Lothian folded up the letter and replaced it in its envelope with great precision. Then he thrust it in the inner breast pocket of his coat.
Wog watched him, in deadly fear.
She knew now that elemental forces had been at work, that her lovely Rita had evoked soul-shaking, sundering strengths. . . .
But Gilbert Lothian came towards her with both hands outstretched.
"Oh, I thank you, I thank you a thousand times," he said, "for all your goodness to Rita—How happy you must have been together—you two girls——"
He had taken both her hands in his. Now he dropped them suddenly. Something, something quite beautiful, which had been upon his face, snapped away.
The kindness and welcome in his eyes changed to a horror-struck stare.
He began to murmur and burble at the back of his throat.
His arms shot stiffly this way and that, like the arms of railway signals.
He ran to one wall and slapped a flat palm upon it.