Ann Hopley, who had probably been waiting about, stepped up at this moment, and asked with much civility if they would like to walk indoors and rest. Sir Karl, looking at his friends, as if for acquiescence in his denial, declined. "We have _no right_ to intrude," he whispered: and the General said so too.
"This might really do for a Rosamond's Bower!" cried Mrs. Panton. "It is a sweetly pretty place."
The lawn was level as a bowling-green; the flowers and shrubs surrounding it were well-kept, fragrant, and blooming. Mounted on a ladder, nailing some branches against a wall that probably belonged to a tool-house, was the toothless old gardener, his knees swollen and bent, his white smock frock rolled up around him.
"That's the gardener at his work, I suppose?" observed the General, whose eyes were dim.
"I had a servant once of that name when I was quartered at Malta. A good servant he was, too."
"That man yonder looks ill," remarked Mrs. Panton.
"I fancy he is subject to rheumatism," said Sir Karl. "How is your husband?" he enquired of Ann Hopley.
"Pretty middling, sir, thank you," she answered. "He is getting in years you see, gentlefolks, and is not as strong as he was."
"Will you be so good as precede us through the Maze and let us out," said Karl to her. "I think it is time we went," he added to the others: "we have seen all there is to see."
Ann Hopley, key in hand, went winding through the Maze, in and out of the numberless paths. It seemed to those following, her that they only went round and round--just as it had seemed to Miss Blake that former day; and it took some time to get through it. The Reverend Mr. Cattacomb called it "a pilgrimage."
She was crafty, that faithful woman. Just as she had led Miss Blake a needlessly roundabout way, so she led them now. Had she taken them direct through, who knew but they might have caught some inkling of the clue? While opening the gate, General Lloyd would have put half-a-crown into her hand. She would not take it.
"I'd rather not, sir; I've done nothing to merit it. Our mistress pays us both well. Thank you, sir, all the same."
"A good, respectable, honest servant, that," remarked the General, slipping the money into his pocket again.