“Walking on the piazza, I think. She was not in the room.”
“Who usually attended your mistress when she retired?”
“I, sir, always.”
“And when she rose in the morning?”
“I did, when she required anybody. Often she was up, dressed and out of the house before I was awake. She loved to be in the garden in the early morning.”
“Did she go into the garden Sunday morning?”
“No, sir. She did not leave her rooms all day, while I was in the house.”
“How does it happen that you did not go to her in her rooms?”
“Isabel told me that she had directed that we were both to remain outside. She said that Miss Mercedes was not feeling well, and did not wish to be disturbed, and that she would ring if she wanted either of us. Two rings were for Isabel and one was for me. She rang for Isabel twice, I think—for me, not at all.”
“Was it her custom to exclude you from her rooms?”