Lady Mary and Mr. Hammond were back at Fellside at a quarter before eight, by which time the stars were shining on pine woods and Fell.  They managed to be in the drawing-room when dinner was announced, after the hastiest of toilets; yet her lover thought Mary had never looked prettier than she looked that night, in her limp white cashmere gown, and with her brown hair brushed into a largo loose knot on the top of her head.  There had been great uneasiness about them at Fellside when evening began to draw in, and the expected hour of their return had gone by.  Scouts had been sent in quest of them, but in the wrong direction.

’I did not think you would be such idiots as to come down the north side of the hill in a tempest,’ said Maulevrier; ’we could see the clouds racing over the crest of Seat Sandal, and knew it was blowing pretty hard up there, though it was calm enough down here.’

‘Blowing pretty hard;’ echoed Hammond, ’I don’t think I was ever out in a worse gale; and yet I have been across the Bay of Biscay when the waves struck the side of the steamer like battering rams, and when the whole surface of the sea was white with seething foam.’

‘It was a most imprudent thing to go up Helvellyn in such weather,’ said Fraeulein Mueller, shaking her head gloomily as she ate her fish.

Mary felt that the Fraeulein’s manner boded ill.  There was a storm brewing.  A scolding was inevitable.  Mary felt quite capable of doing battle with the Fraeulein; but her feelings were altogether different when she thought of facing that stern old lady upstairs, and of the confession she had to make.  It was not that her courage faltered.  So far as resolutions went she was as firm as a rock.  But she felt that there was a terrible ordeal to be gone through; and it seemed a mockery to be sitting there and pretending to eat her dinner and take things lightly, with that ordeal before her.

‘We did not go up the hill in bad weather, Miss Mueller,’ said Mr. Hammond.  ’The sun was shining and the sky was blue when we started.  We could not foresee darkness and storm at the top of the hill.  That was the fortune of war.’

‘I am very sorry Lady Mary had not more good sense,’ replied Fraeulein with unabated gloom; but on this Maulevrier took up the cudgels.

’If there was any want of sense in the business, that’s my look-out, Fraeulein,’ he said, glaring angrily at the governess.  ’It was I who advised Hammond and Lady Mary to climb the hill.  And here they are, safe and sound after their journey I see no reason why there should be any fuss about it.’

’People have different ways of looking at things, replied Fraeulein, plodding steadily on with her dinner.  Mary rose directly the dessert had been handed round, and marched out of the room:  like a warrior going to a battle in which the chances of defeat were strong.  Fraeulein Mueller shuffled after her.

’Will you be kind enough to go to her ladyship’s room at once, Lady Mary,’ she said.  ‘She wants to speak to you.’