Chapter XVIII

"No, ma'am, there was nothing, ma'am, to act, so
to speak, in the nature of a warning. Mrs.
Guthrie had much enjoyed your visit, and, if I may
say so, ma'am, the visit of your young lady, last
Thursday. Yesterday she was more cheerful-like than
usual, talking a good bit about the Russians. She said
that their coming to our help just now in the way they
had done had quite reconciled her to them."

Howse, Major Guthrie's butler, his one-time soldier-servant,
was speaking. By his side was Mrs. Guthrie's
elderly maid, Ponting. Mrs. Otway was standing
opposite to them, and they were all three in the middle
of the pretty, cheerful morning-room, where it seemed
but a few hours ago since she and her daughter had
sat with the old lady.

With the mingled pomp, enjoyment, and grief which
the presence of death creates in a certain type of mind,
Howse went on speaking: "She made quite a hearty
tea for her -- two bits of bread and butter, and a little
piece of tea-cake. And then for her supper she had a
sweetbread -- a sweetbread and bacon. It's a comfort
to Cook now, ma'am, to remember as how Mrs. Guthrie
sent her a message, saying how nicely she thought
the bacon had been done. Mrs. Guthrie always liked
the bacon to be very dry and curly, ma'am."

He stopped for a moment, and Mrs. Otway's eyes
filled with tears for the first time.

On entering the house, she had at once been shown

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v?