“What did you hear? Where were you?” she asked in a whisper.
“I heard everything. Never mind where I was; there’s many a corner in this house that you will never see.”
But the girl shrank away, ill-pleased at his praise.
When the housekeeper returned, she was accompanied by the doctor Crispin had sent her for, and he and Mrs. Bean went upstairs at once. As soon as she heard their footsteps overhead, Freda went quickly out into the court-yard, through the great gate, and into the enclosure beyond, waiting for the doctor to come out.
At last the gate opened to let out a youngish-looking man, with a correct professional air of unimpeachable respectability. Freda waited until Mrs. Bean had wished him “good-morning,” and shut the gate; then she quickly overtook him, and greeted him with some agitation.
“I beg your pardon, sir,” she began modestly; “you have just seen my father, I believe.”
“Yes, I have seen him, if Captain Mulgrave was your father.”
Freda answered in the affirmative.
“Did you know him?” she then asked.
“I had not that pleasure. You know, Miss Mulgrave, what a secluded life your father always led. I have not been long in Presterby, and although of course, I’ve heard a great deal about him, I never saw him in life.”