Arthur which will persuade him to take care of
himself, on his way back to the farm. The difficulty is, how am I to
express it? You would be doing a kind thing if you would give me a word
of advice."
Iris willingly complied. A second note, from the anxious housekeeper,
might help the effect of the few lines which Lord Harry had written.
Arthur's letter informed Iris that he had arranged to return at three
o'clock. Lord Harry's question to the groom, and the man's reply,
instantly recurred to her memory: "Are there any strangers at
Rathco?"--"Two new men at work in the grounds." Arriving at the same
conclusion which had already occurred to Lord Harry, Iris advised the
housekeeper, in writing to Arthur, to entreat him to change the hour,
secretly, at which he left his friend's house on the next day. Warmly
approving of this idea, Mrs. Lewson hurried into the parlour to write
her letter. "Don't go to bed yet, Miss," she said; "I want you to read
it before I send it away the first thing to-morrow morning."
Left alone in the hall, with the door open before her, Iris looked out
on the night, thinking.
The lives of the two men in whom she was interested--in widely
different ways--were now both threatened; and the imminent danger, at
that moment, was the danger of Lord Harry.
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