Page:Gaskell--A dark night's work.djvu/294

Rh “No! please let me come in. I will wait. I am sure Judge Corbet will see me, if you will tell him I am here. Miss Wilkins. He will know the name.”

“Well, then; will you wait here till I have got breakfast in?” said the man, letting her into the hall, and pointing to the bench there. He took her, from her dress, to be a lady’s-maid or governess, or at most a tradesman’s daughter; and, besides, he was behindhand with all his preparations. She came in and sat down.

“You will tell him I am here,” she said faintly.

“Oh, yes, never fear: I’ll send up word, though I don’t believe he’ll come to you before breakfast.”

He told a page, who ran upstairs, and, knocking at the judge’s door, said that a Miss Jenkins wanted to speak to him.

“Who?” asked the judge from the inside.

“Miss Jenkins. She said you would know the name, sir.”

“Not I. Tell her to wait.”

So Ellinor waited. Presently down the stairs, with slow deliberate dignity, came the handsome Lady Corbet, in her rustling silks and ample petticoats, carrying her fine boy, and followed by her majestic nurse. She was ill-pleased that any one should come and take up her husband’s time when