Juliet turned in haste to go. His words seemed to her insulting, his presence, since he had so wounded her self-confidence, insupportable. When she presently found herself walking by Salome's side on the hot pavement, she had no consciousness of bidding him good-day or passing down the long staircase into the street.
Salome looked at her, and held her peace. The girl's miserable, hopeless expression stirred her compassion; but she knew that Juliet could bear no word from her then. So in absolute silence they traversed the long, broad streets.
But when they reached the house, a new and more sorrowful turn was given to their thoughts. A telegram had arrived in their absence; its brief, blunt message bid them both return home at once. Mrs. Tracy's illness had assumed a most serious aspect, and it was feared she could not live.
[CHAPTER XXI]
THE FRUIT OF SELF-WILL
VERY early the next morning, so early that the familiar roads and houses looked strangely unlike themselves, Salome and Juliet drove up to the gate of The Poplars. It was an hour by which, even on a week-day, few persons have quitted their beds, and this was Sunday, though both Juliet and Salome were oblivious of the fact. Every blind visible at the front of the house was closely drawn.
Juliet, shivering, as she looked out of the cab, from the combined effects of excitement and the chill of the early morn, did not pause to reflect that she had never before looked at her home from the outside at that hour. The closed windows could suggest to her but one idea, and she turned deadly pale as she gasped out, "Oh, the blinds—the blinds are all down!"
"As they always are at this hour," said Salome, in her matter-of-fact way; "do you suppose we sleep with our blinds up?"
Juliet looked somewhat relieved. They advanced to the door. The knocker was muffled, and produced so slight a sound, that Juliet hardly expected they would gain admittance; but Hannah must have been looking out for them, for after a few minutes she opened the door, attired in a dressing-gown, and wearing the haggard look of one who has been watching all night.
She drew Salome in and kissed her with an air of welcome; but after giving Juliet a brief, cold stare, she turned her shoulder on her and addressed herself to Salome.