(III)
He was at the further end of the terrace, close beneath the stable wall, when the stable clock struck the quarter for the second time. That would make, he calculated, about seventeen minutes, and he turned reluctantly to keep his appointment. But he was still thirty yards away from the opening when a white figure in a huge white hat came quickly out. She beckoned to him with her head, and he followed her down the steps. She gave him one glance as if to reassure him as he caught her up, but said not a word, good or bad, till they had passed through the house again, and were well on their way down the drive.
"Well?" said Jack.
Jenny hesitated a moment.
"I suppose anyone else would have called him violent," she said. "Poor old dear! But it seems to me he behaved rather well on the whole—considering all things."
"What's he going to do?"
"If one took anything he said as containing any truth at all, it would mean that he was going to flog Frank with his own hands, kick him first up the steps of the house then down again, and finally drown him in the lake with a stone round his neck. I think that was the sort of programme."
"But—"
"Oh! we needn't be frightened," said Jenny. "But if you ask me what he will do, I haven't the faintest idea."
"Did you suggest anything?"