"I'm going to New York.

Isn't Mr.Portlaw here yet ?" "No, sir." "Did you say he went away on horseback ?" "Yes, sir, this morning." "And you don't know where ?" "No, sir.

Mr.Portlaw took the South Road." Malcourt grinned again, perfectly certain, now, of Portlaw's destination; and thinking to himself that unless his fatuous employer had been landed in a ditch somewhere, en route, he was by this time returning from Pride's Fall with considerable respect for Mrs.Ascott.
* * * * * As a matter of fact, Portlaw had already started on his way back.

Mrs.
Ascott was not at Pride's Hall--her house--when he presented himself at the door.

Her servant, evidently instructed, did not know where Mrs.
Ascott and Miss Palliser had gone or when they might return.
So Portlaw betook himself heavily to the village inn, where he insulted his astonished stomach with a noonday dinner, and found the hard wooden chairs exceedingly unpleasant.
About five o'clock he got into his saddle with an unfeigned groan, and out of it again at Mrs.Ascott's door.