A few minutes later a knock at the door being replied to by Hester's curt "Come in!" produced the modest entry of Jane Cupp, who had come to make a necessary inquiry of her mistress.

"Her ladyship is not here; she has gone out." Jane made an altogether involuntary step forward.

Her face became the colour of her clean white apron.
"Out!" she gasped.
Hester turned sharply round.
"To the lake," she said.

"What do you mean by staring in that way ?" Jane did not tell her what she meant.

She incontinently ran from the room without any shadow of a pretence at a lady's maid's decorum.
She fled through the rooms, to make a short cut to the door opening on to the gardens.