“It was surely a great risk for you to take, to jump in such a fashion,” said Miss Groome severely. As she spoke she came close to the frightened woman, who was still clinging fast to Dorothy.
“I had to jump—I was simply rained upon with splinters of broken glass. See how I am bleeding,” said the unfortunate one, whose face was cut in several places with broken glass. She was elderly, she was clad in expensive furs, and was unmistakably a lady.
The taxi-driver reached them at this moment; his face was also cut and bleeding. He reported that his car was so badly damaged that he would not be able to continue his journey.
“Oh, I could not have gone any farther, even if the car had escaped injury. I am almost too frightened to live,” moaned the poor lady, who was trembling and hysterical.
The taxi-driver treated her with great deference and respect. Seeing how shaken she was, he appealed to Miss Groome to know what was the best thing to be done for the comfort of his hurt and badly frightened fare.
“Here is the police station; she could rest here while you find another car to take her back to Ilkeston,” said Miss Groome.
“That will do very nicely, and thank you for being so kind,” said the lady, who was still clinging fast to Dorothy. “I wonder if you would be so kind as to permit this dear girl, who saved me from falling, to go with me to my hotel? I am staying at the Grand, in Ilkestone. The car that takes me there could bring her back. I feel too shaken to go alone.”
“Dorothy could go, of course,” said Miss Groome. But her tone was anxious; she did not like allowing even a grown-up girl of the Sixth to go off with a complete stranger. “Would you not rather have some one a little older to take care of you? Miss Mordaunt would go with you, or I can hand the girls over to her, and go with you myself.”
“No, no, I would not permit such a thing!” exclaimed the lady, waving away the suggestion with great energy and determination. “You have duties to perform; your absence even for a couple of hours might mean serious dislocation of machinery. But this dear girl—Dorothy, did you call her?”
“My name is Dorothy Sedgewick,” said Dorothy, her voice having a muffled sound by reason of one arm of the lady being still round her neck.