“No, no,” said Mrs. Peck; “I want no interference of strangers, and I ain’t got no time to waste here while you write up the country to anybody.  I must go back to Adelaide in a few days, and surely your sister will see the advantages of your acting for her.  What do you say to 2,000 pounds.”

To be asked 2,000 pounds for what Elsie knew to be worth nothing, in a money point of view, appeared to her rather absurd.  “That is a very large sum,” said she.

“A year’s income is not too much for such a secret as I’ve got.  Cross Hall must be worth 2,000 pounds a year now, and more than that, and I must have something handsome to cover my risk.”

“Then you put yourself under the grasp of the law by what you have to reveal?” said Elsie.

“You must let me get clear off before you publish it,” said Mrs. Peck.  “I have been treated with the greatest ingratitude by Frank, and I’d like a little revenge.  I’d like to pull him down from his high horse, and set him working for his bread as you have had to do; but at the same time I am a poor woman, and I must live.”

“I cannot tell what we would give you,” said Elsie, “until I have something more distinct than these vague threats; but you may be sure that we will give you as much as it is worth.  Trust to our honour for that.”

“Trust to a fiddlestick’s end!  I am too old a bird to be caught with such chaff as that.  No, I must have it down in black and white.  See, here is a paper that I want you to fill up and sign before I’ll open my mouth on the subject.”  So Mrs. Peck drew out of her black bag a paper containing an agreement to pay her 2,000 pounds on condition that the estate of Cross Hall should be recovered for her and her sister through Mrs. Peck’s information.  She laid the paper open on the book she had bought, then she took a pen and a portable ink-bottle from the same repository, dipped the pen in the ink, and demanded Elsie’s signature then and there.

Her eager eyes watched the girl’s countenance as she read the agreement and weighed the pros and cons of the bargain she was making, and neither of them were aware, in their preoccupation, that they were observed.  When Elsie looked up, puzzled as to what she was to do, and Mrs. Peck was putting her pen into her hand, she saw the figure of Walter Brandon approaching her with the appearance of haste and agitation.  Mrs. Peck snatched the paper from Elsie’s hand, and replaced it in the black bag, along with the other writing materials and the extempore desk.

“Alice Melville!” said Brandon, “what in Heaven’s name are you doing here in such company as this?”

Elsie turned as pale as death; she could not utter a syllable.

“Come with me—­let me take you home.  I heard from Mrs. Phillips that you had gone out; but I could not have imagined you to have such a companion.”

“Such a companion, indeed!” said Mrs. Peck, indignantly.  “I have been in these colonies more nor thirty years, and I’m good enough company for any fine lady’s-maid as ever walked on shoe leather.”