“I won’t keep you long, sir; there’s something you ought to know.” Hester’s face looked really troubled. “I wonder what she wants,” said Murray to Lady Georgina. “Would you mind very much if I went to her?” “No, dear,” was the reply, “I’ll sit on the window ledge and wait for you.” “Please don’t give our dance to anybody else.” “No, I will keep it for you, my little lover,” said Lady Georgina, kissing her hand to the handsome boy. He laughed back at her and ran out of the ball-room. The moment he did so, Hester took his hand, and led him a step or two into the supper room. “I really cannot stay with you, Hester,” he said; “what can you possibly want with me now?” “I am very sorry to bother you, Master Murray,” said the girl, “but the fact is, I am in an awful fright. I am terribly afraid your poor mother has managed to get loose, sir.” “My mother! Oh, what do you mean?” “What I say, Master Murray. I was going through the garden just now, and I saw someone dressed as your mother dresses running and dodging just behind the laurel shrubs. If she did get loose, she would think nothing of going into the ball-room and frightening everyone. I wanted to see Mr. Rowton about it, and hoped he might be at the lower end of the room.” “Shall I try and fetch him for you?” said Murray. “No, sir, it is not necessary; you’ll do just as well as my master.” “I!” said Murray. His little face turned pale as it always did when his mother was mentioned. “Perhaps you know, Hester,” he said with a sigh, “that mother is not very fond of me. I do not see how _I_ am to find her.” “Of course not, my little gentleman,” said the girl. “Leah is the one who ought to do that. Now, if anyone could be got to run round to the Queen Anne wing, Leah would soon put matters straight. I’d go myself, but there’s such a heap to be done that I really haven’t a single moment.” “Hester, stop talking there and come and help us,” said Jacob from the other end of the room. “Yes, Jacob, I’m coming. Please, Master Murray, would you help us, sir?” “If I can. Do you want me to go to the Queen Anne wing?” “Oh, sir, if you only would.” “But I am never allowed to go there.” “That don’t matter, sir, on an occasion like the present.” Hester slipped her hand into her pocket as she spoke. “Here is the key of the little postern gate in the garden,” she said, lowering her voice. “You know the Queen Anne garden, of course, Master Murray?” “Of course I do,” answered Murray. “Will you go there now, sir? You can open the postern gate easily; then you have only to run across the garden, and tap with your knuckles on the back door. Leah will be there to hear, for she is expecting me round with a bit of supper presently. I promised I would bring her over a trayful. Go, Master Murray, be quick, tell her what I said.” “Of course I will,” said Murray. “It would never do for mother to frighten the people in the ball-room.”