“I beg your pardon, sir,” she said in a low voice, as soon as he was near enough to hear, “but I hope you won’t mind me taking the liberty of speaking to you.”
The girl was a bright-looking young person, with intelligent eyes and an open, pleasant face.
“Well, what is the portentous secret?” asked Rudolph, smiling, much amused by her assumed airs of mystery and importance.
“Well, sir, it is a secret,” she retorted, rather nettled by his amusement. “It’s a warning I have to give you, sir.”
“A warning! Come, this begins to be interesting.”
“It isn’t a joke at all, sir,” said the housemaid, half offended, yet with increasing earnestness. “I saw you coming over the field this morning, sir, when I was out speaking to the gardener about the salad. And I thought you was most likely coming here, sir, and I’ve been on the lookout for you ever since.”
“Much obliged to you, I’m sure. But have you been told to warn me off the premises?”
The girl drew herself up.
“Well, I can tell you, sir, that you’d better not come about the place more than you can help, for if you do there’s some one that will find it out and maybe do you a mischief. Hoping you’ll excuse the liberty, sir; but I know something nobody else does, and I shouldn’t like you to come to any harm, sir.”
And leaving Rudolph in a state of mingled incredulity, amusement, and surprise, the girl shut the gate, through which he had by this time passed, ran back quickly and disappeared through the back door into the house.