“Oh no! He has gone out, and he will think I am in bed when he comes in. No one knows that I am not in the house.”
“Did you come here alone, Kitten?”
“No, Maria is with me. She is my maid, and oh, I never knew how much she liked me until today, for she never seemed to like me at all! But — but she came to me when Sherry had gone away, and she said a piece out of the Bible, about Ruth and Naomi, in the most touching way, and she is in the hall now, with my baggage, for I could not carry anything besides my clock and the canary, and those I had to bring!”
Ferdy surveyed these two necessary adjuncts to a lady’s baggage rather doubtfully. “Dare say you’re right,” he said. “Very handsome timepiece.”
“Gil gave it to me for a wedding present,” Hero explained, her tears beginning to flow again. “I have your bracelet too, and how could I bear to leave Gil’s dear little canary? It is named after him! And Sherry — Sherry does not love it as I do, and perhaps he might give it away.”
“Quite right to bring it,” said Ferdy firmly. “Company for you. All the same, Kitten, what beats me is where you mean to go. Can’t stay with Gil, you know. Sherry wouldn’t like it above half.”
“Yes, she can,” said Mr Ringwood unexpectedly. “At least, not for long, but no reason why she shouldn’t stay here tonight. In fact, she must.”
“Good God, Gil, you must have taken leave of your senses!” said George explosively. “No reason why she shouldn’t, indeed! If that’s all your precious thinking leads to — ”
“No reason at all,” said Mr Ringwood. “Got her abigail. Have a truckle bed put up in my room. I’ll spend the night in your lodging.”
“I suppose she could do that,” George admitted grudgingly. “But it don’t solve anything! Dash it, it’s the damnedest coil! She has no relatives she may go to, or I’d say she was right to leave Sherry. But she can’t live by herself! You know that! If her mother-in-law weren’t such a curst disagreeable woman — You are certain you could not bear to go to Sheringham Place, Kitten? I mean, Sherry’s a brute to have put it to you like that, but I can’t but see what’s in his head. It is the dowager’s business to have an eye on you, only — ”