Page:Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes - The Lodger.djvu/313

Rh off the front door. But she did not go to bed, neither did she lock herself in. She sat up all night, waiting.

At half-past seven she made herself a cup of tea, and then she went into her bedroom.

Daisy opened her eyes.

"Why, Ellen," she said, "I suppose I was that tired, and slept so sound, that I never heard you come to bed or get up—funny, wasn’t it?"

"Young people don’t sleep as light as do old folks," Mrs. Bunting said sententiously.

"Did the lodger come in after all? I suppose he’s upstairs now?"

Mrs. Bunting shook her head. "It looks as if ’twould be a fine day for you down at Richmond," she observed in a kindly tone.

And Daisy smiled, a very happy, confident little smile.

That evening Mrs. Bunting forced herself to tell young Chandler that their lodger had, so to speak, disappeared. She and Bunting had thought carefully over what they would say, and so well did they carry out their programme, or, what is more likely, so full was young Chandler of the long happy day he and Daisy had spent together, that he took their news very calmly.

"Gone away, has he?" he observed casually. "Well, I hope he paid up all right?"

"Oh, yes, yes," said Mrs. Bunting hastily. "No trouble of that sort."

And Bunting said shamefacedly, "Aye, aye, the lodger was quite an honest gentleman, Joe. But I feel worried