Whilst she was reading a visitor presented himself at the Manor, and
asked if Mrs. Mutimer was at home. The servant explained how and
where Mrs. Mutimer was engaged, for the party was held in a quarter
of the garden hidden from the approach to the front door.
'Is Miss Mutimer within?' was the visitor's next inquiry.
Receiving an affirmative reply, he begged that Miss Mutimer might be
informed of Mr. Keene's desire to see her. And Mr. Keene was led to
the drawing-room.
Alice was reposing on a couch; she did not trouble herself to rise
when the visitor entered, but held a hand to him, at the same time
scarcely suppressing a yawn. Novel reading has a tendency to produce
this expression of weariness. Then she smiled, as one does in
greeting an old acquaintance.
'Who ever would have expected to see you!' she began, drawing away
her hand when it seemed to her that Mr. Keene had detained it quite
long enough. 'Does Dick expect you?'
'Your brother does not expect me, Miss Mutimer,' Keene replied. He
invariably began conversation with her in a severely formal and
respectful tone, and to-day there was melancholy in his voice.
'You've just come on your own--because you thought you would?'
'I have come because I could not help it, Miss Mutimer. It is more
than a month since I had the happiness of seeing you.
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