“That was odd.” Susanna groaned again as she rose from the sofa. “Well, since you wont have anything to do with me, good-bye. Youre quite right.”
“I will come and see you. I do not wish to avoid you if you are in trouble.”
“Do,” said Susanna, eagerly, touching Marian’s hand with her moist palm. “We’ll get on better than you think. I like you, and I’ll make you like me. If I could only keep from it for two days, I shouldnt be a bit disgusting. Good-night.”
“Good-night,” said Marian, overcoming her repugnance to Susanna’s hand, and clasping it. “Remember that my name here is Mrs. Forster.”
“All right. Good-night. Thank you. You will never be sorry for having compassion on me.”
“Wont you take a light?”
“I dont require one. I can find what I want in the dark.”
She went into her apartment. Marian went quickly up to her own bedroom and locked herself in. Her first loathing for Susanna had partly given way to pity; but the humiliation of confessing herself to such a woman as an unfaithful wife was galling. When she went to sleep she dreamed that she was unmarried and at home with her father, and that the household was troubled by Susanna, who lodged in a room upstairs.
CHAPTER XX
Sholto Douglas returned to England in the ship which carried Marian’s letter to Elinor. On reaching London he stayed a night in the hotel at Euston, and sent his man next day to take rooms for him at the West End. Early in the afternoon the man reported that he had secured apartments in Charles Street, St. James’s. It was a fine wintry day, and Douglas resolved to walk, not without a sense of being about to run the gauntlet.