Hers could not
be there until the morning--she must wait patiently and see.
With consummate self-control she made her voice sound natural as she
said, "Oh, I am so late, Mrs. Porrit. I must go," and, bidding the woman
a gracious good evening, walked rapidly to the house. A telegram might
have come for her, and she had been out all day. What if her aunts had
opened it!
This thought made her quicken her pace so that at last she arrived at
the terrace breathless with running; and having deposited her bag in
safety, she came out again from the secret passage and got hastily to
the house.
But there was no sign of a telegram in the hall, and she mounted to find
Priscilla in her room, which she discovered to be in great disorder, her
few clothes lying about on every available space.
"Oh, my lamb, where have you been?" the elderly woman exclaimed. "At
four o'clock who should come in a fly from the Applewood station but
your step-father's wife! She was staying at Upminster, and says she
thought she would come over and see you--and now it's settled that we go
back with her to London to-morrow.
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