“Let me help you, dear Miss Brandt! It is cruel that you should be driven from the house in this way! But I am going too, as soon as the doctor has been and dear Bobby’s body may be prepared for burial. It is a great grief to me, Miss Brandt; I have had the care of him since he was five years old, and I loved him like my own. But I am glad he is dead! I am glad he has escaped from it all, for this is a wicked house, a godless, deceiving and slanderous house, and this trouble has fallen on it as a Nemesis. I will not stay here a moment longer now he has gone! I shall join my friends to-morrow.”
“I am glad you have friends,” said Harriet, “for I can see you are not happy here! Do they live far off? Have you sufficient money for your journey? Forgive my asking!”
Miss Wynward stooped down and kissed the girl’s brow.
“Thank you so much for your kind thought, but it is unnecessary. You will be surprised perhaps,” continued Miss Wynward, blushing, “but I am going to be married.”
“And so am I,” was on Harriet’s lips, when she laid her head down on the lid of her trunk and began to cry anew. “Oh! Miss Wynward, what did she mean? Can there be any truth in it? Is there something poisonous in my nature that harms those with whom I come in contact? How can it be? How can it be?”
“No! no! of course not!” replied her friend, “Cannot you see that it was the Baroness’s temper that made her speak so cruelly to you? But you are right to go! Only, where are you going?”
“I do not know! I am so ignorant of London. Can you advise me?”
“You will communicate with your friends to-morrow?” asked Miss Wynward anxiously.
“Oh! yes! as soon as I can!”
“Then I should go to the Langham Hotel in Portland Place for to-night at all events! There you will be safe till your friends advise you further. What can I do to help you?”