ould tell the
old man to keep his good spirits under better control. I asked him
how he came to hear of the man. He only answered, 'By accident, my
Lady'--and not one more word could I get out of him, good or bad. Moody
engages the servants, as you know; but on every other occasion he has
invariably consulted me before an engagement was settled. I really don't
feel at all sure about this person who has been so strangely introduced
into the house--he may be a drunkard or a thief. I wish you would speak
to Moody yourself, Mr. Troy. Do you mind ringing the bell?"

Mr. Troy rose, as a matter of course, and rang the bell.

He was by this time, it is needless to say, convinced that Moody had
not only gone back to consult Old Sharon on his own responsibility, but
worse still, had taken the unwarrantable liberty of introducing him, as
a spy, into the house. To communicate this explanation to Lady Lydiard
would, in her present humor, be simply to produce the dismissal of the
steward from her service. The only other alternative was to ask leave to
interrogate Moody privately, and, after duly reproving him, to insist on
the departure of Old Sharon as the one condition on which Mr. Troy would
consent to keep Lady Lydiard in ignorance of the truth.

"I think I shall manage better with Moody, if your Ladyship will permit
me to see him in private," the lawyer said. "Shall I go downstairs and
speak with him in his own room?"

"Why should you trouble yourself to do that?" said her Ladyship. "See
him here; and I will go into the boudoir."

As she made that reply, the footman appeared at the drawing-room door.

"Send Moody here," said Lady Lydiard.

The footman's answer, delivered at that moment, assumed an importance
which was not expressed in the footman's words. "My Lady," he said, "Mr.
Moody has gone out."

CHAPTER XIII.

WHILE the strange proceedings of the steward were the subject of
conversation between Lady Lydiard and Mr. Troy, Moody was alone in his
room, occupied in writing to Isabel. Being unwilling that any eyes but
his own should see the address, he had himself posted his letter; the
time that he had chosen for leaving the house proving, unfortunately,
to be also the time proposed by her Ladyship for his interview with the
lawyer. In ten minutes after the footman had reported his absence, Moody
returned. It was then too late to present himself in the drawing-room.
In the interval, Mr. Troy had taken his leave