"
"Well, what then?"
"I really wish you hadn't such a habit of taking people up short, Mr.
Maunders," remonstrated the groom. "I was on the point of telling you
that our head-coachman had a holiday this Christmas; and where does he
go but up to London, to see his friends, which live there; and while in
London where does he go but to Drury Lane Theatre; and while coming out
of Drury Lane Theatre who does he set his eyes on but Miss Payland,
Lady Eversleigh's own maid, as large as life, and hanging on the arm of
a respectable elderly man, which might be her father. Our head-coachman
warn't near enough to her to speak to her; and though he tried to catch
her eye he couldn't catch it; but he'll take his Bible oath that the
young woman he saw was Jane Payland, Lady Eversleigh's own maid. Now,
that's rather a curious circumstance, is it not, Mr. Maunders?"
"It is, rather," answered the landlord; "but it seems to me your
mistress, Lady Eversleigh, is rather a strange person altogether. It's
a strange thing for a mother to run away to foreign parts--if she has
gone to foreign parts--and leave her only child behind her."
"Yes; and a child she was so fond of too; that's the strangest part of
the whole business," said the groom. "I'm sure to see that mother and
child together, you'd have thought there was no power on earth would
part them; and yet, all of a sudden, my lady goes off, and leaves Miss
Gertrude behind her.
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