Her jealous reproaches would act on his nerves,
if he were to hear much of them to-night, like the
rasping of a dentist's file.
"Good-evening, Bianca," he said when the
maid-servant opened the door. "Has Mme. Reni
been here to-day?"
She stared at him blankly
"Mme. Reni? Has she come back, then, sir?"
"What do you mean?" he asked with a frown,
stopping short on the mat.
"She went away quite suddenly, just after you
did, and left all her things behind her. She never
so much as said she was going."
"Just after I did? What, a f-fortnight ago?"
"Yes, sir, the same day; and her things are
lying about higgledy-piggledy. All the neighbours
are talking about it."
He turned away from the door-step without
speaking, and went hastily down the lane to the
house where Zita had been lodging. In her rooms
nothing had been touched; all the presents that
he had given her were in their usual places; there
was no letter or scrap of writing anywhere.
"If you please, sir," said Bianca, putting her
head in at the door, "there's an old woman----"
He turned round fiercely.
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