It was the morning after the conversation I had with Mrs. Summer that I received a message from Miss Brandon. She wanted to speak to me. Could I be, about five o'clock, at the end of the alley? I was punctual at the rendezvous.
"I wanted to have a talk," she said, "to-day, if possible, because to-morrow Aunt Netty has organized an expedition to the lakes, and the day after we are all going to the races, so I didn't know when I should see you again."
"But you are not going away yet, are you?" I asked.
No, they were not going away, they would very likely stay on till the end of July. Then there was an idea of Switzerland; or perhaps the Mozart festival at Munich, followed by a week at Bayreuth. Mr. Rudd was going to Bayreuth, and had convinced Mrs. Lennox that she was a Wagnerite.
"I thought you couldn't be going away yet—but one never knows, here people disappear so suddenly, and I wanted to see you so particularly and at once. You are going to finish your cure?"
I said my time limit was another fortnight. After that I was going back to my villa at Cadenabbia.
"Shall you come here next year?"
I said it depended on my doctor. I asked her her plans.
"I don't think I shall come back next year."
There was a slight note of suppressed exultation in her voice. I asked whether Mrs. Lennox was tired of Haréville.