At the moment he had read the letter Mrs. Bond entered the room.
"Hallo! You're down early," she remarked. "And already had your letters, I see! They don't generally come so early. The postman has to walk over from Puttenham."
Then she took up her own and carelessly placed them aside. They consisted mostly of circulars and the accounts of Guildford tradesmen.
"Yes," he said, "I was down early. Lately I've acquired the habit of early rising."
"An excellent habit in a young man," she laughed. "All men who achieve success are early risers--so a Cabinet Minister said the other day. And really, I believe it."
"An hour in the early morning is worth three after dinner. That is why Cabinet Ministers entertain people at breakfast nowadays instead of at dinner. In the morning the brain is fresh and active--a fact recently discovered in our post-war days," Hugh said.
Then, as his hostess turned to the hot-plate upon the sideboard, lifting the covers to see what her cook had provided, he re-scanned the letter which had been openly addressed to him. It was from Dorise: "I refuse to be deceived any longer, I have discovered that you are now a fellow-guest with the girl Louise, to whom you introduced me. And yet you arranged to meet me at Farnham, believing that I was not aware of your close friendship with her! I have believed in you up to the present, but the scales have now fallen from my eyes. I thought you loved me too well to deceive me--as you are doing. Hard things are being said about you--but you can rest content that I shall reveal nothing that I happen to know. What I do know, however, has changed my thoughts concerning you. I believed you to be the victim of circumstance. Now I know you have deceived me, and that I, myself, am the victim. I need only add that someone else--whom I know not--knows of your hiding-place, for, by a roundabout way, I heard of it, and hence, I address this letter to you.--DORISE."
Hugh Henfrey stood staggered. There was no mistaking the meaning of that letter now that he had read it a second time.
Dorise doubted him! And what answer could he give her? Any explanation must, to her, be but a lame excuse.
Hugh ate his breakfast sullenly. To Louise, who put in a late appearance, and helped herself off the hot-plate, he said cheerfully: "How lazy you are!"
"It's not laziness, Hugh," replied the girl. "The maid was so late with my tea--and--well, to tell the truth, I upset a whole new box of powder on my dressing-table and had to clean up the mess."