<)i< THE DAME. 



entreated us to say nothing, as he should be sorry, he said, for 

 her to get into trouble on his account. \Ve were devising, 

 nevertheless, some quiet means of sifting this matter to the 

 bottom, with a view to recover, if possible, the lad's little 

 property, Avhen we were spared in an unlooked-for manner the 

 trouble of taking any measures for the purpose. 



The dislike and alarm evinced unconsciously by poor Tim on 

 occasion of Dame Huggins's single visit to his sick chamber, 

 Mvined (to judge by her subsequent proceedings) quite recip- 

 rocal. Both in the time of the old sexton and since his death, 

 she had always slept in the upper room contiguous to that of 

 her lodgers ; but on the very day of the above occurrence she 

 carried her bed downstairs, making her nightly lair thence- 

 forward in a corner of the kitchen ; an arrangement which 

 none opposed, as it left her former room open for the more, 

 convenient occupancy of the woman who attended upon Tim. 

 One night (it was that directly following the lad's disclosure 

 to us of his loss and his suspicions) he was sound asleep his 

 nurse watching near, or possibly asleep too, when she was 

 suddenly startled by a loud noise as of a heavy fall below. 

 Tim started, but did not wake. The woman, listening, 

 thought she heard a moaning, and then, taking up the rush- 

 light, crept softly down the ladder-stairs into the kitchen. 

 There a sight presented itself which sufficiently explained the 

 previous sounds. On the brick floor, near the walnut-tree 

 chest, lay the old woman ; and close by the same receptacle 



