Anthony Hope

“ Laing, I’ll try, but——”
“Laing! Here! My wife wants you,” shouted Sir Roger, and the criminal, happy to escape, ran away, leaving Dora and Charlie alone.
“They must have been from them,” murmured Dora.
“No doubt; and that fool Laing——”
“What has he done with them?”
“Lit his pipe with them, I expect.”
“Oh, what shall we do?”
“I don’t know.”
“What—what do you think they said, Mr. Ellerton?”
“How can I tell? Perhaps that the marriage was off!”
“Oh!” escaped from Dora.
“Perhaps that it was going on.”
“It’s worse than ever. They may have asked for answers.” ”

“ He oughtn’t to be out so late though, and by himself, too!”
“Who is it?” asked Charlie.
“I don’t know his name.”
“And why oughtn’t he to be out?”
“Because he’s on his honeymoon,”
“What?” cried Dora.
“Just married,” explained Laing. “Wife’s a tallish girl, fair, rather good-looking; looks standoffish though.”
“You—you’re sure they’re married, Mr. Laing?” gasped Dora, and Charlie, in whom her manner had awakened a suspicion of the truth, also waited eagerly for the reply.
“What, Miss Bellairs?” asked Laing in surprise. ”

“ Lady Deane was so engrossed in the study—or the search for opportunities of study—of sides of life with which she was unfamiliar as to be, for the most part, blind to what took place immediately around her. General Bellairs himself (who vaguely supposed that some man might try to make love to his daughter five years hence, and thereupon be promptly sent off with a flea in his ear) was not more unconscious than she that there was, had been, or might be anything, as the phrase runs, ‘between’ the two junior members of the party. Lady Deane had no hints to give and no questions to ask ”