whispered to Miss Halcombe—
“Ask her if she happened to mention, last night, that visitors were expected at Limmeridge House.”
Miss Halcombe showed me, by a look, that she understood, and put the question as soon as the dairymaid returned to us.
“Oh yes, miss, I mentioned that,” said the girl simply. “The company coming, and the accident to the brindled cow, was all the news I had to take to the farm.”
“Did you mention names? Did you tell them that Sir Percival Glyde was expected on Monday?”
“Yes,
failed me.
“Listen to me,” she said, considerately avoiding all notice of my loss of self-control. “Listen to me, and let us get it over at once. It is a real true relief to me that I am not obliged, in what I have now to say, to enter into the question—the hard and cruel question as I think it—of