"Yes. She was very tired."
"But—she was here not half an hour ago. She couldn't have gone without my seeing her."
"She went out," said Jane faintly, "by the window."
"She couldn't get to her room without going through the hall. I've been there all the time on the seat by the stairs."
They looked at each other. The seat by the stairs commanded all ways in and out, the entrance of the passage, and the door of the sitting-room, and the portière of the lounge.
"What do you think?" he said.
"I think that she has not gone far. But if she goes, it is you who will have driven her away."
"Forgive me if I remind you that it is not I who have given her up."
"It was you," said Jane quietly, "who helped to ruin her."
His raised eyebrows expressed an urbane surprise at the curious frankness of her charge. And with a delicate gesture of his hand he repudiated it and waved it away.