Then Lavender would protest that she had every confidence in her maid's devotion, and for a few minutes would be less hysterical; but the greater evil, of which Lucille had no knowledge, was too great for the improvement to be maintained, and with each re-action Lavender's condition grew more deplorable.
As ill-luck would have it, Mr. Tracy made up his mind to call one day when, Lavender being in rather better spirits, Lucille had gone out for a couple of hours. In answer to his ring, the door was opened by the cook who was by no means well versed in the art of admitting or of getting rid of visitors. She declared, it is true, that Mrs Sinclair was not at home, but something in the manner of her declaration induced Mr. Tracy to persist, with the result that he effected an entrance into the drawing-room, while the woman took his card upstairs to see if her mistress would make an exception in his favour and receive him.
Lavender read his name with sickening terror, and the expression on her face alarmed the cook.
"The gentleman said he was a friend of Mr. Ashley's," she explained in self-defence "and wanted to see you on business. He wouldn't take 'no' for an answer."
Lavender tried to pull herself together.
"I don't know the man from Adam," she said, "and I feel much too ill to see anybody on business. Go down and say I am sorry but I can't see anyone. Tell him I've been ill. Tell him anything you like. Only get rid of him."
And when the cook went reluctantly downstairs, Lavender stood with blanched cheeks and beating heart by the window, counting the ticks of the clock until this awful visitant should go. Hiding behind the curtains she watched him walk slowly down the path, and some time after he had disappeared she remained with hands clenched upon the back of a chair, watching with nervous apprehension in case he should return and make another attempt to see her. She showed his card to Lucille on her return.
"It can only mean that he suspects that Mrs. Sinclair and Lady Holt are one and the same person," she said despairingly. "It is the end of everything," and her hysterical collapse was pitiful to witness.
That first visit, indeed, marked a point when Lavender's illness became serious. She refused to see a doctor, and this refusal Lucille made no great effort to combat, knowing that freedom from worry and plenty of rest were all that were necessary to restore her mistress to health, and that although any physician might prescribe these two remedies, no one could provide them. For the present, therefore, the faithful woman contented herself with never leaving Lavender, and with taking control of the establishment in a manner that was as effective as it was silent and undemonstrative.
When next Mr. Tracy presented himself at The Vale, Lucille received him.