"I, wasn't set here to keep guard over them was I?
It looks like it, though," said the man in parenthesis; "for this makes twice to-night I've been asked questions about it." "Ah!" said the gentleman, with a slight start.

"Who asked you before, pray ?" "Two young gentlemen; lords, I expect, by their dress.

Somebody ran screaming out of the house, and they wanted to know what was wrong." "Well ?" said the stranger, breathlessly, "and then ?" "And then, as I couldn't tell them they went in to see for themselves, and shortly after came out with a body wrapped in a sheet, which they put in a pest-cart going by, and had it buried, I suppose, with the rest in the plague-pit." The stranger fairly staggered back, and caught at a pillar near for support.

For nearly ten minutes, he stood perfectly motionless, and then, without a word, started up and walked rapidly away.

The friends looked after him curiously till he was out of sight.
"So she is not there," said Ormiston; "and our mysterious friend in the cloak is as much at a loss as we are ourselves.