"Stay with her, Elsie," said the widow, "I will go and see how we are to get home."
She went out of the room, and in the hall encountered the gentleman just as she had expected.
She overwhelmed him with protestations of gratitude, to which he listened with no great appearance of interest, though Mrs. Harrington was too completely dazzled by his brilliant appearance and manner to perceive the absent, preoccupied way in which he received her.
"I don't know how we are to get home," she said.
"Your coachman has engaged a carriage from the hotel-keeper," he replied; "it will be ready in a few moments. Your own horses are not hurt, luckily."
"I don't know what Mr. Mellen will say!" she exclaimed. "He warned me not to keep the horses."
The stranger turned quickly toward her, with a sudden flush on his face.
"May I know whom I have had the pleasure of assisting?" he asked.
"I am Mrs. Harrington," she replied, "of —— street. I am so—"
"And your friends?"