CHAPTER XII.
"GOOD MRS. BROWN."
Early next morning Prudence carefully
locked all the doors of her own room and of
her sister's apartment and went round to the
stationer's to see if a letter had come for her
from X. Y. Z. With much relief she picked
out, from a bundle of others, a missive
addressed to P. S., and proceeded to read it.
It was tolerably written and spelled, the
paper was clean, and the communication
was signed "Mrs. Brown." "Mrs. Brown"
agreed to meet Prudence at nine o'clock that
evening in the first-class waiting room at
London Bridge Station, and had no doubt
they would come to terms. "She was prepared,"
she said, "to take the pretty little
dear and treat it with a mother's love," and
regretted that she was unable to make an
appointment earlier in the day "on account
of family reasons."
