So the Duchess was genuinely ignorant of Sylvia’s whereabouts the night before. It never occurred to her that Sylvia might have visited Endecott unannounced precisely because she was without a chaperone. It was one thing for a young lady to roam the countryside on her own (though if truth were told the Duchess had never been reconciled to this habit of her step-daughter’s) but quite another to spend the evening alone in her fiancé’s house. Even if there was a storm! The Duchess of course could not guess at the manner in which the Count had tricked Sylvia into accompanying him to Endecott.
The Duchess had taken supper with her husband, in his rooms. She had sat with the Duke all evening. She usually went to say good-night to Sylvia on her way to her own room, but last night she had decided
