I hesitated, at the edge of the lawn.
For no reason, perhaps because the sunlight flickered a moment on the glass, I looked up at the house, and as I did so I noticed with surprise that the shutters of one of the windows in the west wing had been opened up.
Somebody stood by the window.
A man.
And then he must have caught sight of me because he drew back abruptly, and a figure behind him put up an arm and closed the shutters.
The arm belonged to Mrs Danvers.
I recognised the black sleeve.
I wondered for a minute if it was a public day and she was showing the rooms.
It could not be so though because Frith always did that, and Frith was out.
Besides, the rooms in the west wing were not shown to the public.
I had not even been into them myself yet.
No, I knew it was not a public day.
The public never came on a Tuesday.
Perhaps it was something to do with a repair in one of the rooms.
It was odd though the way the man had been looking out and directly he saw me he whipped back into the room and the shutters were closed.
And the car too, drawn up behind the rhododendrons, so that it could not be seen from the house.
Still, that was up to Mrs Danvers.
It was nothing to do with me.
If she had friends she took to the west wing it was not exactly my affair.
I had never known it happen before though.
Odd that it should occur on the only day Maxim was from home.
I strolled rather self-consciously across the lawn to the house, aware that they might be watching me still from a chink in the shutters.
I went up the steps and through the big front door to the hall.
There was no sign of a strange cap or stick, and no card on the salver.
Evidently this was not an official visitor.
Well, it was not my affair.
I went into the flower-room and washed my hands in the basin to save going upstairs.
It would be awkward if I met them face to face on the stairs or somewhere.
I remembered I had left my knitting in the morning-room before lunch, and I went along through the drawing-room to fetch it, the faithful Jasper at my heels.
The morning-room door was open.
And I noticed that my bag of knitting had been moved.
I had left it on the divan, and it had been picked up and pushed behind a cushion.
There was the imprint of a person on the fabric of the divan where my knitting had been before. Someone had sat down there recently, and picked up my knitting because it had been in the way.
The chair by the desk had also been moved.
It looked as though Mrs Danvers entertained her visitors in the morning-room when Maxim and I were out of the way.
I felt rather uncomfortable.
I would rather not know.
Jasper was sniffing under the divan and wagging his tail.
He was not suspicious of the visitor anyway.
I took my bag of knitting and went out.
As I did so the door in the large drawing-room that led to the stone passage and the back premises opened, and I heard voices.
I darted back into the morning-room again, just in time.
I had not been seen.
I waited behind the door frowning at Jasper who stood in the doorway looking at me, his tongue hanging out, wagging his tail.
The little wretch would give me away.
I stood very still, holding my breath.
Then I heard Mrs Danvers speak.
'I expect she has gone to the library,' she said.
'She's come home early for some reason.
If she has gone to the library you will be able to go through the hall without her seeing you.