"How could you tell what signified at a time like this?"
"I beg pardon, my lady; but it was the time itself that made me forget the visitor."
"Who was she? What time did she come? What did she want?" sharply demanded the lady.
"Please, my lady, she said her name was Smith, or Jones, or some such common name as that. I think it was Jones, my lady. And she lived on Westminster Road—or it might have been Blackfriars Road. Least-ways it was one of those roads leading to a bridge because I remember it made me think of the river."
"Extremely satisfactory! At what hour did this Mrs. Smith or Jones, from Westminster or Blackfriars, come?" inquired Lady Belgrade.
"Just as her grace went up to her room to change her dress. She had just finished changing it when the woman was admitted."
"And now! what did the woman want of the duchess?"
"I do not know, my lady. Her business was with her grace alone. And she requested to have me sent out of the room. I did not see the woman again, until her grace called me to show her, the woman, out again."
"And you did so?"
"Yes, my lady. And I have not seen the woman since. And—I have not seen her grace since, either, my lady."