'I cannot,' said Mrs. Jenkins, 'find out that anybody has come to grief except that unlucky Mr. Foster.'
Thornton Carey returned to the Fifth-avenue Hotel, where he found Bryan Duval, looking weary and dejected. The actor said little in reply to the narrative of the steps which he had taken. The little he did say was in approval, and then he made a dreary effort to get away for a while from the terrible subject which was occupying them.
'I shall stay here all day,' said Thornton Carey, 'and wait for the telegram, and I really don't see that there is anything else to be done. But you had better go out and get a little fresh air to string yourself up for to-night's work--it will be hard to get through, I fancy.'
'Deuced hard,' said Bryan Duval. 'It is not the first time I have comedied on the beards and tragedied behind the scenes, but I do not know that I ever found the contrast so great a pull as this time--it is the unconsciousness of the woman that is so horrid; when she knows the worst, it will not be so bad. Good Heavens! only think, if she took it into her head to come to the theatre to-night!'
'There is not the slightest danger of that,' said Thornton Carey. 'I forgot to tell you that she has a heavy cold.'
But little more was said between them, and Bryan Duval took the young man's advice. He went out until it was time to go down to the theatre. About two hours later than the time at which Thornton Carey had rejoined him they met for a moment before the performance, and Thornton told him that no news had come; a message to the same effect was conveyed to Bryan Duval in a twisted note on his return after the play, but Thornton Carey made no attempt to see him again that night.
Once more the house had been crowded by an enthusiastic audience; again the performance had realised public expectation to the fullest extent. If possible, Bryan Duval had been more exquisitely humorous, had thrown more of his characteristic acuteness into his part, than on the previous evening. Miss Montressor had charmed all the spectators; but some of those who had been present at the first performance noticed that she was slightly nervous, which she had not been on that occasion, and that she wore a little more rouge.
During the whole of that night Thornton Carey did not undress or lie down; the hours passed drearily away, and no message came to interrupt them. Just before the time at which Mrs. Griswold's house was usually closed and her servants retired, Jim had 'slipped round,' as he phrased it, to Fifth-avenue Hotel, and told Mr. Carey that his orders had been strictly observed; no callers, no news, no newspapers, no messages had been suffered to reach Mrs. Griswold, who was better, had got up rather late in the evening, and passed an hour in the nursery; but she had asked no dangerous questions, she had displayed no imprudent curiosity. She was in bed, and asleep, old Jim said, on the authority of Mrs. Jenkins, when he came out to report to Thornton Carey; but no telegram had been received.
This inexplicable circumstance sorely troubled and beset the mind of Thornton Carey. Advice, assistance from Warren, if not his actual presence, was entirely indispensable under the circumstances; but when the morning dawned, and when the letter-post hour was near, Thornton knew that the moment he dreaded so intensely had arrived, that no further delay was possible, and that that advice and assistance must be dispensed with.
At the early hour which had previously been agreed upon, Bryan Duval, Thornton Carey, and Miss Montressor--the trio had by this time become quite friends--left the hotel and proceeded on foot to Helen Griswold's house. As they reached it, the postman came up, with his usual quick important step, and delivered a few unimportant notes, which Jim, with a glance at Thornton Carey, who was ascending the steps, took from his hand. The three entered the house, the door was shut behind them, and the letters just received were handed by the docile Jim to Carey.