irl?" asked Henry. He came down the steps from
the platform, addressing his inquiry to Gertie.

"Quite!" answered Lady Douglass. "We were just chatting about your
performance. Miss Higham seems to think you should have had more
rehearsals. Doesn't exactly say so, but that is evidently what she
means."

CHAPTER VII.

There came a pleasant luxury in waking in a large room, with a maid
pulling up the blinds, and reporting that the day promised to be grand.
The maid could be looked upon as a friend, in that she knew the best and
the worst concerning Miss Higham's clothes, and inquiries were put to her
concerning breakfast; the answer came that this meal was ready at
half-past eight; you went down at any time you pleased between this and
ten o'clock. Mr. Henry breakfasted early; her ladyship and Mr. Langham
were always the last. A start had to be made for church at twenty past
ten. The maid asked whether Miss Higham would like the bathroom now, and
Miss Higham, not quite certain whether it was good form to say "Yes" or
"No," replied in the affirmative. As they went along the corridor,
Gertie heard Henry Douglass singing in the hall below. The most
astonishing detail in this wonderful house proved to be the size of the
sponge.

She determined to hurry over her dressing and get downstairs quickly in
order to talk privately with him, and consequent on this resolve, found
herself, later, knocking at Miss Loriner's room and inquiring whether
that young woman was ready to accompany her. After all, there would be
time to make the announcement during the day.

"Have you slept well?"

"Like a top," declared Gertie. "For all the world as though I'd nothing
on my mind."

"I don't suppose you have many serious murders to brood about."

"Not exactly murders," she replied. "Plenty of blunders."

Henry rose from the table as she entered; he dropped his open arms on
seeing that she was not alone. Miss Loriner poured out coffee, and
Henry, at the sideboard, recited the dishes that were being kept warm
there. "Sausages," decided Gertie, "because it's Sunday morning!" She
smiled, out of sheer content at being thus waited upon, and gave them a
description of Praed Street, where the meal was continually interrupted
by purchasers of journals, buyers of half-ounces of shag. She remarked
that it would have been possible here to take breakfast out of doors, and
Henry rang and gave instructions to Rutley, the butler,