In the mean time her departure from the room, stealthy as it had been, had roused Fitzpiers, and he sat up. In the reflection from the mirror which Grace had beheld there was no mystery; he had opened his eyes for a few moments, but had immediately relapsed into unconsciousness, if, indeed, he had ever been positively awake. That somebody had just left the room he was certain, and that the lovely form which seemed to have visited him in a dream was no less than the real presentation of the person departed he could hardly doubt.
Looking out of the window a few minutes later, down the box-edged gravel-path which led to the bottom, he saw the garden door gently open, and through it enter the young girl of his thoughts, Grace having just at this juncture determined to return and attempt the interview a second time. That he saw her coming instead of going made him ask himself if his first impression of her were not a dream indeed. She came hesitatingly along, carrying her umbrella so low over her head that he could hardly see her face. When she reached the point where the raspberry bushes ended and the strawberry bed began, she made a little pause.
Fitzpiers feared that she might not be coming to him even now, and hastily quitting the room, he ran down the path to meet her. The nature of her errand he could not divine, but he was prepared to give her any amount of encouragement.
“I beg pardon, Miss Melbury,” he said. “I saw you from the window, and fancied you might imagine that I was not at home—if it is I you were coming for.”
“I was coming to speak one word to you, nothing more,” she replied. “And I can say it here.”
“No, no. Please do come in. Well, then, if you will not come into the house, come as far as the porch.”
Thus pressed she went on to the porch, and they stood together inside it, Fitzpiers closing her umbrella for her.
“I have merely a request or petition to make,” she said. “My father’s servant is ill—a woman you know—and her illness is serious.”
“I am sorry to hear it. You wish me to come and see her at once?”
“No; I particularly wish you not to come.”