s inquest was that the devil was taking special care of his own—(‘his own’ being in this instance represented by Mrs. William Yule, who, by the way, was not present). “What the Evil One had done for her was this: He caused the hall gas to burn so badly on that eventful Thursday night, 27th March, that Jane, the cook, had not been able to see Mrs. William Yule at all distinctly. He, moreover, decreed that when Annie went into the drawing-room later on to take her mistress’s orders, with regard to the spare room, Mrs. William was apparently dissolved in tears, for she only presented the back of her head to the inquisitive glances of the young housemaid. “After that the two servants went to bed, and heard some one cross the hall and leave the house about an hour or so later; but neither of them could swear positively that they would recognise the mysterious visitor if they set eyes on her again.