She made no reply but as she looked up she met Belhaven's eyes and they
were full of regret, of kindness, of appeal. The glance was fleeting;
the next moment both men went out into the night and she heard the stir
and jar of the motor-car as it started, backed, and finally whirled
down the road. She could not resist the impulse to push aside the
curtain and look out after it. Reluctant as she was to think of it, she
could not dismiss that glance into oblivion; it was the look of a man
mortally hurt.
The window-pane was covered now with frost and she had to breathe on it
before she could clear a space to see out into the stormy night. Away
in the distance were the retreating lights of Astry's big car, like
monster eyes, growing smaller and smaller until she saw them no more.
A gust of wind swayed the trees and swept the branches low across the
front of the house and there was a sudden rush of snowflakes. She drew
back a little and was on the point of returning to her chair when she
saw a figure coming swiftly up the path from the gate, and something
in the bearing, the quick, determined step, made her start and drop
the curtain again. She went hastily to the hearth and stood there
shivering, holding her hands out to the blaze, and her heart seemed to
stop beating while she listened.
She heard the servant going past the door to answer the bell and, after
an interval, she knew some one was coming across the hall.