'He is part of the pursuing army, I should imagine,' said Beckenham.
'That is but the outside of the affair, of course,' retorted the lady. 'The inmost heart thereof is the reason for his mysterious riding into the country just when my husband was away, and he had promised a father's care to my niece. Men are a faithless breed.'
'There will doubtless be some reason,' Beckenham replied.
'Doubtless! Doubtless!' mocked Lady Fairfax. 'He may have gone to count the milestones on the Oxford Road, or write a sonnet to the moon.' She yawned behind her pretty hand as she spoke, and presently rising, bade her companion good-night.
Lady Fairfax's curiosity was not destined to consume her outright. The travellers being early on their way in the morning, it happened that the coach had covered most of the distance to Garth, and its fair occupant was looking with secret exultation for old landmarks, when Captain Beckenham rode up to announce the approach of another vehicle just a little distance behind.
Lady Fairfax put her head out of the coach door.
'It cannot be the heart-broken father of our host's story,' she said, 'for I see my own servant, Reuben, on the box. Let us wait, Captain Beckenham. It would appear that at last something is going to happen. I am weary of riding ever on the morrow of the event.'
The vehicle proved to be the Penrock coach, returning from Plymouth. There, on the previous evening, Colonel Sampson had escorted Victoire and Elise, leaving them with a bodyguard of Mistress Keziah's providing until her brother should return. Nothing loth, Mr. Sampson accepted Lady Fairfax's invitation to enter her own coach, and Beckenham, suddenly finding he was weary of the saddle, gave his horse to Reuben and followed the Colonel.
'Tell them to drive more slowly,' ordered Lady Fairfax. 'My ears have of late been shaken into my boots. Now, Sir, and what have you to say?'
The Colonel, it appeared, had much to say. The story so absorbed his fair hearer's attention that the landmarks of the homecoming journey were left ungreeted. Lady Fairfax listened to the history of Roger's escape in growing amazement.