But he might as well have spoken to a statue now, and as she could extract no tidings of her sister or Mrs. Deroubigne from him, she thought only of escaping from the house of his odious friends. She was now aware that she had been entrapped by a specious story, and that neither Mary nor Mrs. Deroubigne would seem to have resided with them after leaving Altona, as Frau Wyburg and her husband, though 'coached' by Sleath and Gaiters, evidently knew nothing about them save their names, and a new dismay seized the unhappy girl.
Escaping—but how? The avenues to the street were too closely secured, and the window of her room was too high above the water of the Fleethen to afford the least chance of escape there; while the only boats that passed were those of the Vierlander people, laden with vegetables, pulled swiftly along at rare and distant intervals.
To appeal to the Wyburgs she knew would be vain. Her pure, pale face with its dreamy eyes, into which there now came a hunted expression, failed to win either their pity or commiseration; but escape she must, or die!
Ellinor knew now that in Sleath the animal nature predominated, and that she might have to suffer from his cruelty and violence if she remained in his power.
But how was she to escape without money, without a knowledge of the language, of the very locality in which he had placed her, without bodily strength, and with only intense horror and aversion to nerve and inspire her?
On whom could she cast herself?
Certainly not the repulsive Frau Wyburg, with her wicked black eyes and square, resolute jaws, or her equally repellent husband, with the leering eyes and ragged red moustache? What had she done that Fate should have cast her into such unscrupulous, and to her altogether inconceivable, hands?
'She grows paler, if possible, every day,' said Wyburg to Sleath. 'If this sort of thing goes on, it will be an affair for the Krankenhaus,' he added, in a growling voice, referring to the great public hospital in the suburb of St. George.
Dewsnap's yacht was getting ready for sea, and was now anchored by the dolphins, outside the Binnenhafen, and Sleath was resolved to end his affair with Ellinor in some fashion or other, for the hints of Wyburg alarmed him.
So he recommended to Ellinor a drive in an open droski, attended, not by himself—he was too wary for that—but by the Frau Wyburg and Gaiters, who was to have a seat on the dickey. He thought there was little to fear in this, as Ellinor knew not a word of German, and Gaiters was a careful fellow.