Daisy stood looking from one to the other, a shadow over her bright, pretty face.  “I’d no idea you’d had such a bad time, father,” she said feelingly.  “Why didn’t you let me know about it?  I might have got something out of Old Aunt.”

“We didn’t want anything of that sort,” said her stepmother hastily.  “But of course—­well, I expect I’m still feeling the worry now.  I don’t seem able to forget it.  Those days of waiting, of—­of—­” she restrained herself; another moment and the word “starving” would have left her lips.

“But everything’s all right now,” said Bunting eagerly, “all right, thanks to Mr. Sleuth, that is.”

“Yes,” repeated his wife, in a low, strange tone of voice.  “Yes, we’re all right now, and as you say, Bunting, it’s all along of Mr. Sleuth.”

She walked across to a chair and sat down on it.  “I’m just a little tottery still,” she muttered.

And Daisy, looking at her, turned to her father and said in a whisper, but not so low but that Mrs. Bunting heard her, “Don’t you think Ellen ought to see a doctor, father?  He might give her something that would pull her round.”

“I won’t see no doctor!” said Mrs. Bunting with sudden emphasis.  “I saw enough of doctors in my last place.  Thirty-eight doctors in ten months did my poor missis have.  Just determined on having ’em she was!  Did they save her?  No!  She died just the same!  Maybe a bit sooner.”

“She was a freak, was your last mistress, Ellen,” began Bunting aggressively.

Ellen had insisted on staying on in that place till her poor mistress died.  They might have been married some months before they were married but for that fact.  Bunting had always resented it.

His wife smile wanly.  “We won’t have no words about that,” she said, and again she spoke in a softer, kindlier tone than usual.  “Daisy?  If you won’t go down to the kitchen again, then I must”—­she turned to her stepdaughter, and the girl flew out of the room.

“I think the child grows prettier every minute,” said Bunting fondly.

“Folks are too apt to forget that beauty is but skin deep,” said his wife.  She was beginning to feel better.  “But still, I do agree, Bunting, that Daisy’s well enough.  And she seems more willing, too.”

“I say, we mustn’t forget the lodger’s dinner,” Bunting spoke uneasily.  “It’s a bit of fish to-day, isn’t it?  Hadn’t I better just tell Daisy to see to it, and then I can take it up to him, as you’re not feeling quite the thing, Ellen?”

“I’m quite well enough to take up Mr. Sleuth’s luncheon,” she said quickly.  It irritated her to hear her husband speak of the lodger’s dinner.  They had dinner in the middle of the day, but Mr. Sleuth had luncheon.  However odd he might be, Mrs. Bunting never forgot her lodger was a gentleman.

“After all, he likes me to wait on him, doesn’t he?  I can manage all right.  Don’t you worry,” she added after a long pause.