"Ah!--she understands what she has to do,--nobody better," rejoined Leah significantly; "and it is not every one could fill her shoes--not for all the money she gets."

     "That it is not!" was the reply. "I wonder whether the master--"

     The charwoman was going on; but here Leah turned and perceived me, and she instantly gave her companion a nudge.

     "Doesn't she know?" I heard the woman whisper.

     Leah shook her head, and the conversation was of course dropped. All I had gathered from it amounted to this,--that there was a mystery at Thornfield; and that from participation in that mystery I was purposely excluded.