"When do they go?" she asked.
"Sir Edmund starts to-morrow, but Lady Rose and Lady Charlton will follow in about ten days. They will join the yacht at Marseilles, and I should go with them. Do you think mother will let me go, Miss Dexter?"
Miss Dexter looked down.
"Why should your mother object?" she said.
"But it's so sudden."
"Yes, it's very sudden," said Molly, in a low voice.
"I can hardly keep quiet; I don't know how to get through the time till six o'clock, and mother can't be at home till then."
Molly turned back into the room; her face was very white. There were white dents in her nostrils, and there was a bitter smile on her lips. Whatever she might have said was stopped in the utterance. The parlourmaid had come into the room, and now, coming up to Molly, said in a low voice:
"There is a gentleman asking if Miss Dexter will see him on important business; he says he is a doctor, and that he has come from Italy."
Molly frowned.