That she guessed. But, since Tony's departure, she had begun to speculate
whether there might not perhaps be some other reason which would better
account for his submitting without further protest to her decision. And in
a brief sentence, contained in a letter she had received from him only that
morning, she thought she had discovered the key to the mystery.
_"Uncle Philip and I depart to Mentone next week,"_ he had written.
_"Naturally, he hates the idea of my being anywhere in the vicinity
of Monte Carlo, but as he doesn't seem able to throw off the
effects of a chill he caught out shooting, our local saw-bones--in
whom, he has the most touching faith--has decreed Mentone. So
Mentone it is. Lady Doreen Neville and her mother will also be
there, at their villa, as Lady Doreen is ordered to winter in the
south of France. Afterwards the doctors hope she will be quite
strong."_
It was in the name Neville that Ann thought she detected a clue to Tony's
altered demeanour. She recollected having met Lady Doreen on one occasion,
about a year ago, when she herself had been paying a flying visit to the
Brabazons at their house in Audley Square--a frail slip of a girl with
immense grey eyes and hair like an aureole of reddish gold.
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