Stella shook her head.
"There was a telegram," she said. "I don't know what the business was, but he was obliged to go."
Mrs. Penfold stood stock-still in dismay and astonishment.
"It will be the death of him!" she breathed, awe-struck. "He never goes anywhere any distance, and starting off like that, Miss Stella, in the dead of night, and after being out at the Hall—why it's enough to kill a gentleman like him who can't bear any noise or anything sudden like."
"I'm very sorry," said Stella. "He said that he was obliged to go."
"And when is he coming back?" asked Mrs. Penfold.
Stella shook her head.
"I don't know. I hope to-day—I do hope to-day! It all seems so quiet and lonely without him." And she looked round the room, and sighed.
Mrs. Penfold stood, with the waiter in her hand, staring at the beautiful face.
"You—you don't know what it is, Miss Stella?" she asked, in a low voice, and with a certain significance in her tone.