At that moment she heard Dorothy's voice calling her, and she went quickly to her side.
"Oh, how long have I slept, Katy?" she cried.
"An hour or such a matter," responded the girl. "They have all been to dinner, but I thought sleep would be better for you."
"How long since?" cried Dorothy, springing from the sofa. "And did they not send up for me?" asking both questions in a breath, and waiting with feverish impatience for an answer.
"No," said the girl, bluntly.
"Did they forget me?" whispered Dorothy, in a voice so hollow that the tone frightened the little maid.
"It looks very much like it, Miss Dorothy," she answered; "but I did not forget you; I brought you up a whole trayful of things."
"I can not eat," sighed Dorothy, and she murmured under her breath: "Yes, they forgot me—forgot me! Come here, my good girl," she went on, very nervously; "there is something I want you to do for me."
Katy came close to her side. Dorothy reached out her hand and caught the girl's arm in her trembling grasp.
"I want you to slip down quietly, Katy," she said—"mind, very quietly—and see what they are doing down in the drawing-room. I hear Mr. Kendal's voice and Miss Vincent's. Take notice if Mrs. Kemp is with them, or if they are alone."