Page:Chipperfield--Unseen Hands.djvu/95

Rh her soul away if it suited her purpose, yet unless she were a consummate actress she had been absolutely sincere m her warning. Her own gray-green eyes were strange, inscrutable except when alive with eagerness; they reminded him of those of some gaunt, famished cat. What a good, consistent hater she would be!

He aroused himself at last from his speculations and rang the bell. After an interval Jane, the buxom housemaid, appeared.

"Jane, there will be two men here presently to hang that picture in the library. Let me know when they come."

"Ye—yes, sir." Jane bobbed her head and prepared to retire from his presence with obvious haste.

"Here, wait a minute. I want to talk to you."

Her rosy cheeks blanched.

"Yes, sir." There was a distinct quaver in her tones.

"How long have you been employed here?"

"Three y-years, sir, and never a better mistress than the poor lady that's gone could a girl have!" This was easy ground and she breathed more freely.

"Who was the lady's maid before Gerda came?"

"Margaret McGrath, though she called herself Marguerite. She was a nice girl, sir, friendly and didn't give herself no airs. She left to get married to—"

"So she was nicer than Gerda, eh?" Odell regarded her quizzically, and she tossed her head.

"That stuck-up thing? You'd think she was a lady herself the way she goes along with her head in the air, and the cold politeness of her, as if the rest of us was nothing but dirt beneath her feet!" Jane's color had returned, and now it deepened with resentment. "It ain't such a grand