"You are so desperately unromantic," I said impatiently. "You needn't
have pointed out the gardener and the baker!" And in my own mind I
thought that I would keep my curiosity more to myself in the future. "I
don't believe Isabel would at all sympathise in any plan for getting to
know these people!" but in this I did her injustice.
That very evening, just as it was beginning to get dusk, Isabel was
called away by her father, as not infrequently happened, to do some
writing for him. I was not inclined to stay indoors, so I ran upstairs
to fetch my outdoor things, telling Isabel as I went, that I was going
for a stroll on my own account, to pass the time that she was with her
father.
Scarcely conscious of any intention of the kind, I turned nevertheless
in the direction of the mysterious house. It was too late to have
climbed up the hilly road referred to; besides, the fading light would
have made it impossible to distinguish anything. So I contented myself
with skirting the high wall of the grounds on the side nearer the
Manor-house. I had walked about three-quarters of a mile, and was
beginning to think it was time to return, when, standing still for a
moment in consideration, I heard, in the perfect silence which seemed to
pervade the locality, the sound of approaching footsteps. I glanced
round, but no one was to be seen on the road, and as the steps drew
nearer and more distinct, I became aware that they were those of some
one on the inner side of the wall. I stood listening more and more
intently, when, to my surprise and almost alarm, a figure appeared
before me on the path, several yards beyond the spot I had reached. It
was that of a person who had emerged from within; the fact being, though
I was not then aware of it, that there was a door in the wall a little
farther on.
[Illustration: I remained motionless.]
Half confused, half frightened by this sudden apparition, I remained
motionless, in what must have appeared a bewildered way to the newcomer.
But before my fears had time to increase, the sound of a voice,
unmistakably that of a gentleman, reassured me. Till he was close to me
it was too dusky to distinguish his features clearly, but I saw him lift
his hat as he approached.
"Excuse me," he said. "May I ask if you have possibly seen a
pocket-book on the path about here? I think I must have dropped it--not
far off--an hour or two ago, and very few people pass this way."
My curiosity, as well as my sympathy, was at once awakened.
"It must be," I thought to myself, "one of the Greys. Perhaps they come
out here more than is known, for a little change. How I wish I had
found the pocket-book; it might have been an opening!"