"This woman," Miss Forster replied, "is the person who calls herself Jane Simmons."
"And pray what may Jane Simmons be doing here, at this hour of the morning, with you?"
"If you please, my lady," replied Jane Simmons, "I heard Miss Forster in the hall, and knowing that she had hurt her foot, I came down to see if I could be of any use to her."
Nothing could have been more becoming to a person of her station than her manner of saying this. Her ladyship eyed her askance.
"Is that so? Well, Violet, has she been of any use to you?"
"None whatever."
"Then, Jane Simmons, I should think that you could go."
The woman went, swiftly, noiselessly, with downcast eyes, across the hall, towards the service stairs. When she was out of sight, she turned towards the direction in which they were; she did not look pleased, and she said, quite loudly enough to have been audible to anyone who might have been standing near:
"I've as good as half a mind to get him hanged, to spite the two of you."
The countess, in the hall, regarded her friend; it was now much lighter, so that it was easy to see how white and worn the girl was looking. It is possible that the consciousness of the pallid face beside her softened the asperity which the lady had meant to mark her tone. She just spoke two words, in the form of a question.