[CHAPTER XVI.]
"There's a lady in the blue morning-room to see you, Miss Chandler!"
Evelyn Chandler turned to her maid with anything but an amiable expression of countenance.
"Her card?" she exclaimed with annoyance.
"She gave me none. She wished me to say that her call was purely a matter of business, that she would not detain you longer than necessity required, and begged that you would not decline to see her."
Something in the message aroused Miss Chandler's curiosity.
She hesitated a moment; then with a gesture of deprecation, said:
"Show her up here! I don't feel inclined to walk down-stairs."
Concealing the disgust she felt at the well-known indolence of her mistress, the maid left the room, but returned a little later, followed by a woman clothed in somber black.