“You are never going away again?” she asked after a pause. “I cannot live if you do it again, Adrian.”
“Let us think of nothing gloomy to-day. I am pretty safe to remain for a time.”
The new footman, whose name was Jacob, was seen at that moment crossing the lawn bearing a letter on a salver.
“From Lady Georgina Strong, and the messenger is waiting,” he said to Nance.
Nance took the letter impatiently, opened it, glanced through its contents, and spoke:
“Lady Georgina wants to dine here to-night—shall we have her?” she asked, as she glanced up at her husband.
“Yes,” he replied, “we must not make ourselves hermits. Tell the messenger to wait,” said Rowton, speaking to the servant, whose eyes, after glancing at him, were fixed on the ground. “Say Mrs. Rowton will send a note in a moment.”
Jacob turned obediently and went back to the house.
“A new footman?” said Rowton. “Have you engaged another servant, or has one of the other domestics left us?”