“Oh yes, I am fit,” said Margaret, uncovering her face. “Only most frightfully worried. I cannot feel that Helen is really alive. Her letters and telegrams seem to have come from someone else. Her voice isn’t in them. I don’t believe your driver really saw her at the station. I wish I’d never mentioned it. I know that Charles is vexed. Yes, he is—” She seized Dolly’s hand and kissed it. “There, Dolly will forgive me. There. Now we’ll be off.”
Henry had been looking at her closely. He did not like this breakdown.
“Don’t you want to tidy yourself?” he asked.
“Have I time?”
“Yes, plenty.”
She went to the lavatory by the front door, and as soon as the bolt slipped, Mr. Wilcox said quietly:
“Dolly, I’m going without her.”
Dolly’s eyes lit up with vulgar excitement. She followed him on tip-toe out to the car.
“Tell her I thought it best.”
“Yes, Mr. Wilcox, I see.”