Lady Katharine looked down at the writing, and a wave of colour surged over her face.
"But——" she commenced.
"I don't want them now; in fact, I can't stop even now, only I just wanted to know that you were all right."
There was no mistaking the look of adoration on the young man's face, but she looked at him reproachfully.
"Going back again, so soon!" she said softly, averting her head, while her lips trembled and her hand clutched painfully on the leaf of the notebook.
"I'm afraid I must, dear," responded Geoff. Then he turned swiftly to Cleek, who had been watching the little scene, the peculiar one-sided smile looping up the corners of his mouth.
"Good-bye, Mr. Barch; pleased to have met you," he said without, however, coming forward and offering his hand.
"Thanks! same to you; good-bye," replied Cleek, and that same smile was still on his face when a minute or two later, young Clavering having taken his departure, Cleek was rejoined by Ailsa Lorne.
"What do you think about it?" she asked abruptly. "What is it that is wrong? Oh, Mr. Cleek, do you think——"
"I'll be beyond 'thinking' before the morning. I shall know," he interposed. "Now, show me the way to that ruin, please. I want a word or two with Mr. Harry Raynor if he is there. Down that path, is it? Thanks very much." And swinging down from the veranda, he moved away in the direction indicated.