“I am glad, I know,” she whispered to herself. “Oh! I am sorry for him, though I fear he scarcely deserves that any one should pity him, when he was guilty of such folly. He ought to have had more sense—he ought not to have allowed himself to be carried away by such a foolish fancy. Yet it seems a heavy punishment for a passing folly. They say: ‘Marry in haste, repent at leisure.’ Lifelong unhappiness, poor fellow! No wonder he seems strange, and different from other people. He is quite different from any one I ever saw. How wicked and ungrateful this girl must have been! It is inconceivable that any creature could have behaved so vilely toward him. He seems so good, so kind, so——What nonsense am I running off into, when I know nothing about him!”
CHAPTER XXV.
THE FIGURE ROBED IN BLACK.
On leaving Alderman’s Lane, Captain Desfrayne made a hurried luncheon, and then at once returned to the station, to start therefrom back to his quarters.
He had forgotten to ascertain the exact hour at which the train left; the consequence was he had to wait some five-and-thirty minutes. That delay cost a life.
When fairly seated in the train, Paul had full leisure for reflection. His thoughts were not pleasant.
He had not dared to stay to see his mother. It had been difficult and bitter enough to tell her the fatal secret of his unhappy marriage. To let her know the deeper humiliation in which he found himself involved would just now be impossible. It would be time enough to reveal this additional misery when the search proved successful; if it failed——
If it failed!
“I fancied I could not be more wretched,” he thought. “I was mistaken. Could it be possible to wring a confession from Guiscardini? Alas, no! Her nature is absolutely callous. She would elect to be bound to me rather than to my servant. How am I to face my servant—how am I to tell my wretched story? My pride is trailed in the dust. My name, given to my charge free from spot or taint, is stained and splashed with shame.”
It was night before he reached Holston. Arrived there, he engaged the last rickety old fly left within the precincts of the station, and drove to the barracks.