The Jewelled Snuff Box Read Online Free Page B

the unknown gentleman could be served with breakfast in the parlour. She explained that he was feeling much better this morning, but that his head ached vilely, and he preferred to take his meal alone.
    “Did he say who he was, ma’am?” asked the woman sharply.
    “I did not make it my business to inquire,” replied Jane coldly, for she found the woman impertinent and disobliging.
    “Oh, well, if it’s breakfast in the parlour ’e wants, ’e must be Quality, and can pay for it,” retorted the landlady, and she promised to see to the matter at once.
    Jane then left the kitchen to seek the bedchamber where the women of the party had slept, in order to make her toilet. Here she was bombarded with questions concerning the unknown man. How did he do this morning? What had befallen him to bring him to the plight in which he had been found yesterday? Who was he? To all of these she replied patiently that the gentleman was not yet quite himself, still a little confused, and that the kindest thing would be not to tease him with inquiries. She repeated these answers presently to the male passengers whom she encountered on her way downstairs again to the parlour.
    She entered the room to find a cheerful fire burning and a cloth spread on the round polished table, laid with everything needful for a hearty breakfast. Her companion being absent, she did not immediately sit down, but went over to the window and stood looking out. The snow was fast deteriorating into slush, and the dripping trees and hedges presented a forlorn appearance. Still, no doubt it would be possible to continue on their journey, even though the going would be sufficiently difficult for the horses, and very dirty.
    The door opened, and the man entered, looking more at ease than formerly. He was freshly shaven, and had made shift to brush his thick dark hair and his clothes, so that his appearance was now more that of a gentleman of fashion. He greeted Jane with a smile, begging her to be seated; and after having in vain tried to persuade her to partake of a slice of beef, fell to with a hearty appetite, leaving her to the rolls and coffee which she evidently preferred.
    For some time, conversation languished. At last, the man pushed away his plate.
    “I must confess to feeling much more myself,” he said, smiling. “But it perplexes me to know how I am to pay for all this.”
    “It is a difficult business,” agreed Jane. “You still cannot recall, then, what happened, or who you are?”
    He shook his head despondently. “If I could give myself a name, no doubt mine host would be content to leave the reckoning to my own good time. But who in his senses would allow credit to a nameless man?”
    All the cheerfulness which Jane had noted with pleasure before the meal, seemed to have deserted him now. It crossed her mind that these alternating moods of hope and despair, combined with his loss of memory, were signs that he was not as perfectly in health as he thought himself. There could be no doubt that he ought to see a doctor. She said as much to him.
    “I tell you that I feel quite myself,” he answered vigorously. “But you must surely see that when a fellow can’t remember his own name, he is bound to feel a trifle hipped! I want no medico mauling me about, cupping me and Lord knows what besides! No, I am of your opinion when you say that everything will come back to me in time. But, Good God, I haven’t much time!”
    Jane knew better than to argue with a man whom she was convinced was sick, no matter what he himself might say. She did wish, though, that there was some way of helping him to recover his memory. She suddenly bethought her of the snuff box, and produced it from her reticule with an excited little exclamation.
    “There is this, sir; I found it lying by your side in the ditch.”
    He took it eagerly, and flicked open the lid. He evidently did not find what he sought there, however, for his face dropped. He turned the box over in his