"Nonsense!" he rejoined, "bad news always travels quickly; don't make yourself uneasy on that score. They've got side-tracked in some out-of-the-way place, just as we have. I'll go to Southampton to-morrow and work up the trail. Now you run off and consult the catawampus."
When her ladyship had heard the whole story, she summed up as follows:
"As your friend has seen fit to return, you may tell him his chamber will be again made ready for to-night, and you will both dine in my sitting-room as before. To-morrow I shall send you home to Lady Scarsdale."
"But——"
"There is nothing more to be said on the subject. I have made up my mind." And having pronounced sentence, she left her distracted great-niece to her own reflections.
It was a very doleful couple who sat down to dinner that evening in Lady Melton's private room.
"It is ridiculous!" said Mrs. Scarsdale. "We are being treated like naughty children. I feel as if I were about to be whipped and put to bed. Sent home with the butler, indeed! I'd just like to see her ladyship try to do it!"
"How are you going to prevent her?" asked the Consul.
"I'm not a child, and I won't be treated as one! If I am to be sent home in disgrace, you will have to come with me."
"Well, I like that! You seem to forget I've lost my wife. My first duty is to find her."