Miss Hildreth: A Novel, Volume 3

In Three Volumes. VOL. III.
LONDON: WARD AND DOWNEY, 12, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. 1888.
Copyright by A. de Grasse Stevens, 1888.
The news of Patricia Hildreth's arrest on a criminal warrant had flown like wild-fire throughout society. Mr. Tremain found himself almost the only one of his world not cognisant of the facts from the beginning; and as he listened to one garbled statement after another, coloured according to the narrator's fancy, he cursed the evil fortune and his own selfishness, that had kept him so effectually out of the way, and made him play so blindly into the enemies' hands.
He knew very well that had he been at home, or allowed his letters and papers to be forwarded to him, matters would never have reached so serious a pass; but shutting himself away as he had done from all outside communication, there had been no one at hand to avert the blow as it fell, or to force a more definite showing from the attacking parties, before the extreme measure of arrest was put into execution.
Esther Newbold's absence, and the uncertain movements of the Deerhound , had proved an additional disaster for Patricia. It was only on the yacht putting in at New London, that Esther heard of her friend's trouble. A flaming poster outside the hotel had caught Mrs. Newbold's attention as she sauntered along the planked side-walk with Miss Darling, and the next moment they were both reading with horrified comprehension the bold sensational headings:
Arrest of Miss Hildreth. Further developments expected shortly. Miss Hildreth's appearance in Ludlow Street, etc., etc.
These were the lines, in staring red letters, that first greeted Esther on her landing, after a three weeks' cruise; and their effect upon her can better be imagined than described. She was, however, essentially a person of action, and not an hour had passed before she, her husband, and Dick Darling, were on their way to New York, leaving the yacht and its guests to dispose of themselves.