More unaccountably than ever Miss Haldin felt a strong impulse to leave the house.

“Madame de S—­ may be engaged for some time yet, and what I have got to say to Peter Ivanovitch is just a simple question which I might put to him when I meet him in the grounds on my way down.  I really think I must go.  I have been some time here, and I am anxious to get back to my mother.  Will you let me pass, please?”

The dame de compagnie turned her head at last.

“I never supposed that you really wanted to see Madame de S—­,” she said, with unexpected insight.  “Not for a moment.”  There was something confidential and mysterious in her tone.  She passed through the door, with Miss Haldin following her, on to the terrace, and they descended side by side the moss-grown stone steps.  There was no one to be seen on the part of the drive visible from the front of the house.

“They are hidden by the trees over there,” explained Miss Haldin’s new acquaintance, “but you shall see them directly.  I don’t know who that young man is to whom Peter Ivanovitch has taken such a fancy.  He must be one of us, or he would not be admitted here when the others come.  You know what I mean by the others.  But I must say that he is not at all mystically inclined.  I don’t know that I have made him out yet.  Naturally I am never for very long in the drawing-room.  There is always something to do for me, though the establishment here is not so extensive as the villa on the Riviera.  But still there are plenty of opportunities for me to make myself useful.”

To the left, passing by the ivy-grown end of the stables, appeared Peter Ivanovitch and his companion.  They walked very slowly, conversing with some animation.  They stopped for a moment, and Peter Ivanovitch was seen to gesticulate, while the young man listened motionless, with his arms hanging down and his head bowed a little.  He was dressed in a dark brown suit and a black hat.  The round eyes of the dame de compagnie remained fixed on the two figures, which had resumed their leisurely approach.

“An extremely polite young man,” she said.  “You shall see what a bow he will make; and it won’t altogether be so exceptional either.  He bows in the same way when he meets me alone in the hall.”

She moved on a few steps, with Miss Haldin by her side, and things happened just as she had foretold.  The young man took off his hat, bowed and fell back, while Peter Ivanovitch advanced quicker, his black, thick arms extended heartily, and seized hold of both Miss Haldin’s hands, shook them, and peered at her through his dark glasses.

“That’s right, that’s right!” he exclaimed twice, approvingly.  “And so you have been looked after by....”  He frowned slightly at the dame de compagnie, who was still nursing the cat.  “I conclude Eleanor—­Madame de S—­ is engaged.  I know she expected somebody to-day.  So the newspaper man did turn up, eh?  She is engaged?”