y's return and none of her engagement, when
Powers vanished and Ivydene was shut up, then the stream of talk began
to flow. Fillingford was loyally silent; his silence seemed only to add
significance to the rumors. Lacey abruptly rejoined his regiment, though
he had engagements for three weeks ahead--yet another unexplained
departure! The whole town--the whole neighborhood--were agog. Human
nature being what it is, small blame to them!

Of course his interview with Alison sent Cartmell flying up to me in
excitement and consternation. He had become devoted to Jenny; he was
devoted also to that fabric of influence and importance which she had
been building for herself. He was terribly upset. He had not been so far
behind the scenes as I had, or as Chat; the catastrophe came on him with
unmitigated suddenness. He had been a great partisan of the Fillingford
match; that crumbled before his eyes. But the greater blow was the
mystery of her flight with Octon.

"I can tell you nothing. We must wait for a letter." It was all I could
say unless and until Jenny gave me leave to speak.

That she did promptly, so far as Cartmell was concerned, thereby
enabling me to use his services in regard to Powers. A letter arrived on
Saturday morning--the flight had been on Thursday. It was a brief
letter, and a businesslike one. It showed two things: that Jenny was,
for the moment, in London--she did not say where--and that she was not
coming back. It told me to take Cartmell into my full confidence, to
tell him all I knew; neither he, nor Chat, nor I, was to say a word to
anybody else. "Announce that I am going to winter abroad, and say
nothing else--absolutely nothing--no explanations, no excuses, no
guesses. Say just what I have told you, and nothing else. Tell Chat that
I want nothing sent on. I shall get what I want. I will write at length
about business--to you or to Mr. Cartmell--as soon as I have made my
plans." Then she bade me go to Hatcham Ford, to pay off Octon's two
servants, and have the house put in charge of a caretaker. That
injunction was the only reference to Octon; of her own position,
feelings, or intentions in respect to him she made no mention whatever.

Cartmell heard the letter, and the story which, in obedience to it, I
told him, without signs of very great surprise. He twisted his mouth
about and grunted over Jenny's folly and double-dealing--but to his
practical mind the present situation was the question; my s