I suppose, Buntingford, you get some Whitsuntide visitors in the village ?" "Oh, yes, a few.

There's a little pub with one or two decent rooms, and several cottagers take lodgers.

The lady, whoever she was, was scarcely a person of delicacy." "She was in that place for an object," said Geoffrey, interrupting him with some decision.

"Of that I feel certain.

If she had just lost her way, and was trespassing--she must have known, I think, that she was trespassing--why didn't she answer my call and let me put her over the lake?
Of course I should never have seen her at all, but for that accident of the searchlight." "The question is," said Buntingford, "how long did she stay there?
She was not under the yews when you saw her ?" "No--just outside." "Well, then, supposing, to get out of the way of the searchlight, she found her way in and discovered my seat--how long do you guess she was there ?--and when the bag dropped ?" "Any time between then--and midnight--when Helena found it," said French.
"She may have gone very soon after I saw her, leaving the bag on the seat; or, if she stayed, on my supposition that she was there for the purpose of spying, then she probably vanished when she heard our boat drawn up, and knew that Helena and I were getting out." "A long sitting!" said Buntingford with a laugh--"four hours.