"She was here to-day," she said.
"Here?... What time?"
"She came in the morning. I understand she had travelled straight through from Devonshire, only changing stations in town."
He caught his breath in a way that was very like a sigh, and sat down, half shutting his eyes.
"Then she wished to avoid me," he said. "Where has she gone?"
When Caroline told him, he just nodded his head and said—
"Yes...." He paused a moment, and then he said, "I am very troubled about her, Caroline." Indeed, his voice sounded very heavy with trouble.
Caroline waited for him to go on.
"She seems to be slipping out of my hands," said Haverford; "try as I will, I cannot satisfy her, or keep pace with her. I assure you these last few weeks I have been like a creature on wires. I have not known from one moment to the next what she wished me to do. Perhaps I am too exacting. I don't know. I only know that I am wretched, that I cannot sleep for thinking about her; thinking, not in a selfish fashion, ... I give you my word it is not that, but troubling about her...." He sat forward, and stared into the fire. "The last time we were together we quarrelled rather badly," he said then.
Still Caroline said nothing.