layed her theatrical characters against the hissing
and hooting of a brutal audience.

"Miss Henley," she said, "you forget yourself!"

"Do you think I didn't see in your face," Iris rejoined, "that you
heard him, too? Answer my question."

"What question?"

"You have just heard it."

"No!"

"You false woman!"

"Don't forget, Miss Henley, that you are speaking to a lady."

"I am speaking to Lord Harry's spy!"

Their voices rose loud; the excitement on either side had reached its
climax; neither the one nor the other was composed enough to notice the
sound of the carriage-wheels, leaving the house again. In the
meanwhile, nobody came to the drawing-room door. Mrs. Vimpany was too
well acquainted with the hot-headed Irish lord not to conclude that he
would have made himself heard, and would have found his way to Iris,
but for some obstacle, below stairs, for which he was not prepared. The
doctor's wife did justice to the doctor at last. Another person had, in
all probability, heard Lord Harry's voice--and that person might have
been her husband.

Was it possible that he remembered the service which she had asked of
him; and, even if he had succeeded in calling it to mind, was his
discretion to be trusted? As those questions occurred to her, the
desire to obtain some positive information was more than she was able
to resist. Mrs. Vimpany attempted to leave the drawing-room for the
second time.

But the same motive had already urged Miss Henley to action. Again, the
younger woman outstripped the older. Iris descended the stairs,
resolved to discover the cause of the sudden suspension of events in
the lower part of the house.

CHAPTER XI

MRS. VIMPANY'S FAREWELL

THE doctor's wife followed Miss Henley out of the room, as far as the
landing--and waited there.

She had her reasons for placing this restraint on herself. The position
of the landing concealed her from the view of a person in the hall. If
she only listened for the sound of voices she might safely discover
whether Lord Harry was, or was not, still in the house. In the first
event, it would be easy to interrupt his interview with Iris, before
the talk could lead to disclosures which Mrs. Vimpany had every reason
to dread. In the second event, there would be no need to show herself.

Meanwhile, Iris opened the dining-room door and looked in.

Nobody was there. The one other room on the ground floor, situated at
the back of the building, wa