She heard someone coming downstairs. "It is he," she said to herself, and she braced herself for the encounter.
"How you frighten me Miss—I beg your pardon—Madam."
It was Mrs. Dorant who uttered these words as she stood in the doorway seemingly afraid to enter, fearing the visitor might turn out to be a ghost.
"It is you, Mrs. Dorant," said Mrs. Mathers; "is my father upstairs?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Is he ill?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Dangerously?"
"Not very; he does not want us to fetch the doctor. But what have you come here for? If Mr. Rougeant saw you—oh—;" here she threw up both her hands and opened her mouth and eyes wide—"oh—" she continued, "master would swallow you."
"Do you think so; but I mean to go upstairs and to talk to him."