Page:Cuthbert Bede--Little Mr Bouncer and Tales of College Life.djvu/281

Rh chambermaid went to assist the ladies in unlacing their dresses, and so on."

"Oh! I see! and what happened?"

"Well, Sir!" answered Mrs. Rummell, "she was only allowed to unfasten Mrs. Spencer; and she did n't so much as set eyes upon the young lady. And it was just the same this morning, when she went to fasten the ladies; she only saw Mrs. Spencer; and, when she asked if she should go and help the young lady, Mrs. Spencer said, 'No! I will attend to her myself.' Putting this and that together, it almost looks as if the young lady had been doing something wrong, and they were keeping her under lock and key; for, when they came, Mrs. Spencer said to me, 'We shall require two bedrooms, and they must communicate with each other.' I happened to have such rooms as she required, with an inner door opening from the one room into the other, and an outer door to each room opening on the landing. So I showed the lady these, and she said they would do very well; and then she examined the lock of the outer door of the young lady's room, and she locked it, and told me that she would keep the key as long as they remained here. Of course, Sir, I could make no objection to this; but it almost looks as if the poor young lady was a sort of prisoner."

The landlady's tale roused my curiosity, and added (if possible) to the interest I already felt in the fair stranger. Poor Amy! since Amy, it seems, was her name; what could she have been doing to require such strict guardianship? It was a mystery; but it accounted, doubtless, for that sweet melancholy which gave such a charming character to her beauty.

The more I thought upon the subject the greater