Part 44 (1/2)

”Would you have stayed if I had explained?” she cried. And Tony for a moment was silent. Then he answered slowly--

”No; for I should not have believed you.” And then he moved for the first time since he had entered the room. ”However, it can do neither of us any good to discuss what we might have done had we known then what we know now.”

He stopped as the door opened. The lamps were brought in and set upon the tables. Tony waited until the servant had gone out, and the door was closed again; then he said--

”You sent a telegram. I am here in answer to it. I was to be at Roquebrune on the thirty-first. This is the thirty-first. Am I in time?”

”Yes,” said Pamela.

She could now see Tony clearly; and of one thing she at once was sure.

She had been misled by the twilight of the room. Tony, at all events, was not indifferent. He stood before her travel-stained and worn. His face was haggard and thin; his eyes very tired, like the eyes of an old man; there were flecks of grey in his hair, and lines about his eyes. These changes she noticed, and took them at their true value.

They were signs of the hard life he had lived during these years, and of the quick, arduous journey which he had made. But there was more.

If Tony had spoken with a measured voice, it was in order that he might control himself the better. If he had stood without gesture or motion, it was because he felt the need to keep himself in hand. So much Pamela clearly saw. Tony was labouring under a strong emotion.

”Yes you are in time,” she cried; and now her heart was glad. ”I was so set on saving both your lives, in keeping you and Millie for each other. Of late, since you did not come, my faith faltered a little.

But it should not have faltered. You are here! You are here!”

”My wife is here, too?” asked Tony, coldly; and Pamela's enthusiasm again was checked. ”Where is she?”

”She arrives in the south of France to-day. She stops at Eze. She should be there now.”

She had hoped to see the blood pulse into his face, and some look of gladness dawn suddenly in his eyes, some smile of forgiveness alter the stern set of his lips. But again she was disappointed.

Tony seemed to put his wife out of his thoughts.

”And since your message was so urgent,” he continued deliberately, ”it follows that Callon comes to-day as well,” and he repeated the name in a singularly soft, slow, and almost caressing voice. ”Lionel Callon,”

he said.

And at once Pamela was desperately afraid. It needed just that name uttered in just that way to explain to her completely the emotion which Tony so resolutely controlled. She looked at him aghast. She had planned to bring back Tony to Millie and his home. The Tony Stretton whom she had known of old, the good-natured, kindly man who loved his wife, whom all men liked and none feared. And lo! she had brought back a stranger. And the stranger was dangerous. He was thrilling with anger, he was antic.i.p.ating his meeting with Lionel Callon with a relish which, to Pamela, was dreadful.

”No,” she exclaimed eagerly. ”Mr. Callon has been here all this while, and Millie only comes to-day.”

”Callon has been waiting for her, then?” he asked implacably.

”Oh, I don't know,” Pamela exclaimed in despair. ”I have not spoken to him. How should I know?”

”Yet you have no doubts.”

”Well, then, no,” she said, ”I have no doubt that he is waiting here for Millie. But she only arrives to-day. They have not met until to-day. That is why I sent the telegram.”

Tony nodded his head.

”So that I might be present at the meeting?”

And Pamela could have cried out aloud. She had not thought, she had not foreseen. She had fixed all her hopes on saving Millie. Set upon that, she had not understood that other and dreadful consequences might ensue. These consequences were vivid enough before her eyes now.

All three would meet--Tony, Millie, and Lionel Callon. What would follow? What might not follow? Pamela closed her eyes. Her heart sank; she felt faint at the thought of what she had so blindly brought about.

”Tony!” she exclaimed. She wrung her hands together, pleading with him in short and broken sentences. ”Don't think of him!... Think of Millie. You can gain her back!... I am very sure.... I wrote that to you, didn't I?... Mr. Callon.... It is not worth while.... He is of no account.... Millie was lonely, that was all.... There would be a scandal, at the best....” And Tony laughed harshly.