Mrs. Marne, lying down to rest in smiling happiness, with her heart full of pleasure as she thought of her dear one’s surprise and joy, heard that shriek and hurried in alarm to the head of the stairs. “Bella!” she called. “What is the matter? Where is Warren?”
Isabella, suddenly sobered, lifted a white, drawn face: “Oh, mother, he’s gone! He’s left me! Oh, mother, mother! It’s all over!”
She turned with sudden resolution and fled toward the dining room, so absorbed in her own wild misery that she heard and saw nothing as her mother cried out, swayed to and fro, and then toppled to the floor.
CHAPTER XIX
“And You Could Do This, Felix Brand!”
The June afternoon was glowing with sunshine and all the world was clothed in the sumptuous beauty of spring at its highest tide. Henrietta Marne looked about her as she walked slowly up the street toward her home with a heart more at ease than she had known for many weeks. For she had that day secured a position at a salary equal to that she was receiving from Felix Brand and was to begin work in it as soon as the time should expire for which she had already given him notice.
“Difficulties always disappear as soon as you tackle them in real earnest,” she was saying to herself as she smiled in pleasure of the green world all about her and of the satisfaction that glowed in her own breast. “Everything is coming out all right. When Hugh Gordon comes back he’ll be pleased to find that I’ve acted on his advice. I’m sorry, awfully sorry, about Mr. Brand—it was so delightful working for him at first, and for a long time—but if he will act like this, what can he expect?”