She had received the telegram which Frances sent and had come from Interlaken post haste.
“And I don't know,” she declared, “which part of that telegram upset me most—what there was in it or the name signed at the bottom of it. HER name! I couldn't believe my eyes. I didn't stop to believe 'em long. I just came. And then I found you like this.”
“Was she here?” I asked.
“Who—Frances! My, yes, she was here. So pale and tired lookin' that I thought she was goin' to collapse. But she wouldn't give in to it. She told me all about how it happened and what the doctor said and everything. I didn't pay much attention to it then. All I could think of was you. Oh, Hosy! my poor boy! I—I—”
“There! there!” I broke in, gently. “I'm all right now, or I'm going to be. You will have the quahaug on your hands for a while longer. But,” returning to the subject which interested me most, “what else did she tell you? Did she tell you how I met her—and where?”
“Why, yes. She's singin' somewhere—she didn't say where exactly, but it is in some kind of opera-house, I judged. There's a perfectly beautiful opera-house a little ways from here on the Avenue de L'Opera, right by the Boulevard des Italiens, though there's precious few Italians there, far's I can see. And why an opera is a l'opera I—”
“Wait a moment, Hephzy. Did she tell you of our meeting? And how I found her?”
“Why, not so dreadful much, Hosy. She's acted kind of queer about that, seemed to me. She said you went to this opera-house, wherever it was, and saw her there. Then you and she were crossin' the road and one of these dreadful French automobiles—the way they let the things tear round is a disgrace—ran into you. I declare! It almost made ME sick to hear about it. And to think of me away off amongst those mountains, enjoyin' myself and not knowin' a thing! Oh, it makes me ashamed to look in the glass. I NEVER ought to have left you alone, and I knew it. It's a judgment on me, what's happened is.”
“Or on me, I should rather say,” I added. Frances had not told Hephzy of L'Abbaye, that was evident. Well, I would keep silence also.
“Where is she now?” I asked. I asked it with as much indifference as I could assume, but Hephzy smiled and patted my hand.