"Yes; I suppose that will be right," said Bradly. "I can explain it better than Jane could--indeed, I can see as Jane thinks so herself; and it would be too much for her, any way, to go about it herself and, besides, it'll have a better look for me to go." CHAPTER TWENTY. PEACE. "If you please, my lady, Thomas Bradly would be glad to speak with you for a few minutes, if you could oblige him." "Thomas Bradly?" asked Lady Morville of the footman who brought the message; "is he one of our own people?" "No, my lady; but he says you'll know who he is if I mention that Jane Bradly is his sister." "Dear me! Yes, to be sure. Take him into the housekeeper's room, and tell him I will be with him in a few minutes." "Well, Thomas," said her ladyship, holding out her hand to him as she entered the room, "I'm very glad to see you. I needn't ask if you are well." "Thank your ladyship, I'm very well; and I hope you're the same, and Sir Lionel too." "Thank you. Sir Lionel is not so well just now; he has had a good deal to worry him lately. But how are all your family? We miss you still from church very much, and from the Lord's table.--And poor Jane?" "Well, my lady, poor Jane's been poor Jane indeed for a long time, but she's rich Jane now." "You don't mean to say, Thomas--!" exclaimed the other in a distressed tone. "Oh no!" interrupted Bradly; "Jane's not left yet for the better land, though she's walking steadily along the road to it. But the Lord has been very gracious to her, in bringing her light in her darkness. She wants for nothing now, except a kind message from your ladyship, which I hope to carry back with me." "That you shall, with all my heart, Thomas, though I don't quite see what your meaning is. But I can tell you this: I have never felt satisfied about poor Jane's leaving me as she did, and yet I do not see that I could have acted otherwise than I did at the time; but I have wished her back again a thousand times, you may tell her, especially as I fear there were some base means used to get her away." "How does your ladyship mean?" "Why, have you not heard, Thomas, that John Hollands the butler has absconded? He left us on a pretence of visiting some of his relations, with his master's leave, last December; and we find now that he has been robbing us for years, and cheating the trades-people, and even selling some of Sir Lionel's choice curiosities, and putting the money into his own pocket. It is this that has worried Sir Lionel till he is quite ill. We have had, too, to make an entire change of all our servants; for we found that all of them had been, more or less, sharing in Hollands' wickedness and deceit." "And was your ladyship's own maid, Georgina, one of these?" "O Thomas! She was worse, if possible, even than Hollands. Before he left I detected her in lying, thieving, and intemperance, besides abominable hypocrisy, and was thankful to get her out of the house."