Beginning to smell mischief
in the air, I tried to take Sergeant Cuff out. He sat down again
instantly, and asked for a little drop of comfort out of the Dutch
bottle. Mrs Yolland sat down opposite to him, and gave him his nip. I
went on to the door, excessively uncomfortable, and said I thought I
must bid them good-night--and yet I didn't go.
"So she means to leave?" says the Sergeant. "What is she to do when she
does leave? Sad, sad! The poor creature has got no friends in the world,
except you and me."
"Ah, but she has though!" says Mrs. Yolland. "She came in here, as I
told you, this evening; and, after sitting and talking a little with my
girl Lucy and me she asked to go up-stairs by herself, into Lucy's room.
It's the only room in our place where there's pen and ink. 'I want to
write a letter to a friend,' she says 'and I can't do it for the prying
and peeping of the servants up at the house.' Who the letter was written
to I can't tell you: it must have been a mortal long one, judging by the
time she stopped up-stairs over it. I offered her a postage-stamp when
she came down. She hadn't got the letter in her hand, and she didn't
accept the stamp.
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