His companion gazed at him in astonishment; Rochfort the smart, authoritative, society man, a popular fellow, a leader in his own part of the world; here, on the other side of the globe, faced with a serious crisis, was weaker than many a woman, and sobbing like a child!
"Look here, Rochfort," he said at last. "Pull yourself together, write a letter, and I'll take it to her, this afternoon."
"Mallender," raising his head, "you are a friend! I warned you, that you little knew what you were letting yourself in for, when you started this crazy chase of yours,—here is an instance, you see! I'll get a stiff peg, and write, if I can, but I'm so confoundedly shaky, I don't know if I'll be able to form a word, no, 'pon my soul I'm no use at a crisis like this! an awful thing, that bowls you clean out. Here I stand between two fires, 'the kids and Sophy,' God knows I love them both,—but I'm bound to lose one, or the other. If I stick to the kids, Sophy will get a separation,—or what will come to the same thing; and if I go home with her, I'll never see the others again. So there it is! I'm in the devil of a mess," and once more, his voice broke.
"Write your letter, and confess yourself like a man," urged Geoffrey, "the longer you leave it, the worse it will be. I'm going out to order the car."
"Stop here, my old head on young shoulders! you stay and help me write it. What can I say? How in God's name am I to begin—I'll never do it."
"You must," rejoined Mallender, "and it's a job you'll have to take on alone. I'll give you fifteen minutes, while I have a tub, and change; don't let it be long; hold nothing back, and whatever you do, make it plain."
CHAPTER XVIII
In Madras City it is generally admitted, that between three and four o'clock, is the hottest time of day; the sun seems to redouble and enforce his power, before he sinks beyond the palm trees and banyans in the west. At this hour, along an arid road, in the scorching malignity of a hot wind, Mallender sped on his dangerous mission: so flaming was the air, that even an acclimatised driver felt withered, and blistered by its blasts!
Arriving at Spencer's Hotel, more dead than alive, the pallid emissary enquired for Mrs. Rochfort.