“I must beg permission, Sir Percival, to speak a few words to you in private,” I said.  “Having done so, I shall be ready to proceed with this person to Miss Halcombe’s room.”

Mrs. Rubelle, whom I had indicated by a slight turn of my head, insolently sniffed at her nosegay and walked away, with great deliberation, towards the house door.

“Well,” said Sir Percival sharply, “what is it now?”

“I wish to mention, sir, that I am desirous of resigning the situation I now hold at Blackwater Park.”  That was literally how I put it.  I was resolved that the first words spoken in his presence should be words which expressed my intention to leave his service.

He eyed me with one of his blackest looks, and thrust his hands savagely into the pockets of his riding-coat.

“Why?” he said, “why, I should like to know?”

“It is not for me, Sir Percival, to express an opinion on what has taken place in this house.  I desire to give no offence.  I merely wish to say that I do not feel it consistent with my duty to Lady Glyde and to myself to remain any longer in your service.”

“Is it consistent with your duty to me to stand there, casting suspicion on me to my face?” he broke out in his most violent manner.  “I see what you’re driving at.  You have taken your own mean, underhand view of an innocent deception practised on Lady Glyde for her own good.  It was essential to her health that she should have a change of air immediately, and you know as well as I do she would never have gone away if she had been told Miss Halcombe was still left here.  She has been deceived in her own interests—­and I don’t care who knows it.  Go, if you like—­there are plenty of housekeepers as good as you to be had for the asking.  Go when you please—­but take care how you spread scandals about me and my affairs when you’re out of my service.  Tell the truth, and nothing but the truth, or it will be the worse for you!  See Miss Halcombe for yourself—­see if she hasn’t been as well taken care of in one part of the house as in the other.  Remember the doctor’s own orders that Lady Glyde was to have a change of air at the earliest possible opportunity.  Bear all that well in mind, and then say anything against me and my proceedings if you dare!”

He poured out these words fiercely, all in a breath, walking backwards and forwards, and striking about him in the air with his whip.

Nothing that he said or did shook my opinion of the disgraceful series of falsehoods that he had told in my presence the day before, or of the cruel deception by which he had separated Lady Glyde from her sister, and had sent her uselessly to London, when she was half distracted with anxiety on Miss Halcombe’s account.  I naturally kept these thoughts to myself, and said nothing more to irritate him; but I was not the less resolved to persist in my purpose.  A soft answer turneth away wrath, and I suppressed my own feelings accordingly when it was my turn to reply.