And now who might you be, my dears ?' I answered.
"'If you please, sir, we are your nieces, and we have come to you from England.' "'What!' I holloaed, startled out of my wits, as well I might be.
"'Oh, sir,' says the poor little thing, clasping her thin wet hands, 'please don't send us away.

Bessie is so wet, and cold and hungry too, she isn't fit to go any farther.' "And she set to work to cry, whereon the little one cried also, from fright and cold and sympathy.
"Well, of course, I took them both to the fire, and set them on my knees, and called for Hebe, the old Hottentot woman who did my cooking, and between us we undressed them, and wrapped them up in some old clothes, and fed them with soup and wine, so that in half an hour they were quite happy and not a bit frightened.
"'And now, young ladies,' I said, 'come and give me a kiss, both of you, and tell me how you came here.' "This is the tale they told me--completed, of course, from what I learnt afterwards--and an odd one it is.

It seems that my half-brother married a Norfolk lady--a sweet young thing--and treated her like a dog.

He was a drunken rascal, was my half-brother, and he beat his poor wife and shamefully neglected her, and even ill-used the two little girls, till at last the poor woman, weak as she was from suffering and ill health, could bear it no longer, and formed the wild idea of escaping to this country and of throwing herself upon my protection.

That shows how desperate she must have been.