He did not know her quite well enough to demand why she was walking up Astor Street carrying hand baggage and why she was so tired and listless; but he did insist upon her entering his car and permitting him to take her to her uncle's. When she told him that she was not going to the outer drive but to the Oliver Cullen home on Scott Street, he scrutinized her in astonishment.
"Why?" he inquired. "Is any one there?"
"No; just the housekeeper and servants, I believe," she said. He politely restrained further questions and drove her to the door. He went up the steps with her, while his man carried her suit case; but she waited until they were gone before she pressed the bell and a manservant admitted her to the house which had been her cousin's.
"No word from Mrs. Cullen, Godfrey?" she asked.
"No, Miss Carew."
Ethel had not expected word; but she knew that the housekeeper had never given up hope of Mrs. Oliver Cullen's return.
"Just tell Mrs. Wain I'm here."
"Certainly, Miss Carew. I am to take this upstairs?"
She nodded, and the man disappeared with her baggage. She sat down uneasily in the drawing-room. Even the servant had been astonished at her coming to visit at this house; and Ethel knew that her friend Ira undoubtedly would soon mention to Bennet, or else inform some one who would tell Bennet or Julia, that she had come back to town and gone to the home which had been Oliver's. She was regretting not having followed the plan, which she had discussed with Barney, of taking a room in quite a separate section of the
