The man looked uneasily at Lady Janet, hesitated, and glanced at the door, as if he wished himself well out of the room again.
"I hardly know if I can tell you, sir, before her ladyship," he answered.
Lady Janet instantly penetrated the secret of her servant"s hesitation.
"I know what has happened," she said; "that abominable woman has found her way here again. Am I right?"
The man"s eyes helplessly consulted Julian.
"Yes, or no?" cried Lady Janet, imperatively.
"Yes, my lady."
Julian at once a.s.sumed the duty of asking the necessary questions.
"Where is she?" he began.
"Somewhere in the grounds, as we suppose, sir."
"Did _you_ see her?"
"No, sir."
"Who saw her?"
"The lodge-keeper"s wife."
This looked serious. The lodge-keeper"s wife had been present while Julian had given his instructions to her husband. She was not likely to have mistaken the ident.i.ty of the person whom she had discovered.
"How long since?" Julian asked next.
"Not very long, sir."
"Be more particular. _How_ long?"
"I didn"t hear, sir."
"Did the lodge-keeper"s wife speak to the person when she saw her?"
"No, sir: she didn"t get the chance, as I understand it. She is a stout woman, if you remember. The other was too quick for her--discovered her, sir, and (as the saying is) gave her the slip."
"In what part of the grounds did this happen?"
The servant pointed in the direction of the side hall. "In that part, sir. Either in the Dutch garden or the shrubbery. I am not sure which."
It was plain, by this time, that the man"s information was too imperfect to be practically of any use. Julian asked if the lodge-keeper"s wife was in the house.
"No, sir. Her husband has gone out to search the grounds in her place, and she is minding the gate. They sent their boy with the message. From what I can make out from the lad, they would be thankful if they could get a word more of advice from you, sir."
Julian reflected for a moment.
So far as he could estimate them, the probabilities were that the stranger from Mannheim had already made her way into the house; that she had been listening in the billiard-room; that she had found time enough to escape him on his approaching to open the door; and that she was now (in the servant"s phrase) "somewhere in the grounds," after eluding the pursuit of the lodgekeeper"s wife.
The matter was serious. Any mistake in dealing with it might lead to very painful results.
If Julian had correctly antic.i.p.ated the nature of the confession which Mercy had been on the point of addressing to him, the person whom he had been the means of introducing into the house was--what she had vainly a.s.serted herself to be--no other than the true Grace Roseberry.
Taking this for granted, it was of the utmost importance that he should speak to Grace privately, before she committed herself to any rashly renewed a.s.sertion of her claims, and before she could gain access to Lady Janet"s adopted daughter. The landlady at her lodgings had already warned him that the object which she held steadily in view was to find her way to "Miss Roseberry" when Lady Janet was not present to take her part, and when no gentleman were at hand to protect her. "Only let me meet her face to face" (she had said), "and I will make her confess herself the impostor that she is!" As matters now stood, it was impossible to estimate too seriously the mischief which might ensue from such a meeting as this. Everything now depended on Julian"s skillful management of an exasperated woman; and n.o.body, at that moment, knew where the woman was.
In this position of affairs, as Julian understood it, there seemed to be no other alternative than to make his inquiries instantly at the lodge and then to direct the search in person.
He looked toward Mercy"s chair as he arrived at this resolution. It was at a cruel sacrifice of his own anxieties and his own wishes that he deferred continuing the conversation with her from the critical point at which Lady Janet"s appearance had interrupted it.
Mercy had risen while he had been questioning the servant. The attention which she had failed to accord to what had pa.s.sed between his aunt and himself she had given to the imperfect statement which he had extracted from the man. Her face plainly showed that she had listened as eagerly as Lady Janet had listened; with this remarkable difference between there, that Lady Janet looked frightened, and that Lady Janet"s companion showed no signs of alarm. She appeared to be interested; perhaps anxious--nothing more.
Julian spoke a parting word to his aunt.
"Pray compose yourself," he said "I have little doubt, when I can learn the particulars, that we shall easily find this person in the grounds.
There is no reason to be uneasy. I am going to superintend the search myself. I will return to you as soon as possible."
Lady Janet listened absently. There was a certain expression in her eyes which suggested to Julian that her mind was busy with some project of its own. He stopped as he pa.s.sed Mercy, on his way out by the billiard-room door. It cost him a hard effort to control the contending emotions which the mere act of looking at her now awakened in him. His heart beat fast, his voice sank low, as he spoke to her.
"You shall see me again," he said. "I never was more in earnest in promising you my truest help and sympathy than I am now."
She understood him. Her bosom heaved painfully; her eyes fell to the ground--she made no reply. The tears rose in Julian"s eyes as he looked at her. He hurriedly left the room.
When he turned to close the billiard-room door, he heard Lady Janet say, "I will be with you again in a moment, Grace; don"t go away."
Interpreting these words as meaning that his aunt had some business of her own to attend to in the library, he shut the door. He had just advanced into the smoking-room beyond, when he thought he heard the door open again. He turned round. Lady Janet had followed him.
"Do you wish to speak to me?" he asked.
"I want something of you," Lady Janet answered, "before you go."
"What is it?"
"Your card."
"My card?"
"You have just told me not to be uneasy," said the old lady. "I _am_ uneasy, for all that. I don"t feel as sure as you do that this woman really is in the grounds. She may be lurking somewhere in the house, and she may appear when your back in turned. Remember what you told me."
Julian understood the allusion. He made no reply.
"The people at the police station close by," pursued Lady Janet, "have instructions to send an experienced man, in plain clothes, to any address indicated on your card the moment they receive it. That is what you told me. For Grace"s protection, I want your card before you leave us."
It was impossible for Julian to mention the reasons which now forbade him to make use of his own precautions--in the very face of the emergency which they had been especially intended to meet. How could he declare the true Grace Roseberry to be mad? How could he give the true Grace Roseberry into custody? On the other hand, he had personally pledged himself (when the circ.u.mstances appeared to require it) to place the means of legal protection from insult and annoyance at his aunt"s disposal. And now, there stood Lady Janet, unaccustomed to have her wishes disregarded by anybody, with her band extended, waiting for the card!
What was to be done? The one way out of the difficulty appeared to be to submit for the moment. If he succeeded in discovering the missing woman, he could easily take care that she should be subjected to no needless indignity. If she contrived to slip into the house in his absence, he could provide against that contingency by sending a second card privately to the police station, forbidding the officer to stir in the affair until he had received further orders. Julian made one stipulation only before he handed his card to his aunt.