She tried to thank him, but she was not capable of doing more than incline her head, and with hushed steps—as if there were death in the house—Mr. Austin Ambrose went out of the room and down the path.
With a low, heartrending moan she threw herself upon the ground and, grasping her hair in both her white hands, hid her face—crushed with shame and the torture of a broken heart.
She lay thus prostrate in her anguish for some time, then she rose and staggered up-stairs. A sudden thought had smitten her.
Blair might come back—it might be that he still loved her! Was it not love that had tempted him to work her ruin? He might still love her passionately enough to come back and try to force her to remain with him. Or the woman—his wife!—she might hear what he had done, and in a fit of revenge drag her, Margaret, into a court to give evidence against him and convict him.
She must fly! She did not think of Austin Ambrose's offer of assistance; or if she had thought of it, she would not have remained for him to return.
To get away at once, to fly to some place where no one knew her, or could get to know about it; that was her instinctive desire.
She bathed her face until the fearful aching of the burning eyes was lessened, and tried to pack a small bag with the few articles that were absolutely necessary, taking care that nothing but that which had belonged to her went into the bag.
One by one she stripped off her rings—until she came to the wedding one—and placed them, together with the bracelets, chains and trinkets Blair had given her, on the dressing-table. The plain band of gold, inconsistent as it seemed, she allowed to remain on her finger. Then she changed her dress for the plain traveling costume in which she had been married.
In doing so, she saw the locket—Blair's first gift! With trembling hands she began to untie the ribbon, then she faltered. She had promised him that she would not part with this. Surely she could keep this to remind her of the time when she first tasted happiness, the time when she had thought him all that was true and noble.
The temptation to keep these two things that should seem as links between her and the past—so bitter, and yet so sweet!—proved too strong, and she let the locket fall into its place again over her heart.