"While her husband is abroad. I am sure she will not choose to be intruded upon."
Sir Karl might as well have talked to the winds. All opposed him. Of course there was no suspicion that he had any personal objection; only that he wished to respect the scruples of his lady-tenant. At length, the General declared he would go over to Mrs. Grey, ask to see her, and personally prefer the request. Poor Karl was at his wits' end. He saw that he should not be able to stem the storm--for he dared not be resolute in the denial, so fearful was he always of arousing any suspicion of there being a mystery in the place--and he was fain to yield. He would take them over, he said; but not before he had sent a note to say that they were coming. This he insisted on; it would be but common politeness, he urged; and they all agreed with him.
Hastily writing a few words to Mrs. Grey in his own room, he called Hewitt to take the note over, and gave him at the same time a private message to deliver to Ann Hopley. Of course Karl's object was to warn his brother to keep out of sight--and Mrs. Grey too. Hewitt looked more scared than his master.
"To think of their wanting to go over there!" he exclaimed in a low tone of covert fear.
"It can't be helped, Hewitt. Go."
A few minutes, and Hewitt came back with a message: which he delivered to his master in public. Mrs. Grey's compliments to Sir Karl Andinnian, and he was at liberty to bring his friends within her gates if he pleased. So they all started; Lucy with them.
Lucy with them!
The ladies had assumed it to be so much a matter of course that their hostess should accompany them, that Lucy, timid in her self-consciousness, saw not her way clear to any plea of excuse. And it might be that, down deep in her woman's frail heart, there was a hankering longing to see the inside of that place which contained her rival. In the midst of her indecision she glanced at Karl and hesitated. But he saw not the look or the hesitation: for all the sign he gave out, she was as welcome to go to the place as these guests were. It is true that Miss Blake fixed her eyes upon her, and Lucy coloured under it; but perhaps the very fact only served to speed her on the way.
The party started, passing out at the grand gates of Foxwood. Between that spot and the Maze, short though it was, they encountered Mr. Cattacomb. Miss Blake took upon herself to introduce him, and to ask him to accompany them, saying they were going to see that renowned show-place, the Maze.
"I did not know we had a show-place in the neighbourhood," drawled Mr. Cattacomb in his affectation.