Jeanne looked at them in surprise.
"How queer!" she remarked. "I was down before nine o'clock. Had he left then?"
"Long before then, I believe," Forrest answered. "He is very likely coming back in a day or two."
Jeanne nodded indifferently. The intelligence, after all, was of little importance to her.
"Has the luncheon gong gone?" she asked. "I have been out since ten o'clock, and I am starving."
Cecil led the way across the hall into the dining-room.
"Come along," he said. "I wish we all had such healthy appetites."
She glanced at him, and then at the others.
"Well," she said, "you certainly look as though you had been up very late last night. What is the matter with you all?"
"We were very foolish," Major Forrest said softly. "We sat up a great deal too late, and I am afraid that we all smoked too many cigarettes. You see it was our last night, for without Engleton our bridge is over."