Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/9



" let Mrs. Forestier know that Sir Ian and Lady Hereward have come."

"Yes, my lady. She is in the rose-garden. I will tell her at once," said the butler, who had opened the door.

He rather expected that the visitors would propose going out of doors to find his mistress; for they had been away for a fortnight, and Lady Hereward was a great admirer of the rose-garden, which was now at the height of its June glory. But the weather that day was sullenly hot, with a still, perfumed heat like the heat of the tropics, and Lady Hereward was looking tired. Evidently, as there was no motor or carriage at the door, she and Sir Ian must have walked the two miles and a half from Friars' Moat to Riding Wood House, and though most of the way—taking the short cut—lay in forest shadow, this windless heat would be oppressive among crowding trees.

The butler moved toward the drawing-room door, but Lady Hereward stopped him. "We will sit here in the hall," she said. "It's delightfully cool." So