“Miss Dumont has not yet come downstairs, madame.”

“Not come down?  Then will you please call her, Maggie?”

The Baroness was always polite to her servants.  She had observed that a graciousness of speech toward her servants often made up for a deficiency in wages.  Maggie ascended to Miss Dumont’s room, and returned with the information that Miss Dumont had a severe headache, and begged the indulgence of madame this morning.

Again that strange smile curved the corners of the Baroness’s lips.

Maggie was requested to bring up hot water and coffee, and great was her surprise to find the Baroness moving about the room when she appeared with the tray.

Half-an-hour later Berene Dumont, standing by an open window with her hands clasped behind her head, heard a light tap on her door.  In answer to a mechanical “Come,&. . . Read More