He did not once
look at Dauntrey, who stole out on tiptoe. Eve, waiting for her husband,
put a finger to her lips. As Apollonia peered anxiously into the room,
not daring to cross the threshold, Lord and Lady Dauntrey went softly
away together, as if they were afraid that a creaking board under their
feet might wake the sleeper.
It seemed to Peter that she must have been waiting in Schuyler's
automobile for an hour, when at last she saw a man and a woman walking
quickly down the avenue, toward the gate. She had never seen Lord and
Lady Dauntrey, but she knew that Rose Winter and Vanno believed them to
be Mary's companions. In the hand of the woman was a small, rather flat
bag of dark blue Russian leather, which might be a jewel-case or a
miniature dressing-bag such as women carry when motoring.
The pair had come into sight rounding a turn of the drive; and they saw
the girl looking up from the window of the waiting car at the moment
when her eyes fell upon them. For an instant they slackened their pace,
but the woman spoke to the man, and they came on steadily, walking as
briskly as before. The man unfastened the gate with a big key, which he
left in the lock, and the two stepped out into the road. They glanced
casually at Peter, her chauffeur, and the motor, as if they would pass
by, but on an impulse Peter leaned from the window and spoke. "Lord and
Lady Dauntrey?"
"Yes," the woman replied, stiffly. "I'm afraid I don't remember----"
"Oh, we've never met, but I knew you were both here, and I'm Mary
Maxwell, Mary Grant's best friend.
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