Miss Hunsden sighed deeply, and went into the house. And Sir Everard rode home as if the fiend was after him--like a man gone mad--flung the reins of the foaming horse to the astounded groom, rushed up to his room and locked himself in, and declined his luncheon and his dinner.
When he came down to breakfast next morning, with a white, wild face, and livid rings round his eyes, he electrified the family by his abrupt announcement: "I start for Constantinople to-morrow. From thence I shall make a tour of the East. I will not return to England for the next three years."