"
"Who is it?"
"I don't know, ma'am. A stranger to me--a respectable-looking man--and
he said he particularly wished to see you."
Miss Garth went out into the hall. The footman closed the library door
after her, and withdrew down the kitchen stairs.
The man stood just inside the door, on the mat. His eyes wandered, his
face was pale--he looked ill; he looked frightened. He trifled nervously
with his cap, and shifted it backward and forward, from one hand to the
other.
"You wanted to see me?" said Miss Garth.
"I beg your pardon, ma'am.--You are not Mrs. Vanstone, are you?"
"Certainly not. I am Miss Garth. Why do you ask the question?"
"I am employed in the clerk's office at Grailsea Station--"
"Yes?"
"I am sent here--"
He stopped again. His wandering eyes looked down at the mat, and his
restless hands wrung his cap harder and harder. He moistened his dry
lips, and tried once more.
"I am sent here on a very serious errand."
"Serious to _me_?"
"Serious to all in this house."
Miss Garth took one step nearer to him--took one steady look at his
face. She turned cold in the summer heat. "Stop!" she said, with
a sudden distrust, and glanced aside anxiously at the door of the
morning-room.
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