"I must see you this week.—Blanche."
A few hours later, on his arrival in London, Borrowdean repeated this message to Mannering from the same post-office, and quietly tearing up the original went down to the House.
"I cannot tell," he reported to his chief, "whether we have succeeded or not. In a fortnight or less we shall know."
CHAPTER IV
THE DUCHESS ASKS A QUESTION
Clara stepped through the high French window, and with skirts a little raised crossed the lawn. Lindsay, who was following her, stopped to light a cigarette.
"We're getting frightfully modern," she remarked, turning and waiting for him. "Mrs. Handsell and I ought to have come out here, and you and uncle ought to have stayed and yawned at one another over the dinner-table."
"You have an excellent preceptress—in modernity," he remarked. "May I?"
"If you mean smoke, of course you may," she answered. "But you may not say or think horrid things about my best friend. She's a dear, wonderful woman, and I'm sure uncle has not been like the same man since she came."