“Gone,” she said; and then she uttered a sigh of relief, as I sat up and placed one hand to my head, feeling confused, and as if I had gone back some years, and that this was not Miss Carr but Mary, and that this was Mr Blakeford’s again.
The confusion soon passed off, though, and after I had drunk the spirit that was brought me, I felt less giddy and strange.
Miss Carr sat watching me, looking very pale, but I could realise now that she was terribly agitated.
Before an hour had passed I felt ready to talk to her, and beg her to take some steps for her protection.
“If I had only been a strong man,” I exclaimed passionately. “Oh, Miss Carr, pray, pray do something,” I cried again; “this is horrible. I cannot bear to see you insulted by that wretch.”
“I have decided to do something, Antony,” she said in a low voice; and a faint colour came into her pale cheeks. “He will not be able to force his way to me again.”
“I don’t know,” I said. “He is a madman. I am sure he had been drinking to-night.”
“No one but a madman would have behaved as he did, Antony,” she said. “But be at rest about me. I have, after a bitter struggle with myself, decided what to do.”
“But you will not go away?” I said.
She shook her head.