"My master and mistress left the house early to-day, between ten and eleven o'clock. They said they would not be back till after the play was over. They left me everything the boy and myself should want, and told me I was to get his dinner and my own at the usual time, and his supper between five and six, and that I was to put him to bed at six, as usual. I am an old servant in the O'Donnell family. I brought up Mr. Eugene himself, and they knew they could trust me. "I did everything they told me. I had nothing else to do all day but look after the boy, and get his dinner and my own, and his supper and my tea. I got his dinner and my own between one and two, and then he was with me about the house when I was tidying up, until it was time to get his supper and my tea, between five and six. "I hadn't much to do. There was no knock at the front door, and only a few at the side door, and no one was in the house from the time the master and mistress left, until that ragged boy called in the evening. "I had given the child his supper and put him to bed a little while, and was taking my tea in the kitchen, when there was a single knock at the side door. "I was just done my tea, so I let the knock wait for a minute or so, while I was finishing. Then I got up and opened the side door, and I saw standing there, in the passage, a dirty, ragged boy, of about fourteen or fifteen years of age. "I did not like the look of him at all, and I asked him what he wanted. He said he wanted Mr. O'Donnell's house. "I told him this was it, and asked him what he wanted at Mr. O'Donnell's house. "He said he wanted to see Mr. O'Donnell's nurse, he had a message for her. "I said I was Mr. O'Donnell's nurse, and asked him what his business with me was. "He said he had a private message for me, that he was to give to nobody else. "I could make nothing of him. I didn't expect a message from anyone. He looked a bad boy, a common street boy that had no good bringing up. I did not ask him across the threshold. I said to him: 'Well, if you have any message for Mr. O'Donnell's nurse, give it to me. There is no one near to hear.' "'Are you the nurse?' said the boy,--after my telling him twice I was. "'Yes,' said I, 'I am Mr. O'Donnell's nurse.' "'Then,' said he, 'a woman told me to come and fetch you.' "'What woman, and where does she want me to go to?' I asked. "'Oh, she's a most respectable woman; and she said she'd tell you her business when she saw you, and that she would not tell it to anyone but yourself.'