'What nonsense! You do not miss him when you are abroad, when you--forgive me, dear, the vulgar expression--have other fish to fry. No, no, you have had an escape! Being what he is, he will meet you to-morrow exactly as if nothing had happened, and then you will go abroad and have a delightful time.' ('Yes, alone!') 'Alone? Of course. Seeing beautiful places of which he, if with you, would deny the charm; for, as you have often said to yourself, he has no love, no understanding, of a whole side of life which is everything to you.' ('Yes, but he would have enjoyed being with me.') 'So he would, only more so, in a coal-pit. No, no, you have made the life you lead now one which exactly suits you.' Mrs. Robinson got up. She rang the bell. 'Would you please ask Mrs. Mote to come to me here?' And when the short, stout little woman, who had been the nurse of her childhood and was now her maid, came in answer to the summons, she said hastily: 'Motey, I am going to Brighton next week for a few days. I do not intend to go abroad till later. Mr. Winfrith cannot get away just now. He is too busy.' 'He always was a busy young gentleman,' declared the old woman rather sourly, as she took the cloak, the gloves, and the hat of her mistress, and went quietly out of the room. CHAPTER V 'There was a Door to which I found no Key: There was a Veil past which I could not see: Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee There seem'd--and then no more of Thee and Me.' OMAR KHAYYÁM. 'Numero Deus impare gaudet.' VIRGIL. I When the man who remained in local story as the Popish Lord Wantley built Monk's Eype, he planned the arrangements of the lower floor of his villa in a way which was approved by neither his Neapolitan architect nor his English acquaintances. From the broad terrace overhanging the sea, the row of high narrow windows on either side of the shallow stone steps giving access to the central hall, seemed strictly symmetrical. But there was nothing uniform behind the stately façade. Instead of a suite of reception-rooms opening the one out of the other on either side of the frescoed hall, the whole left side of the villa--excepting the wing, which stretched, as did its fellow, landward, and in which were the servants' quarters--was occupied by one vast apartment. In this great room the creator of Monk's Eype had gathered together most of his treasures, including the paintings which he had acquired during a long sojourn in Italy; and his Victorian successor had added many beautiful works of art to the collection. In the Picture Room, as it was called, Penelope's mother always sat when at Monk's Eype, sometimes working at delicate embroidery, oftener writing busily at an inlaid ivory table close to one of the windows opening on to the terrace. On the other side of the circular hall the Italian architect had had his way. Here there was a suite of lofty, well-proportioned rooms opening the one out of the other.