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LADY OWBRIDGE.
[_Coming down the steps._] Oh, I am really very upset!
d.u.c.h.eSS.
Upset?
LADY OWBRIDGE.
About your maid. The circ.u.mstance has only just been reported to me--you have lost your maid. [_Seeing_ FRAYNE.] Is that Sir Chichester? [FRAYNE _advances and shakes hands._] I didn't observe you, in the dusk. Have you seen Henry? I wonder if he is waiting for us in the drawing-room?
FRAYNE.
May I go and hunt for him?
LADY OWBRIDGE.
It would be kind of you.
[FRAYNE _goes up the steps and away._ MRS. EDEN _comes to the stone bench._ MURIEL _returns slowly, coming from among the trees and appearing on the further side of the low hedge._
d.u.c.h.eSS.
[_To_ LADY OWBRIDGE.] Pray don't be in the least concerned for me, dear Lady Owbridge; the absence of my maid is quite a temporary matter. Poor Watson's father is unwell and I packed her off to him this afternoon.
She will be back by mid-day to-morrow, she promises me.
LADY OWBRIDGE.
But, dear me! in the meantime my own woman shall wait upon you.
d.u.c.h.eSS.
I couldn't dream of it.
MRS. EDEN.
Why not my Gilchrist--or let us share her?
d.u.c.h.eSS.
No, no; the housemaid who a.s.sisted me into this gown--
LADY OWBRIDGE.
Chalmers? well, there's Chalmers, certainly. But I fear that Chalmers has hot hands. Or Denham--no, Denham is suffering from a bad knee. Of course, there's Bruce! Bruce is painfully near-sighted--but would Bruce do? Or little Atkins--?
SOPHY.
[_Stepping from behind the bench, and confronting_ LADY OWBRIDGE--_in a quiet voice._] Or I, my lady?
LADY OWBRIDGE.
You, my dear?
SOPHY.
Why shouldn't _I_ attend upon her Grace to-night and in the morning?
[_With half a courtesy to the_ d.u.c.h.eSS.] I should dearly like to have the honour.
[MURIEL _comes forward, staring at_ SOPHY.
MRS. EDEN.
Now, that's very proper and good-natured of you, Sophy.
LADY OWBRIDGE.
But, Miss Fullgarney--
SOPHY.
[_Modestly._] Oh, I never feel like Miss Fullgarney out of my business, my lady. You see, I was maid for years, and it's second nature to me.
Do let me, my lady--do, your Grace!
LADY OWBRIDGE.
d.u.c.h.ess--?
d.u.c.h.eSS.
[_Hesitatingly._] Oh--oh, by all means. [_To_ SOPHY.] Thank you.
[_The gong sounds in the distance again, as_ QUEX--_now in evening-dress--and_ FRAYNE _return together, above the hedge._
LADY OWBRIDGE.
Here is Quex.
[_The ladies, except_ MURIEL, _join_ FRAYNE _and_ QUEX.
MURIEL.
[_To_ SOPHY.] What are you doing?
SOPHY.
[_Breathlessly._] The housekeeper showed me over the house. I remember--her maid's room is at the end of a pa.s.sage leading from the boudoir!
MURIEL.
