“Where be ye goin', hussy?” he demanded, grasping her promptly by the arm.
“For a walk!” she replied defiantly.
“A walk wi' that fine soger from t' Manor!” roared Bramber furiously. “You'll be sorry yet, you barefaced gadabout! Must I tell you again that t' man's a villain?”
The girl wrenched her arm from Bramber's grasp, and blazed defiance from her beautiful eyes.
“He knows how to respect a woman—what you don't!” she retorted hotly.
“So I don't respect you, my angel?” shouted her stepfather. “Then you know what you can do! The door's open and there's few'll miss you!”
Snatching her hat, the girl, very white, made to go out. Whereat the gamekeeper, a brutal man with small love for Molly, and maddened by her taking him at his word, seized her suddenly by her abundant fair hair and hauled her back into the room.
A violent scene followed, at the end of which Molly fainted and Bramber came out and locked the door.
When he came back about half-past nine the girl was missing. She did not reappear that night, and the police were advised in the morning. Their most significant discovery was this:
Captain Ronald Vane, on the night of Molly's disappearance, had left the Manor House, after dining alone with his host, Sir Howard Hepwell, saying that he proposed to take a stroll as far as the Deep Wood.