'I can't leave her again without an explanation. She must tell me everything. Have I not a right to ask it of her? I can't live on like this; I do nothing. The days pass in misery of idleness. If only in pity she will tell me all.'
'Don't you think it possible,' Mrs. Baxendale asked, 'that she has already done so?'
He gazed at her blankly, despairingly.
'You have come to believe that? Her words—her manner—seem to prove that?'
'I cannot say certainly. I only mean that you should be prepared to believe if she repeated it.'
'Yes, if she repeats it. I shall have no choice. Well, I wished to see you first; I will go to Banbrigg at once.'
Mrs. Baxendale seemed reluctant to let him go, yet at length she did. He was absent an hour and a half. At his return Mrs. Baxendale had friends with her in the drawing room. Wilfrid ascertained it from the servant, and said that he would go to the sitting-room he had formerly occupied, and wait there till the lady was alone.
She came to him before very long, and learnt that he had not been able to see Emily; the servant had told him that she could see no one till the next morning.
Mrs. Baxendale sighed.
'Then you must wait.'