"She kept very much to herself," said Mrs. Giles, placing the eggs before Miss Destiny; "a very close woman." "Anne never was one for gossip," observed Miss Destiny, sipping a cup of hot tea. "None knew her better than I." "Tell us all about her," said Mrs. Faith curiously. Miss Destiny shook her head. "I am too tired," she confessed, "and after I have had my supper I shall go to bed, if this honest woman permits. To-morrow I shall tell the police all I know." "The police," said Mrs. Giles, with a start. "Certainly." Miss Destiny looked hard at the greengrocer's wife. "As Anne is so mysteriously dead, and as her glass eye is missing, and as this gentleman's motor car has been carried off--so they told me at the shop--the police will certainly ask questions. I shall answer them." Mrs. Faith struck in again. "But can you give any reason?" "I shall say nothing at present," interrupted Miss Destiny, with quite a grand air of rebuke. "Oh, Lucinda!" The door had opened while she spoke and a gigantic figure, whether of man or woman, stepped cumbrously into the room. I doubted the sex, because although Lucinda wore petticoats, she also wore a distinct moustache, and displayed a rugged flat face, masculine in contour. With a man's cap on her scanty drab-hued hair and a man's pea-jacket clothing her spare body, with large driving-gloves and a red muffler, and nothing feminine about her save a short dress of light blue, beneath which appeared a pair of large lace-up boots, I may be excused for my doubts. Her eyes were grey and small and tired-looking, but they lighted with tender love when she beheld her mistress. Miss Destiny, looked smaller than ever, as the huge woman strode towards her to speak in one of the sweetest voices I have ever heard. These nightingale notes, proceeding from a kind of female Blunderbore, were scarcely in keeping with the coarse exterior. "Are you rested, mistress? have you eaten? is your head bad? are your feet cold?" demanded Lucinda in a breath and with a voice of an archangel. "I am much better, Lucinda," said Miss Destiny wearily, "but I should like to go to my room," and she closed her bright black eyes. "I'll take you there, mistress," said the Amazon, and picked up the little woman like a feather, turning to address Mrs. Giles as she did so. "Where's the bedroom, mum?" "I'll show you," said Mrs. Giles, and conducted the odd couple into an inner room with an air of amazement, which showed that Lucinda had startled her also by the mixed sexual appearance she presented. I could not help thinking that Giles and his wife were a singularly good-natured couple to allow the house to be stormed in this fashion. "What do you think of it all?" asked Mrs. Faith when we were alone. I was beginning to dislike the woman for her unwarrantable curiosity. "It is amusing." "Amusing!" She stared aghast.