Part 36 (2/2)
”But he's your shop-walker. If you have refused to go out with him, in future he'll undoubtedly vent his spiteful wrath upon you.”
”Oh no, he won't,” she laughed.
”Why?”
”Because he has left.”
”Left!” I echoed. ”Of course you know where he is?”
”No, I don't,” she replied. ”He annoyed me in business by speaking harshly to me before a customer, and I told him plainly that I would never again go out in his company. He apologised, but I was obdurate, and I have never seen him since. He went away that night, and has not returned. His place was filled up to-day. At first it was thought that he might have stolen something; but nothing has been missed, and now his sudden departure is believed to be due to his natural impetuousness and eccentricity.”
”Then it would seem that owing to a disagreement with you he left his employment. That's really very remarkable!” I said.
”Yes. Everybody thinks it strange, but, of course, they don't know that we quarrelled.”
”And you swear to me that you have never loved him, Muriel?” I asked, looking straight into her upturned face.
”I swear to you, Clifton,” she answered. ”I swear that he has never once kissed me, nor has he uttered a word of affection. We were merely friends.”
”Then that makes the aspect of affairs even more puzzling,” I observed.
”That he had some motive for leaving secretly there is no doubt. What, I wonder, could it have been?”
”I don't know, and it really doesn't trouble me,” she replied. ”I was exceedingly glad when he went, and now am doubly glad that I came and sought your forgiveness.”
”And I too, dearest,” I said, holding her hand tenderly in mine. ”But, truth to tell, I have no confidence in that man. There was something about him that I didn't like, and this latest move has increased my suspicion.”
”What suspicion?”
”That his intentions were not honest ones!” I answered.
”Why, Clifton,” she cried, ”what an absurd fancy! Do you think that because I broke off his acquaintance, he intends to murder me?”
”I have no definite views on the subject,” I answered, ”except that he intended to do you some evil, and has up to the present been thwarted.”
”You'll make me quite nervous if you talk like that,” she responded, laughing. ”Let us forget him. You once admired that woman, Aline Cloud, but that circ.u.mstance has pa.s.sed out of my mind.”
”You must leave that place and go down to Stamford,” I said decisively.
”A rest in the country will do you good, and in a few months we will marry.”
”I'll have to give a month's notice before I leave,” she answered.
”No. Leave to-morrow,” I said. ”For I cannot bear to think, dearest, that now you are to be my wife you should still bear that terrible drudgery.”
She sighed, and her countenance grew troubled, as if something oppressed her. This caused me some apprehension, for it seemed as though, even now, she was not perfectly happy.
I gave tongue to this thought, but with a light laugh she a.s.sured me of her perfect contentment, and that her regret was only of the past.
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