"You wished to see Mr. Steele?"
For an instant the servant's words and his direct, almost challenging look held the girl. Usually self-contained as she was, she felt that perhaps he had caught some fleeting expression in her eyes, when at his abrupt appearance she had lifted them with a start from the brass letters. The proud head nodded affirmatively to the inquiry.
"Well, you can be stepping into the library, miss," said the man. "Mr. Steele is engaged just now; but--"
"That is just it," she said, straightening. "My uncle is with him, and I wished to see--"
"If you will walk in," he said. "You can wait here."
Jocelyn on the instant found no reason for refusing; the door closed behind her; she looked around. She stood in a library alone; beyond, in another chamber, she heard voices--her uncle's, John Steele's.