Mrs. Jenkins clutched the paper from the hand of the servant who brought it to her, and read it with the utmost avidity. When, shortly afterwards, Mrs. Griswold went up-stairs to pay her customary visit to the baby before dressing for lunch, she found the nurse in rather a fidgety state; she was absent while Mrs. Griswold talked to her, she answered one or two of her questions at random, and altogether her manner was so _distrait_ that Helen resolved to find out what it all meant. 'Has anything happened to you?' she said; 'have you had any bad news? Pray tell me.' 'No, ma'am,' said Mrs. Jenkins, 'I have not had any bad news, but I should like very much to go out for a while; there is some one come to New York that I know, and I should like to call and see her.' Perhaps a transitory feeling of surprise crossed Helen's mind at the unusual reticence of Mrs. Jenkins, who by this time had become so familiarised with her friendly manner and her kindly genial interest in all that concerned the dwellers in her house that she would have supposed the nurse would at once have told her who the person was, and all about it; but Helen's kindness was not of the exacting sort, and she received this brief communication with her usual sweet compliance. 'Of course you can go out,' she said. 'I will take care of baby; I can take you in the carriage wherever you want to go, and then you can leave baby with me.' 'No, thank you,' answered Mrs. Jenkins, with some embarrassment and a rising colour, which Helen at once perceived, but passed over quite unnoticed, concluding that Mrs. Jenkins's confusion had something to do with the good-for-nothingness of her husband--a point on which Helen deeply commiserated her lot, because, though she had been told no particulars, she felt perfectly convinced that Mr. Jenkins's good-for-nothingness, and no other cause, was at the bottom of his wife's present dependent situation--'no, thank you, ma'am, I would rather go alone, if you please; and if you will allow me, I should like very much to take baby. I think you can trust me not to take her into any place or to see any person of whom you would disapprove.' 'Indeed, I can,' said Helen cordially. 'I can trust you most completely. You shall take baby, and you shall go where you like, and stay as long as you like, and,' she added, laying her hand gently on Mrs. Jenkins's shoulder, as she stooped over the nursing chair, 'never think it necessary to tell me more than you wish, never think that I wish to drive your confidence faster than its natural pace.' Then she immediately left the room, and Mrs. Jenkins, after a few minutes, got herself and the child ready and went out.