Whenever she had time to think, she was overwhelmed by the weight of her
solitude. Mr. Langhope was in Egypt, accessible only through a London
banker--Mrs. Ansell presumably wandering on the continent. Her cables
might not reach them for days. And among the throng of Lynbrook
habitues, she knew not to whom to turn. To loose the Telfer tribe and
Mrs. Carbury upon that stricken house--her thought revolted from it, and
she was thankful to know that February had dispersed their migratory
flock to southern shores. But if only Amherst would come!

Cicely and the tranquillized governess had been despatched on a walk
with the dogs, and Justine was returning upstairs when she met one of
the servants with a telegram. She tore it open with a great throb of
relief. It was her own message to Amherst--_address unknown_....

Had she misdirected it, then? In that first blinding moment her mind
might so easily have failed her. But no--there was the name of the town
before her...Millfield, Georgia...the same name as in his letter.... She
had made no mistake, but he was gone! Gone--and without leaving an
address.... For a moment her tired mind refused to work; then she roused
herself, ran down the stairs again, and rang up the telegraph-office.
The thing to do, of course, was to telegraph to the owner of the
mills--of whose very name she was ignorant!--enquiring where Amherst
was, and asking him to forward the message. Precious hours must be lost
meanwhile--but, after all, they were waiting for no one upstairs.

* * * * *

The verdict had been pronounced: dislocation and fracture of the fourth
vertebra, with consequent injury to the spinal cord. Dr. Garford and
Wyant came out alone to tell her. The surgeon ran over the technical
details, her brain instantly at attention as he developed his diagnosis
and issued his orders. She asked no questions as to the future--she
knew it was impossible to tell. But there were no immediate signs of a
fatal ending: the patient had rallied well, and the general conditions
were not unfavourable.

"You have heard from Mr. Amherst?" Dr. Garford concluded.

"Not yet...he may be travelling," Justine faltered, unwilling to say
that her telegram had been returned. As she spoke there was a tap on the
door, and a folded paper was handed in--a telegram telephoned from the
village.

"Amherst gone South America to study possibilities cotton growing have
cabled our correspondent