Iris sighed heavily, Then she caught her husband's eyes gathering with
doubt, and she smiled again.
"In everything, Harry," she said, "I am your servant. When shall we
start?"
"Immediately. I have only to write a letter to the doctor. Where is
your bag? Is this all? Let me go first to see that no one is about.
Have you got the will? Oh! it is here--yes--in the bag. I will bring
along the bag."
He ran downstairs, and came up quickly.
"The nurse has returned," he said. "She is in the spare room."
"What nurse?"
"The nurse who came after Fanny left. The man was better, but the
doctor thought it wisest to have a nurse to the end," he explained
hurriedly, and she suspected nothing till afterwards. "Come down
quietly--go out by the back-door--she will not see you." So Iris
obeyed. She went out of her own house like a thief, or like her own
maid Fanny, had she known. She passed through the garden, and out of
the garden into the road. There she waited for her husband.
Lord Harry sat down and wrote a letter.
"Dear Doctor," he said, "while you are arranging things outside an
unexpected event has happened inside. Nothing happens but the
unexpected. My wife has come back. It is the most unexpected event of
any. Anything else might have happened. Most fortunately she has not
seen the spare bedroom, and has no idea of its contents.
"At this point reassure yourself.
"My wife has gone.
"She found on the table your first print of the negative. The sight of
this before she saw me threw her into some kind of swoon, from which,
however, she recovered.
"I have explained things to a certain point. She understands that Lord
Harry Norland is deceased. She does not understand that it was
necessary to have a funeral; there is no necessity to tell her of that.
I think she understands that she must not seem to have been here.
Therefore she goes away immediately.
"The nurse has not seen her. No one has seen her.
"She understands, further, that as the widow, heir, and executrix of
Lord Harry she will have to prove his will, and to receive the money
due to him by the Insurance Company. She will do this out of love for
her husband. I think that the persuasive powers of a certain person
have never yet been estimated at their true value.
"Considering the vital importance of getting her out of the place
before she can learn anything of the spare bedroom, and of getting me
out of the place before any messenger can arrive from the London
office, I think you will agree with me that I am right in leaving
Passy--and Paris--with Lady Harry this very afternoon.