To another part of the room.
The hat she wore was missing!
Then for a moment the girl stood as if dumbfounded, as the thoughts crushed down upon her that even if she started now, and could get away, she would be too late to catch the London mail. Worse still: Leo must have caught the last up-train at twelve, and long before she could reach the great city, would have joined Tom Candlish at the place he had named in the note Dally herself had borne; and, though she had planned so well, her chances of being Lady Candlish were for ever gone.
She ground her teeth together and panted hoarsely, hardly able to breathe for the sobs which struggled for utterance.
“It isn’t true. It’s a trick!” she cried at last. “I won’t believe it! I’ll go and be there first, and then—
“Oh! what shall I do—what shall I do?” she cried hoarsely; and then, uttering a wild and passionate shriek of misery and despair, she threw herself heavily upon the floor, to tear at the carpet, like some savage creature, with tooth and nail.