"Oh, one at a time," says Nolly. "She couldn't do it all at once. Such a stretch of fancy requires thought."
At this moment, Geoffrey—who has been absent—saunters into the room, and, after a careless glance around, says, lightly, as if missing something,—
"Where is Mona?"
"Well, we thought you would know," says Lady Rodney, speaking for the first time.
"Yes. Where is she?" says Doatie: "that is just what we all want to know. She won't get any tea if she doesn't come presently, because Nolly is bent on finishing it. Nolly," with plaintive protest, "don't be greedy."
"We thought she was with you," says Captain Rodney, idly.
"She is out," says Lady Rodney, in a compressed tone.
"Is she? It is too late for her to be out," returns Geoffrey, thinking of the chill evening air.
"Quite too late," acquiesces his mother, meaningly. "It is, to say the least of it, very strange, very unseemly. Out at this hour, and alone,—if, indeed, she is alone!"
Her tone is so unpleasant and so significant that silence falls upon the room. Geoffrey says nothing. Perhaps he alone among them fails to understand the meaning of her words. He seems lost in thought. So lost, that the others, watching him, wonder secretly what the end of his meditations will bring forth: yet, one and all, they mistake him: no doubt of Mona ever has, or ever will, I think, cross his mind.