The intruder was Cissy Carroll, with her long, dark hair flying loose over her white dressing gown.
With startled outcries, they gazed at each other, and then Miss Carroll demanded, shrilly:
"Do my eyes deceive me? What are you doing here, Azuba Aylesford?"
The woman in the scarlet robe darted forward, and dragged the white-clad girl into the room, whispering, in terrified tones:
"Hush-h! for sweet pity's sake! Do not breathe that name beneath this roof!"
She closed the door softly, and they stood looking at each other in wonder and dismay, while Cissy, recovering her wits, retorted, sharply:
"By what name shall I call you, then, since your divorce from Mr. Clemens?"
"Call me Miss Erroll. Azuba Aylesford and Mrs. Clemens are both dead. From her ashes rises Kate Erroll, governess."
"Ah-h!" and Cissy remembered what Geraldine had told her about the governess with a history in her face. She understood it now.
Light was also dawning on the other, and she asked: