Third Period Chapter 43 Fiction: Attempted by My Lord

"It means, if you please, that I had a duty to do--and did it."

"A duty to yourself?" Iris asked.

"No, my lady; a duty to you."

As she made that strange reply the door was opened, and Lord Harry
entered the room. When he saw Fanny Mere he turned away again, in a
hurry, to go out. "I didn't know your maid was with you," he said.
"Another time will do."

His permitting a servant to be an obstacle in his way, when he wished
to speak to his wife, was a concession so entirely unbecoming in the
master of the house, and so strangely contrary to his customary sense
of what was due to himself, that Iris called him back in astonishment.
She looked at her maid, who at once understood her, and withdrew. "What
can you possibly be thinking of?" she said to her husband, when they
were alone. Putting that question, she noticed an embarrassment in his
manner, and an appearance of confusion in his face, which alarmed her.
"Has something happened?" she asked; "and is it so serious that you
hesitate to mention it to me?"

He sat down by her and took her hand. The loving look in his eyes,
which she knew so well, was not in them now; they expressed doubt, and
something with it which suggested an effort at conciliation.