"Nothing more," murmured the little man, after she had left him; "but I hadn't begun to do anything; and she seemed quite faint. Dear, dear, she looks strong, but to be so easily upset, I fear something must be wrong--my daughter was never like that," and, shaking his head, he went to join the Dowager, who had a _penchant_ for the clergy.
"You've heard nothing from your husband?" asked Miss Fitzgerald of Lady Isabelle, as she seated herself beside her.
"Nothing beyond a telegram telling me of his safe arrival in London."
"But surely his uncle was _in extremis_. He cannot live long."
"I do not know," she replied, "but it's very awkward. Oh, why won't you let me tell Mr. Stanley the truth?"
"Sh! He's coming," murmured Miss Fitzgerald, and, indeed, the Secretary was advancing deliberately towards them; a thing suggestive in itself, considering how he had striven to avoid them all day long.
"Miss Fitzgerald," he said very quietly, as he stood before them, "will you permit me to ask you a question?"
"If it's a proper question to ask, Mr. Stanley."
"It is eminently proper and fitting," he replied, coldly.
"Would you rather that I went?" suggested Lady Isabelle, half rising.
"Don't be so dreadfully mysterious, Jimsy!" cried Miss Fitzgerald, with a forced laugh that grated on the ears of both her hearers. "Out with your dreadful question. What is it?"
"It is this," he replied. "Are you Jack Kingsland's wife?"
For a moment there was absolute silence. The Secretary stood looking straight in the face of the Irish girl, without moving a muscle. Lady Isabelle gave a smothered exclamation, and gripped her companion's wrist with all her force, flushing red as she did so. Miss Fitzgerald bit her lip, and stared hard at Stanley for the fraction of a minute; then, breaking into her hard metallic laugh, she cried:
"Why, you foolish boy! What can you be thinking of?"
"You've not answered my question," he replied.
"I ask you-- Are you Lieutenant Kingsland's wife?" he repeated harshly--betraying the first sign of temper he had so far evinced, which Miss Fitzgerald saw and was quick to profit by. Whatever was coming--there was, in Lady Isabelle's presence, but one course open to her--she looked her accuser boldly in the face and said: