"You dear child, are you here already?" she exclaimed, kissing Winifred on both cheeks, and then dropping into her chair. "Dear heart, I am run off my feet! I don't think I have sat down to-day, and I was up all night, getting things ready for Sir Edward's journey; and glad I am that they are gone! Only to think that Sir Edward and that colonel should actually have been in Dame Sprat's cottage while you were there, and they never suspected anything either. I promise you my lady turned as white as a sheet when they spoke of it at supper. I could see her face in the great Venice glass as I stood behind her chair. My heart went thump, thump—it seemed as if every one in the room might have heard it. I was afraid my dear lady would betray herself by fainting or some such thing, but I need not have been alarmed. "She just drank a glass of water, and then said, as quietly as possible, 'The dame must be growing very old and infirm. By your permission, Sir Edward, I would gladly make her more comfortable by sending her a load of fuel and other provisions before winter. I knew her well when I was a young girl at home.' "Then Sir Edward hesitated and said something about her husband's having been a sturdy rebel, and herself a Puritan. Upon which Colonel Kirke spoke up and said, with his great, coarse laugh, that a good many folks were rebels in Cromwell's time who were king's men now. Which touched Sir Edward, as I suppose he meant it should, my dear. Then he went on to say that he would take it kind of my lady if she would befriend Dame Sprat, seeing the good woman had been kind to him in former days. So then Sir Edward could do no less after that than to tell my lady to do what she pleased. And when my lady said she would ride over some day to the cottage, and see what the old woman most needed, he said that would be a good plan, if the ride were not too long or too rough for her; which I believe it was for nothing else but to please Colonel Kirke, my dear. No, I won't say that either, for Sir Edward is a kind man to the poor—I will say that for him!" "I think he is," said Winifred. "But now tell me all about it, for I am dying to know," said Mrs. Alwright, "and I will sit here and rest a bit." Winifred related the story, interrupted by many exclamations of wonder, pity, and admiration from Mrs. Alwright.