I'm a lonely woman since Cheedle went
to the cemetery, and I'm always being insulted. Oh, my nerves are
shattered under such treatment'--this last because she saw the
whisky bottle on the table, and thought she might get some.
Slivers took the hint, and filling a glass with whisky and water
passed it to her, and Mrs Cheedle, with many protestations that she
never touched spirits, drank it to the last drop.
'Was Villiers always in the habit of coming home?' he asked.
'Always,' replied Mrs Cheedle; 'he's bin with me eighteen months and
never stopped out one night; if he had,' grimly, 'I'd have known the
reason of his rampagin'.'
'Strange,' said Slivers, thoughtfully, fixing Mrs Cheedle with his
one eye; 'when did you see him last?'
'About three o'clock yesterday,' said Mrs Cheedle, looking sadly at
a hole in one of her cotton gloves; 'his conduct was most
extraordinary; he came home at that unusual hour, changed his linen
clothes for a dark suit, and, after he had eaten something, put on
another hat, and walked off with a stick under his arm.'
'And you've never seen him since?'
'Not a blessed sight of him,' replied Mrs Cheedle; 'you don't think
any harm's come to him, sir? Not as I care much for him--the drunken
wretch--but still he's a lodger and owes me rent, so I don't know
but what he might be off to Melbourne without paying, and leaving
his boxes full of bricks behind.
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