ubted the last, Flora having now, he judged, no
value, either positive or speculative. Though no great reader of
character he did not credit the governess with humane intentions. He
confessed to me naively that he was excited as if watching some action
on the stage. Then the thought struck him that the girl might have had
some money settled on her, be possessed of some means, of some little
fortune of her own and therefore--

He imparted this theory to his wife who shared fully his consternation.
"I can't believe the child will go away without running in to say
good-bye to us," she murmured. "We must find out! I shall ask her."
But at that very moment the cab rolled away, empty inside, and the door
of the house which had been standing slightly ajar till then was pushed
to.

They remained silent staring at it till Mrs Fyne whispered doubtfully
"I really think I must go over." Fyne didn't answer for a while (his is
a reflective mind, you know), and then as if Mrs Fyne's whispers had an
occult power over that door it opened wide again and the white-bearded
man issued, astonishingly active in his movements, using his stick
almost like a leaping-pole to get down the steps; and hobbled away
briskly along the pavement. Naturally the Fynes were too far off to
make out the expression of his face. But it would not have helped them
very much to a guess at the conditions inside the house. The expression
was humorously puzzled--nothing more.

For, at the end of his lesson, seizing his trusty stick and coming out
with his habitual vivacity, he very nearly cannoned just outside the
drawing-room door into the back of Miss de Barral's governess. He
stopped himself in time and she turned round swiftly. It was
embarrassing; he apologised; but her face was not startled; it was not
aware of him; it wore a singular expression of resolution. A very
singular expression which, as it were, detained him for a moment. In
order to cover his embarrassment, he made some inane remark on the
weather, upon which, instead of returning another inane remark according
to the tacit rules of the game, she only gave him a smile of
unfathomable meaning. Nothing could have been more singular. The
good-looking young gentleman of questionable appearance took not the
slightest notice of him in the hall. No servant was to be seen. He let
himself out pulling the door to behind him with a crash as, in a manner,
he was forced to do to get it shut at