The sickness of intense fear seized upon her as she drew aside--but the black shawl and the small diamond panes of the casement window had prevented her from being observed. Yes: she was not mistaken. The man came forth for an instant into the moonlight, and then went back again. Ann Hopley's fear turned her heart to sickness. Her first impulse was to rush on through the passages and arouse Sir Adam Andinnian. Her second impulse was to wait and watch. She remembered her master's most dangerous fiery temperament, and the pistols he kept always loaded. This intruding man might be but some wretched night marauder, who had stolen in after the fruit. Watching there, she saw him presently go round in the direction of the fruit-trees, and concluded that her surmise was correct. So she held her tongue to her master and mistress. The latter she would not alarm; the former she dared not, lest another night he should take up his stand at the window, pistol in hand. Two things puzzled her the next morning: the one was, how the man could have got in; the other, that neither fruit nor flowers seemed to have been taken. That same day, upon going to the gate to answer a ring, she found herself confronted by a strange gentleman, who said he had called from hearing the house was to let, and he wished to look at it. Ann Hopley thought this rather strange. She assured him it was a mistake: that the house was not to let: that Mrs. Grey had no intention of leaving. When he pressed to go in and just look at the house, "in case it should be let later," she persisted in denying him admittance, urging her mistress's present sick state as a reason for keeping out all visitors. "Is Mr. Grey still at home?" then asked the applicant. "Mr. Grey has not been at home," replied Ann Hopley. "My mistress is alone." "Oh, indeed! Not been here at all?" "No, sir. I don't know how soon he may be coming. He is abroad on his travels." "What gentleman is it, then, who has been staying here lately?" Ann Hopley felt inwardly all of a twitter. Outwardly she was quietly self-possessed. "No gentleman has been here at all, sir. You must be mistaking the house for some other one, I think. This is the Maze." "A lady and gentleman and two servants, I understand, are living here." "It is quite a mistake, sir. My mistress and us two servants live here--me and my husband--but that's all. Mr. Grey has not been here since we came to the place." "Now that's a disappointment to me," cried the stranger. "I have lost sight of a friend of mine, named Grey, for the past year or two, and was hoping I might find him here. You are sure you don't know when Mr. Grey may be expected?" "Quite sure, sir. My mistress does not know, herself." The stranger stepped back from the gate to take his departure. In manner he was a very pleasant man, and his questions had been put with easy courtesy. "And you are equally sure the house is not about to be vacated?"