She had never seen the lost courier--
she had never even seen Lord Montbarry, who was then confined
to his room. Her ladyship, 'a most gracious and adorable mistress,'
was in constant attendance on her noble husband. There was no
other servant then in the house (so far as the old woman knew)
but herself. The meals were sent in from a restaurant. My lord,
it was said, disliked strangers. My lord's brother-in-law, the Baron,
was generally shut up in a remote part of the palace, occupied
(the gracious mistress said) with experiments in chemistry.
The experiments sometimes made a nasty smell. A doctor had latterly been
called in to his lordship--an Italian doctor, long resident in Venice.
Inquiries being addressed to this gentleman (a physician of undoubted
capacity and respectability), it turned out that he also had never
seen Ferrari, having been summoned to the palace (as his memorandum
book showed) at a date subsequent to the courier's disappearance.
The doctor described Lord Montbarry's malady as bronchitis.
So far, there was no reason to feel any anxiety, though the
attack was a sharp one.
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