Part 18 (2/2)

She rose and he followed her out of the room, up the stairs, and into a tiny bedroom. Laverick had no time to look around, but it seemed to him, notwithstanding the cheap white furniture and very ordinary appointments, that the same note of dainty femininity pervaded this little apartment as the one below.

”It is my room,” she said shyly. ”There is no other properly furnished, and I thought that he might sleep upon the bed.”

”Perhaps he is asleep now,” Laverick whispered.

Even as he spoke, the dark figure stretched upon the sheets sprang into a sitting posture. Laverick was conscious of a distinct shock.

It was Morrison, still wearing the clothes in which he had left the office, his collar crushed out of all shape, his tie vanished. His black hair, usually so s.h.i.+ny and perfectly arranged, was all disordered. Out of his staring eyes flashed an expression which one sees seldom in life,--an expression of real and mortal terror.

”Who is it?” he cried out, and even his voice was unrecognizable.

”Who is that? What do you want?”

”It is I--Laverick,” Laverick answered. ”What on earth is the matter with you, man?”

Morrison drew a quick breath. Some part of the terror seemed to leave his face, but he was still an alarming-looking object.

Laverick quietly opened the door and laid his hand upon the girl's shoulder.

”Will you leave us alone?” he asked. ”I will come and talk to you afterwards, if I may.”

She nodded understandingly, and pa.s.sed out. Laverick closed the door and came up to the bedside.

”What in the name of thunder has come over you, Morrison?” he said.

”Are you ill, or what is it?”

Morrison opened his lips--opened them twice--without any sort of sound issuing.

”This is absurd!” Laverick exclaimed protestingly. ”I have been feeling worried myself, but there's nothing so terrifying in losing one's money, after all. As a matter of fact, things are altogether better in the city to-day. You made a big mistake in taking us out of our depth, but we are going to pull through, after all. 'Unions'

have been going up all day.”

Laverick's presence, and the sound of his even, matter-of-fact tone, seemed to act like a tonic upon his late partner. He made no reference, however, to Laverick's words.

”You got my note?” he asked hoa.r.s.ely.

”Naturally I got it,” Laverick answered impatiently, ”and I came at once. Try and pull yourself together. Sit up and tell me what you are doing here, frightening your sister out of her life.”

Morrison groaned.

”I came here,” he muttered, ”because I dared not go to my own rooms.

I was afraid!”

Laverick struggled with the contempt he felt.

”Man alive,” he exclaimed, ”what was there to be afraid of?”

”You don't know!” Morrison faltered. ”You don't know!”

Then, for the first time, it occurred to Laverick that perhaps the financial crisis in their affairs was not the only thing which had reduced his late partner to this hopeless state. He looked at him narrowly.

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