‘I suppose he’s a friend of Mr. Meredith’s. Folks say so. Anyway, he is staying down there. But I believe he’s come to see master, really.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, he came to see him two days ago. He was took into the little drawing-room, and I was in the big one, doing a bit of dusting I’d forgotten in the morning; for I knew Miss Debenham and Mrs. Lorraine had gone out driving.’
‘Could you hear what passed?’
‘I could hear a good deal; but I couldn’t understand a word, for ’twas all in some foreign language—Italian, I suppose; but I’m quite sure those two gentlemen weren’t strangers to one another, or they’d never have gone on as they did.’
‘How did they go on?’
‘Well, they talked and talked, and seemed to get quite excited-like, and once I thought they were going to quarrel, and I peeped through the curtains. There they were, standing glaring at one another like two wild beasts; and Mr. Debenham, he had his head back in that masterful way of his, and was speaking as proud as proud could be. I thought the foreign gentleman was a bit scared by the look in his eyes, for he seemed to knock under then; but they went on talking for ever so long.’
‘Do you think they did quarrel?’
‘If they did, they must have made it up afterwards, for by-and-by they went round the garden together, and had tea with the ladies when they got back. But James, he said as master looked very grave all dinner-time, and hardly talked at all.’
Mrs. Belassis pondered over this communication; but Betsy had not come to the end of her revelations, and did not give her mistress much time for thought.