He glanced up at her furtively. He was certain now that he had played his cards ill. She had read through him easily. He cursed himself for a lout. "You see," she continued, "the post is one of great responsibility, because it entails the management of the whole estates. It is necessary for me to feel absolute confidence in the person who undertakes it. I have not known you very long, Mr. Hurd." He bowed. He could not trust himself to words. "I have instructed them to send some one down from my solicitor's office for a week or so," she continued, "to assist you. In the meantime, I must think the matter over." "I am very much obliged to you, madam," he said. "You will find me, I think, quite as trustworthy and devoted to your interests as my father." She smiled slightly. She recognized exactly his quandary, and it amused her. The slightest suggestion of menace in his manner would be to give the lie to himself. "I am coming down this afternoon," she said, "to go through the safes. Please be there in case I want you. You will not forget, in case you should hear anything of Mr. Macheson, that I desire to be informed." He took his leave humiliated and angry. He had started the game with a wrong move--retrievable, perhaps, but annoying. Wilhelmina passed into the library, where Lady Peggy, in a wonderful morning robe, was leaning back in an easy-chair dictating letters to Captain Austin. "You dear woman!" she exclaimed, "don't interrupt us, will you? I have found an ideal secretary, writes everything I tell him, and spells quite decently considering his profession. My conscience is getting lighter every moment." "And my heart heavier," Austin grumbled. "A most flirtatious correspondence yours." She laughed softly. "My next shall be to my dressmaker," she declared. "Such a charming woman, and so trustful. Behave yourself nicely, and you shall go with me to call on her next week, and see her mannikins. By the bye, Wilhelmina, am I hostess or are you?" "You, by all means," Wilhelmina answered. "I shall go to-morrow or the next day. Is any one coming to lunch?" "His Grace, I fancy--no one else." Wilhelmina yawned. "Where is Gilbert?" she asked. "Asleep on the lawn last time I saw him." "No one shooting, then?" "We're going to beat up the home turnips after lunch," Captain Austin answered. "It's rather an off day with us. Gilbert is nursing his leg--fancies he has rheumatism coming."