She drew back from the bed, deeply breathing, and stole to the door.  One last glance she took, at the room and at the bed, closed the door and stood irresolute for a moment in the passage.  Then she whipped her coat from the peg and put it on.  She took her key and opened the front door.  Everything was black, except that upon the roofs opposite the rising moon cast a glittering surface of light, and the chimney pots made slanting broad markings upon the silvered slates.  The road was quite quiet but for the purring of a motor, and she could now, as her eyes were clearer, observe the outline of a large car drawn to the left of the door.  As the lock clicked behind her and as she went forward the side lights of the motor blazed across her vision, blinding her again.

“Are you there?” she softly called.

“Yes, miss.”  The man’s deep voice came sharply out of the darkness, and he jumped down from his seat to open the door of the car.  The action startled Jenny.  Why had the man done that?

“Did you know I was coming?” she suddenly asked, drawing back with a sort of chill.

“Yes, miss,” said the man.  Jenny caught her breath.  She half turned away, like a shy horse that fears the friendly hand.  He had been sure of her, then.  Oh, that was a wretched thought!  She was shaken to the heart by such confidence.  He had been sure of her!  There was a flash of time in which she determined not to go; but it passed with dreadful speed.  Too late, now, to draw back.  Keith was waiting:  he expected her!  The tears were in her eyes.  She was more unhappy than she had been yet, and her heart was like water.

The man still held open the door of the car.  The inside was warm and inviting.  His hand was upon her elbow; she was lost in the soft cushions, and drowned in the sweet scent of the great nosegay of flowers which hung before her in a shining holder.  And the car was purring more loudly, and moving, moving as a ship moves when it glides so gently from the quay.  Jenny covered her face with her hands, which cooled her burning cheeks as if they had been ice.  Slowly the car nosed out of the road into the wider thoroughfare.  Her adventure had begun in earnest.  There was no drawing back now.

CHAPTER VI:  THE YACHT

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To lie deep among cushions, and gently to ride out along streets and roads that she had so often tramped in every kind of weather, was enough to intoxicate Jenny.  She heard the soft humming of the engine, and saw lamps and other vehicles flashing by, with a sense of effortless speed that was to her incomparable.  If only she had been mentally at ease, and free from distraction, she would have enjoyed every instant of her journey.  Even as it was, she could not restrain her eagerness as they overtook a tramcar, and the chauffeur honked his horn, and they glided nearer and nearer, and passed, and seemed to leave the tram