The situation was such an anomalous one.

After such a message as this, why had she not let him see her?
Why had she been angry with Keswick?
Was that pique?
And then a dark thought crossed his mind.

Had he been accepted to punish the other?
No, he could not believe that; no woman such as Roberta March would give herself away from such a motive.

Had Keswick been joking with him?
No, he could not believe that; no man could joke with such a face.
Even the fact that Mrs Keswick had not bid Miss March farewell, troubled the mind of Lawrence.

It was true that she might not yet know that the match, which she had so much encouraged, had been finally made, but something must be very wrong, or she would not have been absent at the moment of her guest's departure.