This morning, when she woke, it
was to find that Miss Beatrice had not slept in the house that night,
and she came out to see if she could find her.
"Where was she going when she went out?" Geoffrey asked.
She did not know, but she thought that Miss Beatrice was going out in
the canoe. Leastways she had put on her tennis shoes, which she always
wore when she went out boating.
Geoffrey understood it all now. "Come to the boat-house," he said.
They went down to the beach, where as yet none were about except a few
working people. Near the boat-house Geoffrey met old Edward walking
along with a key in his hand.
"Lord, sir!" he said. "You here, sir! and in that there queer hat, too.
What is it, sir?"
"Did Miss Beatrice go out in her canoe yesterday evening, Edward?"
Geoffrey asked hoarsely.
"No, sir; not as I know on. My boy locked up the boat-house last
night, and I suppose he looked in it first. What! You don't mean to
say----Stop; we'll soon know. Oh, Goad! the canoe's gone!"
There was a silence, an awful silence. Old Edward broke it.
"She's drowned, sir--that's what she is--drowned at last; and she the
finest woman in Wales.
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