'I think,' she reflected, as her plump white hand pressed the blotting-paper, 'that the time has really come when I must do something. These young people are verging on a terrible muddle ... unless ... unless Theo has some set plan of his own all along. I sometimes think he has. There must be a motive somewhere.'
As the good lady was descending the stairs at half-past ten on her way to Paddington Station, a commissionaire came toiling up. He carried a letter in his hand, and Mrs. Wylie, perceiving it, stopped him. It was a full account of the accident, written at a club near at hand by Theodore Trist.
By three o'clock that afternoon Alice Huston learnt her husband's end. She received the news with a strange apathy. There were times in this woman's life when the permanence of sorrow was shut out from her mind. She was like a child in the way in which she took the punishment God thought fit to administer. It seemed part of her mental laziness. She had not even the energy to resist, however useless such a course may be.
There was no time to be lost, and Mrs. Wylie insisted upon an immediate departure for town. The excuses put forward by Alice were trivial, or would have been considered trivial in another woman. They caught the train, however, and reached London at half-past seven. A long, weary drive in a rattling cab (such a vehicle as could not be found in any other city) brought them to Suffolk Mansions.
Brenda was at the door to meet them. She kissed her sister silently, and then followed the two ladies into the drawing-room. There was a cheery fire burning briskly in the grate; a single lamp with a pink shade had a wonderful effect in adding comfort to the appearance of the room.
Alice lifted her veil and looked round as if expecting to find someone there. Mrs. Wylie, near the fire, and Brenda, who was closing the door, were both watching her.
'I think,' she said wearily, 'that Theo might have been here.'
Mrs. Wylie was hungry; perhaps she was also slightly irritated.
'Why?' she asked mercilessly.
Mrs. Huston unbuttoned her gloves speculatively, and, after a short pause, replied: