last time--looked sorrowfully and
solemnly from the window. She waved her hand, and I saw her no more.

Towards five o'clock on the afternoon of that same day, having a little
time to myself in the midst of the household duties which now pressed
upon me, I sat down alone in my own room, to try and compose my mind
with the volume of my husband's Sermons. For the first time in my life
I found my attention wandering over those pious and cheering words.
Concluding that Lady Glyde's departure must have disturbed me far more
seriously than I had myself supposed, I put the book aside, and went
out to take a turn in the garden. Sir Percival had not yet returned,
to my knowledge, so I could feel no hesitation about showing myself in
the grounds.

On turning the corner of the house, and gaining a view of the garden, I
was startled by seeing a stranger walking in it. The stranger was a
woman--she was lounging along the path with her back to me, and was
gathering the flowers.

As I approached she heard me, and turned round.

My blood curdled in my veins. The strange woman in the garden was Mrs.
Rubelle!

I could neither move nor speak. She came up to me, as composedly as
ever, with her flowers in her hand.

"What is the matter, ma'am?" she said quietly.

"You here!" I gasped out. "Not gone to London! Not gone to Cumberland!"

Mrs. Rubelle smelt at her flowers with a smile of malicious pity.

"Certainly not," she said. "I have never left Blackwater Park."

I summoned breath enough and courage enough for another question.

"Where is Miss Halcombe?"

Mrs. Rubelle fairly laughed at me this time, and replied in these
words--

"Miss Halcombe, ma'am, has not left Blackwater Park either."

When I heard that astounding answer, all my thoughts were startled back
on the instant to my parting with Lady Glyde. I can hardly say I
reproached myself, but at that moment I think I would have given many a
year's hard savings to have known four hours earlier what I knew now.

Mrs. Rubelle waited, quietly arranging her nosegay, as if she expected
me to say something.

I could say nothing. I thought of Lady Glyde's worn-out energies and
weakly health, and I trembled for the time when the shock of the
discovery that I had made would fall on her. For a minute or more my
fears for the poor ladies silenced me. At the end of that time Mrs.
Rubelle looked up sideways from her flowers, and said, "Here is Sir
Percival, ma'am,