“Her ladyship is waiting to see you and Sergeant Cuff,” he said, before I could put any questions to him.
“How long has she been waiting?” asked the Sergeant’s voice behind me.
“For the last hour, sir.”
There it was again! Rosanna had come back; Miss Rachel had taken some resolution out of the common; and my lady had been waiting to see the Sergeant—all within the last hour! It was not pleasant to find these very different persons and things linking themselves together in this way. I went on upstairs, without looking at Sergeant Cuff, or speaking to him. My hand took a sudden fit of trembling as I lifted it to knock at my mistress’s door.
“I shouldn’t be surprised,” whispered the Sergeant over my shoulder, “if a scandal was to burst up in the house tonight. Don’t be alarmed! I have put the muzzle on worse family difficulties than this, in my time.”
As he said the words I heard my mistress’s voice calling to us to come in.
CHAPTER XVI
We found my lady with no light in the room but the reading-lamp. The shade was screwed down so as to overshadow her face. Instead of looking up at us in her usual straightforward way, she sat close at the table, and kept her eyes fixed obstinately on an open book.
“Officer,” she said, “is it important to the inquiry you are conducting, to know beforehand if any person now in this house wishes to leave it?”
“Most important, my lady.”