Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/104

 "On a seat shaped out of an old tree-trunk on the left side of the Tower."

"Did she say she would soon join you ?"

"She didn't say; but I supposed she wouldn't be very long."

"Because of the expected guests?"

"Well, yes."

"Did you think it strange that she should wish you to go on and leave her alone ?"

"No. I thought it natural, in the circumstances."

"What circumstances?"

"My wife was exhausted. It was—very warm, you will remember."

"Had she ever before asked you to leave her alone in the woods?"

"She may have. She occasionally went alone to this seat near the Tower, with a book."

"May other people besides yourself have been aware of this habit of hers ?"

"It hardly amounted to a habit."

"When you arrived at Friars Moat, had your expected guests arrived?"

"Yes—that is"

"The two ladies?"

"Only one."

"Which?"

"Miss Ricardo."

"Is she an old friend of yours and Lady Hereward's?"