Her interview with the prisoner had not followed the lines she had planned, and although she told herself that a period of reflection must bring Ravenscar to his senses, she could not help feeling a considerable degree of uneasiness. There was a look in his eyes, a stubborn jut to his chin, which held out no promise of his weakening. If he really did refuse to capitulate, she would find herself in the most awkward predicament, fox not only would it be impossible to keep him bound up in the cellar, but every instinct rebelled against putting her threat into action, and keeping him from his appointment on the morrow. Miss Grantham was too much a gamester herself to regard with anything but horror a failure to make good a wager.
She made her way upstairs to the hall, where she was unfortunate enough to meet her aunt, who had that instant come down from the Yellow Saloon to cast an eye over the supper-tables.
“Good heavens, Deb, where have you been?” she asked. “What in the world should take you downstairs? Oh, if you have not dirtied your dress! How came you to do that, my love?”
Miss Grantham saw that there was a mark on the skirt of her brocade gown, and tried to brush it off. “It’s nothing, ma’am. I was obliged to step down to the cellar, and I knelt on the floor for a moment. I am sure it is not very noticeable.”
Lady Bellingham looked at her with a lively expression of anxiety in her face. “Deb, you are at your tricks again!” she said, in a hollow voice. “I insist on your telling me this instant what it is you are about! What have you got in the cellar? I never knew you go down there before in your life!”
“Dearest Aunt Lizzie, indeed you had much better not ask me!” Deborah said, her lips trembling on the verge of one of her irrepressible smiles. “It would only bring on your spasms!”
Lady Bellingham gave a small shriek, and pulled her into the supper-room. “Deb, do not trifle with me, I implore you! You have done something dreadful, I know. Don’t say it’s murder!”
Miss Grantham laughed. “No, no, it is not as bad as that, ma’am! I promise you, everything will turn out famously. Who is here tonight?”
“Never mind that! I cannot enjoy a moment’s peace until I know what you have been about!”
“Well, I am busily employed in getting your bills back, ma’am, and the mortgage too,” Deborah replied.