Wistfully, despairingly, he still clung to the hope that some other way out of the difficulty would be found; that the mystery about her would be cleared up satisfactorily, and that he would be able once more to look upon her with the adoring eyes of his first day’s acquaintance.
In the meantime, uneasy and perturbed, he conceived the idea of going in the direction of the police-station which was nearest to the stores, with the vague notion that he might learn something in that neighborhood of what had happened that afternoon.
So he went part of the distance by train, and part on foot, and approached the police-station at a slow pace, looking about him observantly.
The sight that met his eyes as he drew near seemed to turn him to stone. Rachel Davison, closely veiled and with bent head, was being led into the building, with a policeman on one side of her and a man on the other, whom he recognized by his dress as the one he had seen going out of the tea-shop that evening, after giving her a sign that she was to come out.
She had been arrested then, after all!
CHAPTER IX
Gerard was puzzled; he had long since ceased to be capable of horror at anything he saw done in connection with Rachel Davison.
He did not even feel sure that she had been arrested; for he knew by this time that she was, as she had said, quite capable of taking care of herself, and that, although it looked as if she were in charge of the policeman and a detective, she might yet succeed in escaping from their clutches.
But the amazement he felt on seeing her taken into the police-station, after she had been able to get out of the stores in safety, was so intense that he could do nothing but stare at the three figures as they disappeared into the police-station, and at the cab which had brought them as it stood waiting outside.
One very striking circumstance he noted as she disappeared from his sight. Her appearance had completely changed since he had seen her last, less than two hours ago.