"Only that she could not bear to see anybody from the Court, even you, while this matter was still undecided." Aldous's eye travelled round the Mellor drawing-room.

It was arrested by a chair beside him.

On it lay an envelope addressed to Miss Boyce, of which the handwriting seemed to him familiar.

A needle with some black silk hanging from it had been thrust into the stuffed arm of the chair; the cushion at the back still bore the imprint of the sitter.

She had been there, not three minutes ago, and had fled before him.