If it should prove to be the case that she herself was only a more or less helpless instrument in the hands of a designing and unscrupulous man, then he felt that her position instead of being a guilty and infamous one, was pitiful in the extreme.
But the weak point in this argument was the fact that Miss Davison seemed to be, of all persons in the world, the least likely to be made a victim in the way suggested. While essentially feminine, she was high-spirited, active-minded, full of resolution and initiative, and wholly unlike the gentle, meek, lymphatic people who are the most readily subjected to such experiments.
But then he had heard that highly strung nervous temperaments are also among the subjects of experiments of one mind upon another; and whether Miss Davison could be made submissive to the will of another depended upon the strength of will in the person who obtained an influence over her.
This, then, was now Gerard’s chief object: to find out and learn all he could about the mysterious man.
If the girl had been, by artful plans, entrapped into acting as one of a gang of expert thieves—and, horrible as this suggestion was, Gerard felt that it was one that had to be entertained—then it was the leader of the gang for whom he must look. And it was scarcely likely that this leader should have trusted himself inside the police-station. He thought, therefore, that he might dismiss the notion that the well-dressed, young-looking man whom he had but half seen, could be the inspirer and fountain-head of the organization, if organization there were. Rather, Gerard thought, would he be a man set to act as a scout and spy, and to divert suspicion from his companions by posing as a friend who could answer for their character.
Gerard, true to his resolution not to let the matter drop, set about devising an excuse for calling upon Lady Jennings the very next day; but he was saved that trouble, for on the following morning he found on his breakfast-table a note from the old lady asking him to luncheon that day.
Delighted at this opportunity of seeing Rachel again, Gerard duly presented himself at a quarter past one at the pretty little house, where he found Lady Jennings by herself in the drawing-room.
She was not looking her usual serene self, but was flushed and irritable, although she greeted the young man with the kindness she had always shown him.
Gerard soon ventured to ask whether Lilian had gone back to school the previous night, and Lady Jennings frowned, though not ill-temperedly.
“No; I kept her here till this morning, and took her back myself as far as the station,” she said. “She was in great distress, poor child, because her sister had been angry with her for coming. But of course she was quite right to come,” added the old lady tartly.