The Marchesa added also a further word. "They are both quite right," she said; "we shall get on very well to-night."
Caroline Childers did not at once reply. She remained looking from one person to the other.
"I wonder," she said, "why it is that we do not say what we are all thinking. It is extraordinary that the servants should all suddenly leave the house; it is more extraordinary that they should leave it at the direction of this person who has been hanging about the grounds."
Then she turned to the Marchesa.
"Neither my uncle nor the Duke of Dorset are in the least misled, neither are you, nor am I. Let us not pretend to one another; we do not know what may happen. Nothing, or the very worst thing."
The Marchesa did not reply, and in the meantime Cyrus Childers answered for her.
"Nonsense, Caroline," he said, "you are unduly excited."
"I am not excited at all," replied the girl.
Her eyes came back to the Duke of Dorset.
"Do you agree with my uncle—shall we wait until morning?"