“Go back: I forbid you!”
‘Go back: I forbid you!’
Joan stopped bewildered, and in another moment Henry had spoken some civil words of adieu to Emma and was gone.
“Will you be so good as to send the cloak with the other things?” said Ellen to Mr. Waters. “Come, Emma, we must be going, or we shall be late for the ‘at home,’” and, followed by the bowing manager, she left the shop.
“Oh, my God!” murmured Joan, putting her hands to her face, “oh, my God! my God!”
CHAPTER XXVI.
A LOVE LETTER.
Joan never knew how she got through the rest of that afternoon. She did not faint, but she was so utterly overcome and bewildered that she could do nothing right. Three times Mr. Waters spoke to her, with ever-increasing harshness, and on the third occasion she answered him saying,—
“I am very sorry, but it is not my fault. I feel ill: let me go home.”