But in any case no concealment was attempted--since, if detected it must have provoked suspicions hardly likely to be aroused in any other way.
When Lady O'Moy returned indoors in the gathering dusk she was followed at a respectful distance by the limping fugitive, who might, had he been seen, have been supposed some messenger, or perhaps some person employed about the house or gardens coming to her ladyship for instructions.

No one saw them, however, and they gained the dressing-room and thence the alcove in complete safety.
There, whilst Richard, allowing his exhaustion at last to conquer him, sank heavily down upon one of his sister's many trunks, recking nothing of the havoc wrought in its priceless contents, her ladyship all a-tremble collapsed limply upon another.
But there was no rest for her.

Richard's wound required attention, and he was faint for want of meat and drink.

So having procured him the wherewithal to wash and dress his hurt--a nasty knife-slash which had penetrated to the bone of his thigh, the very sight of which turned her ladyship sick and faint--she went to forage for him in a haste increased by the fact that time was growing short.
On the dining-room sideboard, from the remains of dinner, she found and furtively abstracted what she needed--best part of a roast chicken, a small loaf and a half-flask of Collares.

Mullins, the butler, would no doubt be exercised presently when he discovered the abstraction.