"I beg your pardon! There is nothing in the deeds to prevent this, provided I have the money ready, and I may tell you that the money is ready now, and I wrote to Mr. Simmons at the same time I wrote to you, saying I should be glad to know when he could attend to this."
"I don't believe it!" almost screamed Lady Mary.
And having said this, she opened the door and almost ran out of the house in her excitement and indignation.
Without waiting to think what her next step should be, she walked as fast as she could to Arthur's home, and knocked so loudly at the door that the little maid dropped the plate she was washing, in her hurry to dry her hands and be ready to receive the important visitor at the door.
The two young ladies were out, she told the imposing-looking lady, dropping a curtsy in her awe of the stately stranger.
"I can see Mrs. Murray, I suppose?" said the visitor, pushing past the little maid and going to the stair.
"I will go and ask the mistress," said Alice in an awe-struck tone, as she ran after her.
"You need not trouble yourself," said Lady Mary. "I am an old friend of Mrs. Murray's. You need not look like that; I am not going to eat her."
"Oh, Mary, I thought you had quite forgotten us!"
Alice heard her mistress say these words, and then she went back to the kitchen to finish her dish-washing. She soon came to the conclusion, from the sounds that reached her from the upstairs room, that the door was not closed when the visitor went in, and that the two ladies were having what she called "a jolly row."