But Sybil could not rest with the sound of that weeping and wailing in
her ears. She left her chair and began to walk up and down the floor,
and to pause occasionally at her door to listen.
Suddenly a door on the opposite side of the passage opened, and the
voice of the landlord was heard, apparently speaking to the weeping
woman.
"I beg you won't distress yourself, ma'am; I am sure I wouldn't do
anything to distress you for the world. Keep up your spirits, ma'am.
Something may turn up yet, you know," he said as he closed the opposite
door again; and then crossing the passage, he knocked at the door of the
Berners' apartments.
"Come in," said Lyon Berners eagerly, while Sybil paused in her restless
walk and gazed breathlessly at the door.
Both were so interested, they could not have told why, in that weeping
woman.
The landlord entered and closed the door behind him, and advanced with a
bow and an apology.
"I am afraid that you and your good lady have been disturbed by the
noise in the other room; but really I could not help it. I have done all
I could to comfort the poor creature; but really you know, 'Rachel
weeping for her children' was nothing to this woman. She's been going on
in this way for the last three days, sir. I did hope she would be quiet
this evening. I told her that I had guests in these rooms. But, Lord,
sir! I might just as well try to reason with a thunderstorm as with her.
I wish I had quieter rooms to put you in, sir."
"Pray do not think of us. It is not the disturbance we mind on our own
account; it is to hear a fellow creature in so much distress. A guest of
the house?" inquired Mr. Berners.
"Yes, sir; worse luck."
"She has lost friends or--fortune?" continued Berners delicately
investigating the case, while Sybil looked and listened with the deepest
interest.
"Both, sir! Both, sir! All, sir! Everything, sir! It is really a case of
atrocious villainy, sir! And I may say, a case of extreme difficulty as
well! A case in which I need counsel myself, sir," said the landlord,
with every appearance of being as willing to give information as to take
advice.