She would have said no more, had it been in her power to keep silence; but an involuntary persistence, the same in kind as that often manifested by questioning children--an impulsive feeling that the next query must elicit something which would satisfy a vague desire, obliged her to speak again.
"Is it his intention not to see Cecily at all ?" "I think very likely it is, Miriam," answered Eleanor, when her husband showed that he left her to do so.
"I understand." To which remark Eleanor, when Miriam was gone, attached the interrogative, "I wonder whether she does ?" The Spences did not feel it incumbent upon them to direct her in the matter; it were just as well if she followed a mistaken clue.
Two days later, Mrs.Lessingham and her niece, accompanied by Reuben Elgar, departed for Capri.

The day after that, Mr.and Mrs.Bradshaw in very deed said good-bye to Naples and travelled northwards.

They purposed spending Christmas in Rome, and thence by quicker stages they would return to the land of civilization.

Spence went to the station to see them off, and at lunch, after speaking of this and other things, he said to Miriam: "Mallard wishes to see you.

I told him I thought five o'clock this afternoon would be a convenient time." Miriam assented, but not without betraying surprise and uneasiness.
Subsequently she just mentioned to Eleanor that she would receive the visitor in her own sitting-room.