She opened the door and passed noiselessly out into the hall.
She had nearly traversed the long corridor leading to the grand staircase, when she almost ran against some one who suddenly came out of a room she was passing.
“I beg your pardon,” Brownie murmured, and then looked up to see who it was.
It was none other than Isabel Coolidge!
Instantly the two girls braced themselves for the encounter, and looked the surprise which neither of them for the moment could speak.
“You here?” Isabel exclaimed, at length, growing white, while her eyes emitted a lurid light.
“Yes, Miss Coolidge,” gently replied Brownie, yet with lifted eyebrows and a calm, scornful look into her enemy’s face.
“How came you here?”
“Pardon me, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to relate the train of circumstances which brought me here,” she said, coldly.
“Insolence! Then it was you whom I heard singing down at Lady Ruxley’s villa the other day!”