THE MOCKERY OF DECEIT HAD Mountjoy arrived to take Iris away, before her preparations for travelling were complete?
Both the ladies hurried to the window, but they were too late.

The rapid visitor, already hidden from them under the portico, was knocking smartly at the door.

In another minute, a man's voice in the hall asked for "Miss Henley." The tones--clear, mellow, and pleasantly varied here and there by the Irish accent--were not to be mistaken by any one who had already hear them.

The man in the hall was Lord Harry.
In that serious emergency, Mrs.Vimpany recovered her presence of mind.
She made for the door, with the object of speaking to Lord Harry before he could present himself in the drawing-room.

But Iris had heard him ask for her in the hall; and that one circumstance instantly stripped of its concealments the character of the woman in whose integrity she had believed.