“Away! Where?”
“She’s gone to Paris to join master.”
“Did she have a telegram?”
“No, miss—I beg your pardon, I mean ma’am.”
“Oh—oh—she’s gone to Paris, has she? Well, it’s no use my waiting then, is it?”
“What did she look like?” said the cook.
“She looked struck all of a heap,” said Margaret. “It’s my opinion that missus has taken French leave, and she’s going to steal a march on them both.”
Meanwhile, Regina, full of her stern resolve, was already on her way to Dover, not being minded to wait for the regular boat train, and perhaps risk a scene from one or other of her daughters, finding her on the platform and attempting to dissuade her from taking the fatal step.
“I must be firm, I must be resolute, I must know exactly what I’m going to do,” she told herself as the luxurious train whizzed past the suburbs. “I will have a good dinner when I get to Dover; I wish to arrive in Paris as calm and unmoved as a rock.”
Now, take it all round, this was extremely sensible advice to give herself. Regina had a cup of tea on board the train. She made a valiant effort to read one or two magazines which she had with her, and arrived at Dover, she went on board the steamer, chose her berth, and then went into the town to seek a suitable place for dinner. I feel that it is much to her credit that she chose the best hotel in the town. And yet it was a very haggard and sad-eyed Regina who reached the terminus at Paris. Still, she never turned from her resolve. She chartered her fiacre, and involuntarily, as they drove down the Rue Amsterdam, her eyes turned to the wonderful bazaar in which in former days she and Alfred had spent some money and a certain amount of time, experiencing at a very small cost the delirious joy of shopping in Paris. So on, through the bright Paris streets, already teeming with life, and down into the heart of the city where was situate the hotel from which Alfred had written. It was not one at which Regina had ever stayed herself—no, it was small and unpretentious, with a quaint little courtyard adorned by a few shrubs in square wooden boxes painted a brighter green than the leaves.