A House to Let by Charles Dickens Read Free Book Online

clinging to her. So Mrs.
Openshaw sate on the bedside talking to Ailsie, and telling her of what
they had done at Richmond the evening before, until the little girl's
eyes slowly closed and she once more fell asleep.
    "What was the matter?" asked Mr. Openshaw, as his wife returned to bed.
"Ailsie wakened up in a fright, with some story of a man having been in
the room to say his prayers,—a dream, I suppose." And no more was said
at the time.
    Mrs. Openshaw had almost forgotten the whole affair when she got up about
seven o'clock. But, bye-and-bye, she heard a sharp altercation going on
in the nursery. Norah speaking angrily to Ailsie, a most unusual thing.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Openshaw listened in astonishment.
    "Hold your tongue, Ailsie I let me hear none of your dreams; never let me
hear you tell that story again!" Ailsie began to cry.
    Mr. Openshaw opened the door of communication before his wife could say a
word.
    "Norah, come here!"
    The nurse stood at the door, defiant. She perceived she had been heard,
but she was desperate.
    "Don't let me hear you speak in that manner to Ailsie again," he said
sternly, and shut the door.
    Norah was infinitely relieved; for she had dreaded some questioning; and
a little blame for sharp speaking was what she could well bear, if cross-
examination was let alone.
    Down-stairs they went, Mr. Openshaw carrying Ailsie; the sturdy Edwin
coming step by step, right foot foremost, always holding his mother's
hand. Each child was placed in a chair by the breakfast-table, and then
Mr. and Mrs. Openshaw stood together at the window, awaiting their
visitors' appearance and making plans for the day. There was a pause.
Suddenly Mr. Openshaw turned to Ailsie, and said:
    "What a little goosy somebody is with her dreams, waking up poor, tired
mother in the middle of the night with a story of a man being in the
room."
    "Father! I'm sure I saw him," said Ailsie, half crying. "I don't want
to make Norah angry; but I was not asleep, for all she says I was. I had
been asleep,—and I awakened up quite wide awake though I was so
frightened. I kept my eyes nearly shut, and I saw the man quite plain. A
great brown man with a beard. He said his prayers. And then he looked
at Edwin. And then Norah took him by the arm and led him away, after
they had whispered a bit together."
    "Now, my little woman must be reasonable," said Mr. Openshaw, who was
always patient with Ailsie. "There was no man in the house last night at
all. No man comes into the house as you know, if you think; much less
goes up into the nursery. But sometimes we dream something has happened,
and the dream is so like reality, that you are not the first person,
little woman, who has stood out that the thing has really happened."
    "But, indeed it was not a dream!" said Ailsie, beginning to cry.
    Just then Mr. and Mrs. Chadwick came down, looking grave and discomposed.
All during breakfast time they were silent and uncomfortable. As soon as
the breakfast things were taken away, and the children had been carried
up-stairs, Mr. Chadwick began in an evidently preconcerted manner to
inquire if his nephew was certain that all his servants were honest; for,
that Mrs. Chadwick had that morning missed a very valuable brooch, which
she had worn the day before. She remembered taking it off when she came
home from Buckingham Palace. Mr. Openshaw's face contracted into hard
lines: grew like what it was before he had known his wife and her child.
He rang the bell even before his uncle had done speaking. It was
answered by the housemaid.
    "Mary, was any one here last night while we were away?"
    "A man, sir, came to speak to Norah."
    "To speak to Norah! Who was he? How long did he stay?"
    "I'm sure I can't tell, sir. He came—perhaps about nine. I went up to
tell Norah in the nursery, and she came down to speak to him. She let
him out, sir. She will know who he was, and how long he stayed."
    She waited a moment to be asked any more questions, but she was not, so
she