“In other words,” Lady Janet remarked, “a madwoman is in my house, and I am expected to receive her!”
“Don’t let us exaggerate,” said Julian, gently. “It can serve no good interest, in this serious matter, to exaggerate anything. The consul assures us, on the authority of the doctor, that she is perfectly gentle and harmless. If she is really the victim of a mental delusion, the poor creature is surely an object of compassion, and she ought to be placed under proper care. Ask your own kind heart, my dear aunt, if it would not be downright cruelty to turn this forlorn woman adrift in the world without making some inquiry first.”
Lady Janet’s inbred sense of justice admitted not over willingly—the reasonableness as well as the humanity of the view expressed in those words. “There is some truth in that, Julian,” she said, shifting her position uneasily in her chair, and looking at Horace. “Don’t you think so, too?” she added.
“I can’t say I do,” answered Horace, in the positive tone of a man whose obstinacy is proof against every form of appeal that can be addressed to him.
The patience of Julian was firm enough to be a match for the obstinacy of Horace. “At any rate,” he resumed, with undiminished good temper, “we are all three equally interested in setting this matter at rest. I put it to you, Lady Janet, if we are not favored, at this lucky moment, with the very opportunity that we want? Miss Roseberry is not only out of the room, but out of the house. If we let this chance slip, who can say what awkward accident may not happen in the course of the next few days?”
“Let the woman come in,” cried Lady Janet, deciding headlong, with her customary impatience of all delay. “At once, Julian—before Grace can come back. Will you ring the bell this time?”
This time Julian rang it. “May I give the man his orders?” he respectfully inquired of his aunt.
“Give him anything you like, and have done with it!” retorted the irritable old lady, getting briskly on her feet, and taking a turn in the room to compose herself.
The servant withdrew, with orders to show the visitor in.
Horace crossed the room at the same time—apparently with the intention of leaving it by the door at the opposite end.