Part 19 (1/2)
”You have not many friends in this place, have you, cook?”
”No, ma'am, none.”
”Then who can she be?”
”Can't say, ma'am.”
”You can throw no light on the matter? It is very unsatisfactory having a person about the house--and she has been seen upstairs--of whom one knows nothing.”
”No doubt, ma'am.”
”And you cannot enlighten me?”
”She is no friend of mine.”
”Nor is she of Jane's. Jane spoke to me about her. Has she remarked concerning this girl to you?”
”Can't say, ma'am, as I notice all Jane says. She talks a good deal.”
”You see, there must be someone who is a stranger and who has access to this house. It is most awkward.”
”Very so, ma'am.”
I could get nothing more from the cook. I might as well have talked to a log; and, indeed, her face a.s.sumed a wooden look as I continued to speak to her on the matter. So I sighed, and said--
”Very well, hash with tomato,” and went upstairs.
A few days later the house-parlourmaid said to me, ”Please, ma'am, may I have another pill?”
”Pill!” I exclaimed. ”Why?”
”Because I have seen her again. She was behind the curtains, and I caught her putting out her red head to look at me.”
”Did you see her face?”
”No; she up with her arm over it and scuttled away.”
”This is strange. I do not think I have more than two podophyllin pills left in the box, but to those you are welcome. Only I should recommend a different treatment. Instead of taking them yourself, the moment you see, or fancy that you see, the red-haired girl, go at her with the box and threaten to administer the pills to her. That will rout her, if anything will.”
”But she will not stop for the pills.”
”The threat of having them forced on her every time she shows herself will disconcert her. Conceive, I am supposing, that on each occasion Miss Bessie, or I, were to meet you on the stairs, in a room, on the landing, in the hall, we were to rush on you and force, let us say, castor-oil globules between your lips. You would give notice at once.”
”Yes; so I should, ma'am.”
”Well, try this upon the red-haired girl. It will prove infallible.”
”Thank you, ma'am; what you say seems reasonable.”
Whether Bessie saw more of the puzzling apparition, I cannot say. She spoke no further on the matter to me; but that may have been so as to cause me no further uneasiness. I was unable to resolve the question to my own satisfaction--whether what had been seen was a real person, who obtained access to the house in some unaccountable manner, or whether it was, what I have called it, an apparition.