Page:The Van Roon (IA thevanroon00snaiiala).pdf/338

 called Middleton's Dairy. The sight of it brought back to William's mind a recollection. Immediately the picture had been acquired, he went into that shop to get a bun and a glass of milk. Pausing a moment to wrestle with his sense of locality, he gazed down the street. The old woman's store would be just opposite.

Only a glance was needed to show that the old woman's store was not just opposite. The housebreakers had been recently at work and the decrepit block of which her premises formed a part was razed to the ground.

Faced by the problem of what had happened to the old woman the only thing now was to enter Middleton's Dairy and enquire. They were cordially received by a girl who in June's opinion showed too many teeth when she smiled to be really good looking; who, also, in June's opinion, wore corsets that didn't suit her figure, and whose hair would have looked better had it been bobbed.

Like Miss Ferris, the landlady's daughter, this girl seemed to remember William quite well, which was rather odd June felt, since he had only been once in the town previously and then for but a few hours. The inference to be drawn from the fact was that William was William, and that in an outlandish one-horse place like Crowdham Market, young men of his quality were necessarily at a premium.

But at the moment that was neither here nor there. And with equal truth the formula applied to the old woman. However, in regard to her it seemed, they were now in the way of getting information.

After William, with a certain particularity had described the old creature and her shop to the girl who