She hurried him down the bank to the water's edge, intent that he should sail away unperceived.
But Ethne had counted without Mrs.Adair, who all that morning had seen much in Ethne's movements to interest her.

From the drawing-room window she had watched Ethne and Durrance meet at the foot of the terrace-steps, she had seen them walk together towards the estuary, she had noticed Willoughby's boat as it ran aground in the wide gap between the trees, she had seen a man disembark, and Ethne go forward to meet him.

Mrs.Adair was not the woman to leave her post of observation at such a moment, and from the cover of the curtains she continued to watch with all the curiosity of a woman in a village who draws down the blind, that unobserved she may get a better peep at the stranger passing down the street.

Ethne and the man from the boat turned away and disappeared amongst the trees, leaving Durrance forgotten and alone.

Mrs.Adair thought at once of that enclosure at the water's edge.