be done next? See the girl, he
supposed, and hear what she proposed to do; she wrote that she had
arranged "capitally," but she did not say what. He was quite certain
she was not going to remain with the Van Heigens; if by some
extraordinary accident she had been able to bring that about, she
would certainly have told him so triumphantly. He could not think of
anything "capital" she could have arranged; he was persuaded, either
that she only said it to reassure him, or else, if she believed it, it
was in her ignorance of the extent of the damage done yesterday. He
must go and see her, hear what she had planned, and what further
trouble she was thinking to get herself into, and prevent it in the
only way possible; and there was only one way, there was absolutely
no other solution of the difficulty; she must marry him, and there was
an end of it. He glanced at her refusal again, and liked it in spite
of its absurdity; after all, perhaps it would have been better if he
had been frank too; one could afford to dispense with the delicate
conventions that he associated with women in dealing with this girl.
He wished he had gone to her and spoken freely, as man to man, saying
plainly that since they had together been indiscreet, they must
together take the consequence, and make the best of it--and really the
best might be very good.

Soon after he had finished breakfast he set out for the Van Heigens'
house. But as yet, though he had some comprehension of Julia, he had
not fully realised the promptness of action which necessity had taught
her. When he reached the Van Heigens' she had been gone some sixteen
hours.

It was Vrouw Van Heigen who told him; she was in the veranda when he
arrived, and so, perforce, saw him and answered his inquiries. It was
evident, at the outset, that neither his appearance nor name conveyed
anything to her; she had not seen him the day of the excursion, and
Denah's description, purposely complicated by a cross description of
Julia's, had conveyed nothing, and his name had never transpired. He
saw he was unknown, and recognised Julia's loyal screening of him, not
with any satisfaction; evidently it was part of her creed to stand
between a man (father or otherwise) and the consequence of his acts.
That was an additional reason for finding her and explaining that he,
unlike Captain Polkington, was not used to anything of the sort.

"She has gone?" he said, in answer to Vrouw Van Heigen's brief
info