"I did, miss, and he said he'd wait."
Fanny went downstairs and into the library, and there before her stood Mr Bevan on the hearthrug.
Her face brightened wonderfully.
"I am so glad—when did you come? Guess who I thought it was? I thought it was Mr Hancock."
"Hancock?" said Charles, who had held her outstretched hand just a moment longer than was absolutely necessary. "Oh, that affair is all over. I stopped the action—by the way, I believe old Hancock's cracked; sent your father a most extraordinary wire, saying I was—what was it he said?—a duck, I think."
"Where have you seen father?"
"Why, I was staying in the same house with him down in Sussex for a day."
"At Miss Pursehouse's?"
"Yes."