Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/80

 to the fact that all was not as it should be in the servants' world.

"Why, madam, as a matter of fact I hardly know how to tell you." Dodson swallowed drily. "But I thought, if we kept it till dinner was over, it would be best, and then"

"Are any of you ill or dead?" Mrs. Ricardo inquired in a slightly injured tone, for it was bad luck enough for one day that she should have a headache. Nobody else in the house had a right to have anything.

"None of us, madam. But—a dreadful thing has happened. One of the grooms got the news, and brought it to the house, just before dinner, madam."

Maud grew pale. She was rather a selfish woman, but she loved her husband.

"Not not an accident to the Formidable?" she stammered.

"Oh, no, madam, not so bad as that. It's Lady Hereward. She's dead, madam—murdered."

Mrs. Ricardo's head began to ache again, as if it had been struck by a hammer. She gave a little cry, which sounded almost as if she were angry.

"It's impossible," she exclaimed. "You can't know what you're talking about."

"I only wish, madam, it was a mistake," said the butler. "But I'm afraid there s no chance of that. Her ladyship was found dead this afternoon in Riding Wood, up by the Tower. I believe she had been shot."