Moved by some incomprehensible impulse, she, the most careless of created beings, searched for that letter and locked it away in her dressing-case.
There was no Rupert to talk to now. Twice since his departure he had appeared at Homewood, the first time to say Antonia was busy purchasing her trousseau, and that old Dean had acted most generously in the matter of money, on the next occasion to ask Dolly not to expect to see him before Monday, as he was obliged to go down to Bath; the real truth being Rupert had thought the Homewood matter over, and decided that until Antonia had become Mrs. Dean, the less he saw of that place the better.
On the occasion of his first visit, Turner, the man already mentioned as having incited Esther to remove those vases and statuettes which seemed to them both desirable possessions, stopped him on his way to the gate.
"You and Mr. Lang, sir, saw a man the other morning looking over the fence, I believe?"
Rupert nodded assent.
"And you asked Lang who he was, and Lang could not tell you?"
"Yes," agreed Mr. Halling.
"Well, I know, sir; he's a detective, and there are more of them about."
Rupert stepped back as if he had received a blow, he stepped back so far he was brought up by a tree of arbor vitæ, out of which he emerged dripping with wet.