All grasped at the doing of it in sheer relief--except one.

For as the men rose, saying; one "I'll look after it"; and another "No, you'd better leave it to me," Luttrell's voice broke in upon them all, with a sort of dreadful fatality in the quiet sound of it.
"Where is Mrs.Croyle now ?" he asked, and he was as white as the tablecloth in front of him.
There was no further movement towards the door.

Slowly the men resumed their seats.

A silence followed in which person after person looked at Stella's empty place as though an intensity of gaze would materialise her there.

Miranda was the first bravely to break through it.
"She hasn't come down yet," she said, and Millie Splay seized upon the words.
"No, she never comes down for breakfast--never has all this week." "Yes, that's true," returned Dennis Brown with an attempt at cheerfulness.
"Besides--what makes--the idea--impossible," said Sir Chichester, "is the publication this morning.