Part 22 (1/2)
As he so spoke in his kind voice the woman lifted her head and looked full at him; Bulstrode was surprised at her words and more particularly at her voice
”You--” she breathed, ”you?”
Taking it for granted that for soht be him more than any other man, Bulstrode went on ”You seem more or less to be in trouble, if I may say so Won't you please let me be of solooardens?”
But the woman, whose face had flushed, exclaimed: ”Oh, no, no! Please don't bother; please leave me I want to be alone” And, as she spoke, she turned and went away from him some few steps
Ji forward and with one sudden gesture dash from her hand what it held But the little object fell sorass, to be found the next uardians of the place and considered as a relic of the fortunes of Casino hazard
”Heavens!” exclaiht in his hand the slender wrist froood God!
You poor child, hy----” and he could go no further The woularly tranquil for the face of a woe of self-destruction
”Won't you leave ether, said fir in the world And you must let me take you home”
After a few moments' silence in which she bit her lip and apparently controlled a burst of hysterical weeping, the young wohtly put her hand on his arm ”You may, if you like,” she consented, ”takeat the Hotel des Roches Noires”
Froing one ith her--for he saw she wished to be silent--Ji corridor of the vast hotel, into whose impersonal shelter they entered as the only late coht, whilst the porter eyed them, scarcely with curiosity, so used was he to late entrances of this kind which he iht--” Bulstrode started and at once cut himself short, for he did not really intend to say it then--he had not spoken to her and he kneould never leave her until at least he was sure she would not take her life before the next irl extended her hand, her beautiful face was gray ”Will you not,” she asked, ”co-room? I am quite alone”
Bulstrode bowed and without hesitation followed her up the stairs to the conventional suite of hotel rooms, where, in the little salon, trunks stood about in the evident indications of hasty packing
The girl threw her gloves, her handkerchief and her soft silken cloak on the table She then seated herself in a corner of the sofa by an open dressing-bag and Bulstrode, at her invitation, took a chair opposite He scarcely kne to begin his conversation with her, but he detero tohat he believed to be the ht,” he said ”I saw it As it happened, I was lucky
I have no need of money, none” He had drawn from his pocket piles of louis; he took out from his wallet a roll of notes
He saw, too, as well as the look of passion and admiration, that her face was faested remembrance
”This,” she said, ”is a fortune!” Her accent was British and her voice very soft and sweet ”It is quite a large fortune, isn't it? My debts here are s, ”I work for ant, for I had reallyaway
Yesterday my pearls were sold, and my jeent last week; the races and the Casino did the rest! This would !” Bulstrode thought, with a pang as he looked at her ”Heavens, poor dear!” A thousand questions ca the feelings her personality, her trouble, and the night, aroused He also decided to go at once, while there was still time
”It is very droll that this money should have come from _you;_” she repeated ”from you,” with the insistence on the pronoun that he had before ree ”Even now you don't know me, do you?
Don't you knoho I am?”
”No,” Bulstrode wondered, ”and yet I have certainly seen you before, but save as I have noticed and admired you here, I don't _think_ I know you Should I?”
”You _have_ seen hted, ”you have actually noticedin me to like?”
”Who,” he said with sincerity, ”could help himself! Of course I've seen you and remarked you with your friend”
Here she bit her lip and put up her hand ”Oh, please,” she frowned, ”Oh, please!”