haired woman for whom I was waiting.

Instead of walking straight down the avenue to the lodge-gates, she
struck along a footpath which led for a mile across the park, first
skirting the lake--the fishpond of the monks who lived there before the
Dissolution; then, passing under the dark shadow of a spinney, led to a
stile by which the high park wall could be negotiated and the main road
to East Dereham reached.

As she went forward so I followed. I knew the path well. I watched her
ascend the stile and cross the wall into the road. Then I crept up and
peered over into the darkness. She had turned to the right, and I could
discern her waiting at the roadside about thirty yards away.

From my place of concealment I could hear her slow footsteps as she
idled up and down in the darkness, evidently waiting for some one.

I think about ten minutes passed when I heard the whir of a motor-car
approaching, its big glaring headlamps shedding a stream of white
brilliance over the muddy road. As it approached her it slowed down and
stopped. Then I distinguished it to be a big Limousine, the occupant of
which opened the door, and she entered with a word of greeting.

I stood peering into the darkness, in surprise and disappointment at not
catching sight of the person with whom she was keeping these nightly
appointments. As soon as the door had banged the driver drove across the
road, backed, and turning, sped away in the direction he had come.

But while he was turning I had gained the road, advancing beneath the
hedgerow in an endeavour to see the number of the car. But I was
baffled. It was covered with mud.

Afterwards, much disappointed, and certainly hungry, I made my way back
across the park to the Hall, where, after managing to get a snack from
Williams, I joined the party at bridge.

That night the woman Stolberg returned at five minutes to eleven, and
later, when Ray went upstairs with me, I described what I had seen.

Next night, instead of following her out, I waited at the spot at
half-past ten, when, sure enough, the car returned ten minutes later and
deposited her. The number plates, however, were obliterated by the mud
both front and back--purposely it seemed to me. The man within shook her
hand as she alighted, but I could not see his face. Was he some secret
lover? Apparently she went no great distance each evening, going and
coming from the direction of Holt.

On the following day I took several opportuni