Such a compliment Hugh had never paid to her. The recollection of it stung her.
She wondered what sort of woman was the person named Bond. Then she decided that she had acted wisely in not going to Farnham. Why should she? If Hugh was with the girl he admired, then he might return with her.
Her only fear was lest he should be arrested. If his place of concealment were spoken of over a West End dinner-table, then it could not be long before detectives arrested him for the affair at the Villa Amette.
On that afternoon Hugh had borrowed Mrs. Bond's car upon a rather lame pretext, and had pulled up in the square, inartistic yard before the Bush--the old coaching house, popular before the new road over the Hog's Back was made, and when the coaches had to ascend that steep hill out of Guildford, now known as The Mount. For miles the old road is now grass-grown and forms a most delightful walk, with magnificent views from the Thames Valley to the South Downs. The days of the coaches have, alas! passed, and the new road, with its tangle of telegraph wires, is beloved by every motorist and motor-cyclist who spins westward in Surrey.
Hugh waited anxiously in the little lounge which overlooks the courtyard. He went into the garden, and afterwards stood in impatience beneath the archway from which the street is approached. Later, he strolled along the road over which he knew Dorise must come. But all to no avail.
There was no sign of her.
Until six o'clock he waited, when, in blank despair, he mounted beside Mead again and drove back to Shapley Manor. It was curious that Dorise had not come to meet him, but he attributed it to The Sparrow's inability to convey a message to her. She might have gone out of town with her mother, he thought. Or, perhaps, at the last moment, she had been unable to get away.
On his return to Shapley he found Louise and Mrs. Bond sitting together in the charming, old-world drawing-room. A log fire was burning brightly.
"Did you have a nice run, Hugh?" asked the girl, clasping her hands behind her head and looking up at him as he stood upon the pale-blue hearthrug.
"Quite," he replied. "I went around Hindhead down to Frensham Ponds and back through Farnham--quite a pleasant run."
"Mr. Benton has had to go to town," said his hostess. "Almost as soon as you had gone he was rung up, and he had to get a taxi out from Guildford. He'll be back to-morrow."
"Oh, yes--and, by the way, Hugh," exclaimed Louise, "there was a call for you about a quarter of an hour afterwards. I thought nobody knew you were down here."