The question took her by surprise, and this was a woman's artifice to gain time and answer cleverly.
But the ingenious Monckton gave it a happy turn.

"Poor thing! Poor thing!" said he.
"He left me the next day," said Lucy, "and I have never seen him since." Here Monckton interposed; he fancied he had seen the curtain move.
"Excuse me," said he, "I think there is somebody listening!" and he went swiftly and put his head through the curtain.

But the room was empty; for meantime Grace was so surprised by the lady's arrival, by her beauty, which might well have tempted any man, and by her air of respectability, that she changed her tactics directly, and she was gone to her father for advice and information in spite of her previous determination not to worry him in his present condition.

What he said to her can be briefly told elsewhere; what he ordered her to do was to return and watch the man and not the woman.
During Lucy's hesitation, which was somewhat long, a clergyman came to the window, looked in, and promptly retired, seeing the Colonel had company.

This, however, was only a modest curate, _alias_ a detective.