Coming to a knoll of rising ground, she passed it and waited on the other side. In a few minutes the man she had descried in the park came into full view.
And she recognised one of the footmen in the service of the Duchess de Vicenza, a man with a clever face and watchful, cunning eyes, whose duty it was to open the door for arriving guests.
“Barnard!” ejaculated she, under her breath.
It was evident to her that the man had been following her, and she guessed that he must have been in pursuit from the time she left “The Briars” in the morning. He pretended not to see her, but from the slight change of countenance which she noticed, she was convinced, not only that he was fulfilling an allotted duty, but that he was infinitely vexed at being seen, and that he guessed that he was found out.
She let him go past, and he was much too astute, now that he had once been caught, to betray himself further by looking round. He disappeared from sight before she moved from the spot where she had taken up her stand, and she saw no more of him till she reached “The Briars”; but she had shrewd suspicions that, though unseen, he was not far away.
This incident filled her with fresh misgivings to add to the vexations and griefs from which she was already suffering.
She was sure that the man would never have set out to follow her on his own responsibility; he must be fulfilling orders which had been given him.
By whom, then, were those orders given?
Surely not by the old duchess, whose only care was understood to be that her house and grounds should be kept in proper order.
Who, then, was it that had set him to play the spy upon her?