He stared at her with a frank wondering gaze.
"Not till I am gone," she added, and there was such an expression on her face that the man was daunted by the mystery of it.

He shrugged his shoulders slightly and without another word went down the stairs on his way to the basement, brushing in the hall past Mr.Charles who hat on head and both hands rammed deep into his overcoat pockets paced up and down as though on sentry duty there.
The ladies' maid was the only servant upstairs, hovering in the passage on the first floor, curious and as if fascinated by the woman who stood there guarding the door.

Being beckoned closer imperiously and asked by the governess to bring out of the now empty rooms the hat and veil, the only objects besides the furniture still to be found there, she did so in silence but inwardly fluttered.

And while waiting uneasily, with the veil, before that woman who, without moving a step away from the drawing- room door was pinning with careless haste her hat on her head, she heard within a sudden burst of laughter from Miss de Barral enjoying the fun of the water-colour lesson given her for the last time by the cheery old man.
Mr.and Mrs.Fyne ambushed at their window--a most incredible occupation for people of their kind--saw with renewed anxiety a cab come to the door, and watched some luggage being carried out and put on its roof.

The butler appeared for a moment, then went in again.