‘There is only Whitefoot in the stable,’ he said.  ’Master has both the browns out:  Norris was to pick him up in the village.  But he is quite fresh, and will do the job easily.’  I wrote my note while Whitefoot was being saddled, and then went back to the house.  Miss Darrell looked at me suspiciously.

‘I thought I heard voices in the stable-yard,’ she said; and I at once told her what I had done.

For the first time she seemed utterly confounded.

’You told Atkinson to saddle Whitefoot and go all these miles just to carry that ridiculous message!  I wonder what Giles will say,’ she observed indignantly.  ’All these years that I have managed his house I should never have thought of taking such a liberty.’

This was hard to bear, but I answered her with seeming coolness: 

’If Mr. Hamilton thinks I am wrong, he will tell me so.  In this house I am only accountable to him.’  And I walked away with much dignity.

But I knew I had been right when I saw Mr. Hamilton’s face that evening, for he did not return until seven o’clock.  He came up at once, and beckoned me into Lady Betty’s room.

‘Thank you for your thoughtfulness, Miss Garston,’ he said gratefully.  ’You have spared me a wretchedly anxious day.  A bad accident case at Abbey Farm called me off, and I had only time to get my things ready, and I was obliged to see the colonel first.  If you had not sent me that note I should have written to Dr. Townsend.  But why did not Chatty bring me a message before I went?’

I explained that I had given the message to Miss Darrell.

‘That is very strange,’ he observed thoughtfully.  ’Thornton was helping me in the hall when I saw Etta watering her flower-stand.  Well, never mind; she shall have her lecture presently.  Now let us go to Gladys.’

Of course his first look at her told him she was better, and he went downstairs contentedly to eat his dinner.  After this Gladys made slow but steady progress:  she gained a little more strength; the habit of sleep returned to her; her nights were no longer seasons of terror, leaving her dejected and exhausted.  Insensibly her thoughts became more hopeful; she spoke of other things besides her own feelings, and no longer refused to yield to my efforts to cheer her.

I watched my opportunity, and one evening, as we were sitting by the window looking out at a crescent moon that hung like a silver bow behind the oak-trees, I remarked, with assumed carelessness, that Uncle Max had called earlier that day.  There was a perceptible start on Gladys’s part, and she caught her breath for an instant.

‘Do you mean that Mr. Cunliffe often comes?’ she asked, in a low voice, and turning her long neck aside with a quick movement that concealed her face.

’Oh yes, every day.  I do not believe that he has missed more than once, and then he sent Mr. Tudor.  You see your friends have been anxious about you, Gladys.  I wrote to Max often to tell him exactly what progress you were making.’