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Page 3
As Audrey came across the hall she gave a little start as she saw
Mr. Cayley suddenly, sitting unobtrusively in a seat beneath one
of the front windows, reading. No reason why he shouldn't be
there; certainly a much cooler place than the golf-links on such
a day; but somehow there was a deserted air about the house that
afternoon, as if all the guests were outside, or--perhaps the
wisest place of all--up in their bedrooms, sleeping. Mr. Cayley,
the master's cousin, was a surprise; and, having given a little
exclamation as she came suddenly upon him, she blushed, and said,
"Oh, I beg your pardon, sir, I didn't see you at first," and he
looked up from his book and smiled at her. An attractive smile
it was on that big ugly face. "Such a gentleman, Mr. Cayley,"
she thought to herself as she went on, and wondered what the
master would do without him. If this brother, for instance, had
to be bundled back to Australia, it was Mr. Cayley who would do
most of the bundling.
"So this is Mr. Robert," said Audrey to herself, as she came in
sight of the visitor.
She told her aunt afterwards that she would have known him
anywhere for Mr. Mark's brother, but she would have said that in
any event. Actually she was surprised. Dapper little Mark, with
his neat pointed beard and his carefully curled moustache; with
his quick-darting eyes, always moving from one to the other of
any company he was in, to register one more smile to his credit
when he had said a good thing, one more expectant look when he
was only waiting his turn to say it; he was a very different man
from this rough-looking, ill-dressed colonial, staring at her so
loweringly.
"I want to see Mr. Mark Ablett," he growled. It sounded almost
like a threat.
Audrey recovered herself and smiled reassuringly at him. She had
a smile for everybody.
"Yes, sir. He is expecting you, if you will come this way."
"Oh! So you know who I am, eh?"
"Mr. Robert Ablett?"
"Ay, that's right. So he's expecting me, eh? He'll be glad to
see me, eh?"
"If you will come this way, sir," said Audrey primly.
She went to the second door on the left, and opened it.
"Mr. Robert Ab--" she began, and then broke off. The room was
empty. She turned to the man behind her. "If you will sit down,
sir, I will find the master. I know he's in, because he told me
that you were coming this afternoon."
"Oh!" He looked round the room. "What d'you call this place,
eh?"
"The office, sir."
"The office?"
"The room where the master works, sir."
"Works, eh? That's new. Didn't know he'd ever done a stroke of
work in his life."
"Where he writes, sir," said Audrey, with dignity. The fact that
Mr. Mark "wrote," though nobody knew what, was a matter of pride
in the housekeeper's room.
"Not well-dressed enough for the drawing-room, eh?"
"I will tell the master you are here, sir," said Audrey
decisively.
She closed the door and left him there.
Well! Here was something to tell auntie! Her mind was busy at
once, going over all the things which he had said to her and she
had said to him--quiet-like. "Directly I saw him I said to
myself--" Why, you could have knocked her over with a feather.
Feathers, indeed, were a perpetual menace to Audrey.
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