The two faces looked pale and startled, one at another.
"I am afraid, Miss Brace," said the maid, "that there is something wrong!"
"What can be wrong? Has Lady Studleigh gone out, do you think, and taken the key of the room with her? If so, why should she leave the lamps burning? Oh, my lady!—Lady Studleigh! do you not hear us?"
Then Mattie began to fear! What had happened? She waited some time longer, but the same dead silence reigned.
"What shall we do, Miss Brace?" asked Eugenie. Her face grew very pale as she spoke. "I am quite sure that there is really something the matter. Lady Studleigh must be ill. Shall I fetch the countess?"
A vision of the fair, gentle face of Lady Estelle, with its sweet lips and tender eyes, seemed to rise before her.
"No," she replied; "if you really think there is anything wrong, you had better find the earl. But what can it be? Doris, my darling sister, do you not hear? Will you not unfasten the door!"
"I will go at once," said Eugenie.
Mattie begged that she would say nothing to the countess.
The maid hastened away and Mattie kept her lonely watch by the room door. She listened intently, but there was no sound, no faint rustle of a dress, no murmur of a voice; nothing but the glare of lamplight came from underneath. In spite of herself the dead silence frightened her. What could have happened? Even if Doris were ill she could have rung her bell and opened the door. There was little likelihood of her being ill: it was not many hours since they had parted, and then she was in the best of health and spirits.