e wouldn't want those gates
gaping open."

"Perhaps not," Godfrey assented; "but would she want the barrier
intact? Remember, Lester, it's as much a barrier from one side as from
the other."

"Well, she won't be inside it much longer," I assured him. "I'm going
to get her out this afternoon."

The words were uttered with a confidence I was far from feeling, and I
rather expected Godfrey to challenge it, but he walked on without
replying, his head bent in thought, and did not again speak of Miss
Vaughan or her affairs.

He drove into the city shortly after lunch, and it was about the
middle of the afternoon when I presented myself again at the gates of
Elmhurst and rang the bell. I waited five minutes and rang again.
Finally the gardener came shuffling down the drive and asked me what I
wanted. I told him I had an appointment with his mistress; but,
instead of admitting me, he took my card and shuffled away with it.

I confess that I grew angry, as I stood there kicking my heels at the
roadside, for he was gone a long time, and all these precautions and
delays were incomprehensible to me. But he came back at last, unlocked
the gate without a word, and motioned me to enter. Then he locked it
again, and led the way up the drive to the house. The housemaid met
us at the door of the library, as though she had been stationed there.

"If you will wait here, sir," she said, "Miss Vaughan will see you."

"I hope she is well," I ventured, thinking the girl might furnish me
with some clue to all this mystery, but she was already at the door.

"Quite well, sir," she said, and the next instant had disappeared.

Another ten minutes elapsed, and then, just as I was thinking
seriously of putting on my hat and leaving the house, I heard a step
coming down the stair. A moment later Miss Vaughan stood on the
threshold.

I had taken it for granted that, relieved of her father's presence,
she would return to the clothing of every day; but she still wore the
flowing white semi-Grecian garb in which I had first seen her. I could
not but admit that it added grace and beauty to her figure, as well as
a certain impressiveness impossible to petticoats; and yet I felt a
sense of disappointment. For her retention of the costume could only
mean that her father's influence was still dominant.

"You wished to see me?" she asked; and again I was surprised, for I
had supposed she would apologise for the delay to which I had been
subjected.