Ellen hesitated.
“Perhaps I’d better not, today,” she murmured, and slowly descended the steps.
The discreet maid closed the door behind her.
Chapter XVIII.
Ellen did not at once return home. She walked on reflecting. So the old man was Lydia Orr’s father! And she was the first to know it!
The girl had never spoken of her father, Ellen was sure. Had she done so, Mrs. Solomon Black would certainly have told Mrs. Whittle, and Mrs. Whittle would have informed Mrs. Daggett, and thence, by way of Mrs. Dodge and Fanny, the news would long ago have reached Ellen and her mother.
Before she had covered a quarter of a mile of the dusty road, Ellen heard the muffled roar of an over-taking motor car. She glanced up, startled and half choked with the enveloping cloud of dust. Jim Dodge was driving the car. He slowed down and stopped.
“Hello, Ellen. Going down to the village? Get in and I’ll take you along,” he called out.
“All right,” said Ellen, jumping in.
“I haven’t seen you for an age, Jim,” said Ellen after awhile.