end Lacey
to him; any appearance of Lacey's in the matter would show that we were
afraid, that we knew there was something to conceal. My course was to
take the start Lacey's warning gave me, to go where Jenny was, trusting
to reach her in time to get her away before Fillingford came on from
Breysgate. It was time to put away pretenses, scruples, formalities. I
must find her wherever she was; I must meet her face to face with my
message of danger.

I put on my hat and coat hastily. Lacey stood looking at me.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Where that boy came from," I answered.

"Do you mind if I come, too? As far as the house, say?"

"Why do you want to come?"

He spoke with a certain calm authority. "I think I've a right to come.
You must excuse me for saying that I think I know with whom we're
dealing. We may very likely be in for a row, Austin. I don't want to be
seen, if I can help it, but I do want to be somewhere handy in case my
father--well, in case there is a row, you know."

Yes, we knew with whom we might have to deal. A row was not unlikely.

"Very well, come along," I said.

The clock struck seven as we started out into a dull, foggy, chill
evening. Darkness had fallen and the lights of Catsford twinkled in the
valley beneath us. As we began to walk, I heard carriage wheels on the
road behind us. Fillingford was on his way to Breysgate. Lie well, Chat!
Be clever! Keep him there--keep him there, till the danger is overpast!

CHAPTER XIV

THE EIGHT-FIFTEEN TRAIN

If Jenny were bound to see Leonard Octon that evening, why had she not
sent for him to her own house? In order that the servants might not
know, and spread the gossip among their friends in other households? For
fear that some of the neighbors, to whom she had sacrificed him, might
pass by and see him going in or coming out, or even might call and
encounter him there? A visit from the Aspenicks, from Lacey, from
Alison, was not impossible. Who could say that Fillingford himself would
not do as, in fact, he had done, and go to Breysgate on receipt of her
letter? There were plausible reasons to be given for her action, but
they were not, coolly regarded, of sufficient strength to outweigh the
great fact that, whereas a meeting at Breysgate might have been reckoned
a bit of defiance and unfriendliness to Fillingford and his allies, a
meeting at Ivydene or, above all, at Hatcham Ford was open to a far more
damaging interpretat