"Was a boy with her?" "To be sure, a young gentleman as fetched me ’ere, and give me a shillin’." "What was his name?" "’E didn’t say," said the old woman, and the bishop wiped his fevered brow and tried again. "Was Mr. Bramwell with her?" "I never seed un." "How did they go?" "In two engines." "Ha!" sighed the bishop, "in two motor-cars." "Likely." "Will they be back to-night?" "I ’ope not," said the woman. "Why do you hope not?" asked the wretched bishop. "Because of fifteen bob a week, to be sure." "Then Mrs. Bramwell has gone, has left?" "Ain’t I been sayin’ so this last hour?" asked the exasperated old person. "Me, with rheumatics, standin’ on cold stones for hours arglin’ that she and all have gone in engines!" "Good heavens!" said the bishop, "she has escaped! She has eluded us! She has kept her word and has fled! This is remarkable; it is annoying. I feel nearer losing my temper than I have done with any one but the dean for the last ten years. I must go back and tell them." He went back to the gate. "Is it—" they cried. "This is her house," said the bishop, who looked rather flushed, "but I have discovered by a series of skilfully devised questions that she is no longer here. Duchess, Lord Bradstock, marquis, and gentlemen, she went away this morning in two motorcars with all her household, leaving behind her no one but a caretaker who, in my humble opinion, ought to be taken care of in an idiot asylum!" The duchess sighed. "Then she has kept her word! Finding out that we are still pursuing her, she has fled from us. Oh, I think it wicked of her, wicked to all of us. When I get hold of Robert, I shall take steps to show him what I think of him. Do you give it up, bishop?" The bishop’s eyes flashed with indignation. "Never!" he said. "I propose that we pursue her at once. She cannot have thought we should be here so soon. If we find out which road she took, we may yet overtake her." "In what?" asked Bradstock, with his hand on the ramshackle landau the duchess sat in. "In this conveyance, for instance?" The bishop looked at the two big motor-cars, and at their wretched owners, Plant and Rivaulx. "Taking my courage in both hands," he said, bravely, "I propose that we lose no time. _I_ will go in this car with the marquis, if he will take me." The marquis said through his clenched teeth that he would. "Bradstock, you will escort the duchess back to Spilsborough." "Certainly not," said the duchess. "I am coming, too. I must and I will. Whatever the condition of Penelope may now be, it is my duty. I come with you!" "And so do I," said Bradstock.