"Oh!"

"Did you know she had gone?"

"No, I knew nothing at all about her."

"Well, she has. She left the house twenty minutes ago. I've sent
Chepstow after her in the car; he is to ask her to return."

"I don't suppose she will," Hugh said, remembering the very firm look
about Miss Joan Meredyth's mouth.

"And I planned the reconciliation, I made sure that once you came face
to face it would be all right. Hugh, there is more behind all this than
meets the eye!"

"That's it," he said, "a great deal more! No third person can interfere
with any hope of success."

"And you," she said, "can let a girl like that, your own wife, go out of
your life and make no effort to detain her!"

He nodded.

"For two pins," said Lady Linden, "I would box your ears, Hugh Alston."




CHAPTER V