FLIGHT! The big limousine was already at the door when Lady Gertrude and Isobel, clothed from head to foot in sombre black, descended from their respective rooms.

Roger, also clad in the same funereal hue and wearing a black tie--and looking as though his garments afforded him the acme of mental discomfort--stood waiting for them, together with Nan, in the hall.
Lady Gertrude bestowed one of her chilly kisses upon her son's fiancee and stepped into the car, Isobel followed, and Roger, with a muttered: "Confound Great-aunt Rachel's fortune!" brought up the rear.

A minute later the car and its black-garbed occupants disappeared down the drive.
Nan turned back into the house.

There was a curiously lightened feeling in the atmosphere, she thought--as though someone had lifted the roof of a dungeon and let in the sunlight and fresh air.

She stretched her arms luxuriously above her head and exhaled a long sigh of relief.