“I dressed; I appeared; my face burned, my fingers tingled and I know my eyes stared. It was a beautifully furnished home, music, birds, flowers, gayety and mirth, answered the clink of the wine glasses, as long as the parlor was the scene of the festivities, but I knew that burning, scalding tears were the sequels to all this as soon as the participants were allowed to retire to their rooms alone. The shudders which convulsed me were noticed by others of the house and many a kind touch and look was given me. Fate seemed to be my Saviour that night, for it was nearly midnight and for some reason none of the many male visitors seemed inclined to cultivate my acquaintance.
“I had just received permission to go to my room when the bell rang. And, oh Gods! I was told to wait. I waited and as the visitors were ushered into the reception room I heard a voice that chilled my flesh, and caused my blood to stand still; it was the voice of one I knew well. Then a vivid, wild thought came to me. Had Edmund found me at last? Thank Heaven, he was in time to save me!
“It was with hope wandering and blind stupidity that I managed to answer the call and go forward to meet the newcomers. Those ten steps covered ten years in flight of time; what could I tell him? What would he say? How could I look him in the face? While all these mental problems were racing through my brain, I was drawing nearer to the little group of men.
“‘Gentlemen, this is Miss Adele.’ (That was the name I had chosen.)
“The announcement aroused me from my trance-like condition and I raised my eyes and looked squarely in the face of Edmund’s father. The other men I did not know. Edmund’s father stared, started and then with a gasp cried, ‘My God, girl! Child, what are you doing here?’
“‘I am here to make a living,’ I said frankly.
“Without excuse or apology to his friends he drew me to a seat. I almost fainted at the thought of meeting him and being chosen by him in such a place; my very soul revolted.”
“But where was Edmund?”
“Ah, there you are. You see when I heard the voice I knew it was that of his father. I, grasping at a forlorn hope, naturally supposed that Edmund had come back, gained his father’s consent to marry me, and they had started out to find me. It was very natural to think they would be successful for a girl in that position is always expecting the worst to happen, or rather to be exposed to some one whom they do not wish to see.”