It was a man, striding across the meadow land, a half mile beyond the parsonage, and hurrying in the direction of the beach.

She saw him climb a high dune, jump a fence, cross another field and finally vanish in the grove of pines on the edge of the bluff by the shore.
The man was John Ellery, the minister.

Evidently, he had not gone home, nor had he taken the short cut.

Instead he had walked downtown a long way and THEN turned in to cross the fields and work his way back.
Annabel put down the glass and, heedless of her father's calls, sat thinking.

The minister had deliberately deceived her.