She said: "Oh, if you please—"
(No "madam" this time, though she was obviously on the verge of putting it in!)
"—if you please, Miss Million sent me to tell you that she wished her maid to come to her at once."
Good gracious! This was an unexpected move.
An "S O S" signal, I supposed, from Million in distress! My employer, utterly unable to cope with the situation and the "strange young gentlemen alone," had ordered up reinforcements! An order! Yes, it was an order from mistress to maid!
My first impulse was frankly to refuse. I wonder how many maids have felt it in their time over an unbargained-for order?
"Tell her I'm not coming." This was what I nearly said to the chamber-maid.
Then I remembered that one couldn't possibly say things like that.
I sat for another second in disconcerted silence, my needle, threaded with white silk, poised above the nightie.
Then I said: "Tell Miss Million, please, that I will be with her in a moment."