Next morning, after a night of dark reflections, spent at the dormer
window of the village inn, I called at the Manor House as early as the
convenances would permit.
Lucie, cool in a white blouse and pique skirt, met me in the hall, and,
to my surprise, told me that Ella had already departed. At seven
o'clock she asked that she might be driven back to Swanage to rejoin her
father, as they were leaving early on the motor-car.
She was as surprised as I myself was at this sudden decision to leave,
for she expected that she would remain there for another day at least,
now that we had again met.
"Didn't she tell you that she was leaving early?" Lucie asked, looking
me straight in the face.
"No. I certainly expected to find her here," I said, as she led me into
the old-fashioned morning-room sweet with the odour of pot-pourri in the
big Oriental punch-bowls.