“I suppose they will keep her until to-morrow,” Miss Jane remarked; “but I am rather sorry she went. It is just the weather to take cold.”
And at Mourne Lodge Mrs Blake said: “How odd of Lawrence to stay at the Parsonage so late. Did you say he went home with Paddy, Doreen?”
Doreen looked worried, but she only replied:
“Yes; he said he should not be late.”
Another half-hour passed, and then Mrs Blake asked; “What made him go home with Paddy at all, Doreen?”
Doreen was now fidgeting nervously, glancing constantly at the clock, and at last she decided to tell her mother exactly what had passed. Almost before she had finished, Mrs Blake was out in the hall peremptorily ordering one of the stable-boys to be sent for at once, and she waited at the open door until he came.
“Take a bicycle,” she cried, in the same decisive manner, “and ride as hard as you can to Omeath Parsonage. Go to the back door, and, without making any noise, find out from the servants if Mr Lawrence has been there this evening. If he is there it is all right! but if not, come back here as quickly as possible, and tell them not to let the Misses O’Hara know that you came. Do you understand?”
“Yes, m’m,” and in two seconds the boy was gone.
Another anxious half-hour passed, during the whole of which Mrs Blake paced the drawing-room, quite unable to sit still a moment. When she heard a step on the gravel, she hurried instantly to the front door.
“Is he there?” she asked, quite unable to conceal her anxiety.