Part 55 (1/2)
Next day Mr. Gryce called.
”Your patient is better,” said he.
”Much better,” was my cheerful reply. ”This afternoon she will be able to leave the house.”
”Very good; have her down at half-past three and I will be in front with a carriage.”
”I dread it,” I cried; ”but I will have her there.”
”You are beginning to like her, Miss b.u.t.terworth. Take care! You will lose your head if your sympathies become engaged.”
”It sits pretty firmly on my shoulders yet,” I retorted; ”and as for sympathies, you are full of them yourself. I saw how you looked at her yesterday.”
”Bah, _my_ looks!”
”You cannot deceive me, Mr. Gryce; you are as sorry for the girl as you can be; and so am I too. By the way, I do not think I should speak of her as a girl. From something she said yesterday I am convinced she is a married woman; and that her husband----”
”Well, madam?”
”I will not give him a name, at least not before your scheme has been carried out. Are you ready for the undertaking?”
”I will be this afternoon. At half-past three she is to leave the house.
Not a minute before and not a minute later. Remember.”
x.x.xV.
A RUSE.
It was a new thing for me to enter into any scheme blindfold. But the past few weeks had taught me many lessons and among them to trust a little in the judgment of others.
Accordingly I was on hand with my patient at the hour designated, and, as I supported her trembling steps down the stairs, I endeavored not to betray the intense interest agitating me, or to awaken by my curiosity any further dread in her mind than that involved by her departure from this home of bounty and good feeling, and her entrance upon an unknown and possibly much to be apprehended future.
Mr. Gryce was awaiting us in the lower hall, and as he caught sight of her slender figure and anxious face his whole att.i.tude became at once so protecting and so sympathetic, I did not wonder at her failure to a.s.sociate him with the police.
As she stepped down to his side he gave her a genial nod.
”I am glad to see you so far on the road to recovery,” he remarked. ”It shows me that my prophecy is correct and that in a few days you will be quite yourself again.”
She looked at him wistfully.
”You seem to know so much about me, doctor, perhaps you can tell me where they are going to take me.”
He lifted a ta.s.sel from a curtain near by, looked at it, shook his head at it, and inquired quite irrelevantly:
”Have you bidden good-bye to Miss Althorpe?”