Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/357

Rh ceremoniously passed from hand to hand, Amherst once more'felt the steel of the springe on his neck.

“Is Mrs. Amherst in the drawing—room, Knowles?” he asked.

“No, sir,? said Knowles, who had too high a sense of ﬁtness to volunteer any information beyond the immediate fact required of him.

“She has gone up to her sitting-room, then?” Amherst continued, turning toward the broad sweep of the stairway.

“No, sir,” said the butler slowly; “Mrs. Amherst has gone away.”

“Gone away?” Amherst stopped short, staring blankly at the man’s smooth official mask.

“This afternoon, sir; to Mapleside.”

“To Mapleside?”

“Yes, sir, by motor—to stay with Mrs. Carbury.”

There was a moment’s silence. It had all happened so quickly that Amherst, with the dual vision which comes at such moments, noticed that the third footman—or was it the fourth ?—was just passing his portmanteau on to a shirt-sleeved arm behind the door which led to the servant’s wing.…

He roused himself to look at the tall clock. It was just six. He had telephoned from town at two.

“At what time did Mrs. Amherst leave?” [ 341 ]