Part 44 (1/2)

”I!” Anne said.

”You, Lady Carfax.”

With an effort she looked up. His eyes were no longer closely studying her. He seemed to be looking beyond.

”If you can trust him,” he said quietly, ”I know that I can. The question is--Can you?”

He waited very quietly for her answer, still not looking at her. But it was long in coming.

At last. ”I do not feel that I know him as I once did,” she said, her voice very low, ”nor is my influence over him what it was. But I think, if you trust him, he will not disappoint you.”

The kindly eyes rested upon her again for a moment, but he made no comment upon the form in which she had couched her reply.

He merely, after the briefest pause, smiled and thanked her.

CHAPTER VIII

A SUDDEN BLOW

Anne found herself the first to enter the drawing room that night before dinner. It was still early, barely half-past seven. The theatricals were to begin at nine.

She had her unopened letters with her, and she sat down to peruse them by an open window. The evening sun poured full upon her in fiery splendour.

She leaned her head against the woodwork, a little wearied.

She opened the first letter mechanically. Her thoughts were wandering.

Without much interest she withdrew it from the envelope, saw it to be unimportant, and returned it after the briefest inspection. The next was of the same order, and received a similar treatment. The third and last she held for several seconds in her hand, and finally opened with obvious reluctance. It was from a doctor in the asylum in which her husband had been placed. Slowly her eyes travelled along the page.

When she turned it at length her hands were shaking, shaking so much that the paper rattled and quivered like a living thing. The writing ended on the further page, but before her eyes reached the signature the letter had fallen from her grasp. Anne, the calm, the self-contained, the stately, sat huddled in her chair--a trembling, stricken woman, with her hands pressed tightly over her eyes, as if to shut out some dread vision.

In the silence that followed someone entered the room with a light, cat-like tread, and approached the window against which she sat. But so overwhelmed was she for the moment that she was unaware of any presence till Nap's voice spoke to her, and she started to find him close to her, within reach of her hand.

She lifted her white face then, while mechanically she groped for the letter. It had fallen to the ground. He picked it up.

”What is it?” he said, and she thought his voice sounded harsh. ”You have had bad news?”

She held out her hand for the letter. ”No, it is good. I--am a little tired, that's all.”

”That is not all,” he said, and she heard the dogged note in his voice that she had come to know as the signal of indomitable resolution. He sat down on the window seat close to her, still keeping the letter in his hand.

She made a little hopeless gesture and sat silent, striving for composure. She knew that during the seconds that followed, his eyes never stirred from her face. It was his old trick of making her feel the compulsion of his will. Often before she had resisted it. To-night she was taken at a disadvantage. He had caught her unarmed. She was powerless.

She turned her head at last and spoke. ”You may read that letter,” she said.

The thin lips smiled contemptuously for an instant. ”I have read it already,” he said.

She started slightly, meeting his eyes. ”You have read it?”

”In your face,” he told her coolly. ”It contains news of the man you call your husband. It is to say he is better--and--coming--home.”