I longed now to take her in my arms.

The tension of that silence becoming insupportable:

"You will not stay here alone?" I asked in an unnatural voice.

Isobel, without looking up, shook her head.

"I am going to Mrs. Wentworth--my Aunt Alison," she replied.

"Good," I said. "I am glad to know that you will be in her cheery
company."

Mrs. Wentworth was, indeed, a charming old lady, and so far as I knew,
Isobel's only relation in London, if not in England. She occupied a
house which, like herself, was small, scrupulously neat and
old-worldly. One of those tiny residences which, once counted as being
"in the country," had later become enmeshed in the ever-spreading
tentacles of greater London.

It was situated on the northern outskirts of the county-city, and
although rows of modern "villas" had grown up around it, within the
walls of that quaint little homestead one found oneself far enough
removed from suburbia.

"When are you going, Isobel?" I asked.

"I think," she replied, "in the morning."

"Will you let me drive you in the Rover?--or are you taking too much
baggage?"

"Oh, no," she said, smiling sadly--"I am going to live the simple life
for a week. Going out shopping with Aunt Alison--and perhaps sometimes
to the pictures!"

"Then I can drive you over?"

"Yes--if you would like to," she answered simply.

I took my leave shortly afterwards and proceeded to the _Planet_
office. I had work to do, but I must admit that I little relished the
idea of returning to my cottage. Diverted, now, from the notorious Red
House, public interest had centered upon my residence, and the
seclusion which I had gone so far to seek was disturbed almost hourly
by impertinent callers who seemed to think that the scene of a
sensational crime was public property.

Coates had effectually disillusioned several of them on this point,
but, nevertheless, the cottage had become distasteful to me. I
realized that I must seek a new residence without delay. Shall I add
that the primary cause of my reclusion no longer operated so
powerfully? Of my dreams at this time I will speak later; but here I
may say that I knew, and accepted the knowledge with a fearful joy,
that if my new house of hope was doomed to be shattered, no spot in
broad England could offer me rest again.

It was not then, until late that night, that I returned to my once
peaceful abode. Coates was waiting up for me, but he had nothing of
importance to report,