The duchess sighed.
"Then she has kept her word! Finding out that we are still pursuing her, she has fled from us. Oh, I think it wicked of her, wicked to all of us. When I get hold of Robert, I shall take steps to show him what I think of him. Do you give it up, bishop?"
The bishop's eyes flashed with indignation.
"Never!" he said. "I propose that we pursue her at once. She cannot have thought we should be here so soon. If we find out which road she took, we may yet overtake her."
"In what?" asked Bradstock, with his hand on the ramshackle landau the duchess sat in. "In this conveyance, for instance?"
The bishop looked at the two big motor-cars, and at their wretched owners, Plant and Rivaulx.
"Taking my courage in both hands," he said, bravely, "I propose that we lose no time. I will go in this car with the marquis, if he will take me."
The marquis said through his clenched teeth that he would.
"Bradstock, you will escort the duchess back to Spilsborough."
"Certainly not," said the duchess. "I am coming, too. I must and I will. Whatever the condition of Penelope may now be, it is my duty. I come with you!"