"Particularly one thing: don't leave this room."

"Why should I?"

"Quite so. But I want someone here when Mr Williams comes upstairs."

"I'll stick at my post," laughed Mavis, at which Mrs Hamilton and
the comely-looking maid left the room.

Left alone, Mavis surrendered herself to the feeling of uneasiness
which had been called into being, not only by her employer's strange
words, but, also, by the fact of Mr Williams having been addressed
by the other man as Windebank. The more she thought of it, the more
convinced was she that Mr Ellis had not made a mistake in calling
the other man by a different name to the one by which she had been
introduced to him. The fact of his having admitted that his home was
in Wiltshire, together with the sense of familiarity in his company,
seemingly begotten of old acquaintance, tended to strengthen this
conviction. On the other hand, if he were indeed the old friend of
her childhood, there seemed a purposed coincidence in the fact of
their having met again. She did not forget how her presence in Mrs
Hamilton's house was the result of an appeal to her Heavenly Father,
who, she firmly believed, would not let a human sparrow such as she
fall to the ground. She was curious to discover the result of this
seemingly preordained meeting. The sentimental speculation
engendered a dreamy languor which was suddenly interrupted by a
sense of acute disquiet. She was always a girl of abnormal
susceptibility to what was going on about her; to such an extent was
this sensibility developed, that she had learned to put implicit
faith in the intuitions that possessed her. Now, she was certain