"Please ask him to come in, Hutton."
Hutton effaced himself, and the young man entered, Then Julie raised her voice.
"Remember, please, Hutton, that I particularly want to see the Duchess."
Hutton bowed and retired. Warkworth came forward.
"What luck to find you like this!"
He threw her one look--Julie knew it to be a look of scrutiny--and then, as she held out her hand, he stooped and kissed it.
"He wants to know that my suspicions are gone," she thought. "At any rate, he should believe it."
"The great thing," she said, with her finger to her lip, "is that Lady Henry should hear nothing."
She motioned her somewhat puzzled guest to a seat on one side of the fire, and, herself, fell into another opposite. A wild vivacity was in her face and manner.
"Isn't this amusing? Isn't the room charming? I think I should receive very well"--she looked round her--"in my own house."