I know how to deal with 'em!" chuckled old
Mazey, lapsing into soliloquy, and stirring up his ale in high triumph.
"Tall and short, native and foreign, sweethearts and wives--_I_ know how
to deal with 'em!"
Magdalen's third and last attempt at solving the mystery of the
truckle-bed was made while she was waiting on the admiral at dinner. The
old gentleman's questions gave her an opportunity of referring to the
subject, without any appearance of presumption or disrespect; but he
proved to be quite as impenetrable, in his way, as old Mazey and Mrs.
Drake had been in theirs. "It doesn't concern you, my dear," said the
admiral, bluntly. "Don't be curious. Look in your Old Testament when
you go downstairs, and see what happened in the Garden of Eden through
curiosity. Be a good girl, and don't imitate your mother Eve."
Late at night, as Magdalen passed the end of the second-floor passage,
proceeding alone on her way up to her own room, she stopped and
listened. A screen was placed at the entrance of the corridor, so as to
hide it from the view of persons passing on the stairs. The snoring she
heard on the other side of the screen encouraged her to slip round it,
and to advance a few steps.
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