vestry. She was passing the front pew at the time, and it fell over
into the pew. There was a moment s delay, but the gentleman in the pew
handed it up to her again, and it did not appear to be the worse for
the fall. Yet when I spoke to her of the matter, she answered me
abruptly; and in the carriage, on our way home, she seemed absurdly
agitated over this trifling cause.
Indeed! You say that there was a gentleman in the pew. Some of the
general public were present, then?
Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is open.
This gentleman was not one of your wife s friends?
No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a
common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But really I
think that we are wandering rather far from the point.
Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less cheerful
frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do on re-entering
her father s house?
I saw her in conversation with her maid.
And who is her maid?
Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California with
her.
A confidential servant?
A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed her to
take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they look upon these
things in a different way.
How long did she speak to this Alice?
Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of.
You did not overhear what they said?
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