The Argosy — page 103: what you’re looking at

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86 The White Witch. ‘‘ Where is Dick now?” ‘* Mr. Cattermole has taken him for a drive in the gig, and the boy went off as happy as if he had done something to be proud of! I shall let Mr. Cattermole have a piece of my mind about that; it is not right to pet and encourage Dick when he has been doing wrong.” ‘* When he has been doing wrong, no,” pointedly observed Godfrey. Nancy, keen of insight, noted the tone. ‘‘ Do you mean anything, sir, in saying that?” she asked. ‘ T mean—that is, I am thinking a great many things, Nancy,” he answered. ‘‘ Things that puzzle me.” “Can I help you, sir? I will if I can.” “Will you,” rejoined Godfrey : and on the spur of the moment he made up his mind to play a bold stroke. ‘You must recollect, Nancy, mentioning to me that you saw your lodger making, as you believed, a likeness of Miss Dixon. . Have you any reason to suspect that he—that he”—-Godfrey hardly knew how to word it—‘ has ever had any acquaintance with Miss Dixon; or that he has come here with any special purpose connected with her? ” Nancy did not reply. ** Come,” said Godfrey, ‘‘ I see you know something. What is it?” ‘*T have only known it since yesterday,” she replied in a low tone. ‘As to telling it—it is not my secret, Mr. Godfrey.” (Godfrey bent his head, and said, without giving any particulars, that he had reason to believe Miss Dixon had enemies, and that they were menacing her with what might be fraught with irredeemable danger. He and Nancy were both standing at the entrance gate; a good position, since they could see on all sides of them, yet could not be overheard. ‘You have known meall my life, Nancy ; you should know, I think, that I am to be trusted, and can be prudent. Can you hesitate P” You'll not betray me if I tell you, Mr. Godfrey? Or let—let harm come of it?” ‘No, no; rely upon me.” “Then Mr. Cattermole is Miss Dixon’s cousin.” “T thought so!” returned Godfrey, drily. ‘‘ And pray, Nancy, how came he to confide the secret to you?” “Well, he had been wanting me, more than once, to take a note from him in secret to Miss Dixon. But I had never consented: except the one that I gave to you, sir, with the broken bracelet. Yesterday afternoon, he called me into his parlour, and said he had great need to get a letter conveyed to her before she went off to the ball at Colonel Underwood’s—which we had all been talking of— and he begged of me to take it to the Abbey. I refused; I told him I had never been a help in anything clandestine, and I never would be. Upon that he said he must entrust me with his secret, but I must be cautious not to repeat it. Miss Dixon was his cousin, he said, and Mrs, Mayne his aunt.” Gomicbooks.co