"Mr. Edermont's secrets are not my secrets, and I do not betray my friends."
"You are wonderfully scrupulous," said Miss Carew scornfully. "Well, I won't ask you to play the part of a traitor. Allen will tell me what I want to know."
"I am afraid Allen will do no such thing, Miss Dora."
"I have a right to know what bar there is to my marriage."
"I agree with you there," replied Joad, putting the key in the lock of the gate. "All the same, Dr. Scott will keep his own counsel. But I'll tell you one thing, Miss Dora--Julian is right: you will never marry Allen Scott."
"Who will stop the marriage?" asked Dora indignantly.
"Scott himself. He will ask you to break the engagement."
Dora looked at Joad with ineffable contempt, and wheeled the bicycle out on the dusty road.
"I will never believe that until I hear it from his own lips," she said. And the next moment she was spinning at full speed towards Canterbury.
Joad looked after her with a grim smile, and locked the gates with the greatest deliberation. Then he went up to the house, swinging the key on his finger and talking aloud.
"This," said Joad, chuckling, "is the beginning of the end."
If Dora was disappointed at failing to obtain explanations at Chillum, she was still more so at Canterbury. She ran the five miles under thirty minutes, and made sure she would be able to overtake Allen before he could escape her. There was a vague idea in her mind that, owing to what had been told him by Edermont--whatever it might be--he did not wish to submit himself to her questioning. This idea was confirmed by the discovery she made on reaching the tidy green-doored house near the Cathedral. Dr. Scott was not at home.
"And to tell the truth, miss," said Mrs. Tice, a large, ample, motherly person, who had been Allen's nurse and was now his housekeeper, "the doctor has gone to London."
"To London?" gasped Dora blankly, "and without letting me know?"
"Dear, dear; did he say nothing, miss? Well, to be sure! and Mr. Allen so considerate! You'll pardon me, miss, but I have been with him since he was a baby, and I should be sorry to think he had quarrelled with you. It's few as loves as Mr. Allen does."
"There is no quarrel," said Miss Carew, a trifle stiffly. "Dr. Scott saw my guardian, and then left the house without speaking to me. I have called to ask for an explanation."