"I feel sure of this, that if Mrs. Grey had thoughts of vacating it, she would have informed me. But in regard to any point connected with the house, sir, you had better apply to the landlord, Sir Karl Andinnian." "Thank you; yes, that may be the best plan. Good morning," he added, taking off his hat with something of French civility. "Don't think she is to be bribed," thought he as he walked away. "At least not easily. Perhaps I may in time work my way on to it." Ann Hopley, locking the gate with double strength--at least, in imagination--pushed through the maze without well knowing whether she was on her head or her heels, so entirely had terror overtaken her. In the height and shape of this man, who had been thus questioning her, she fancied she traced a resemblance to the one who was watching the house in the night. What if they were the same? "The end is coming!" she murmured, clasping her faithful hands. "As sure as my poor master is alive, the end is coming." Not to her master or his wife, but to Karl Andinnian, did she impart all this. It happened that Karl went over to the Maze that evening. Ann Hopley followed him out when he departed, and told him of it amidst the trees. It startled him in a more painful degree even than it had startled her: for, oh, what were her interests in the matter as compared with his? "Inside the grounds!--watching the house at night!" he repeated with a gasp. "Indeed, indeed he was, sir!" "But who is it?" "I don't know," said Ann; "I hoped it was only some thief who had come after the fruit: I thought he might have got over from the fields by means of a high ladder. That would have been nothing. But if the man who came to the gate to-day is the same man, it must mean mischief." "You have not told my brother?" "How could I dare to tell him, sir? He might watch for the man; and, if he came another night, shoot him. That would make things worse." "With a vengeance," thought Karl. What was there to do? What could he do? Karl Andinnian went out, the question beating itself into his brain. Why, there seemed nothing for it but to wait and watch. He took off his hat and raised his bare head to the summer sky, in which some stars were twinkling, wishing he was there, in that blessed heaven above where no pain can come. What with one tribulation and another, earth was growing for him a hard resting-place. CHAPTER VI. At Afternoon Service. The still quietness of the Sabbath morning shed its peace over Foxwood. Within the Court of that name--where the lawns were green and level, and the sweet flowers exhaled their perfume, and a tree here and there was already putting on its autumn tints--the aspect of peace seemed to be more especially exhaled.