“Why, you have never been all round the house yet,” she said to him at supper, on the day on which Rowton came home.
“How do you know that?” he asked her.
“How do I know it?” she retorted, lowering her voice, and edging close to his side. “If you had even tried to go all over the house you’d be asking questions, my fine fellow.”
“And how do you know I have not asked questions?” replied Jacob. “I’ll trouble you, Miss Winsome, to pass me the sardines.”
Hester pouted, stretched out her hand for the delicacy which Jacob demanded, and after a time continued in a low voice:
“Well, then, if you have been over the house, and if you have asked questions, tell me what you think of the Queen Anne wing?”
To this query Jacob did not immediately respond. After a long pause he said slowly:
“I have not been in the wing yet—can you take me there?”
Hester’s heart gave a sudden throb of delight. Up to the present, deep as she undoubtedly was, she had never suspected Jacob to be any other than a well-behaved and excellent servant. She now saw a chance of getting him into her power, of forcing him to flirt with her, and her spirits rose.
“It is difficult to get into that part of the house,” she said. “Do not say anything more at present. I will come to you if I can at nine o’clock to-morrow in Vickers’ pantry.”