“Where is Mr. Holmcroft?” she asked, the moment the woman entered the room.
“I saw him open the library door, my lady, just now, on my way upstairs.”
“Was he alone?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Go to him, and say I want to see him here immediately.”
The maid withdrew on her second errand. Lady Janet rose restlessly, and closed the open window. Her impatient desire to make sure of Horace so completely mastered her that she left her room, and met the woman in the corridor on her return. Receiving Horace’s message of excuse, she instantly sent back the peremptory rejoinder, “Say that he will oblige me to go to him, if he persists in refusing to come to me. And, stay!” she added, remembering the undelivered letter. “Send Miss Roseberry’s maid here; I want her.”
Left alone again, Lady Janet paced once or twice up and down the corridor—then grew suddenly weary of the sight of it, and went back to her room. The two maids returned together. One of them, having announced Horace’s submission, was dismissed. The other was sent to Mercy’s room with Lady Janet’s letter. In a minute or two the messenger appeared again, with the news that she had found the room empty.
“Have you any idea where Miss Roseberry is?”
“No, my lady.”
Lady Janet reflected for a moment. If Horace presented himself without any needless delay, the plain inference would he that she had succeeded in separating him from Mercy. If his appearance was suspiciously deferred, she decided on personally searching for Mercy in the reception rooms on the lower floor of the house.