If not, I am sure you will accept my apologies for to-night, and permit Lady Lundie's steward to see to your comfort in my place." Adopted unanimously.

Sir Patrick left the guests to their billiards, and went out to give the necessary orders at the stables.
In the mean time Blanche remained portentously quiet in the upper regions of the house; while Lady Lundie steadily pursued her inquiries down stairs.

She got on from Jonathan (last of the males, indoors) to the coachman (first of the males, out-of-doors), and dug down, man by man, through that new stratum, until she struck the stable-boy at the bottom.

Not an atom of information having been extracted in the house or out of the house, from man or boy, her ladyship fell back on the women next.

She pulled the bell, and summoned the cook--Hester Dethridge.
A very remarkable-looking person entered the room.
Elderly and quiet; scrupulously clean; eminently respectable; her gray hair neat and smooth under her modest white cap; her eyes, set deep in their orbits, looking straight at any person who spoke to her--here, at a first view, was a steady, trust-worthy woman.