'Not Mr. Durance?'
He shook out a positive negative. 'I leave Col to his guesses. He'd have been prophesying fire the works before the completion.'
'Then it is not a dear old house, like Craye and Creckholt?'
'Wait and see to-morrow.'
He spoke of the customary guests for concert practice; the music, instrumental and vocal; quartet, duet, solo; and advising the girl to be quick, as she had but twenty-five minutes, he went humming and trilling into his dressing-room.
Nesta signalled at her mother's door for permission to enter. She slipped in, saw that the maid was absent, and said: 'Yes, mama; and prepare, I feared it; I was sure.'
Her mother breathed a little moan: 'Not a cottage?'
'He has not mentioned it to Mr. Durance.'
'Why not?'
'Mr. Fenellan has been his confidant.'