"It is Lord Auchester's valet," she said.
Ralph Duncombe looked up with a slight start.
"I do not wish him to see me, Lady Eleanor," he said.
"No, no; oh, no! I understand," she said nervously.
"And yet I should like to know what he has to say."
Lady Eleanor pointed to a large four-fold Japanese screen which cut off one of the corners of the room.
"He will not be here many minutes," she said.
Ralph Duncombe went behind the screen, and Lady Eleanor rang the bell and told the footman she would see Fleming.
He came in, looking rather nervous and embarrassed, for it was a bold thing he was going to do, and he knew that Lady Eleanor could look and speak haughtily and sternly when she was displeased.
"You want to see me, Fleming?" she said, graciously enough. "Is it a message from Lord Auchester?"