“Much better, sir,” answered my grandmother’s venerable butler, wiping his lips carefully before he spoke; “her ladyship’s health has been much improved since her accident.”

“Accident!” I exclaimed.  “What, another?  Lately?  Stairs again?”

“No, sir; the drawing-room window this time,” answered the butler, with semi-tipsy gravity.  “Her ladyship’s sight having been defective of late years, occasions her some difficulty in calculating distances.  Three days ago, her ladyship went to look out of the window, and, miscalculating the distance—­” Here the butler, with a fine dramatic feeling for telling a story, stopped just before the climax of the narrative, and looked me in the face with an expression of the deepest sympathy.

“And miscalculating the distance?” I repeated impatiently.

“Put her head through a pane of glass,” said the butler, in a soft voice suited to the pathetic nature of the communication.  “By great good fortune her ladyship had been dressed for the day, and had got her turban on.  This saved her ladyship’s head.  But her ladyship’s neck, sir, had a very narrow escape.  A bit of the broken glass wounded it within half a quarter of an inch of the carotty artery” (meaning, probably, carotid); “I heard the medical gentleman say, and shall never forget it to my dying day, that her ladyship’s life had been saved by a hair-breadth.  As it was, the blood lost (the medical gentleman said that, too, sir) was accidentally of the greatest possible benefit, being apoplectic, in the way of clearing out the system.  Her ladyship’s appetite has been improved ever since—­the carriage is out airing of her at this very moment—­likewise, she takes the footman’s arm and the maid’s up and downstairs now, which she never would hear of before this last accident.  ‘I feel ten years younger’ (those were her ladyship’s own words to me, this very day), ’I feel ten years younger, Vokins, since I broke the drawing-room window.’  And her ladyship looks it!”

No doubt.  Here was the key to Mr. Batterbury’s letter of forgiveness.  His chance of receiving the legacy looked now further off than ever; he could not feel the same confidence as his wife in my power of living down any amount of starvation and adversity; and he was, therefore, quite ready to take the first opportunity of promoting my precious personal welfare and security, of which he could avail himself, without spending a farthing of money.  I saw it all clearly, and admired the hereditary toughness of the Malkinshaw family more gratefully than ever.  What should I do?  Go to Duskydale?  Why not?  It didn’t matter to me where I went, now that I had no hope of ever seeing those lovely brown eyes again.

I got to my new destination the next day, presented my credentials, gave myself the full advantage of my high connections, and was received with enthusiasm and distinction.