Regina sat down and gasped. What did it mean? Surely the hussy was not at the bottom of this. Just then Julia came in, having run across the road to speak to one of the Marksby girls whom she had seen standing at the gate as they came toward Ye Dene. "What's this Margaret says about daddy?" she asked. "Nothing, my dear, nothing," Regina rejoined, quite airily. "Your father has had to go away on business for a few days." "Oh, I thought, from Margaret's demeanor, that daddy had gone away for good and all." "Julia!" "Well, Margaret seemed to make such a mouthful of it." "He came home very much fussed not to find us at home, and I suppose Margaret imagined that something serious had happened. It's nothing at all. Here, you can read the letter." "Paris!" said Julia, when she reached that point of information as she read her father's good-by note. "Well--how nice! If you do join him you will have a lovely time--a little honeymoon trip. Perhaps he will ask me to go, too--that would be lovely. How silly of Margaret to be so mysterious about it! Well, I'll go and tidy for dinner." Mother and daughter were quite cheerful as they discussed the evening meal. At about nine o'clock there was a sound of electricity, and Julia lifted her head from her book. "I believe that's Harry and Maudie; it sounded like their brougham." Then there was a peal at the bell, and Julia ran out into the hall. "Maudie, is it you?" she asked. "Yes, we thought we would come out and see you. How's mother?" "Oh, all right. I thought you were going to a theatre?" "Yes, we did think about it, but we changed our minds. Julia, has anything happened?" "No--at least, only that daddy has gone to Paris for a few days. We came home and found he had been here, fussed because mother wasn't in, packed his own bag, and left a note to say where he has gone and to say 'good-by' and--_voilà tout_." "But it isn't all," cried Maudie, "it's only the beginning of it. My dear, daddy's gone to Paris with _her_! It was by the merest chance we know. Harry was coming up the Strand--walking--he came up with a man in his cab as far as Charing Cross because they wanted to talk business; he got out at the corner of Villiers Street, and as he crossed over to the entrance of the station he saw daddy drive up in a cab with a portmanteau on the top. Immediately after, he saw a four-wheeled cab with _her_ inside." "What--you mean the woman we saw at the Trocadero?" "Yes--he was so struck by the coincidence of their both being at Charing Cross with luggage at the same time that he just walked quietly in and saw them both go off together." "Not together--Maudie!" "Together--in the same carriage--a reserved compartment. And Harry says he bought a sheaf of papers and positively threw them at her."