Her excited imagination suggested
some deed of superstitious cruelty in the garden of the house adjoining.
Nor were the sobs and cries altogether against such supposition. She
recovered herself instantly, and ran back to the kitchen.
"You have the keys of the cellars--have you not, Sarah?" she said.
"Yes, miss, I fancy so."
"Where does the door beyond the coal-cellar lead out to?"
"Not out to nowhere, miss. That's a large cellar as we never use. I
ain't been into it since the first day, when they put some of the
packing-cases there."
"Give me the key," said Hester. "Something is going on there we ought to
know about."
"Then pray send for the police, miss!" answered Sarah, trembling. "It
ain't for you to go into such places--on no account!"
"What! not in our own house?"
"It's the police's business, miss!"
"Then the police are their brothers' keepers, and not you and me,
Sarah?"
"It's the wicked as is in it, I fear, miss."
"It's those that weep anyhow, and they're our business, if it's only to
weep with them. Quick! show me which is the key."
Sarah sought the key in the bunch, and noting the coolness with which
her young mistress took it, gathered courage from hers to follow, a
little way behind.
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