Part 55 (2/2)
”It gratifies me to hear this, my friends. But although the old man's house is safe, he has met with a much greater misfortune than any of you have in the loss of all you possess,” said Mr. Berners, very gravely.
”Law, sir, what?” inquired a dozen voices at once.
”He has lost his eldest daughter,” answered Lyon Berners, sadly.
”Who? Miss Tabby? Law, sir, no he an't!”
”She's home, fast enough!”
”She was brought home by a quarryman yesterday morning.”
It was the habit of these people to talk all at the same time, so that it required a shrewd listener to understand them.
But there seemed so large an interest at stake in their present communications, that Mr. Berners understood even more than was intended.
”Miss Tabby saved?” he echoed.
”Yes, sir,” answered a score of voices.
”AND WHO WITH HER?”
”No one as we know's on, sir.”
”No one?”
”No, sir.”
”How was she saved?”
”Don't know, sir.”
”n.o.body knows, sir.”
”She don't even know herself, sir.”
These replies were all made in a breath.
”Don't even know herself! What is the meaning of that?”
”Yes, sir. No, sir. You see, sir,” began half a hundred voices.
”Hush, for Heaven's sake! Speak one at a time. Mrs. Smith, do you answer me. How was Miss Tabby saved?” inquired Lyon Berners, appealing to the oldest and wisest woman of the a.s.sembly, and silencing the others by a gesture.
”Indeed we don't know how she was reskeed, sir. She was brought home by a quarryman, but, she was in a cowld fever, and couldn't give no account of herself, nor nothing,” replied the old woman.
”Where is she?”
”Up to her father's house, sir. They carried her there.”
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