At sight of the two alone together, her face grew stern; but she forced a smile to her red lips.
“Come, Leonard, let us go out into the grounds,” she began, gayly, monopolizing Leonard, as usual.
It struck home to Violet’s heart in that moment that the engagement between Leonard and herself ought to be made public, and then Hilda would not be quite so officious. But just then Mrs. Rutledge made her appearance, and they all went out into the grounds together, where they remained until luncheon was announced.
At the lunch-table they found Jessie looking pale and subdued, but outwardly calm. No one seeing her would have dreamed that she had been going through the stormy scene such a little while before out in the grim and silent grounds.
Luncheon over, they all made a call upon Mrs. Yorke. As they entered the great Gothic chamber a tall, gaunt female in a rusty black gown, and wearing a cap upon her scanty gray locks, strode out of the room with the air of a tragedy queen.
“That is Betty Harwood—mother’s maid,” volunteered Leonard. “She is quite a character, and mother thinks she could not exist without Betty.”
Something struck to Violet’s heart with an odd feeling of certainty, that she was destined to know more of this woman before she left Yorke Towers. She had caught a swift glance from her small gray eyes as she had passed Violet in her exit from the room, and that glance had made the girl slightly uneasy. She felt almost afraid of the woman.
“I must be getting nervous and fanciful,” Violet said to herself, with a smile. “Betty Harwood is Mrs. Yorke’s maid, and has been with her for many months. She is devoted to the invalid. I am a foolish girl to imagine any harm in her. The woman’s history is too well known to Mrs. Yorke, doubtless, for her to be anything that she ought not to be.”
Yet, strive as she might, Violet could not divest herself of the impression, and a feeling of uneasiness lingered in her heart.
Later in the day she encountered Betty in a deserted corridor. The old woman gave her a furtive glance from her little gray eyes, with their scant light lashes, and nodded mysteriously.