After a while, the maid appeared, with her pail in her hand,
leaving the room by way of the dressing-room and the back stairs.
As she passed out of sight, the lady on the second floor (no other,
it is needless to add, than the Countess herself) ran swiftly
down the stairs, entered the bed-chamber by the principal door,
and hid herself in the empty side compartment of the wardrobe.
The chambermaid returned, completed her work, locked the door
of the dressing-room on the inner side, locked the principal
entrance-door on leaving the room, and returned the key to Agnes in the
drawing-room.
The travellers were just sitting down to their late dinner,
when one of the children noticed that Agnes was not wearing her watch.
Had she left it in her bed-chamber in the hurry of changing her dress?
She rose from the table at once in search of her watch; Lady Montbarry
advising her, as she went out, to see to the security of her bed-chamber,
in the event of there being thieves in the house. Agnes found
her watch, forgotten on the toilet table, as she had anticipated.
Before leaving the room again she acted on Lady Montbarry's advice,
and tried the key in the lock of the dressing-room door.
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