Jessop rose, took his friend’s arm, offered with a smile, and suffered himself to be led to the door.
“Which room, Mrs Reed?” said Wrigley.
“Come along, I know,” snarled Jessop.
“All right, dear boy. You shall show me, then. Good-night, Mrs Reed. The cabman is waiting; and as soon as I’ve seen him in bed, I’ll slip off.”
“Thank you,” said Janet coldly, as she gazed searchingly at the smooth, well-dressed, polished man, and felt a strong repellent force at work.
Then the door closed, and she sank in a chair, helpless, hopeless, listening to the steps upon the stairs, and thinking of her husband’s words.
“And I let myself be led to believe that this man loved me,” she thought, in her bitterness,—“this man, who could degrade me as he has to-night before his companion.”
But her thoughts changed from her own misery to Jessop’s threats against his brother.
“What does he mean?” she asked herself. “Ruin him?”
She sat gazing before her wildly, her heart throbbing at the thought of the man she had told herself she loved coming to harm; but directly after Jessop’s other utterances flooded her mind, and swept the thought of trouble befalling Clive right away.