They had been talking to each other attired only in their dressing-gowns and slippers. If Crowsnest society could have seen them, its doors would have been shut against them from that night forth for evermore.
CHAPTER XXI
Mr. Dashwood's chambers in the Albany were furnished according to the taste of that gentleman, high art giving place in the decorations to the art of physical culture. Some old Rowlandson prints decorated the walls, together with boxing-gloves, singlesticks, and foils; the few books visible were not of the meditative or devotional order of literature, Ruff, Surtees, and Pitcher being the authors most affected by Mr. Dashwood.
He had spent a very miserable Sunday. Having written and posted his letters to Miss Grimshaw and French, he had fallen back on gloomy meditation and tobacco. He had spent Monday in trying to imagine in what manner Miss Grimshaw had taken his letter; he had taken refuge from his thoughts at the Bridge Club, and had risen from play with twelve pounds to the good and feeling that things had taken a turn for the better; and on Tuesday morning, as he was sitting at breakfast, a telegram was brought to him.
"Come at once; most important.—Grimshaw, Crowsnest."
"French has dropped dead, or the place has caught fire," said Mr. Dashwood, as he sprang from the breakfast-table to the writing-table in the window and opened the pages of the A B C railway guide. "Robert, rush out and get a taxicab. I've just time to catch the 11.10 from Victoria. Don't mind packing. I'll pack some things in the kit-bag. Get the cab."
He stuffed some things into the bag, and ten minutes later the cab, which had been brought up to the Vigo-street entrance of the Albany, was taking him to the station.
That some disaster had happened he was certain. Never for a moment did he dream of the truth of things. The vision of French lying dead, Garryowen stricken lame, or The Martens in flames alternated in his mind with attempts to imagine how the girl would meet him, what she would say, and whether she would speak of the occurrence at the bridge.