‘What do you want with me, sir? Anything the matter?’
‘I was walking through the passage two minutes since when I heard a step on the stairs: a light step as if of a very small foot. I turned, and there was a lady coming down.’
‘Well, did you know her?’
‘I did. I stood in the shade, screened by a pillar, and she passed very near without observing me. I saw her distinctly, and it was—’
‘Who, sir?’
‘The duchess!’
There was a pause which was closed by a clear and remarkably prolonged whistle from the duke. He took a leisurely turn through the room.
‘Mrs. Irving, the wife of a minister in the north! A satirical hit at myself! What can have brought her? Anxiety about her invaluable husband! Could not bear any longer without him: obliged to set off to see what he was doing. It’s as well Rosier told me, however. What shall I do? I must not be angry; she can’t do with that sort of thing just now.’
Ceasing his soliloquy, the duke turned again to his valet:
‘Which room did Her Grace go into?’