When, however, she
saw, not Mary, but the unknown figure of a powerful man, she
turned again to the door and fled. Joseph shut and locked it, and
went back to the closet. Mary drew near the bed.
"Where have you been all this time?" asked the patient,
querulously; "and who was that went out of the room just now?
What's all the hurry about?"
Anxious he should be neither frightened nor annoyed, Mary replied
to the first part of his question only.
"I had to go and tell a friend, who was waiting for me, that I
shouldn't be home to-night. But here I am now, and I will not
leave you again."
"How did the door come to be locked? And who was that went out of
the room?"
While he was thus questioning, Joseph crept softly out of the
window; and all the rest of the night he lay on the top of the
wall under it.
"It was Miss Yolland," answered Mary.
"What business had she in my room?"
"She shall not enter it again while I am here."
"Don't let Mewks in either," he rejoined. "I heard the door
unlock and lock again: what did it mean?"
"Wait till to-morrow. Perhaps we shall find out then."
He was silent a little.
"I must get out of this house, Mary," he sighed at length.
"When the doctor comes, we shall see," said Mary.
"What! is the doctor coming? I am glad of that. Who sent for
him?" "I don't know; I only heard he was coming.
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