Part 29 (1/2)
”She's--gone.”
”Gone where?”
”We don't know. She left Friday. There was a note for her mother. It said to forget her, because she was a disgrace to her name.”
”You mean--” Jeff did not finish his question. He knew what the answer was, and in his soul lay a reflection of the mortal sickness he saw in his friend's face.
Miller nodded, unable to speak. Presently his words came brokenly.
”She's been acting strangely for a long time. Her mother noticed it....
So did I. Like as if she wasn't happy. We've been worried. I...I...” He buried his face in his arm on the table. ”My G.o.d, I love her, Jeff. I have for years. If I'd only known... if she'd only told me.”
Jeff was white as the galley proof that lay before him with the unprinted side up. ”Tell me all about it, Sam.”
Miller looked up. ”That's all. We don't know where she's gone. She had no money to speak of.”
”And the man?” Jeff almost whispered.
”We don't know who he is. Might be any one of the clerks at the Verden Dry Goods Company. Maybe it's none of them. If I knew I'd cut his heart out.”
The clock on the wall ticked ten times before Jeff spoke. ”Did she go alone?”
”We don't know. None of the clerks are missing from the store where she worked. I checked up with the manager yesterday.”
Another long silence. ”They may have rooms in town here.”
”Not likely.” Presently Miller added miserably: ”She's--going to be a mother soon. We found the doctor she went to see.”
”You're sure she hasn't been married? Of course you've looked over the marriage licenses for the past year.”
”Yes. Her name isn't on the list.”
”Did she have money?”
”About fifteen dollars, we figure.”
”That wouldn't take her far--unless the man gave her some. Have you been to a detective agency?”
”Yes.”
”We'll put blind ads in all the papers telling her to come home. We'll rake the city and the state with a fine tooth comb. We're bound to hear of her.”
”She's desperate, Jeff. If she's alone she'll think she has no friends.
We've got to find her in time or--”
Jeff guessed the alternative. She might take the easy way out, the one which offered an escape from all her earthly troubles. Girls of her type often did. Nellie was made for laughter and for happiness. He had known her innocent as a sunbeam and as glad. Now that she was in the pit, facing disgrace and disillusionment and despair, the horror and the dread of existence to her would be a millstone round her neck.
The d.a.m.nable unfairness of it took. Jeff by the throat. Was it her fault that she had inherited a temperament where pa.s.sions lurked unsuspected like a banked fire? Was she to blame because her mother had brought her up without warning, because she had believed in the love and the honor of a villain? Her very faith and trust had betrayed her. Every honest instinct in him cried out against the world's verdict, that she must pay with salt tears to the end of her life while the scoundrel who had led her into trouble walked gaily to fresh conquests.