"For God's sake don't--don't do that! I'd rather--do what he's only pretended to do than give you pain. Cheer up--just try hard to cheer up, if it's only just enough to help you to know what ought to be done next."
The suggestion affected her in a fashion which perhaps took him a little aback. She turned again as suddenly as she had done before, this time towards him. Her eyes blazed; the words came swiftly from her lips.
"Do you think that I don't know what I'm going to do next? Do you think it hasn't been in my mind all night? Why, I've got it all cut, and planned, and dried. Leave that to me; all I want is for you to see"--her voice fell--"the tale's not told."
"It sha'n't be if I can help it; and I think I can."
The words still came swiftly from her.
"Say nothing to mother, say nothing to anyone; leave me to do all the telling--you know nothing; that's all you've got to know. You understand?"
His voice as he replied was grim.
"Oh, yes, I understand."
"Then, for the present, it's good-bye."
She opened the door. He checked her.
"I shall see you to-night when I come in."
"You shall; if--if nothing's been told."
She went from the room to her own on the landing below, put on her hat, her coat, and her gloves, and went quickly down the stairs.
Seldom was a pretty girl ready more quickly for the street. She already had the front door open when her mother called to her.
"Mabel, what to goodness is the matter with you? Where are you going?"
The girl seemed for a moment to be in doubt whether or not to let her mother's question go unheeded; then decided to vouchsafe her at least some scraps of information.
"Mother, I believe Mr. Elmore's gone."
"Gone? Mr. Elmore? What's the girl talking about?"
"His bedroom's empty, and there's ten pounds on the dressing-table, and I'm going straight off to the City to see."
"To the City!"
The astonishment of the lady's voice was justified; she came quickly along the passage as if to learn what might be the significance of the mystery which she felt was in the air. But her daughter did not wait for her approach; she was through the door, had shut it with a bang, before her mother had realised what it was she meant to do.
Miss Joyce did not go to the City; she went instead to No. 90, Russell Square. There she inquired for Miss Patterson. She was told the lady was at breakfast.
"Tell her--tell her that I'm Miss Joyce, and that I must see her--at once."
She was in the hall, and looked so strange as she leaned against the wall, with her white face and frightened eyes, that the maid looked at her as if she could not make her out at all.
"Miss Joyce, did you say the name was?"
"Yes--Joyce--Mabel Joyce; tell Miss Patterson that Miss Joyce must see her at once."
The maid went into a room upon the right--the dining-room--presently reappeared, with Miss Patterson behind her. Gladys came out into the hall.
"Miss Joyce! You wish to see me? On what business?"
"Somewhere--somewhere where we'll be private."
Gladys observed her with curious eyes; then she held open the dining-room door.
"I'm at breakfast; but, if you don't mind, you'd better come in here."
Mabel went in, Gladys followed. The stranger, now that they were alone, presented such a woebegone picture that, in spite of herself, Gladys was moved.
"You don't seem well--are you ill? Hadn't you better sit down?--here's a chair."
She pushed the chair towards her visitor, but Mabel would none of it.
"No, it doesn't matter, I'd--I'd rather stand. My mother was Mr.
Elmore's--landlady."
"Joyce? Oh, yes, of course, I thought I knew the name; I remember."
Perhaps unconsciously to herself, Gladys's tone hardened; she drew herself a little straighter, she even moved a little away. In spite of her obvious trouble, Mabel noticed.
"You needn't be afraid of me--I shan't bite."
"I was not afraid that you would bite. What is it you wish with me, Miss Joyce?"
"That."
She stretched out towards the other a letter. Gladys eyed it askance, almost, one might have thought from her demeanour, that she feared that it might bite.
"What's that?"
"If you take it--you'll see. You're right this time in being afraid; you've cause to be more afraid of that than of me. But it's written by somebody you know well, and--you'd better read it."
Still doubtfully, as if she really were in awe of what the sheet of paper might portend, she took it gingerly from the other's fingers.
Then she read it. And as she read, a curious change came over, not only her countenance, but her whole bearing. When she had reached the end her hands dropped to her side, she stared at the girl in front of her as she might have done at a visitant from another sphere.
"What--does this letter mean?"
For answer, Mabel took another piece of paper from that woman's universal pocket--her blouse. She held it out to Gladys, and, even more cautiously than before, Gladys took it with unwilling fingers.
This time, as she read it, it was with an obvious lack of comprehension.
"What on earth is this?"
"Can't you see? Isn't it plain enough? It's a marriage licence--now can you see?"
Gladys seemed to make an effort to achieve steadiness, not with entire success. As if to hide her partial failure, she went down the room to the seat which she had been occupying at the other end of the table.
Resting her hand on the top of the chair, raising the paper again, she re-read it. Her back was towards Mabel, her face could not have been more eloquent, one saw a spasm pass right across it. She was still; there was a perceptible interval; she turned towards her visitor. Her face seemed to have aged; one saw that as she grew older she would not grow better-looking.