de and closed the door of the lodge upon him. Then she
returned to the pony-carriage.

Chloe was still standing there, in a piteous state of terror. Someone
was coming along the road--a policeman. Someone else was running from
the opposite direction.

As for Lady Anne, the little figure had fallen forward. Her forehead was
down on the reins. Her eyes were wide open, and had a mortal terror in
their gaze. She would never set things right for Mary in this world. She
and Death had run a race together, and she had been beaten.

CHAPTER X

DISPOSSESSED

Lady Anne's nephew and heir, Lord Iniscrone, showed no friendly face to
Mary. He came as soon as possible, and took possession of the premises.
Lady Iniscrone was with him. She was a lady with a wide, flat, doughy
face. Her eyes were little and pale and cold. Mary thought afterwards
that if it had not been for Lady Iniscrone, Lord Iniscrone might have
been kinder. She remembered that Lady Anne had detested Lady Iniscrone
to the extent that she would never have her inside the house. She had an
idea, which she could not put away, while she hated it, that Lady
Iniscrone remembered that fact. She took possession of everything
thoroughly, as though she revenged herself on the dead woman. In her
cold speech she disparaged the things Lady Anne had held dear.

Their attitude towards Mary was as though she were a servant no longer
necessary. She was not to eat at their table; she was to eat in her own
room or in the servants' hall.

"Is it Miss Gray, my lady?" Saunders, the elderly parlourmaid, asked,
aghast. "Her Ladyship thought the world of Miss Gray. She might have
been her own child. And I will say, though we didn't hold with it at
first, yet----"

Lady Iniscrone closed the discussion haughtily.

"Miss Gray will have her meals in the servants' hall, or in her own room
if she prefers it, till after the funeral. We shall make other
arrangements then, of course."

Saunders flounced out of the room. Although she was elderly and had
lived in Lady Anne Hamilton's house since she was fourteen, when she had
come as a between-maid, she had not forgotten how to flounce.

"Mark my words," she said in the kitchen, "she'll make a clean sweep of
us, same as Miss Mary, as soon as ever the funeral is over. Supposing as
how _we_ gives the notice!"

And they did, to Lady Iniscrone's discomfiture, for she had intended to
stay on at the Mall and to keep the staff as it stood t