Only for the moment. The next she was flying across the rougher grass outside the garden among the oaks and the beeches of the park. She saw no one in front of her, and for a few seconds her heart beat very fast. She thought she had missed him. There was no lodge at the park entrance; only a modest wooden gate in the middle of the fence. Doreen was hesitating whether to go through or to go back, when she saw the figure of Dudley Horne coming toward the gate from the stables. So she waited. As he came nearer, she, hidden from his sight by the trunk of an old oak-tree, grew uneasy and shy. Dark though it was, dimly as she could see him, Doreen felt convinced, from the rapid, steady pace at which he walked, that he was intent upon some set purpose, that he was not driven by pique at her father's words. He came quite close to her, so that she saw his face. A dark-complexioned, strong face it was, clean-shaven, not handsome at all. But, on the other hand, it was just such a face as women admire; full of character, of ambition, of virility. Doreen had been debating with herself whether she dared speak to him; but the moment she got a full look at his face, her courage died away. It was plain to her that, whatever might be the subject of the thoughts which were agitating his mind, she had no share in them. So she let him pass out, and then crept back, downcast, shocked, ashamed, up the slope to the house. She got in by the billiard-room, at the window of which she knocked. Max, her brother, who was playing a game with Queenie, his younger sister, let her in, and cried out at sight of her white face: "Hello! Doreen, what's up? Had a row with Dudley? Or what?" "I have had no 'row' with any one," answered the girl, very quietly. "But--you must all know all about it presently, so you may as well hear it at once--Dudley has gone away." "What?" Max stopped in the act of trying for a carom, and stared at his sister. "Why, he only came when I did, ten minutes ago!" "He's gone, I tell you!" repeated Doreen, stamping her foot. "And--and listen, Max, I'm frightened about him! He's got something on his mind. When he went away, I saw him; I was standing by the gate; he looked so--so _dreadful_ that I didn't dare to speak to him. _I!_ Think of that!" "Had papa been speaking to him?" put in the shrewd younger sister, who was chalking her cue at the other end of the room. The younger sister always sees most of the game. "Ye--es, but--I don't know--I hardly think it was that," answered Doreen quickly. "At any rate, Max, I want you to do this for me; I want you to go up to town to-morrow and see him. I shan't rest until I know he's--he's all right--after what I saw of his face and the look on it. Now, you will do this, won't you, won't you? Without saying anything to anybody, mind. Queenie, you can hold your tongue, too. Now, Max, there's a dear, you'll do it, won't you?"