He called a hansom and had himself driven to Kensington Palace Gardens.
"Anyhow, her ladyship can only refuse to see me," he said to himself. "But I don't think she will;" and "he winked the other eye."
Oh! my friends, do you think our servants are deaf, and dumb, and blind? They know all our little secrets and our little difficulties; all our little entanglements. There is scarcely a letter we receive that, unless we lock it up securely, they do not read. No friend ever visits us but they know all about him and his, and whom his daughter is engaged to, or why the engagement is broken off.
Therefore let us be grateful to a kind Providence for the servants who are also devoted and trusty friends, such as was Fleming.
When Fleming reached Kensington Palace Gardens he was told by one of the footmen that Lady Eleanor was engaged.
"You've come with a message from Lord Auchester, Mr. Fleming, I suppose?" said the footman.
Fleming was an 'upper servant' and was always addressed by those beneath him as 'Mr.,' and he was very much respected on his own account as one who had saved money and was in 'good society.'
"Well, no, I haven't," said Fleming, gravely, and a little pompously. "I've come on business of my own."
The footman took his name into the boudoir where Lady Eleanor was sitting with no other than Mr. Ralph Duncombe.
She flushed slightly.