“What’s this I hear,” he began, “about your having been frightened by a madwoman this morning? Barnard tells me he found you cowering behind a chair, and the woman muttering at you in a threatening manner.”
He looked at her fixedly, and she blushed deeply as she answered:—
“I was rather frightened, but I don’t think she really meant to do any harm. She muttered and talked wildly, and told an extraordinary story in a rambling manner. I got to the bell, when she had been talking for some time, and rang, and Barnard showed her out.”
He looked at her keenly, and seemed undecided whether to ask her more questions, but finally refrained, and said:—
“There’s another thing I want to talk about, and it is what brought me down here. The housekeeper says you insisted yesterday upon having the keys of the billiard-room given to you, and she is afraid of what Madame de Vicenza will say if it comes to her ears.”
Audrey, who was looking down at her plate, answered quietly:—
“Something else will have to come to Madame de Vicenza’s ears, Mr. Candover. For the second time since I have been staying in this house a man has been caught—or suspected of—cheating at cards.”
“Impossible!” Mr. Candover was evidently surprised at this intelligence, or, as Audrey shrewdly suspected, surprised at her being in possession of it. “What reason have you for thinking so?”
“I have the evidence of my ears and my eyes,” said she in a tremulous voice, but with a certain doggedness, “that gambling has been carried on here, long after the guests were supposed to be gone. They went to the room which is absurdly—or artfully—called the billiard-room, and there they went on playing till four o’clock in the morning. And there have been quarrels, and another man has been—found out.”
“Who?” asked Mr. Candover sternly.