"Just what I wondered, Grace. Mamma thinks it must be to speak to him about her affairs. He is her executor, I believe: not, poor woman, that she has much to leave."
Adela had listened to this in silence: an eager look was dawning on her face.
"Do you mean to say, Frances, that he—that my husband—will not be there at all?—in his own house?"
"To be sure I mean it, Adela. He cannot be in two places at once, here and Netherleigh. He and Mary Lynn have only now started on their way there. I tell mamma that whilst she plays host I shall play hostess. Won't it be fun!"
"Grace," began Adela very quietly, after her sisters had left, for Lady Sarah, thinking better of it, came up to see her for a moment, "I shall go with you tonight."
"Go—where did you say?" questioned Grace, in doubt.
"To my husband's house."
Grace dropped her work in consternation. "You cannot mean it, Adela."
"I do mean it. I shall go."
"Oh, Adela, pray consider what you are saying. Go there. Why, you know that you must not do so."