er eyes.

"Don't take on so, Mercedes," said Mrs. Talcott. "If Karen's with her
husband all they're likely to be thinking about is that he was right and
has got her back again. Karen's bound to tell him something about what
happened, and you can depend upon Karen for saying as little as she can.
But if you imagine that you're going to be let off from being found out
by that young man, you're letting yourself in for a big disappointment,
and you can take my word for it. It's because he's right about you that
Karen'll go back to him."

Madame von Marwitz turned her head away and fixed her eyes on the
landscape.

They reached the little village near Les Solitudes, and at the little
hotel, with its drowsy, out-of-season air, Mrs. Talcott descended,
leaving Mercedes proudly seated in the car, indifferent to the possible
gaze from above of her faithless devotee. Mrs. Talcott returned with the
information that Mr. Drew was upstairs and not yet awake. "Go up. Go up
to him," said the tormented woman, after a moment of realized relief or
disappointment--who can say? "He may have seen her. He may have given
her money for her journey. They may have arranged to meet later."

Mrs. Talcott again disappeared and she only returned after some ten
minutes. "Home," she then said to Burton, climbing heavily into the car.
"Yes, there he was, sleeping as peaceful as a dormouse in his silk
pyjamas," she remarked. "I startled him some, I reckon, when I waked him
up. No, he don't know anything about her. Wanted to jump up and look for
her when I told him she was missing. Keep still, Mercedes--what do you
mean by bouncing about like that--folks can see you. I talked to him
pretty short and sharp, that young man, and I told him the best thing he
could do now was to pack his grip-sack and clear out. He's going right
away and he promised to send me a telegram from London to-night. He can
catch the second train."

Madame von Marwitz leaned back. She closed her eyes. The car had climbed
to the entrance of Les Solitudes and the fuchsia hedge was passing on
each side. Mrs. Talcott, looking at her companion, saw that she had
either actually fainted or was simulating a very realistic fainting-fit.
Mercedes often had fainting-fits at moments of crisis; but she was a
robust woman, and Mrs. Talcott had no reason to believe that any of them
had been genuine. She did not believe that this one was genuine, yet she
had to own, looking at the leaden eyelids