CHAPTER XIV
A Scrap of Paper
Suddenly the spell, or whatever had enchained him, was broken. There was a noise of wheels on the gravel outside, and the sound of footsteps in the hall. He heard the Count mutter a savage oath, and a moment later the door opened and he heard a happy, clear, girlish voice:
"Oh, Mr. Faversham, forgive me for coming; but I really couldn't help myself."
It was Beatrice Stanmore who, unheralded and unaccompanied, stood by his side.
He muttered something, he knew not what, although he felt as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and strength came back to his being.
"I really couldn't," the girl went on. "Granddad left me just after a very early dinner, and then I felt awfully miserable and depressed. I didn't know why. It was just ghastly. Nothing had happened, and yet I knew—why, I couldn't tell—that something was terribly wrong. Then something told me that you were in danger, that unless I came to help you, you would be—oh, I can't put it into words! You are not in danger, are you?"
"It was very kind of you to come," muttered Dick. "I'm no end glad to see you."
"But—but I'm afraid!" she said in her childish way. "I don't know what Granddad will say to me. You see, you are a stranger to me, and I had no right to come. But I couldn't help it—I really couldn't. Someone seemed to be saying to me all the time, 'Mr. Faversham is in deadly peril; go to him—go to him quick! quick!' And I couldn't help myself. I kept telling myself that I was very silly, and all that sort of thing, but all the time I heard the voice saying, 'Quick, quick, or you'll be too late!' But I'm afraid it's all wrong. You are all right. You are in no danger, are you?"
"I'm no end glad to see you," he repeated. "And it is awfully good of you to come."