After two rehearsals, Mrs. Lecount considered him fit to give the order, without betraying himself.

The bell was answered by Louisa—­Louisa looked hard at Mrs. Lecount.  The luncheon was brought up by the house-maid—­the house-maid looked hard at Mrs. Lecount.  When luncheon was over, the table was cleared by the cook—­the cook looked hard at Mrs. Lecount.  The three servants were plainly suspicious that something extraordinary was going on in the house.  It was hardly possible to doubt that they had arranged to share among themselves the three opportunities which the service of the table afforded them of entering the room.

The curiosity of which she was the object did not escape the penetration of Mrs. Lecount.  “I did well,” she thought, “to arm myself in good time with the means of reaching my end.  If I let the grass grow under my feet, one or the other of those women might get in my way.”  Roused by this consideration, she produced her traveling-bag from a corner, as soon as the last of the servants had entered the room; and seating herself at the end of the table opposite Noel Vanstone, looked at him for a moment, with a steady, investigating attention.  She had carefully regulated the quantity of wine which he had taken at luncheon—­she had let him drink exactly enough to fortify, without confusing him; and she now examined his face critically, like an artist examining his picture at the end of the day’s work.  The result appeared to satisfy her, and she opened the serious business of the interview on the spot.

“Will you look at the written evidence I have mentioned to you, Mr. Noel, before I say any more?” she inquired.  “Or are you sufficiently persuaded of the truth to proceed at once to the suggestion which I have now to make to you?”

“Let me hear your suggestion,” he said, sullenly resting his elbows on the table, and leaning his head on his hands.

Mrs. Lecount took from her traveling-bag the written evidence to which she had just alluded, and carefully placed the papers on one side of him, within easy reach, if he wished to refer to them.  Far from being daunted, she was visibly encouraged by the ungraciousness of his manner.  Her experience of him informed her that the sign was a promising one.  On those rare occasions when the little resolution that he possessed was roused in him, it invariably asserted itself—­like the resolution of most other weak men—­aggressively.  At such times, in proportion as he was outwardly sullen and discourteous to those about him, his resolution rose; and in proportion as he was considerate and polite, it fell.  The tone of the answer he had just given, and the attitude he assumed at the table, convinced Mrs. Lecount that Spanish wine and Scotch mutton had done their duty, and had rallied his sinking courage.

“I will put the question to you for form’s sake, sir, if you wish it,” she proceeded.  “But I am already certain, without any question at all, that you have made your will?”