n. Then once more the huge machine
clattered and whizzed and throbbed, rattling its way down the drive and
on into the dark, till all sound died away in the solemn winter silence.

XXI

During the next half-hour small practical tasks occupied Diane's mind
and kept the thought of Derek Pruyn's arrival from becoming more than a
subconscious dread. She informed the manager of her success with his
mysterious young guest, and arranged that Dorothea, when she came,
should spend the night with her. Then she put herself in telephonic
communication, first with Mrs. Wappinger, and then with Fulton. She gave
the former the intelligence that Carli had departed, and received from
the latter the information that Simmons had found his master, who had
been able to leave for Lakefield by the ten-five train. These steps
being taken, there was nothing to do but to sit down and wait for
Dorothea. Allowing thirty or forty minutes for possible delays, she
calculated that the girl ought to arrive a good half-hour before her
father. This would give her time to deal with each separately, clearing
up misunderstandings on both sides, and preparing the way for such a
meeting as would lead to mutual concessions and future peace.

Physically tired, she took off her hat and threw herself on the couch in
her little sitting-room. By sheer force of will she continued to shut
out Derek from her thought, concentrating all her mental faculties on
the arguments and persuasions she should bring to bear on Dorothea. She
had no nervousness on this account. The naughty, headstrong child that
runs away from home does not get far without a realizing sense of its
happy shelter. She divined that the long ride through the dark, with an
unknown man, toward an unknown goal, would have already subdued
Dorothea's spirits to the point where she would be only too glad to find
herself dropping into familiar, feminine arms.

At eleven o'clock she got up from her couch with a vague impulse to be
in a more direct attitude of welcome. At half-past eleven she went to
the office to inquire of the manager how long a motor going slowly
should take to reach Lakefield from New York, assuming that it had got
away from the city about six o'clock. Alarmed by his reply, she begged
him to keep a certain number of the servants up, and the hotel in
readiness to cope with any emergency or accident, promising liberal
remuneration for all unusual work. After that came another long